Name That Chord Gig


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Posted by Marty Neilan on December 15, 2003 at 16:26:50:

One of the gigs I did this past weekend was two Christmas shows at a local church. I was hired to play bass (third) trombone, but they only had the parts for trombones 1 and 2. It was very obvious from the scoring that there should have been a trombone 3 / tuba part, but both the conductor and librarian insisted there was not one (and why argue with someone who is paying you?)
So, what I did was try to "guess" the chord based on the 1 and 2 parts and fill in the bottom where appropriate, particularly on "big" and "chorale" sections. Most of the time I guessed right, but there were a couple of times I obviously didn't ;) I did get a look one time I guessed wrong, but therwise the trumpets sitting in front of me appreciated the bottom it added to the brass section, as previously the 3rd, 5th, or 7th of the chord would have been the lowest note. I am not sure the conductor ever noticed the difference.
If I had more time, I would have tried to get the legitimate parts, but I didn't. Has anyone else ever done this, with some degree of success?


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