Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Civic


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Posted by Charles D. Ortega-sorry so long on February 22, 2000 at 02:28:54:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Civic posted by High Schooler on February 21, 2000 at 18:16:18:

I just spent a little time reading this entire thread. I just wanted to offer some advice (with no offense meant!) This is from someone who has been a beginner, apprentice, and can now say they are at the journeyman stage, still trying to get into that mastery level. WATCH WHAT YOU SAY.

Countless times, and not just in music situations, the words I said when I was younger have come back to bite me in the (ahem!) I have learned over the years to choose words carefully, you can't take them back. I am glad to be able to say I am not as young as you, but I am also, not as old as these "Top Pro Players" and I can say from personal experience, I said some things, and regretted saying them later. Think a little about the people you are talking about.

These guys PAID THEIR DUES: (no, not just UNION dues!)

A) In Time - These guys you are talking about, a few can say they have been playing longer than you have been alive. It's easy to glaze over that, but think about it. You and (at least for a little while longer, me too) were learning how to walk, and they were in the middle of the Arban's. Time in the practice room, and in that time they studied with...

B) Teachers - They studied with the greats. I don't know from personal experience how much Mr. Jacobs charged for lessons, because I wasn't smart enough to get a lesson from him before he passed on, but I CAN tell you some of what he taught because I was taught by Don Little, a long time student of Mr. Jacobs. Then they were able to get the jobs they have and gain some valuable...

C) Experience - You can sit in a practice room playing the Vaughn-Williams all you want, but I don't care who you are, the first time you play it WITH an orchestra, it is a completely different experience. Multiply that feeling by the number of BIG Tuba pieces these guys have played WITH orchestra, and other types of ensembles, and you get an idea of the kind of experience you are paying for when you take a lesson.

We sit in the practice rooms and read out of the Torchinsky's going "Man, this would be great if I was playing in the (insert fav. pro orch. here)!" We even play with the recordings. But you don't know how the Ride feels until you have played it Live with an Orchestra, and that pesky baton beating somewhere "over there." The practice room acoustics are completely different than that big hall where your fav. orch. plays. Name any piece you have been dying to play with an orchestra, and these guys have done it. Done it, hell, some of them are on the recordings we call definitive.

This isn't blind hero-worship. Sure, you will meet a couple of pros who give you attitude, or aren't the best at communicating, which is what teaching is all about. But spend one hour with Sam Pilafian and you will learn more than you realize. Sam is a great example. He doesn't have an egg timer sitting in his studio. When I took a lesson with him, it lasted so much longer than it was supposed to, because he wanted me to understand what he was trying to tell me.

And pros make clams. There are clams, to be sure, we all have them. But, they make so few of them. When I got out of high school, I thought I was "Da Man" because I had been first chair All-State. I went to college and was put in the second band. I was angry. I thought I could play just as good as the guys in the top band. Then I listened to them play and realized I had chops and they had chops but they could perform without clams while I still had a bunch of clam shells around my chair.

Ah! This turned out longer than I intended, but I put some time in on this (choosing my words carefully!) and don't have the heart to toss it. Anyway, as one not-quite-old-enough-to-be-your-father guy, I can tell you, it is better to keep your mouth shut and be THOUGHT a fool, than...well, you know the rest...

My two cents,

cdo

PS - One wonders how you will feel a couple of years from now, when you are at your college of choice and just getting out of the old, ugly practice room at your college trying to get "it" right, and you go to check your email at the computer lab on campus, and get on the Tubenet, and ask a question about "it" and get some good advice from one of these 'top pro players' and suddenly "it" clicks. "Oh! Breathe here, and it is easier to play..."


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