Posted by TubaRay on February 04, 2004 at 10:28:02:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: The all important Army Band posted by Rick Denney on February 03, 2004 at 17:16:32:
What Rick means here is that reading is what did not happen at the second reading session. The opening reading session(on Thurs.) was much better. We mostly read the tunes down and went on. On the Sat. "reading" session, we were rehearsing tunes for an imaginary performance at the end of the reading session.
In my opinion, the purpose of the two reading sessions at the Army Band Tuba Conference is to READ. In fact, it is to read as much music as possible. When time is spent rehearsing music, this reduces the amount of time available to read. I believe most folks who attend the reading sessions do so with the hope that they will get to play through as much music as possible. It is a somewhat rare opportunity to get to read a lot of tuba ensemble music with a fairly large ensemble, and with the level of playing ability of most of the players. I know I only have this opportunity while at conferences and at Christmas tuba concerts(if one can count this activity, as such). From my experience, the ability level at the Christmas events is somewhat lower than that of those at the conferences. It is then quite disappointing when a significant amount of time is spent rehearsing the music. This is what I believe was true at the second session at the Army conference. The conductor certainly was well-qualified to conduct the ensemble. I only question what his goals were. They were not the same as mine or as those of my group of friends who also attended.
In general, I would give very high marks to the organizers of the Army Band conference. I feel that some attention would be merited, however, to the reading sessions. I would like to see them be, well, reading session. Another thing which would help in the reading sessions would pertain the organization of the music in the folders. I know this is a lot of work, but it is really difficult to locate the tunes to be called up. Having to go through the entire folder to find each tune is a very cumbersome process. It slows everything down. I know I would be willing to personally volunteer to organize the music ahead of time. I believe someone needs to do this.
Even with these minor complaints, I believe the conference was really a great one. Thanks again to the Army Band folks for doing this.
Ray Grim
The TubaMeisters
San Antonio, Texas