I’m actually quite hard to impress musically, rarely does a rehearsal leave me with chills and bouncing off the walls with excitement…. last night was the exception, I think we played one of the strongest performances to date and that is largely due to the constant work being done by each member of the band and the strong leadership of Harold in what used to be an insurmountable composition. Whilst we are now speeding down the final straight, ready to record our efforts, there are three areas that constantly need our attention:
1 intonation…. being aware of our tuning and how our sound blends with those around us…it’s a constantly changing environment with members being there or not, different seating, warmer weather and a host of other variables. Listen your sound and that of the players around you and fit your sound into theirs rather than standing out
2 balance… we have a well tempered ensemble but again as people come and go, it’s important to ensure that we adapt to the levels required…for example if we have 25 trombones and one flute…we still need to hear that flute…. sometimes it can be pulling your volume down a notch or sharing a part so that we create a suitable level.
3 dynamics…. we constantly talk about the need to respond to dynamic changes, they put the icing on the cake.. mark your part, highlight the changes and then make sure you play them. Last night when we made the rapid changes in overture, the whole arrangement went up several levels…let’s keep it going.
don’t be afraid to mark up your part, to remind yourself of all the changes and information that gets thrown at you remember no one knows if you write on your part but they will know if you don’t!!!
keep up the great work as we hit the home straight, and let’s show others what we can really do
murray