Whats the wierdest thing to happen during a rehearsal?

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 10:03 pm

My wife is playing flute for a concert including Haydn's Surprise Symphony, so before the first rehersal she conspires with the other principals to play a totally wacked-out "surprise" chord. Then the Music Director comes in, and he is in a FOUL mood. They start right away, and it is too late to abort. They hit the fatal moment, play the off-tone block, and the MD has a fit, turns red, throws down his baton, and storms out.

Well, *I* thought it was hilarious when it was eventually recounted to me.

Kevin Hendrick · Post by **Kevin Hendrick** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 10:07 pm

Captain Sousie wrote:... my girlfriend, who was playing first bass at the time ...

Her name was "Who"?

(sorry -- old Abbott & Costello reference -- couldn't resist)

dkrahl wrote:At an outdoor community band concert in Lafayette, IN someone kept playing after the end of the piece. The conductor cut us off twice, but someone still was playing. After a moment, we realized it was an airplane flying overhead... perfectly in tune to the last chord of the music.

and a few minutes later wrote:At an outdoor community band concert in Lafayette, IN someone kept playing after the end of the piece. The conductor cut us off twice, but someone still was playing. After a moment, we realized it was an airplane flying overhead... perfectly in tune to the last chord of the music.

Very appropriate!

Ace · Post by **Ace** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 10:38 pm

Too many strange things over the years to list. But, two events immediately come to mind-----both involving light opera rehearsals.

I was playing trumpet in "Kiss Me Kate" when someone on stage knocked over an old fashion black box coin telephone. The thing hit the stage floor, almost fell into the pit, and the coin return box shattered sending projectiles into the face of the second trumpet player. Could have put the guy's eye out. Not funny.

Another time, I was playing French horn in "Oklahoma". Before the dancers came out to rehearse their whirling skirts number, stage hands decided to sweep the stage floor with big wide brooms, and swept dust and debris over the front edge down onto the orchestra. Those stage hands almost lost their lives that night-----dusty musicians can get pretty surly.

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:06 pm

If I can find the tape, it's still hilarious to listen to this one:

About twenty years ago, I played principal trombone for my hometown community band. We played summer concerts on the lawn of the courthouse in the late afternoon -- traditional central square in the middle of town, established trees and lawn, gazebo, etc. It was a year for the cicadas. One of our pieces was a medly of sea shanties. After the introduction and getting into the first 6/8 shanty, the cicadas started up, sounding just like surf in sync with the conductor. As we finished the tune and played the segue into the next shanty, they stopped. Then we started playing the second tune of the medley, and the cicadas started up again. This went back and forth for the whole medley: on for each tune, off for the segues, like someone turned a switch on and off for background effects. It was great. And I got it on tape!

XtremeEuph · Post by **XtremeEuph** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:48 pm

In Junior High (middle school to some of you), A trumpet player who borrowed my valve oil tossed it back to me without me knowing so as a reaction i stuck out my euphonium and it appeared to bounce off the bell somewhere, had no clue where it went, looked around forever for it (it was full). I played a little, no stuffiness, it didnt go in. AFter a long time of looking for it, it was standing straight up on a table........we were laughing extremely hard....then we see the idiot electric bass player shaking my instrument while we are laughing, out comes my valve oil like what the heck, it was priceless........

Another time, during a band workshop with the university, the Doctor of music (the conductor) stopped rehearsal and just bluntly gave me the finger..................everyone was staring.............at both of us lol..........she was holding out the finger and it was pretty funny. Turned out that was her sign language meaning Play an A natural (i was playing it flat).....Was really funny, she apologized of course.

have crazy things every day but that would take too long to type.

Art Hovey · Post by **Art Hovey** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:59 pm

This was not a rehearsal but an outdoor summer concert by the town band, with my father conducting. Must have been more than 50 years ago because I was still in the audience. They had finished playing a piece with a pistol shot, and my father still had the starter pistol on his stand. The final piece had an important bass drum lick near the end which the drummer could never get right. The moment came, my old man saw that the kid was asleep again, so he picked up the pistol and fired it right at him, right on the beat! Pieces of hot cardboard sprayed all over my sister in the flute section, but everybody else was laughing. He got onto the microphone and said, "I've wanted to do that for years!"
Would anyone get away with that today?

Bill Troiano · Post by **Bill Troiano** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:36 am

Knowing your dad as I did, Art, I can picture the whole scenario. I wish I was there to experience it firsthand. No, we couldn't get away with that today. I got in trouble several years ago when, in a 9th grade band rehearsal, I accidentally clipped my baton on the conductor music stand, knocking it out of my hand, spinning end over end in the air, and coming to rest down the cleavage of a well-endowed flute player. She was my last chair player, she played like sh$^, and had a lousy attitude. Within the hour, I received a phone call from the angry mother who was threatening to sue me. I was called into the principal's office, but when I explained the situation, he thought it was hilarious. The situation went away quickly enough. The band, however, thought the whole incident was pretty funny and they knew my baton found the right target!

Rick F · Post by **Rick F** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:45 pm

Not at rehearsal but at last night's concert performance before paid patrons!

As an April fools prank, someone in the band got the idea that we should play #19 from 'Leonard Smith's Treasury of Scales' instead of the encore piece scheduled. For years we joked that we should play that sometime since our director always had us warm up with that one. You should have seen his face when he heard the first couple of bars. Surprisingly, he continued conducting. When finished, we all yelled, "April Fools!" He explained it to the audience - then we played the normal encore number.

I'm not sure the audience appreciated it though

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:48 pm

Rick F wrote:As an April fools prank, someone in the band got the idea that we should play #19 from 'Leonard Smith's Treasury of Scales' instead of the encore piece scheduled.

For a real "April Fools!" you might have played it in a different key, and see if he noticed...

adam0408 · Post by **adam0408** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:40 am

windshieldbug wrote:
Rick F wrote:As an April fools prank, someone in the band got the idea that we should play #19 from 'Leonard Smith's Treasury of Scales' instead of the encore piece scheduled.
For a real "April Fools!" you might have played it in a different key, and see if he noticed...

NERD ALERT WEE-OOO WEE-OOO

Just kidding.... I am a nerd as well soooooo......

several days ago I, with the help of some fellow low brass dudes, saran wrapped my directors car with six rolls of the stuff. Since I had no idea when he was leaving, I didnt get to see the reaction but I heard it was priceless.

Also, in high school we had a day with nothing to do in band, so I was screwing around with my tuba playing buddy and we were throwing snowballs at this light pole outside the back of the band room. Neither of us were troublemakers, and it didnt enter our heads that something bad might happen. We werent hitting the light AT ALL because it was probably 20 yards away and thirty feet tall. Well, my buddy had a lucky shot and hit the thing square on the shade, which then did a cartoonish swing back and forth and fell off. We both then scurried inside as quickly as possible feeling very foolish, and with no intention of telling anyone what happened. However, the "dean of students" just happened to be walking by the cafeteria, which has a huge row of windows looking out on the area where we were chucking snowballs at the light. He was walking by at exactly the right time to witness the event. He was also a huge jerk on a power trip. He entered the band room from the back door and yelled at everyone and threatened us until we stepped forward and said we did it. He sat us down and gave my buddy the option of lots of detention or paying for the shade, and my friend decided to pay the $5. It was a lot of hoopla and threats for such a cheap light. My director was NOT happy with us at all.

tubeast · Post by **tubeast** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:34 am

I was recording a CD with our youth band. (two all-day sessions). At one point there was a one-engined private airplane passing over the recording room, so we paused to avoid the engine sound on the recording.
Apparently the pilot decided this was an interesting part of the city and started doing circles.
As he went on and on we got just a little impatient.
The following was improvised and went without anybody saying a word.
So this trombonist makes this perfect engine-sound on his horn, changing the pitch with his slide to imitate a passing plane.
He gets to the lowest pitch when the drummer hits his crash cymbal real hard.
A few seconds later two trumpets stand up and imitate an ambulance coming in. (in Germany the siren consists of alternating notes a quart apart, so one player did C-F-C-F while the other did B-E-B-E simultaneously, at the top of their lungs.)
In the end, a piccolo flautist gets up and goes "Blip...Blip....Blip...Blip...Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!"

The sound engineer asked them to repeat this later on, to make sure he got it on tape.

TubaSteve · Post by **TubaSteve** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:19 pm

One time while I was in Jr High School, I was playing an old sousaphone. We were on risers, and my chair slid off the back of the riser and fell the 4 feet to the ground. Good thing it was a fiberglass horn as it wasn't damaged and neither was I.

At an outdoor concert for a pops band, our bandshell has a lot of spaces that birds like to make nests in. They litter the whole stage with their waste, and during a measure rest, the next time I start to play, I taste something awful and salty!!! You guessed it. It landed right in the opening of my mouthpiece. I ended up getting very sick from that one! Almost ended up in the hospital.

At another concert for that band, It was the 4th of July, and we were playing the fireworks. Someone was running a popcorn popper and blue their fuse. They then plugged it into the circuit that was feeding the band shell trailer that we were playing on. We half way through Stars and Stripes Forever when it went totally black. We ended playing it to the end anyway and got a real ovation for it.

The worst time was at a rehearsal when one of our euphonium players had diabetic seizure and fell to the floor. The ambulance was called, but he never recovered.

Steve

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:36 pm

Not a rehearsal, but a concert.

I was in a cornet band, playing the Jack Daniels Silver Cornet Band version of "Listen to the Mockingbird". If you haven't heard it, the tuba echos the piccolo in the cadenza until the piccolo plays such a complicated one (and wide ranging) that the tuba gives up. One evening I wasn't in a very submissive mood, so I just played started the complicated one before the piccolo player could start. Destpite feeling my way through it, it went darn well, and her jaw dropped, there was an awkward moment of silence, and then the leader jumped in with the final chord. I'm sure the audience had no clue why the band was in hysterics (especially myself!)