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How good are you?

BenjaminB wrote:I think I'm pretty good at multiphonics. I also know how to work a stage pretty good from singing/playing bass in a band.

Well considering you think you're PRETTY GOOD at mulitphonics, you KNOW how to work a stage, AND you come from a band that has the MOST All-State members and the BEST drumline in ALL of Texas....why the hell not?!

Any chance you can also play two tubas at the same time?

People recognize and feed off of excellence. A good player/musician can be spotted by 90% of the crowd; as long as the piece they play exemplifies their great qualities. If you like the piece, if you are confident with the piece, and if the piece highlights the qualities that you think are your specialty, it will be impossible for most to ignore it.

Of course certain pieces work better for certain crowds, but a good performance is universally recognizable and certain pieces and styles are a matter of taste.

Wes "remembering that the greatest performances he's ever heard weren't the hardest pieces, just the ones performed well and loved by the musicians" pendergrass

djwesp wrote:People recognize and feed off of excellence. A good player/musician can be spotted by 90% of the crowd; as long as the piece they play exemplifies their great qualities. If you like the piece, if you are confident with the piece, and if the piece highlights the qualities that you think are your specialty, it will be impossible for most to ignore it.

You'd be surprised how ignorant of such qualities high schoolers can be. However, I suspect that a beat boxing tuba player will get at least as good of a reaction as the string quartet (nothing against string quartets).

Do I understand you correctly that this Fine Arts Festival is for the general school population? If so, you already know how the general student population will receive a solo tuba player with a drummer, no matter what you play. It might be a stigma from which you never recover and lasts until your 25 year reunion!

If, on the other hand, you are playing for people who want to be there, I think Fnugg is a very nice showpiece and fun to listen to.

I have a couple of friends who graduated from here who teach several high school drumlines in Texas...I think they might question your assertion about your school's drumline (unless, of course, one of them teaches yours...what school are you attending?). How did you come to the conclusion that they are the "best" in two states? Sounds pretty arrogant unless you have something to back it up, and I'm pretty sure there's no competition specifically for the best drumlines in Texas and Louisiana to decide a "winner."

Todd S. Malicoate wrote: I have a couple of friends who graduated from here who teach several high school drumlines in Texas...I think they might question your assertion about your school's drumline (unless, of course, one of them teaches yours...what school are you attending?). How did you come to the conclusion that they are the "best" in two states? Sounds pretty arrogant unless you have something to back it up, and I'm pretty sure there's no competition specifically for the best drumlines in Texas and Louisiana to decide a "winner."

There you go again, Todd. You're trying to apply logic to the situation. Don't you know that if someone states they're the best, that it should be accepted as the truth, without attempting to apply logic? I'm surprised at you.

Nick Pierce wrote: You'd be surprised how ignorant of such qualities high schoolers can be.

I'm not completely sold on this statement either. Although the viewing of classically trained musical performances was forced on us, once it was, the reaction was almost always good.

I would also venture to guess that perception of how good most high school musicians THINK they are, is a lot different than how good they really are... and this is easily conveyed to a crowd not as dumb as you (not specifically you) think they are.

One day we were being heckled at by a group of high schoolers in Michigan (kalamazoo, maybe?) while warming up. Peter Bond (New York Met trumpet) was warming us up and playing along and turned around, flipped them off, played a chunk of "anything you can do(i can do better)", then yelled out to them...most of which can not be typed in this setting. They pulled over, got out of their cars, watched us warm up, and within a matter of minutes had called a huge crowd to watch us warm up. By the end, we had a crowd of 100+, and it was one of the greatest warm ups the corps had the whole season. We played chunks of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony and if only for a few minutes, every single one of those kids were classical music fans.

The first instinct many people that are high school aged have is to reject classically trained musicianship and instrumentation. This is part of the teenage rebellion theory... "It is the absence of wisdom ruling the moment." Not a total lack of wisdom.



Wes 'ranting and raving for practically no reason' Pendergrass

BenjaminB wrote:I have fun when I play and I feel that generally, fun is transmitted to the listener, no matter what the genre.

I think you're onto something.

Super attitude, Benjamin! I hope you are successful and the performance goes over well.

Is it just me but are a few of the younger Tubenetters coming to the forum with an excellent attitude?

I'm far more used to seeing more arrogance and louder-higher-faster demeanors amongst some of the newcomers. Bravo to the youth viewing and posting on the list! I hope you students are reading these well-composed and educational posts and taking from them what wisdom is offered in response.

Good luck to all you students this fall!

We aren't all arrogant jerks you know.....

tubadaddy92 wrote:We aren't all arrogant jerks you know.....

We aren't?!?!?! Where have I been?

tubadaddy92 wrote:We aren't all arrogant jerks you know.....

hehe...oops

I hope my post isn't taken as a slight. I'm just offering some positive reinforcement.