Pros splitting notes

[Mojo workin']

Haven't read the whole thread but just to say that chipping notes is common for all pros from time to time. If you hear Bud Herseth chip a note, you know that everyone chips notes.

I recall hearing a performance of Mahler 3 with a major orchestra(not the CSO), and noticing that the principal trumpet actually missed more notes on the posthorn solo than did the principal trombone on his first movement solo, but the trumpet solo was so much more confident than the trombone solo, it didn't matter. It was in the end a better performance, because he was "singing" in his head.

[TUBAD83]

Conductors drop beats; string players play off pitch, brass and woodwind players crack notes, percussionists tend to NOT follow the conductor--these are facts of life when comes to playing in a ensemble whether its a grade school band or the New York Philharmonic. The mission is to create music to the best of one's ability...to strive for perfection and NOT fall apart WHEN a mistake happens. Now if you're consistently cracking notes, that needs to be addressed--otherwise RELAX and enjoy creating music!!

[ZNC Dandy]

Mistakes are all part of a live performance. There was an article in Gramophone or BBC Music magazine, i'm not positive which, about Valery Gergiev. During a London Symphony concert performing a Tchaikovsky Symphony. I think it was perhaps the 7th. The Principal Bassoonist made a glaringly incorrect entrance for a solo passage. She apologized to him afterwards and he said it was absolutely no problem, and the beautiful way that she had played it was the most important thing. That speaks volumes to me. Focus on the positive aspect of your playing, not the negative. I guarantee you'll have more fun doing that.

[KevinMadden]

Haven't read the whole thread but just to say that chipping notes is common for all pros from time to time. If you hear Bud Herseth chip a note, you know that everyone chips notes.

Favorite Bud Herseth story (pretty sure its true, can anyone confirm?) One day the CSO was playing one of the Mahler symphonies in NY with Bernstein. At the end of the slow movement there's this little ascending lick that the flute has, than the trumpet follows. there's a brief bit of silence and then a bass pizz to end the mvt. Herseth kacks it hard. in the silence following you can hear Bud, "well ****"

[Whammo]

Despite the very best efforts of the very best performers I have ever had the honor and pleasure to either study with or play beside, they all make mistakes. No one wants to and we certainly don't plan for them to happen. A Jedi learns not to dwell on a chipped note during your performance, but to let go of it and keep the mind in the present. Otherwise that mistake will turn into several more.

To become a Jedi one must learn to control one's fear and keep the mind in the present music making. When you do that all the time, it gets a lot easier.

[Mojo workin']

A Jedi learns not to dwell on a chipped note during your performance, but to let go of it and keep the mind in the present. Otherwise that mistake will turn into several more.

To become a Jedi one must learn to control one's fear and keep the mind in the present music making.

Words of gold.

[iiipopes]

Starting rhetorical question...

With technology getting ever so life-like, it is possible to get note perfect recordings at anytime. So why then do most, if not all, still want that human recording or live performance...for the mistakes?

Insert rhetorical answer here



Ken F.

There is more to music than note-perfection. If it were not that way, when synthesizers and sequencers came out we would have all been out of a job years ago.

[Tubainsauga]

I've always been of the opinion that the missed notes don't matter so much, it's all about how good the rest of them are.

[windshieldbug]

So why then do most, if not all, still want that human recording or live performance...for the mistakes?

No, for the interpretation and communication. Human brains still react more quickly and positively to multiple inputs on this level.

You still need a manager (music director) and collaboration (orchestra) to make this happen. You require and strive for a high level of accuracy, but it is the emotion and communication that makes this a singular experience for both musicians and audience.

The only places digitized music has even been considered are places like Broadway, where the management has expected all of that be provided by the vocal soloist.

[kingrob76]

At the CBDNA conference in Columbus GA I heard Tage Larson of the CSO split 3 notes at least on a Curnow Concerto for Trumpet and Band... Did I enjoy it any less ... No.

He's human, go figure.

I played in a brass quintet for two years with Tage. He's not human - he planned those notes to give that impression to us mere mortals. He's off the scale when it comes to amazing.

[Tom Holtz]

At the CBDNA conference in Columbus GA I heard Tage Larson of the CSO split 3 notes at least on a Curnow Concerto for Trumpet and Band... Did I enjoy it any less ... No.

He's human, go figure.

I played in a brass quintet for two years with Tage. He's not human - he planned those notes to give that impression to us mere mortals. He's off the scale when it comes to amazing.

If I'm booking the gig, I'll take Tage and 3 (or 5 or 20) over a no-hitter from 99.9% of the rest of the trumpet world, and pay top dollar for the privilege. He is a next-level player.

[kingrob76]

At the CBDNA conference in Columbus GA I heard Tage Larson of the CSO split 3 notes at least on a Curnow Concerto for Trumpet and Band... Did I enjoy it any less ... No.

He's human, go figure.

I played in a brass quintet for two years with Tage. He's not human - he planned those notes to give that impression to us mere mortals. He's off the scale when it comes to amazing.

If I'm booking the gig, I'll take Tage and 3 (or 5 or 20) over a no-hitter from 99.9% of the rest of the trumpet world, and pay top dollar for the privilege. He is a next-level player.

He's a freak. A Super-Freak. The kind you don't take home to mother.

But it makes the point - it's the quality of the musicianship, not the accuracy of a few notes, that determine the relative success or failure of a performance.

[joshwirt]

Have I heard big-time tuba players split notes? Sure. But I've also heard the same person, in the same performance, play some jaw-dropping music and that's what I tend to remember.

I'm of the thinking that while on one end of the spectrum, you have the risk of mistakes happening......but at the opposite end, you have the potential for truly special moments to occur when everything comes together. For me, its the chance of those special moments that keeps me picking up the horn(s) every day.

-Josh