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Annie · 06-20-2005, 04:32 PM

From the bit of poking around that I've done, there really isn't much outside of the union (as far as I've been able to tell, that is) for a trumpeter. Most of it outside of the union seems to be talent agencies whose bands are not very organized.

At a gig I recently did, I got there before call by about an hour, because I knew that was when I should be there. I think I was one of the first actually there. Nobody told me ANYTHING about what was going on, or what was expected of me. I was given a book to read from for the gig, but I barely even used it during the gig. Few songs were even in the book! And half the songs that actually were from the book, the charts were horrible. About 3 songs were played as the charts dictated, and there was no headway about any changes. When there was a song from the book, there was no start, or even count off. One song blended into the other. To top it all off, I wasn't given any info on what the order of the songs were. Keys and changes weren't shouted out at all. I had to ask my contact to tell me the keys of the songs as they came up so that I could ad lib backgrounds. It was a fun experience, but horribly frustrating nontheless.

I'm hoping that by joining the union I'll be able to hook up with musicians who are a LOT more organized than this last group.

06-20-2005, 04:32 PM	#3 (permalink)
Annie Piano User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 419	From the bit of poking around that I've done, there really isn't much outside of the union (as far as I've been able to tell, that is) for a trumpeter. Most of it outside of the union seems to be talent agencies whose bands are not very organized. At a gig I recently did, I got there before call by about an hour, because I knew that was when I should be there. I think I was one of the first actually there. Nobody told me ANYTHING about what was going on, or what was expected of me. I was given a book to read from for the gig, but I barely even used it during the gig. Few songs were even in the book! And half the songs that actually were from the book, the charts were horrible. About 3 songs were played as the charts dictated, and there was no headway about any changes. When there was a song from the book, there was no start, or even count off. One song blended into the other. To top it all off, I wasn't given any info on what the order of the songs were. Keys and changes weren't shouted out at all. I had to ask my contact to tell me the keys of the songs as they came up so that I could ad lib backgrounds. It was a fun experience, but horribly frustrating nontheless. I'm hoping that by joining the union I'll be able to hook up with musicians who are a LOT more organized than this last group. __________________ ~Annie I may not be great yet, but I'm working hard on it and one day I'm gonna be there.