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WildTrumpet · 02-18-2007, 09:33 PM

Manny,

This really must be the month for sightreading! So when I read your post yesterday, I thought..."you know, I should keep up my transposition a little more than I do". I also must admit that I didn't think I would really find myself in your position anytime soon with the gigs I have here in the Twin Cities.

Then, tonight I show up to play the show I'm playing at the Bloomington Civic Theater and when our horn player wasn't there at 2 minutes 'till downbeat, we figured out wires had been crossed and the sub wasn't called for today.

The director (Anita Ruth) asked if anyone knew a horn player who could get there in time, but we couldn't get ahold of one. I took a big chance and told her I could transpose and play the essential parts on my flugel. So, that's what I did. There were 5 or so places in the show (it's actually a revue) where the horn part was essential. So, I played those and played my trumpet part for the rest of the show. I hadn't sightread a performance since college orchestra and I hadn't had to transpose on sight for a performance ever - much less read 2 books at once.

When the show was over, I was given a big "thank you". That's not why I did it - I stepped up to make the show sound as good as possible. But, like you stated, you never know when you'll need to use those sightreading and transposing skills. And yes - a lot of the time, it was a scale or arpeggio and I only had to think about transposing the key and the starting note rather than thinking about transposing each note in the phrase. I have always been a really good sightreader, but most of the transposition I've done for performance has been C and A with only a couple time in F. I will defnitely practice ALL of my transpostions more often!!

02-18-2007, 09:33 PM	#3 (permalink)
WildTrumpet New Friend Join Date: May 2005 Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota Posts: 17	Re: My pal, Chuck... Manny, This really must be the month for sightreading! So when I read your post yesterday, I thought..."you know, I should keep up my transposition a little more than I do". I also must admit that I didn't think I would really find myself in your position anytime soon with the gigs I have here in the Twin Cities. Then, tonight I show up to play the show I'm playing at the Bloomington Civic Theater and when our horn player wasn't there at 2 minutes 'till downbeat, we figured out wires had been crossed and the sub wasn't called for today. The director (Anita Ruth) asked if anyone knew a horn player who could get there in time, but we couldn't get ahold of one. I took a big chance and told her I could transpose and play the essential parts on my flugel. So, that's what I did. There were 5 or so places in the show (it's actually a revue) where the horn part was essential. So, I played those and played my trumpet part for the rest of the show. I hadn't sightread a performance since college orchestra and I hadn't had to transpose on sight for a performance ever - much less read 2 books at once. When the show was over, I was given a big "thank you". That's not why I did it - I stepped up to make the show sound as good as possible. But, like you stated, you never know when you'll need to use those sightreading and transposing skills. And yes - a lot of the time, it was a scale or arpeggio and I only had to think about transposing the key and the starting note rather than thinking about transposing each note in the phrase. I have always been a really good sightreader, but most of the transposition I've done for performance has been C and A with only a couple time in F. I will defnitely practice ALL of my transpostions more often!! __________________ Alex Kahler =========== Bach Strad 37 Bach Strad 37 Sterling Bell Yamaha 631G Flugel Bach 196 VBS piccolo Getzen "Severinsen" C Yamaha 761 Eb/D