Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe DiMonte  Dear Andrew:
I was following your post and nodding my head in agreement until I came to your penultimate paragraph which reads: " Your dog will still love you if you miss a note."
This old dog would bark at those you miss a note and conclude that one had failed to prepare.
As you know,those who fail to prepare,prepare to fail !
Please consider that the 'customer' is always right and the 'old school' paying customers shuns mediocrity in the PUBLIC sphere. |
Playing the trumpet isn't accounting. You can do everything in your power to prepare, but you do not have control over all the variables that go into a performance. Without trying to make excuses, these include but are not limited to:
The amount of playing that has been foisted upon you. Schedules can be grueling, and the people that put together those schedules don't understand the physical demands they are placing on the orchestra, nor do they care. You may have had a three hour recording session on a monster Strauss tone poem, or a pops rehearsal in the morning or afternoon, and are expected to turn around in a short period of time and pull yourself together for a completely different program/genre.
The player's personal life, health, family schedule, teaching load.
Temperature of the stage. Humidity of the stage.
The dynamics within the section/orchestra. How secure you feel within this dynamic, and the relationship you have with the conductor.
What the players around you are doing - do you all have a consensus of pitch and pulse? This can be extremely distracting if someone is throwing a wrench in the works, and can make the job damned near impossible. Sometimes this is not the fault of any player, but the acoustic properties of the stage/hall. Sometimes the conductor beats WAY out in front of what the orchestra is playing, and the musician has to make a split-second decision on where to place an entrance.
Any one of these will interfere with a players confidence about when to "pull the trigger", and where there is doubt, there is seafood buffet. It is amazing concerts go as well as they do.
Not being a professional musician, you have no way of knowing all that happens "behind the scenes". We as performers understand that, but please know that music is not an exact science. Ever concert is a unique, handmade product, and no two are exactly alike. If they were, there would be no reason for anyone to attend live performances.
We do the absolute best we can with what we have, and sometimes s*** happens, even to the best of the best. If you want perfection, program a computer.
J