rjzeller

...that stuff always makes my eyes water and gives my asthma fits....

So I'm filling in quite literally at the last second in a church gig yesterday as the scheduled trumpet player had a family emergency. I get there and prepare to play a prelude which is just a trumpet/organ solo. Since the other guy had the trumpet part, I had to read off the concert score.

No problem, I figured, I'll just grab my C trumpet and play...

...er...for some reason I falsely assumed that the concert score would have the solo part in concert key. (Most of the piano accompaniment parts I have for the trumpet solos I own have the solo line written in concert key to aid the pianist in knowing what exactly I'm playing...so It's not like it was a completely unfounded assumption.)

I start playing and instantly it strikes me that I'm holding the WRONG HORN.

Unfortunately, the organist picked up on it too, and here is where communications become so critical:

I figured, Okay, no problem...I'll just transpose down a step until I get to an extended rest and then I'll grab my Bb (it was sitting about ten feet away at the time).

The organist, however, figured he would just start playing some more chords and wait for me to get the other horn.

It took probably about ten seconds for me to realize what he was doing, but musically that's an eternity. In the meantime, there was a lot of me playing what didn't match what he was playing because he opted not to go on and I did. Sigh...

Fortunately, the rest went very well...when I played the right instrument.

So much for performing under pressure. Sight reading a part in performance is one thing...doing it with the wrong instrument is another thing entirely. Sheesh! I maintain it was the incense that fogged my brain....

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who do not.

40cal

That's why you have to look at the key signature!!!!

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“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day so that my child may have peace.”

Thomas Paine 1737-1809

“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd

Eclipsehornplayer

Yup....

It's Key no pun intended...

In the music that I play for church generally: 3 sharps or less is in C If I see 6 sharps I know it's Bb time to grab the C and transpose.

It must have been ackwardly funny though....

Did anyone else pick up on it or was it just the musicians?

Don't worry I'm sure my day is coming....

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Eclipse MHY Bb Trumpet with interchangable leadpipes
Bach 229 25A C Trumpet
Getzen Capri Bb Cornet
GR & Monette mouthpieces

krossum

a little off topic; but along the same lines…

a looong time ago; I was playing pic at a wedding, sight reading off of the score - I was concentrating so hard, I grabbed the wrong three valves (2nd, 3rd and 4th on a 4 valve pic instead of 1st, 2nd and 3rd) and proceeded to play... after a couple of notes I figured it out... ouch, not pretty.

some things we just learn the hard way.
-Kelly

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“This art is acquired only by laborious studies, for the rebellious nature of the instrument demands a great aptitude coupled with a persevering willingness to become a master of it.” – F.G.A. Dauverné (1857)