FIND A SCORE!!!!!!!

            When it comes to overlooking the simple things in life, I am the guiltiest person in the world.  It is very easy to become lazy or complacent or just hope problems fix themselves without any sort of help.  Unfortunately this has been known, on occasion, to filter into the practice room and chamber rehearsal as well.

            Today’s blog post is dedicated to reminding everyone of one simple step they can do to make their rehearsals run much better.  This step includes a five minute trip to the library or your teacher’s office and procuring the ever elusive score!  Yes, you heard me right, THE LIBRARY!!!  I try to avoid this place like the plague, especially after my near death experience in Intro to Grad Studies.  However, now that the trauma has passed and the scars have healed, I have realized what an asset the library is.

            The Rita Benton music library, for those of you who do not know, is located on the second floor of the main library.  The library has a plethora of music and scores for chamber ensembles.  With a little knowledge of Infohawk and a couple minutes of creative searching, you can find almost any score you would need.  Or if you are the lazy type and prefer to be spoon fed, you can simply ask one of the attendants in the office to do it for you.  I prefer the latter.  That being said, if there isn’t a particular score available, our lovely Inter Library Loan system can locate ANYTHING you want and have it on campus in a short time.

           The other resource is the brass faculty in the hallway.  They have spent many years collecting music to add to their collection just for instances like this.  All you have to do is ask and they will either give it to you or tell you where to buy it.  So there no excuse now to not have a score.

            Okay, so back to my point.  This is one of the easy things I overlook constantly, but having a score makes everything easier.  It is essential in small ensemble settings to know who you are playing with, when you are playing with them and how you fit in.  Trust me; it is a lot easier to check a score than be the one in rehearsal who constantly asks, “Measure 4, beat 3, who is playing with me?”  Or the ever so popular, “do I start by myself?”  I’ve been that guy, I don’t like it.

            My first experience with a tuba quartet happened during the first week of grad school here at the University of Iowa.  We played a piece written by Michael Forbes entitled, “Consequences.”  This piece was incredible and is one of the most rhythmically intricate pieces I had encountered at the time.  Every single note in every part had its own place in the music and every rehearsal we seemed to uncover a little knowledge about the parts.  There was a particular section where everyone had their own different sixteenth note patterns and it never seemed to lock in.  That was when we contacted good old Mr. Score and found the answers we were looking for.  It turned out, as mentioned before, each part had its own purpose and we would touch for a split second in unison before separating yet again.  Now, it was not an immediate fix to the problem, but knowing is half the battle and we were able to conquer the piece.  In fact, I recall a crucial moment in the piece where the Blaine and I would land in unison and I always felt a rush of relief when this happened.  We ended up taking the piece to a regional tuba and euphonium conference and winning first place.

            So, my rambling is over, the moral of the story is, get a score and you win competitions.  Not really, but it will certainly help put you in a better place to place higher than a potential competitor who has not done so.