Saxophone Forum


by YanagisawA-901
(312 posts)
19 years ago

Young Ensemble, Mature Music..??

ok, were a young ensemble, mainly in age..our state of mind towards music for the most part is mature..we do have a piece of sh*t bari player, but the rest of our bass section makes up for it.. were playing a lot of great tunes..omaha, you and me and a lot of others that ive mentiond (yardbird suite, after youve gone).. we have a lot of seniors in our jazz band...both tenors, our lead alto, 2 bones, 2 trumpets..so we have the experience.. my question is, we dont blend..the altos blend with altos, the bones blend with bones and altos..our drummer doesnt know what hte word blend means..and our trumpets dont blend..the problem is that our trumpets either dont think they dont blend, or just dont care..they sound soo terrible and theyre bringing the rest of us down.. they tend not to listen to me because i used to be real arrogant and now im finally starting to be able to back it up, but i still have hte history of it.. how do i tell them they "suck" when they wont listen to me..i want to get better but i cant with the trumpets..the whole ensemble gets brought down..they have the mentality of "well, its good enough" and they just leave it.. in our band our instructer tries to instill the idea of "its never good enough" and theres no such thing as good..theres trained and un trained..he wants us to be trained.. help me

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  1. by Goldref18
    (145 posts)

    19 years ago

    Re: Young Ensemble, Mature Music..??

    Give it time don't expect it to all come together right away. After time the lead players will rise to take over their sections and then it will all fall into place. Good Luck.

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    1. by karebear1012
      (395 posts)

      19 years ago

      Re: Young Ensemble, Mature Music..??

      the way you stated your question, it made me think you feel you're better than everyone else (im not saying you think that, itz just what i first thought when i read it). maybe if you'd offer some help instead of critisism it'd get better. we're actually having the same problem, and i'm lead alto so my director always blames it all on me - then everyone else (mostly seniors in jazz band) thinks i'm suck cuz im just a freshman girl whoz only played the sax for 2 years. it really brings me down, and i think that hurts the rest of the band because i lack confidence. jeez, just a little encouragement helps. plus, it's early in the school year, so i'm sure it'll all pull together with some time. good luck!

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      1. by Saxman2200
        (64 posts)

        19 years ago

        Re: Young Ensemble, Mature Music..??

        Don't let them bring you down. If you play well, you will get recognition. And with recognition will come respect. As a freashman don't expect everyone to listen to you automaticly. You have to move up in rank. For now, don't worry about them. They will play how they play, and you will play how you play. You can't play for the whole band (believe me, I've tried, and it sounds worse). Just play the best as you can, and if they are worth your time they will follow your example.

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        1. by barimachine
          (323 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Young Ensemble, Mature Music..??

          well at least you blend in instrument well now you need your entire sax trombone trumpets sections all together all articulate based on ur lead alto frst tromb frst trmpt but for tuning and what not you need to play in sectionals of different groups we usually 3s sometimes fours of notes in different chords...just chords awkward ones and everything where different ppl play different pitches example 1 note bari bass trombone trombone 3 and 2 trmpt 4 different note tenors trombone 2 trmpt 3 and 5* then altos trmpt 1 and 2 trombone 1 sometimes its more crazy with like augments and lots of stuff liek alto one trmpt3 bass trombone tenor 2 weird groups just tune in different ways

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        2. by chiamac
          (586 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Young Ensemble, Mature Music..??

          changes have to come from the top... so your director needs to spark teamwork and foster a interdependant envirment. meaning... insted of saying "I and ME" you need to say "we and us" and start playing that way. this isn't hard to do... hold a meeting were everyone can share concerns (and bitch) about what's going on. After a while start talking about a goal, then talk about what peopel can do to acheave that goal. Hold follow up meetings, away from pratice time... but in the end you're just a bunch of high school kids, and most of you are all about I and ME...

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        3. by sgt17594
          (31 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Young Ensemble, Mature Music..??

          Totally agree!! This is the problem of concerns in mind! A lot of player just know how play their own style, tone color,.... They don't know what is the teamwork at all! Ensemble=Group works !!

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