Sound good so far! I like melodies that kinda go back and forth between major and minor. They feel more free-form, less restricted to tonality or something. You never know where they're gonna go, so if this is the opening of a long-form piece, the possibilities are endless.
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I got an email yesterday while at work (to my personal email) from one of the women from my church; her daughter is auditioning for a couple of things, and needs an accompanist. Since she doesn't have rehearsal until 7, she wondered if I had any time between 3 and 7. This made almost no sense to me, so naturally I was intrigued. It was 1:30 at the time. She apologized for the late notice and offered to pay me for my time, which I had no intention of accepting. I've played for her in the past, and she's a sweet kid with a beautiful voice. It's always a pleasure playing for her, and a good excuse to leave work early, too.
Eventually I worked out that she got out of school at 3, had to be at rehearsal at 7, so this left time in between for the auditions. I still wasn't sure what the heck was going on, but I told the mom that I could probably duck out of work at 5 (which is early for me), meet them around 5:30, and if she had sheet music, then we're probably fine, but if I had to work things out by ear, we might need some time (which we obviously didn't have). Last time it was a song from some show I'd never heard of, and all they had was a YouTube video. I found some bad sheet music online, in the wrong key, and worked something out, but going from cold to audition-quality in an hour wasn't likely. Show tunes tend to jump all over the place and use a lot of fun chords. She said she had sheet music.
I get there and they've got a video camera. The "audition" is actually in the form of a recording, two songs, which she sends to various places. That's how you audition for summer programs and stuff these days. Okay, so that's good, because it means we can do multiple takes and keep the best one of each. Except the battery is getting low, and the spare is dead. Great. So we're only going to get a couple of shots at each one.
I look at the songs; one's in Db, the other Gb. Seriously? Five flats, six flats in the signature, and since it's show music, accidentals all over the place. Oh wait, this one isn't Gb; it's actually Eb minor. Yay.
Practiced myself a few times, then she started singing along with me a few times. We worked out the tempos of each, the changes (there were many), the dramatic pauses (one in each song), all that. One of them slowed down at the end, the other just ran its course. It was almost 6:30 by this point. I was thinking we had until 7, but that's when rehearsal starts; she has to leave about 6:45. So now we have 15 minutes to get a good take of each song.
The battery had enough juice for three takes of each song, and in each case the third one was the best. No surprise there. Knowing the tape was rolling got the adrenaline pumping, but these were still tough pieces. She had to bolt; it was almost 7 and she was gonna be late for rehearsal. She's in the school play, of course; this was all for something completely different. Mom reaches for her wallet; I told her no way. I was my pleasure, plus I honestly wasn't that good. She insisted, literally pushing the money at me (a couple of 20's) and besides, she thought it sounded great. She's always amazed at how I can just blah blah blah okay fine, I'll take your money.
So I got out of work early, got to play some challenging music and help someone with their audition, and even made 40 bucks. Life of a free-lance musician.
Topic: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread (Read 303688 times)
