Eastertide Music

Easter is my favourite time of year. The church music is especially wonderful. Our church choir did a splendid job at the Good Friday Mass. Two songs brought tears to my eyes (and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one tearing up). I can’t remember much of the details (composer and title) but I remember the lyrics were about the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross. I’ll find out the info and post it at a later date. The soloists captured the intense emotions so effectively – their timbre reached deep into my soul and pulled. Hard. The harmonies were highly chromatic, which leads to the emotional angst. One song was sung by an alto. Her performance was especially moving. [04/26/06 note: Songs title are "The Seven Last Words from the Cross" and "The Pieta"."]

 Easter Vigil presents a different tone. When the lights are turned on and the candles blown out, the choir broke into a jubilant Gloria, while some of the children rang bells.

Easter Sunday. The joyous tone carried through. The choir at the church I attended last Sunday sang a capella. It made me realize how much I rely on the piano or guitar for my chords. I know that I should be able to hear where the chord progressions are going with four-part harmony, but alas, I haven’t mastered that yet.

Easter Break has been creatively productive and relaxing on all other fronts. I finally managed to arrange Above All for piano duet in a form that I am happy with. How apropos as it also has to deal with Easter. Now all I have to do is transcribe my scribbles into fancy looking sheet music, using Finale Notepad. But first, I need to do an arrangement of A Whole New World for another student. I’m simplifying it a bit, so that hasn’t been too hard.

Now if only I could solve my site feed issue (see the link on the right), I’d be laughing. It just stopped working one day and my research and Blogger support have come up with zilch. But that’s a challenge for another day.

© 2006, Musespeak™, Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Wedding Music and Wedding Gigs

What goes into preparing for a gig? A little bit of administration and a sufficient amount of practice. Things never go according to plan, so you also need to be prepared for anything. I played at a wedding on Saturday. I don’t mind sharing it since it was an interesting gig (and the couple were wonderful to work with, so I hope they don’t mind that I share this).

The bride contacted me in the summer to perform at her wedding. We played phone tag for a couple of rounds first. She was in the process of finalizing the date and venue but wanted to check my availability.

One week later, she dropped of a deposit to secure my services, with the balance to be paid at the ceremony. By mid-September, we had enough information to negotiate length of the engagement and cost.

This wedding was a little different from the norm. The couple wanted cocktail music prior to the ceremony. No processional, signing of the register or recessional music. After the ceremony, they asked me to play Forever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond.

They made several special requests, which I was fine with since they gave me ample notice. A little My Fair Lady, a little classic rock and some rumbas. I wound up purchasing a fake book with over 1,000 songs in lead sheet format. It was a good excuse for me to learn how to improvise an accompaniment. Slowly but surely, I am getting better at it.

I began practicing in earnest for the gig three weeks before the wedding. However, a horrible cold impeded my practicing two weeks before the wedding. That’s when we finalized all the details that were required on the booking agreement. The bride paid the outstanding balance when she submitted the signed contract.

The families were in the throes of last minute preparations when I arrived. Musicians feed off of the excitement in the air on performance day. But my stomach churned when I reached the piano. The damper pedal was broken. Of all the pedals, it had to be the one pianists need the most for pop songs.

After a mild panic attack, years of lessons kicked in and I remembered finger pedalling, which involves holding notes longer than written and blurring the sounds together that way. It went all right but I was completely thrown off by the loss of my favourite tool. My right foot kept reaching for the pedal that wouldn’t work.

I had a couple of false starts in Forever in Blue Jeans but smoothed things over with comedic patter. Other than that, was quite pleased with my faking prowess that evening. I had a healthy break when I dined with the guests (prime rib, yummy!) and sat through speeches.

Want to know more about what it’s like to perform at gigs? I’m writing my first novel (it’s fiction but inspired by reality). Not sure when it’ll be published, seeing as I’m only on Chapter 3. Stay tuned!

Careers in Music

Growing up, the only music careers I knew about were: teacher, pop singer, composer and orchestra musicians. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless more career options available for those who love music. Here are just a few (in no particular order):  

• Music publisher

• Talent agent

• Recording engineer

• Music therapist

• Concert promoter

• Radio disc jockey

• Community arts manager

• Marketing Director for a symphony

• Fund Development Coordinator for an opera company

• Composer (classical, movie, video game, commercials, etc.)

• Accompanist

• Transcriber

• Arranger

• Conductor

For more information about careers in music, check out the following sites:

• Berklee - Careers

• National Association for Music Educationi

• Music Careers

Happy exploring!

© 2005 Musespeak™, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. All rights reserved.

Lost and Found....Odds and Ends

Here I was, happily posting blog entries when I was surprised by an e-mail from a friend a few days ago. She asked where my blog content went. Sure enough, "Musings" disappeared. My friend and I inspected the code and I explored my settings - all to no avail. This evening, on a lark, I changed the template to blue (Calliope's colour - Calliope is my writing moniker) and now everything is fine. The weekend's gigs went well. I was a little disconcerted by Saturday's wedding however. Small weddings in large churches make me feel odd to begin with. Small weddings in large churches where 90% of the guests don't sing along are especially disconcerting. I especially worked hard with the priest to pick mass settings that were familiar to the couple's families. I tried to lead in the singing but wound up sacrificing the chords I so studiously figured out the night before. What can I say? It was a quiet crowd. Lovely ceremony though and the couple looked fantastic.

Yesterday's gig was an adventure. I managed to improvise on four boogie woogie rhythms. The first attempt was the best, by far and garnered some applause and cheers. It was a good thing I practiced improvising as I wound up ditching the slow songs in favour of more upbeat tunes to match the crowd's mood.

There was a cowboy singing duo, complete with a washtub and amplified guitar in another room during cocktails. During dinner, we were located on opposite ends of the dining room, which was fine. However, as the evening progressed, the cowboys inched closer and closer to the piano. With 10 or 15 minutes left to my gig, I turned to the people sitting closest to me and said, "I think it's time for me to go get dessert." I wound up relaxing and listening to the cowboys for the rest of my time. There was no way I was going to win against an amplified guitar and cowboys who were challenging the patrons to sing and dance. As I was packing up to leave, the cowboys took over the piano area completely.

Ah well, them’s the breaks. It was an adventure and the food was delicious. Another gig came through the pipes this morning. Another wedding but it’s a cocktail music + wedding music + dinner music combo all in one place. Guess what they’ve asked for? You’ve got it, honky-tonk and boogie woogie.

© Musespeak, Calgary, AB, 2005. All rights reserved.