by Matt on February 19, 2008
This post is inspired by an old friend of mine who uses a trumpet stand.
He recently left his trumpet on the stand whilst going to the bathroom. On his return he moved his chair back to sit down. Of course when he reached for his trumpet, to his horror he realised that he had put the chair leg through his bell.
He wasn’t happy.
This was however the same person who had a trumpet and flugel soft case full of mutes stands and other crap and was then surprised when he took out his trumpet and realised that the lead pipe resembled a boomerang.
For those who don’t know, this is the bit the mouth piece goes into and should most definitely be straight.
If you want to avoid such problems you should look at an earlier post I made called: The Idiots Guide To A Damage Free Instrument.
by Matt on February 18, 2008
I love playing shows but my 2nd trumpet Mark seemed to think that I may have been suffering from “Pit Rage” as I had inadvertently drop kicked a chair at the clarinetist twice over the week.
It’s perhaps due to playing this show 3 times in the past year, leaving my subconscious a little riled up. But I’m not the only one who I’ve seen suffer as I’ve caught Mark on a couple of occasions with a murderous look in his eyes.
You should watch out for Pit Rage as it could be dangerous to play when suffering.
The Causes Are:
- The same actor fumbling the same lines every night.
- Girls with nice personalities dancing the can-can scene.
- Inaccurate props - such as an old moving pictures camera used to take a photograph.
- Inadvertent Stereotypical Racism
- Misfiring Sound Effects
Symptoms (to date) are:
- Accidental Chair Punting
- Murderous Eyes
- Counting the lines fumbled by a particle actor on a self made tick chart a the back of your score.
- Timing the show on a nightly basis and seeing if you can beat that time the next day.
This list may be updated as the side effects seem to be so varied.
Please comment and add your own so that others can be warned of the Pit Rage epidemic.
by Matt on February 17, 2008
The shows misfired line of the week has to be;
“Do you want me to get that windpipe and ram it into your windpipe?”.
It reminds me of a line used by Jimmy Carr when remarking on Allen Sugar’s comments of having a gut feeling in his stomach;
“That kind of use of the English Language makes me want to punch his face, in the face” -Jimmy Carr
by Matt on February 16, 2008
The venue we rehearse at for the show this week have decided to lock every other door in there. This is a brilliant idea, especially if there’s an emergency and we need to get out quickly.
An emergency such as the bass amp which was situated by the afore mentioned ONLY exit, deciding to catch fire in the band call. : )
Thankfully it just smoked a bit and shorted-out but there was a realisation from the 40 members of cast and the pit orchestra afterwards that being in a room under the ground where the only exit is on fire is perhaps not the greatest place to be.
by Matt on February 15, 2008
Like yesterdays post this too came from chatting with Mark about previous shows.
It was actually less than a year ago that we were playing Sweet Charity. We were just starting to play The Rhythm Of Life when the fire alarm went off. Mark and I played for as long as the MD wagged thinking that the sound engineer had hit the wrong sound effect but in the end everything stopped and we had to evacuate.
We just got outside when three fire engines turned up and inspected the building. The cause was a discarded cigarette under a sensor.
After this we all went back in and carried on with the show which was soon brought to stop again as someone had arrived late and blocked the fire engines in the car park… clever.
We eventually carried on and finished the show at about 11 o’clock. Having said that the audience were the most responsive we’d heard all week and they loved the whole thing!!
by Matt on February 14, 2008
I was reminiscing with Mark (the 2nd trumpet on the show I’m playing with this week) about some of the things that have happened during our time working with this particular show company and I thought its was worth a couple of posts
It was the last night of Copa and we were on the play off when it happened. I got to the last note and had enough chops to scream out a nice F to finish a hard week of playing. It wasn’t 10 seconds after this when I got a tap on the shoulder. I turned around and a girl was leaning over into the pit and passed me a bit of paper (which I thought I must have dropped earlier) so I said thanks. It was after she’d left that I’d opened the paper and realized she’d passed me her number : )
I turned to the other 6 members of the brass section who’d been watching, to a stunned “did that just happen?”
Of course the lads didn’t let it go and during a quick drink after we agreed on an ideas. Based on the theory that there is a “brown note” which is a frequency so low it causes your body to do things that with this particular name I’m sure you can imagine. The theory went that there must be a frequency at the other end that did things to the ladies which was dubbed “The Love Note”
We’ve never found that frequency again but the guys have said they haven’t given up trying. : )
by Matt on February 13, 2008
James is my top pupil and I found out the other day he was the feature when a camera crew came into school. (He neglected to tell me this himself, instead I heard it from the head of music) Follow this link and have a listen to him playing Andante and Allegro at the age of 12.
James Trumpet Clip
James has currently received his second music scholarship and awarded his place in the NCO (National Children’s Orchestra) for the second year running. We are currently working towards his grade 8 and I think he’ll get it before the end of the year.
by Matt on February 12, 2008
Here’s my Birthday Blog. . . . That is all.
(Although I’m staying in Derby I have developed a great little trick to get an internet connection so I can make up for todays slow post and the previous missing posts of the past couple of days, sorry about that! To make up for it tomorrows post will contain video content.)
by Matt on February 8, 2008
Back in Derby playing Oklahoma for a week. It’s with a good little amateur company in Burton and it’s a good laugh with cast and musicians. It’s half term as well so no massive drives either!!
So now I’ve got all this time, what will I do besides designing, blogging, mixing and practicing??
The answer is Devil May Cry 4. 
It’s out tomorrow, looks awesome and what the hell, it’s my Birthday next week so I deserve to waste a few hours on the X-box.
by Matt on February 7, 2008
Living in Liverpool is great at the moment but it does mean I have to drive 112 miles to get to gigs and teaching in Birmingham. Thank god for gadgets and audio to keep me sane.
For example tom tom, blue tooth hands free, ipods, podcasts and for the early morning drives The Chris Moyles Show.
I’m looking forward to my MOT next week to find the tole this excess milage has taken on my car.
