"In performance especially, I try to remain calm if I notice a mistake, if I focus on it, I'll make more mistakes! I do a little mental pep-talk to myself as I keep going. "You can do this!" or "You got the rest of this" things like that to encourage myself instead of worrying about the mistake. Its in the past! I'll do better next time I'm performing. If I am practicing and I make a mistake, I will keep going through the phrase and come back to the mistake after I finish the musical passage. If I stop every time I make a mistake, I'm not learning how to recover, and recovery is an important part of practice and performance because mistakes will happen! Its just normal." -Brooklynne Audette
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"I like the music making part of my job a LOT. But to do that, I have to do a lot of non music work (grant writing, planning, mixing, video editing) that I don't always like. With the right midset, I can enjoy all aspects of it though. As for my 15 hours per week doing computer work for the Minnesota Orchestra - it has its ups and downs." -Zack Baltich "I really enjoy my job! Being a software engineer is like solving puzzles in computers all day. I will get asked to build a feature and I get to figure out how to code it so its real! No two days are the exact same and I am fortunate enough to have cool coworkers and a fun product to work on. I am always learning because of the nature of my job, technology is always evolving! I often get to work from home, which lets me use my lunch break to practice trombone on weeks where I have a concert/other performance coming up." -Brooklynne Audette "Very much. I am still at a stage in my career where I am trying to work toward something better, but I am extremely fortunate to be able to spend my days using my unique talents and skill sets in ways that I value and that other people value. I don't really have a "boss," and I am able to build something that I want to see in the world." -David McCarthy "I like wearing all black to perform, I am lucky that this is often required for concerts I play. Visually, it is not distracting, so I would guess that this might be chosen to allow the audience to focus on the music instead of the outfits we wear." -Brooklynne Audette "Black. That one's easy." -David McCarthy
"That's a good question. I remember vividly the first time I ever played with an ensemble in a rehearsal for a public performance, but I'm not 100% sure how old I was. I think I was 10 or 11. I know I was older than a lot of kids, and my mother wondered whether it was too late for me to learn how to play an instrument." -David McCarthy "The first concert I performed was the holiday concert in 6th grade. I was 11." -Brooklynne Audette "I feel like I do something embarassing every time I perform. I have played something incorrectly, gotten lost while playing and missed an important entrance, dropped a mute when it was really quiet, been out of tune, broke a guitar string on my bass, played a really ugly improv solo on a jazz concert. The first mistake felt awful, but not many people really notice when you make a mistake, and its always an accident so I try to forgive myself and I strive to do better next time! You drop a mute once, and you are not likely to let it happen again." -Brooklynne Audette "I once played a solo during a big band concert where I wasn't supposed to. No one said anything." -David McCarthy "Absolutely yes I frequently have embarrasing moments while performing (although I am sure often I am the only one who notices). One time I wasplaying timpani (big loud orchestra drums) and other percussion for a church gig on Christmas eve. I needed to play the triangle (a metal "ding" instrument) immediately after a loud timpani roll, so I had my triangle and proper mallet tucked under my arm, while my timpani mallets were in my hands. Before the music began, there was dead silence, and the triangle and mallet fell out from under my arm, landed LOUDLY on the timpani, before crashing LOUDLY on the tile church floor. The echoes of my blunder in the big boomy space, as hundreds of Christmas eve church goers still fills me with embarassment when I think about it. " -Zack Baltich "What if there are a bunch of speakers around you? Which one do you salute?"
Salute the loudest or closest speaker. "What if you're a civilian driving on a military base or by a military base? What do you do during the national anthem? Would you get out of your car?" On an Air Force base, you just have to pull over and wait until the end of the song. On most Army bases, people get out of their car. "Which one do you like better: Taps or Reveille? Why?" I like Taps more because it's more soothing, and helps me remember other peoples' sacrifices to keep us free. "Do they play Reveille and Taps EVERY day? Even on the weekend? At EVERY base?" They usually play only during the weekdays, but sometimes they'll play on the weekends if there is a large training mission. Reveille and Taps are played on most bases. Not always at forward operating locations though where there may be more enemies present. "Wouldn't you get those songs stuck in your head if you hear them every morning and night?" You get used to hearing them and don't get them stuck in your head because you are usually busy thinking about many other things. I enjoy still waking up my kids with Reveille even though we do not live on a base anymore, but they don't usually like that! -Lt Col Matt Youmans "Too many to count! I have been at least 20 types of live performing dedicated ensembles. A dedicated ensemble to me, is where the number of musicians and instruments/people playing those instruments is consistent, and we rehearse our music together to prepare for a performance. 3 of those were punk bands, the rest were a mix of jazz bands, orchestras or wind ensembles or chamber groups and some variation of those. This is over the span of the last 17 years. In a single year, I may only be in 4 ensembles. This year I have my trombone quartet, a jazz band, and two orchestras that I am responsible to learn music for and rehearse with regularly. I will also pick up single concert performances or recording sessions throughout the year with different groups as a freelance musician!" -Brooklynne Audette |
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April 2024
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