[MusicTlk] Scrambling to Learn Music for Community Orchestra

[Ella Yu]

Hi Catherine, This honestly sounds tricky, and it's a situation I
personally won't face in the same way you do, even though I also play in an
orchestra. I believe you're on MENVI too, right? If so, I suggest posting
it there as well, as I think there's a bit more traffic there. Anyhow...

Rental music is tricky. I'm in a symphony orchestra as well, but I play
strings (violin/viola) so timing is more forgiving for me, but I know for
one-on-a-part wind players, it is not. Also, our group doesn't do much
rental music due to cost reasons anyway. Whether learning by braille music
or by ear, the lead time is very important. (Honestly, almost all
instrumentalists can't really read braille music and play at the same time,
which is kinda unfortunate, but just the reality of human nature). I don't
know how your orchestra works, but if you're really in a difficult
situation, I think it's not unreasonable to sit out a show and just say
you've got too much on your plate right now, without putting your blindness
into it. At least for my orchestra, although all the winds and percussion
are relatively constant from performance to performance, it's not uncommon
for string players to sit out a few performances per season due to
work/life commitments, and if that happens to wind players, substitutes are
usually found. Either way, I would still be up front and honest about your
situation and explain that you really do need at least one month of lead
time or whatever. I know this isn't easy, wishing you the best of luck.
Ella

On Sun, Sep 8, 2024 at 12:55 PM Catherine Getchell via MusicTlk <
musictlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'd love your collective wisdom on this. I'm just an amateur musician, but
> I'm very active in a community band, orchestra, and brass quintet. Lately,
> the orchestra conductor has been choosing a lot of rental music rather than
> music we already have in our pretty vast library. Since it's a community
> orchestra, they don't like to order the music until a few weeks before the
> first rehearsal, and often it doesn't arrive until a week or two
> beforehand.
> I'm a one-on-a-part player (trumpet), so I don't have the option of taking
> my time to learn the music while the rest of the section plays it. It's got
> to be ready by the first rehearsal.  Music Braille isn't really an option
> for me in real-time because the trumpet requires both hands. And I'm faster
> at learning it by ear anyway.
>
>
>
> This is proving more and more challenging as there is more and more rental
> music. The timeframe also often coincides with new music distributed by the
> other groups I play with, so my ability to stop everything and focus just
> on
> orchestra music for a couple weeks is limited.
>
>
>
> I have asked the librarian to work with the publishers to at least get my
> part ahead of time, or to order all the parts a little early, but I don't
> get a response to my emails to him. I've let the conductor know about the
> situation. The question I have for the group is: What is a reasonable ask
> in
> terms of getting music ahead of time? Ideally I'd like to have it all a
> couple months ahead so that I can "put it in the queue" so-to-speak,
> instead
> of having to drop everything and focus on orchestra music. I'm thinking of
> telling the group that if I don't have all the music a month ahead of time
> minimum, they should find a sub for me for that show. But I'm afraid that
> if
> I do this, they may decide that it's just easier to find a sighted player,
> even if they're not as strong. Has anyone had success in advocating for
> getting music ahead of time? Any tips and tricks? And what amount of lead
> time is reasonable to ask for? Thanks!
>
> Catherine
>
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