I give up

johnjohn320

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2001
7,572
2
76
[rant]

The theater dept at my school is holding auditions for their spring musical, "Pippin." I have never heard the music, nor do I have any clue what it's about. Anyway, another pianist at the school and myself are always in demand to play rehearsals, auditions, and what-have-you for the theater folk. As they are holding auditions this week, my friend (the other pianist) agreed to play all the auditions except callbacks, which are tomorrow. I told the director sure, I'll cover callbacks, just get me the score whenever you can so I can take a look at it ahead of time.

Well, ahead of time was today, the day before. Still not a huge deal, I've sightread at a lot of these type things before, I'm a decent enough reader that it's not usually a problem. Except I've been looking at the score for several hours now and I can't make heads or tails of it. First off, many of these sections are impossible. No, not hard, but impossible, like you'd literally have to have a third arm or 15 freakishly long fingers or something. Second, the score contradicts itself, hard to explain if you're not a musician but you can get the picture-I really don't know what I'm supposed to play in certain areas.

So, I'm giving up. I'm gonna go play them tomorrow and do whatever I can, but a lot of it ain't gonna be pretty. I feel bad, cause folks are gonna be auditioning over this, and I don't want to fsck them up. But I'm in a tough spot, what can I say? I know many of you are wondering why I don't just call up the other pianist and ask him what he did, but he's out of town (the reason I'm playing callbacks). I haven't seen him since he played the auditions, I don't know how he felt about it.

Grr! Sorry just needed to vent. I don't mind taking last minute gigs, that's part of being a musician, you have to be ready to do what needs to be done on little or no notice. But I just don't know what I can do here. :(

[/rant]
 

MartyMcFly3

Lifer
Jan 18, 2003
11,436
29
91
www.youtube.com
Originally posted by: johnjohn320
[rant]

The theater dept at my school is holding auditions for their spring musical, "Pippin." I have never heard the music, nor do I have any clue what it's about. Anyway, another pianist at the school and myself are always in demand to play rehearsals, auditions, and what-have-you for the theater folk. As they are holding auditions this week, my friend (the other pianist) agreed to play all the auditions except callbacks, which are tomorrow. I told the director sure, I'll cover callbacks, just get me the score whenever you can so I can take a look at it ahead of time.

Well, ahead of time was today, the day before. Still not a huge deal, I've sightread at a lot of these type things before, I'm a decent enough reader that it's not usually a problem. Except I've been looking at the score for several hours now and I can't make heads or tails of it. First off, many of these sections are impossible. No, not hard, but impossible, like you'd literally have to have a third arm or 15 freakishly long fingers or something. Second, the score contradicts itself, hard to explain if you're not a musician but you can get the picture-I really don't know what I'm supposed to play in certain areas.

So, I'm giving up. I'm gonna go play them tomorrow and do whatever I can, but a lot of it ain't gonna be pretty. I feel bad, cause folks are gonna be auditioning over this, and I don't want to fsck them up. But I'm in a tough spot, what can I say? I know many of you are wondering why I don't just call up the other pianist and ask him what he did, but he's out of town (the reason I'm playing callbacks). I haven't seen him since he played the auditions, I don't know how he felt about it.

Grr! Sorry just needed to vent. I don't mind taking last minute gigs, that's part of being a musician, you have to be ready to do what needs to be done on little or no notice. But I just don't know what I can do here. :(

[/rant]

I hear ya man... I played trumpet in the pit, and with all the scene changes and all the other stuff that the play directors did, our sheet music looked like a buried treasure map by the end of it......

 

johnjohn320

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2001
7,572
2
76
Originally posted by: MartyMcFly3
Originally posted by: johnjohn320
[rant]

The theater dept at my school is holding auditions for their spring musical, "Pippin." I have never heard the music, nor do I have any clue what it's about. Anyway, another pianist at the school and myself are always in demand to play rehearsals, auditions, and what-have-you for the theater folk. As they are holding auditions this week, my friend (the other pianist) agreed to play all the auditions except callbacks, which are tomorrow. I told the director sure, I'll cover callbacks, just get me the score whenever you can so I can take a look at it ahead of time.

Well, ahead of time was today, the day before. Still not a huge deal, I've sightread at a lot of these type things before, I'm a decent enough reader that it's not usually a problem. Except I've been looking at the score for several hours now and I can't make heads or tails of it. First off, many of these sections are impossible. No, not hard, but impossible, like you'd literally have to have a third arm or 15 freakishly long fingers or something. Second, the score contradicts itself, hard to explain if you're not a musician but you can get the picture-I really don't know what I'm supposed to play in certain areas.

So, I'm giving up. I'm gonna go play them tomorrow and do whatever I can, but a lot of it ain't gonna be pretty. I feel bad, cause folks are gonna be auditioning over this, and I don't want to fsck them up. But I'm in a tough spot, what can I say? I know many of you are wondering why I don't just call up the other pianist and ask him what he did, but he's out of town (the reason I'm playing callbacks). I haven't seen him since he played the auditions, I don't know how he felt about it.

Grr! Sorry just needed to vent. I don't mind taking last minute gigs, that's part of being a musician, you have to be ready to do what needs to be done on little or no notice. But I just don't know what I can do here. :(

[/rant]

I hear ya man... I played trumpet in the pit, and with all the scene changes and all the other stuff that the play directors did, our sheet music looked like a buried treasure map by the end of it......

Yeah, that's not the problem though. I've played in probably around 30-ish pit orchestras, and been a rehearsal pianist many times. Cuts and edits are always numerous. But usually the music itself is, you know, playable.
 

johnjohn320

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2001
7,572
2
76
Originally posted by: Willoughbyva
What music is it? Author etc.? EDIT I should have said composer.
The music was written by Schwartz, but he's not the problem. The book was done by Roger Hirson. (?) No idea who he is, but he sure f'd this one up.
 

johnjohn320

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2001
7,572
2
76
Originally posted by: MartyMcFly3
couldnt you just do like chord changes instead of whats written... i mean occasionally do the melody but not make it impossible

Yeah, I mean at some points I'll be doing that anyway, just seeing what the chord is and kind of decorating it. But you can't do that too much, I'm supposed to be representing as much of the orchestral parts here as I can.