The Musical Instrument Thread

TIL there's a musical instrument thread.

I went to see local troubadour Adam Ezra at a campground last weekend. After the show, a kid (about 11 or 12) had a red Epiphone SG just like mine. So I sat and talked with him for a little while. He was ripping out some Zepp riffs. Pretty sweet.

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So here's some good news, that I'll share with a long-winded story. I believe I once told the saga of the clarinet that I've been playing all these years - both in high school (back in the day), and now in the community band - so I won't repeat it here. The upshot is that I've been using the same clarinet, that was an old piece of crap back in the late 70's. Upon joining my first community band 15 years ago, the family had it overhauled; new pads, corks, lubed, polished the keys and reconditioned the wood. Since then, it's worked ok for a while, and then it gets increasingly harder to get certain notes out of it, because the thing is constantly in decay. I've had it worked on twice, and now it again doesn't play, even when I spend time warming it up.

Mrs. Scotch is always harping on me to replace it, but I figured my choices were either new (around $2,000 and up), or used but reconditioned (ready to play), which I thought would be a grand or so. I was focused on the professional grade of the top brand clarinet, because I wanted to be sure that I was stepping up in quality. But I realized I could get what they call an intermediate level of the same brand, and it would still be an instrument that would function and sound 95% the same as the pro model.

So for the past few weeks, I've been looking online, and it looked like I could get something decent for $500 or so. But then I thought, why don't I do a local area search? It couldn't hurt, right? And there it was, on the resale site Reverb.com; a beautiful, reconditioned intermediate level Buffet Evette clarinet, $499, for sale from a local music store in Amherst NH (@sadchild's neck of the woods). I called them up, and the guy sounded exactly like the laid-back musician you'd expect. He said I can come play it, and they'd even take my old clarinet in trade. I hadn't even thought of that!

The clarinet plays effortlessly. No straining or doing tricks to get certain notes out. And it sounds beautiful. The guy even gave me $100 for my shitty, 1960's (or older) Boosey and Hawkes London-built thing. I only wish I had done this a long time ago. Here's what it looks like

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Nice!
I got tired of lugging my head and 4x10 around. It’s way too much effort; especially when the band isn‘t good. It’s like taking a Bentley to the Taco Bell drive-thru.
My former guitar players 16 year old son just got into a Van Halen tribute band. (The kid is wicked good.) Their guitar player has 6 4x10 Marshall cabs on stage. I was surprised he actually was actually using 3 of them at the club we just saw them play at.
 
We just started up rehearsals for our community band summer concerts, and it was a blast. We had to sight-read a dozen new pieces, and once again, our director one-upped the game. Selections include a Beach Boys medley, an Aretha Franklin tribute, a selection of songs by Queen called Don't Stop Me Now, and... Welcome to the Jungle from G'nR! Apparently, the classic rock fans are now approaching Senior Center age.
 
Cool! I wish I would have put the effort into learning to read sheet music.
It sounds like it's going to be a fun set this year.

We're finally getting back to practicing again in a couple of weeks.
The rest of the guys had gotten the COVID, and I was getting adjusted with my new job, so it's been a while.
 
scotchandcigar said:
We just started up rehearsals for our community band summer concerts, and it was a blast. We had to sight-read a dozen new pieces, and once again, our director one-upped the game. Selections include a Beach Boys medley, an Aretha Franklin tribute, a selection of songs by Queen called Don't Stop Me Now, and... Welcome to the Jungle from G'nR! Apparently, the classic rock fans are now approaching Senior Center age.
Click to expand...
I can't picture Queen or GnR as big band ensembles.
 
IdRatherBeSkiing said:
I can't picture Queen or GnR as big band ensembles.
Click to expand...
Here are those two, plus the newly added Free Ride!

Don't Stop Me Now - Arranged by Paul Murtha for Concert Band



Welcome to the Jungle - Arranged by Paul Murtha for Concert Band



And this one has us all going Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh starting at the 2 minute mark. You can see it on the score in the video
Free Ride - Arranged by Paul Murtha for Concert Band



As you can see, Paul Murtha is the Steven King of arranging contemporary music.

Depending on your point of view, it's either blasphemous, shitty elevator music; or it's a nice arrangement of songs people enjoy hearing, that's fun to play.
 
I think I am in the elevator music camp on these. It is interesting but not something I would care to listen to. I can see how playing it to a captive audience could be fun.
 
For several months, an FM station switched over to playing Vitamin String Quartet 24/7. I kept finding myself tuning over to that station and playing 'Name That Tune'. I was actually a little bummed when it switched format again.

 
First practice since Thanksgiving was tonight. Between the holidays, the other guys getting COVID, and me getting adjusted to my new job, it had been a while.

I thought it was going to be a car crash (by our low standards) but it turned out to be pretty decent. (Again, by our low standards.)
 
scotchandcigar said:
We just started up rehearsals for our community band summer concerts, and it was a blast. We had to sight-read a dozen new pieces, and once again, our director one-upped the game. Selections include a Beach Boys medley, an Aretha Franklin tribute, a selection of songs by Queen called Don't Stop Me Now, and... Welcome to the Jungle from G'nR! Apparently, the classic rock fans are now approaching Senior Center age.
Click to expand...
2023 version, and as usual, our director picked a mind-blowing variety of pieces. I'm gonna skip the standard fare, like the patriotic songs, classical and jazz stuff, and Broadway themes, and get right to the crazy shit.

Abba on Broadway - a medley featuring I Have a Dream, Mamma Mia, S.O.S., Knowing Me Knowing You, The Winner Takes It All, Dancing Queen;

By special request from some guy named Doug: Tribute to Whitney Houston - includes How Will I Know, Saving All My Love For You, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, I Will Always Love You;

Look! More GnR! This time it's Sweet Child O' Mine;

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood - a medley including Won't You Be My Neighbor?, It's You I Like, and It's Such a Good Feeling;

Prince In Concert - featuring 1999, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, Let's Go Crazy;

and my most anticipated piece...

Led Freakin' Zeppelin! Led Zeppelin On Tour - featuring Rock and Roll, Immigrant Song, Black Dog (!), Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven. So far, Rock and Roll was pretty fun. The Immigrant Song was cool but needs work. We started Black Dog but the director bailed for now. Kashmir and Stairway are both good concert band pieces; Stairway in particular was pretty moving.

We have another 10 pieces on top of those, like The Perfect Storm, Send In the Clowns, The Typewriter, Love Story, Birdland, William Tell Overture, and some marches and other stuff. So we'll be pretty busy.
 
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