Barnes: My One Shot

The concert for the Barnes Symphony is this Sunday. I'll miss it. I feel I'm a better musician for working on it.

Anyway, as I'd mentioned, I'm not playing 1st on it -- which is fine. Jaap, the player on 1st, was not at rehearsal last night and we were on the stage recording. So, I had to cover Jaap's part.

Also, as I think I've mentioned before, there's really only one horn solo in the piece. It's only 8 measures long and it's pretty simple really -- quarter notes and half notes and such. It's also gut-wrenchingly beautiful.

Now, Jaap was doing fine with it. He and I do play a little differently. I don't know if it's experience or maturity or just a different horn or what, but we do play differently. I envy Jaap's technique and power, for what it's worth.

So, last night was my only shot at playing the solo on the Barnes (and it's for the recording, no less). It's easy to freak out and over think solos like this. What I try to do is relax but focus. Feel each and every note, but don't get tense about it, because if I do I'll overshoot.

We went through the 3rd movement (the one with the solo) twice. I nailed it both times.

So it was after rehearsal and I'm packing up my horn. Next to me is a trumpet player, also packing up his horn.

"The solo sounded beautiful. It really gets to me every time."

"But this was the only time I've played it."

"That's all it took."

What an incredibly nice compliment! On the subway home there were a few more folks that made a point of telling me how great the solo sounded.

It's unnecessary of course, but it does make me feel good. In no way was I trying to step on Jaap's toes -- I think he does the solo superbly. But it's nice once in a while to get some validation, especially when it counts (like when you're recording).