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bloke wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:57 am That tune was played in garagebands all over Memphis - and even one that I was associated with before I was even in junior high, because everyone was nuts over it.

Well, the band does know other tunes. In fact, they had 650+ in their repertoire when I joined, none of 'em written down. In fact, the band's made over 30 CDs in their 47 year existence, and won two Grammies! Most musical fun I've had in a very loooong time.

UncleBeer wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 9:12 am

bloke wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:57 am That tune was played in garagebands all over Memphis - and even one that I was associated with before I was even in junior high, because everyone was nuts over it.

Well, the band does know other tunes. In fact, they had 650+ in their repertoire when I joined, none of 'em written down. In fact, the band's made over 30 CDs in their 47 year existence, and won two Grammies! Most musical fun I've had in a very loooong time.

I've only been working with this band for about a year and a half, and before that he was only hiring me to play tuba when he had dixie jobs. I don't know how many hundreds of tunes he has that he and his daughter and their long-time drummer and reasonably long time guitar keyboard sax player know. I'm pretty sure he's been patronizing the repertoire towards me and the things that I've played with them so far. Every once in awhile he'll dropbox another two or three dozen tunes on me and NOT have rehearsals for those (because I think the other folks have already played them with him), but tomorrow night's rehearsal I'm pretty sure involves some tunes he's recently arranged (or stolen off of The originals). He has a great year, but I'm aware that there's technology today that can separate out the parts on recording simply by the computer listening to the recording. I'm sure there are some errors, but if you combine that technology with a human with a good ear, I'm sure you can come up with a pretty accurate part. I suspect he combines these technologies when arranging or transcribing pop tunes. Just as with anybody, it makes me feel good when I don't have to stare at his charts - anymore - on particular tunes. Of course, there are tons of tunes like that, because those tunes got burned into my ears when I was between the ages of being a little boy and being a teenager and then a college student.

By no means did I intend to suggest that you and your band have a limited repertoire.

I've linked this tune (below)!before, and have discussed its history. Even some people who are my age sort of forgot about this tune. I find its story fascinating, and I think it's a great dance tune. Even though the whole bunch of it involves a black male doing a narrative over the repetitive dance tune, I feel confident that our white female vocalist could pull it off. Her main gigs involve being a weekday country music station DJ in the mornings and a weekday rock music DJ in the afternoons. She uses two completely different voices on the air, and has two completely different names / IDs.
For those who become annoyed with my redundancy, here it is again. I really like this (albeit repetitive) dance tune from the '60s called "Tighten Up" (Atlantic Records). I would love to add this to our repertoire (F sharp major...and yes it was really in that key. It was not sped up to fit within the c. 3 minute format.)

Nothing, but I was the Union Steward for cello auditions, for the San Jose Chamber Orchestra.

I hope to busk with something this afternoon, and of the instruments i grabbed, the most interesting is a Coolwind tuba.

Well, Monday I hung out with the Joyful Noise Concert Band of North Texas. It's been my third? rehearsal with them and it seems to be going okay. They play better than the welcoming committee would have you believe. It's a mixture of big band music... Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, etc.

WW5tet that lately has been a trio; oboe, clarinet, bassoon; hour and a half on oboe in this. The last thing we read was an arranged Mozart divertimento in C (easy key) and what I enjoy about this so much is that the clarinetist is a MUSICIAN. Symphony player long ago, at 82 has a mind that wanders a bit but the musician part is intact. It is the best musical experience I've had in many years; large groups cannot have the person-to-person communication and nuance that you can have with chamber music. Food for the soul. I'm glad I have the oboe I do.

Then, two hour band rehearsal (tuba) with music that is a bit over the band's head, but I don't care really. Carmina Burana, Porgy and Bess, etc., but the last ten minutes was Blasmusik getting ready for the Biergarten gig in a couple weeks. I think I can take the Hagen to that -- stuff down in the pedal range that the NStar can do but the Hagen can do it better. Tuba players are souls that can be happy just listening to their own Ooms.

A little Borodin, Meistersingers, and Bydlo in the PT-15 at lunch time.

It was a great day at school today, so I think I'll have some RVW for a nightcap here, till the boss picks me up in the PHEV.

AggieDan wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2026 10:57 am Well, Monday I hung out with the Joyful Noise Concert Band of North Texas. It's been my third? rehearsal with them and it seems to be going okay. They play better than the welcoming committee would have you believe. It's a mixture of big band music... Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, etc.

Psalm 100. Nice name.

Last night I went back over some of my more difficult charts (written out in "proper" octave transposed bass clef notes, not just chord symbols and slashes) for some of the tunes that the oldies band I'm playing with (bass guitar) is adding to the repertoire.
Some of these bass parts are about as difficult (at least for me) as some of these tuba solos typically assigned by college teachers, and having close to perfected them, I find that I backslide if I let them sit for a few days. I will eventually learn them
"learn": Rather than short-term perfecting, I will long-term perfect them.

I've been talking about re-stringing this five-string bass from typical b e a d g over to e a d g c, but I'm starting to appreciate the advantages of the low 5th string. It's not just to make gospel music-ish "fart sounds" below E flat or D. Rather, I can use the B string on the 5th or 7th or even 9th or higher fret and avoid jumping back down to first position to catch some low notes (in the same way that I was thinking of using a high C string to avoid jumping up to some high fret on the G string). I may just leave it this way. I suppose I'm starting to understand the advantage of a 6-string bass, but that's an awfully wide neck and (knowing how people think when exposed to certain visuals) I've always (a personal bias) tended to view people playing six-string basses as jackasses OTHER THAN (obviously) those who can truly play the holy hell out of them.

We added some non-Aretha (I'm not sure who) arrangement of R ES P E C T whereby the arrangement was in B, but the band leader dropped it to B-flat - for the sake of the trumpet licks (which defined that I had to do a lot of shifting whereas - in B - it was easier). With a low B string (playing it in B flat, now), I don't have to jump up the neck to play the funky bass pattern in E flat, but can drop the first note (E flat) of those particular measures down an octave to the B string and I can keep my hand in the same place.

I've also pulled out the Rochut book 1 Bordogni vocalizes and have been playing those on bass guitar, because those are going to pull a bass guitar player up around the 10th and 12th and 14th frets a lot, forcing me to be (and in keys such as D-flat major and E major as well as relative minors) more familiar with that part of the neck. I've been fooling around with hammer-ons and pull-offs playing those same vocalises, but I don't know if I'll make specific decisions on where to use them. Mostly, I'm just trying to use them to sight-read and to teach myself to read way ahead and to make shifting decisions on the fly.

Getting back into playing a stringed instrument again (after all these decades) thrusts me back into of all the pre-thinking that's required to play written down music (that which is a level - or a few levels - above the banal) - in order to avoid painting oneself in a corner.

Was anyone in Scotland for the Amisfield garden performance of Braxton's Composition No. 19 for one hundred tubas?

I am trying to figure out why I "shriek" upon register changes on the clarinet -- the student Bundy I played a couple decades ago, I did not shriek. This "theoretically much better" Ridenour Lyrique, I shriek like mad. I'm trying to figure out why the heck this is happening. I don't shriek on a Legere 3.0 but I can't get much sound. I am shrieking like crazy on the Legere 2.75, which feels very much less stiff but at least I can get a nice full sound when I am not shrieking. Playing on a Fobes Debut, which one would think would be easy.

So I found and ordered an old but good shape rubber Bundy 3 mouthpiece, to at least eliminate that maybe I just have a wrong mpc for me -- or maybe the person I'm asking to look at the clarinet is not telling me that it is difficult to play, because he is so advanced he possibly would not even notice.

Re-learning clarinet to play it on the horn parts in the WWQT because horn is so iffy. I can carry both and switch if needed. (PS: It's just a clef, not transposing. A clef is read by pitch, not fingering. Piano players do it from the beginning.)

Today's rehearsal time was spent on "Prelude For An Occasion" -Gregson, "Prismatic Light"-Fernie, "Celtic Dance"-Clifford and "Enduring Faith"-Wainwright. These are all pieces that our brass band is rehearsing in anticipation of our first concert which will be held on October 25th. Plenty of woodshedding to do with this lot!

Well, yesterday I did my bi-monthly rehearsal with Joyful Noise Concert Band of North Texas. So, we went through some band arrangements of Louis Armstrong, Count Bassie and Duke Ellington. We're gearing up for a set of late October and early November performances.

I’ve been working up the Bach cello suites (at pitch) on my F tuba. Yowza, my face. Those high Gs just keep coming and coming…

Just got the Oktoberfest song list for next week:

Kybych Byla Plackem
Adrian Polka
Hupai Supai
Blue Skirt Waltz
Trink mer noch a Tropfche
Za Hora a Doly Polka
Boze, Boze, Bozenko Waltz
Hoop-de-Do
Bier her, Bier her!
Die Lorelai Waltz
In Heaven there is No Beer
Miro Slava Polka
Hi-le-Hi-lo Waltz
Kutchke Polka
Beer Barrel Polka
Too Fat Polka
Pennsylvania Polka

Have some Bach. Still a work in progress, I know there are some boo-boos!

Sounds much better on a laptop/headphones than phone speaker, of course...

Bach Cello Suite No. 1, Minuet I (no repeats):



Minuet II:



Played on a B&S Symphonie F tuba.

Me Bass... An unintentionally reduced form of Them Basses...

I did get some notes right... and i guess i had a baritone helping me too.

humBell wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2026 2:58 pm Me Bass... An unintentionally reduced form of Them Basses...

I did get some notes right... and i guess i had a baritone helping me too.

“I, Bass” sounds a little more distinguished, eh?

Church gig: quintet, organ, timpani, 200 throats. Fun, but pretty regular work around the area. Today, the music was actually pretty good.

arpthark wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2026 4:28 pm

humBell wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2026 2:58 pm Me Bass... An unintentionally reduced form of Them Basses...

I did get some notes right... and i guess i had a baritone helping me too.

“I, Bass” sounds a little more distinguished, eh?

I see your point...

but what little i know of crossword solving is topreserve tense, so i bass, would imply it came from they basses, being the nominative...

And speakin' me personally, not as a representative of bass players in general, would i benefit from being a little more distinguished? That might be something like, um, false advertisin'.

Anyway, i suppose it gives me something to work towards.

When i get all them little notes right, then maybe...