Avenue Q gig

So I've been booked to play in the pit for Avenue Q this week so I'm pretty excited ! I'm taking my train tomorrow morning and I'll be arriving in Derby (where the show is played) at 4. I'll be meeting a friend on the way (in London).

The band's been rehearsing since yesterday and I'll be only arriving tomorrow so I'll have missed 2 rehearsals... I'm a bit embarrassed but I couldn't do otherwise.
To make up for the lack of rehearsal there I've practicing a lot on the music here at home. I know it's not the same but still I hope I'll be up to par for opening night.

I've also carefully selected exceptional reeds for the occasion. I've picked 2 clarinet reeds and 1 saxophone reed. For 5 shows I think it will be enough. I consume clarinet reeds faster than saxophone reeds so that's why I picked 2 of the first.
In case that's not enough I brought new reeds boxes. I'm sure I'll have time to find a couple of good ones in the lot in case the ones I got get crappy too early.
I usually buy traditional Vandoren clarinet reeds (strength 3) but they didn't have any in store so I decided to try some new stuff : "Benz Reeds Supreme Comfort" (strength 3.5). It is said to contain much more good reeds than Vandoren boxes (and quite frankly, it's not that hard considering how inconsistent Vandoren reeds are). The only problem is that the reeds aren't in a separate plastic thingy for each reed but just in some piece of cardboard. So I quickly put them to safety after opening the box.

I've also picked green java sax reeds instead of the red java, don't know if that will change much but you've got to try new stuff everyday !

Anyway, my horns (flute, clarinet, alto sax) are ready. I'm really tired today don't know why, and we'll see what tomorrow has in store for me !

Busking Diary - Entry 4 : Quick session in a so-so spot

01/07/13 12am

I'm off for a quick session today since the weather's nice…

I'm planning on setting up Place Cathédrale or somewhere nearby but it's far too crowded ! And I'm still a bit shy so… I walk around a little and find that these whereabouts are packed with other buskers ! They look like they do that very often. I realize they all play the accordion. I guess people will find a nice change in my saxophone. One has a little jewelry box and another has some sort of upside-down small djembe in front of him in place of a hat. I guess the latter is rather clever as people will have a harder time stealing from it. They are all in very crowded places, places where I wouldn't dare to go !

So I decide to settle a bit further from the cathedral, next to the opera house. I'm in front of a café and a bakery, in between a jewelry a butcher shop. The café has a terrace with a group of people. I guess the weather's nice enough (nearly 12°C ! Not bad for early january).

I start playing, a bit shy at first of course. People start tipping, I thank them. I find that a couple of tippers were coming from the bakery just in front, where the line is rather long, so they had time to listen to me.

A man in wheelchair comes to me, and gives me some coins. "Good luck", he says. Don't know what he means by that but I thank him anyway.

I see the waiter coming to the people sitting at the terrace. They're talking about me, positively from what I could tell. I hope they give me some coins when I'm done or when they leave. They don't.

A woman sits at another table, she's obviously enjoying my music, that's good.

After 40 minutes I have to leave. So I pack.

Funny thing I realize at the end is that obviously the first person put his coin not in the main compartment (the one where my sax usually lies), but in another one where I put like my reeds and my mouthpiece. And I see that, seeing the coin in that compartment, everyone else put his/her coins in the same little compartment, following what the first did.

Back home, I count my coins : 8.54€ For 40 minutes. Not as good as last time but I'm still happy, I'll go get a coffee. I think next time I'll go back Place Saint-Etienne, where I got 30+€.

Total profit of the day : 8.54€ (12.81€/h)

Oh and yes, I forgot again...

Busking Diary - Entry 3 : Disappointing start but happy ending.

12/31/13 1:00pm

It seems that every time I go busking, people are more and more generous. Or maybe it's just that I'm going to busier places as my bravery increases. This day began very poorly but got much better. So here what's happened when I parked my car a bit before 1pm…

I often park on top of the Montagne De Bueren, a huge staircase with hundreds of steps. On the way down it's really easy but the hard part is going up afterwards. I never look forward to that !

Anyway, I decide to go to the spot where I started it all : below the Pont Maghin. It's not busy at all but I thought it was a nice place to warm up a bit. So here I am unpacking my saxophone and I decide to start with the James Bond Theme (a new addition which I thought could be really nice). I then go to some A minor soloing but realize that after 15 minutes, my case is still empty. There's really no one going through here. But I was only there to warm-up a bit so I decide to pack and go to the other spot I went to the first day, Place Saint-Barthélemy, without too much disappointment (though, last time, I still made 1.5€ here).

So I unpacked at my favorite spot on Place Saint-Barthélemy. I went over some of the songs of my set (which grew to 6 songs : Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, The Pink Panther, The James Bond Theme, The Bare Necessities and Michelle). But then still nothing. A guy in his car shouted at me "Go somewhere else where it's busier, there's nobody here !". He's actually right. He's so right. I decide to pack and decide to go to the next level : La Place Saint-Etienne, just behind "Les galleries Saint-Lambert", one of the biggest malls of the city. It's a nice plaza, a bit like the other one but only busier as people enter and leave the mall from this plaza. As I pack though, a young guy comes and tells me that's he's studying and that I'm disturbing his peace and quiet. I'd only been playing for 15 minutes so I wanted to tell him that every body has to earn money but I was going anyway and didn't want him to make a scene out of it.

So I'm walking to La Place Saint-Etienne. I must say I was feeling a bit disappointed because I still had nothing except my seed money. 

When I arrive, I study the place and the people and decide to unpack by a tree, so I can put my case against it (I took a bottle of water with me this time that I put in the pocket of my saxophone case, which means it doesn't hold on its own and I have to rest it against something).

I always feel a bit uncomfortable while unpacking. When I'm playing I'm ok, but when I unpack I never know what will happen, maybe a guy will come to me and say I have to leave, or a homeless guy will come to say it's his spot or whatever. So I unpack looking mostly at my saxophone and not too much to the people around me. I start playing, a bit timidly at first. I start again some lone A minor improvisation. I see an old man on the other side of the street looking in his bag. I'm always relieved when the first coin comes in. It means I'm doing it right and that other people will start putting coins too. But this man didn't give a coin but waffles instead. Of course I refused and told him that I didn't need food, but still he put them in my case. That was a weird feeling. That man must have thought I was homeless or something. From the outside, it might be easy to mistake a busker for a tramp, but those are two completely different beasts. There might be tramps attempting to make music by banging on a drum, or singing drunk with an out-of-tune guitar. But buskers ask money for their talent and the performance they put together, and they are able to do so only because they spent years practicing. Buskers try to brighten the day of the people walking by and those who feel entertained or otherwise pleased are encouraged to put a coin in the case. People give money to tramps out of pity, not because they enjoyed any kind of performance they put together.

So I have 2 waffles in my case and still no money. Fortunately a little girl comes to me to put 50 cents in my case. That's what I've been waiting for. I thank her and suddenly realize that the 2 waffles are still there in my case for everybody to see. This is not really a good thing as other people might think that this is what I want and give me food too. So I decide to take the waffles and hide them away in a pocket of my case.

People start tipping. Some are more generous than other. In front of me is a café. It's inside the mall but it's a glass wall so people can see me and I can see them. They also can hear me from what I can tell. I think maybe when they leave they'll tip me, but I don't think I saw any of them tip me, even though some seemed to enjoy my music (only a woman with a newspaper wasn't so enthusiastic about me playing, giving me looks each time I started a song). I have many children come by to tip me, old ladies who seem to enjoy the older songs like Autumn Leaves or Blue Bossa and the improvisations I make around them, and other very nice people (and the occasional teen girl asking for a coin to her parents), most of whom also wish me a happy new year, which I wish them back.

I also remember a lady who congratulated me in particular, and I thanked her as this is mostly for this kind of reactions that I perform in the street. There was another guy who walked past me, looking like he was enjoying my music very much. He was like waving his hands and suddenly stopped when I looked at him and suddenly thought about tipping me. So he went in his bag, then came to me with his purse. He said how nice my music was and how much he was enjoying this. I said the acoustics of the plaza was really nice too. He looked at how much he could tip me then suddenly threw all the coins he had in his purse in my case saying "Oh what the heck ! I can tell you're enjoying what you're doing !" He also told me he was an artist too, a tunisian folk dancer. I had the feeling he was kind of hitting on me, don't know why, maybe because after that he came to give me a kiss before leaving. Nice change to the teen girls ;)

So after 1h15 of playing, I finally call it a day, and start packing up my horn. I realize I still have the 2 waffles the old man gave me at the beginning of my set. I wonder what to do with them. I could still bring them with me, I like waffles after all. But then, the paranoid me appears telling me that these waffles could be out of date, or maybe the man didn't like me playing and poisoned the waffles to prevent me to doing so again. I decide to put them in a nearby garbage can, I need to watch my weight anyway !

On my way back, I come across a beggar. I don't know why he asks me in particular but "Excuse me, can you help me eat tonight ?" I shouldn't have thrown the waffles away.

Now, I have to climb the stairs back up, which is actually the hard part of the job ! I'm pretty exhausted once at the top but I meet a clarinetist friend when I'm halfway up the stairs and we chat a little bit so that's nice.

When I'm home, I put my coins on the table and start counting. I build little stacks of 5€. I make 2, 3, 4, 5, waw that's impressive ! Then I count the smaller coins, I make a 6th 5€ stack. When I've gone through all the coins, I'm at 31.81€ ! Not bad at all ! I stayed a bit longer than usual but still that's impressive ! I might go again next saturday but I don't know where though…

Total profit of the day : 31.81€ (yeah, I decided to write the cents as well !)

After the first entries I thought I should take pictures of my case or the spot I played at after I'm done so I have pictures to add to this diary instead of the random picture I put the other day. Unfortunately, I forgot ! So I had to chose another random picture and hopefully next time I won't forget !

Oh, and Happy New Year everybody ! ;)

Busking Diary - First Entries

Busking has been in my head for quite some time now but I only put it in practice last saturday. I'll try to keep a diary of my busking sessions to keep tracks for myself, maybe to help wanna-be buskers to get to the streets, or just share my experience.

12/28/13 1:30pm

My first busking experience. I was a little bit nervous but I went for it anyway. Just after eating, I took my car and headed downtown. I parked next to Le Pont Maghin, one of the bridges of the town where I live, took my saxophone and popped it out under the bridge, along a nice footpath.

A saxophonist friend of mine had told me of that spot and his acoustical properties. But when I started playing it just blew my mind. The reverb was just perfect and it sounded terrific. Unfortunately, there weren't as many people walking by as I had expected. A bit after I started playing a man came up to give 1€, and then a group of 2 students gave me like 0.5€. But then nothing, I played for a good 20 minutes and nobody put something in my case. Pretty disappointing. Also, it seemed nobody was walking by anymore. I started thinking people were avoiding going under the bridge and were going on the bridge to cross it so they didn't have to walk past me and give me something. But maybe that's just me.

What was reassuring though is that the 2 students stayed after giving me money. They were sitting on a bench a couple of meters away. They were kind enough to applaud after each of my songs, but after 20 minutes time, I thought of packing up and leaving for a better spot. They told me they were sorry they couldn't give me more but that was the only change they had. They invited me to come by their place to grab a beer instead but I politely refused as I wanted to keep playing somewhere else. They still asked for one more song, to which I obliged because of the support they'd shown me during this first busking experience.

After that last song, I packed up my sax and went back on my steps a little bit to a plaza (Place Saint-Barthélemy) I drove by while going to the bridge. When I saw it I thought it would be a nice spot to play but was a bit scared by all the people who were there. But after that rather disappointing experience under the bridge where there was actually next to nobody, I thought this would be a nice change. And it was !

I was a little more nervous while unpacking because there were many more people there and a couple of teens were hanging by a nearby bench with some music coming out of their phones. But I took my horn anyway, put my case in front of me and started playing. For this session I hadn't prepared anything. I was just improvising some blues and some smooth solos on a minor scale, nothing exciting but I thought it fitted the place rather well. I remember starting playing the theme from Blue Bossa to see what the people's reaction would be as I played a known tune instead of just improvising, but they didn't seem to pay any more attention, let alone give more tips.

This spot was really sweet. There were always people around so I never felt like I was playing for nobody, but not too much either. The tips started coming in much faster than they had at the other spot. A couple of cute noticeable things happened, like this young 5-year-old girl who watched for a couple of minutes with her dad then dropped some tip (don't remember how much), this old lady who, after I thanked her for tipping, said "No, thank YOU !" and this teen girl who was walking by on the opposite side of the road who stopped her dad and asked for some change to put in my case, and who then got teased by her sister for hitting on me. I had actually heard that when as a young boy in your early 20s, you go busking in the streets, you can get hit on by girls, teen girls, especially when you play "lover" instruments like guitar or saxophone :D Unfortunately, this doesn't really interest me as much as it might interest other (straight) buskers but at least it's another reason to tip me !

I left after a good 40 minutes of playing there, a bit exhausted for playing for 1 hour non stop (I literally never stopped blowing), I started packing up. And as I was doing so, a middle-aged man came to me (he had obviously been there for quite some time, but behind me so I couldn't tell) saying that he was also a saxophonist and also used to busk in his youth and might have to again, things being what they were. We connected a bit, then went our ways. I took my car home to count my profit of the day. It went to a bit over 12€, for 1 hour of playing, which I think wasn't so bad, considering that 20 minutes were kind of wasted under the bridge (money-wise of course as playing in such a great acoustics was a real treat !). Also, playing at that plaza was a really nice thing, as the surroundings were really inspiring, and the people really nice (I saw many people driving their cars opening their windows as they were passing by). I promised myself to go back the next day !

On a side note, as I was leaving the first spot, a woman said to me that I shouldn't be playing by night there. I told her I wasn't but then told me that someone that plays the same instrument than me usually plays at that exact same spot during nighttime. I told her it wasn't me but that it wouldn't surprise me that many other musicians come here to play because of the wonderful acoustics. I didn't tell her but I suspect it might actually be my friend who told me about the spot who's playing there by night.

Total profit of the day : 12€ in 1 hour.

12/29/13 11:45am

I was really excited coming back from my first busking session. So I decided to go on the next day for another 1-hour session. But it was sunday and the town wasn't going to be as packed as on a saturday, because most of the venues are closed. But then, I remembered that every sunday there was some kind of farmer market along La Meuse, the river that goes through the town. The idea of playing on that market (La Batte) really scared me at first because the amount of people there is just huge ! But once again, I gathered my strengths and went for it. I started roaming through the market looking for the perfect spot. I found it by a food stall. I asked the owner if I could play next to it just in case, and as she agreed, I started unpacking my saxophone.

As I blew my first notes, people started looking at me by surprise but then quickly looked away and went on with their shopping. Since the day before, I thought I would add a couple of known songs to catch people's ears, so I looked up and learned by heart Autumn Leaves (well I kinda knew it already after all the times i'd played it), The Pink Panther and The Bare Necessities (don't ask). Usually, when I learn tunes by heart I forget them pretty quickly unless I play them regularly. But then if I play them every time I go busking, I should be alright.
What i would do was a bit of improvisation like I had done the day before, and then play one of those themes twice, then go to a bit of soloing (but without accompaniment, I let myself a bit of freedom), then go back to play the theme, and I would alternate that with straight improvisation pieces. People seemed to recognize the themes I played but didn't seem to be willing to tip more for that matter. Still it's nice to see people smile as they recognize one of the tunes.

It was pretty straight forward. I played for one hour (you can't play more than that in the same spot according to the local busking policy) and then packed. I remember the guy from the stall in front of me gave me looks from time to time and I couldn't quite tell if he was upset that I was there, or if he was intrigued, or happy, or even if he had pity for me. Anyway, I tried not to look at him too much.

Tips started flowing in a bit faster than they had during my last busking session, so that was good. I met a guy who had seen me in a concert I conducted and recognized me, so we chatted a little bit (he told me I could be heard from far away, which I don't know if it was a compliment or not). Another guy (obviously a bit drunk already) requested me some AC/DC songs but I actually don't know AC/DC much but he still tipped me 1€ because he and his friends were staying at a terrace nearby. A bit afterwards he came back to me with an empty cup and told me "there, let me help you collect money", then rudely waved the cup in front of some of the people walking by, not really helping me but it was fun still (plus, I think I read it's illegal in my town to actively seek money, you can just have a hat or a case in front of you but you can't go to people with the hat). One of his friends came to me as they were leaving, giving me some tips in excuse of his friend's somewhat bad attitude (which I actually didn't mind). I also remember a mother with her 4 daughters, and each of them gave me some tip (though not much). I also think I recognized another tipper, who ran past my case throwing some coins (don't know how much). I think he might me a trumpet player that played with me a couple of time at the local youth orchestra. Don't know if he recognized me though. Actually maybe it wasn't even him.

At some point, the lady running the food stall just next to me exits to smoke a cigarette. She looks a bit upset. Actually I don't know maybe I just think everyone's upset by me playing the saxophone. I've actually settled so near to the stall that she actually needs to jump over my case to get to the street level.

After one hour of playing, my mouth was completely dry and that's when I told myself I would bring water next times I'm busking. So I decided to pack and come back home.

In the hour I played, I made 22€, which was much better than the last time. I also found some Deutsche Mark in the lot. Don't know how I'll use that though :D

Don't know when I'll go next (nor where actually), but I'll try to go for more than one hour. I thought of bringing my flute with me to rest my lips a little bit. I wonder if I'll see a significant drop (or increase) of tips compared to when I play the saxophone. I'm also a bit worried of letting my saxophone in its case, even at my feet, while I play the flute, as people could easily steal it and that wouldn't be such a good thing. I could put my saxophone back in my car while I play the flute but then people could break in my car which isn't better. Maybe I'm a bit paranoid but well…

Total profit of the day : 22€ in 1 hour.

Stay tuned for more entries !

How To Clap Your Hands

So this is a matter that I often find very disturbing as a musician. This is somewhat a guide to how to clap your hands at a concert. This is mostly useless I guess as musicians already know this and if you're not a musician you're not reading this but anyway.

I love clapping my hands at concerts or snapping my fingers. It's a bit like "soft-dancing" when you're at a sitted concert.
When I'm playing a concert I'm not so hot on people clapping their hands. Of course, it's really nice and it means the people really are into the music you're playing (unless you're subbing in the local concert band with 10 people eating pies and they're clapping like yeah yeah because the conductor is all hot on making the audience clap their hands). But it can get really disturbing because as a musician you have to learn not to listen to the audience clap because they're not musicians and they don't know what a tempo is or how to keep it. So there are many chances you'll get faster or slower with the audience (usually faster unless we're in the situations described above where the audience just came to eat the pies and you're disturbing them more than entertaining them). And that's a first problem.
A funny thing is, I once played "Music" from John Miles. The middle bit is a 7/4. The audience was clapping every other beat. Imagine how weird it was !!

But anyway, when you're in the audience, this shouldn't bother you too much, you're at the concert to enjoy yourself and if you want to clap you hands, just go for it, even if you're the only one clapping, people will eventually join you (maybe). Plus, the musicians are always happy.
BUT !!
And see, that was a big but (hum).
Don't clap on 1 and 3 !!!
Please please please please please.
Of course, clapping on 1 and 3 is what feels natural, at first at least. Because those are the strong beats, but clapping on them lacks so much energy.

"But, what does clapping on 1 and 3 mean ?"
If you don't what "clapping on 1 and 3" means then that's probably what you're doing. If you know what that means, and you do it, stop doing it and clap on 2 and 4 !!

Beats 2 and 4 are the upbeats, they are usually called the weak beats. That's because when you're playing a classical piece you're accentuating the downbeats (1 and 3). But when jazz arrived, the upbeats grew more and more important and the upbeats are stronger in that style. And since most of the modern music (pop, rock and all that) derives one way or another from jazz, this applies as well to those styles.

So that's why it's always better to clap on 2 and 4. If you don't know what that means, concentrate on how you would naturally clap and clap between the claps you would usually clap and you will be clapping on 2 and 4.

If you didn't get that, let's make a bit of music theory : a piece of music is divided in measures that are themselves, most of the time in modern music, divided in 4 beats :
1 2 3 4

Here's what you're certainly doing :
   1     2     3     4
Clap       Clap

Here's what you should be doing :
   1     2     3     4
       Clap       Clap

Hope it makes it easier for you.

If you still don't get it, ask a musician friend of yours and he will most probably be delighted to explain all of this to you.

In the mean time, I salute you. So go to concerts, listen to music (all styles), and clap on 2 and 4 ;)

Concerning Music

So I decided to take the music matter at hand.

I recently realized that I wasn't improving all that much lately on clarinet and on saxophone.

Still being somewhat a beginner (though it's ok by now) at the flute the learning curve is still rather steep but I fear I might let go somehow just like I did for clarinet and saxophone.

See, I was only playing stuff I knew and I was playing it the same way over and over. That's not the way your learn, is it ? That would be too easy.

My aim would be that next year, I could pass and audition for a cruise line agency on woodwinds. That would be quite the life, visiting the world doing what I love and still have so much free time I could catch up on all those readings I always said I would do or work out to become the gym king (well, maybe my expectations are high). I've read blog posts from musicianwages that hinted that it wasn't the dream life you'd hope for, but what the hell it's now or never.

So my hopes are to pass an audition in one of the many agencies. As an orchestra musicians. From what I hear it would be mean playing in a band formed out of others such orchestra musicians to accompany guest entertainers or to play along shows or, or, ... what do I know. The music played is not amazing but it's still music. I'd audition obviously as Saxophone/Woodwinds. So that means Sax, Flute, Clarinet. At least I hope so because no bassoon or oboe for me (well... yet :D). The audition is mainly saxophone. With sight-reading (I'm a beast at sight-reading I've been sight-reading my whole life picking up a stack of scores and just reading them) as the main part of it. For that I'm all set. I hope so at least. I actually don't know if sight-reading includes all 3 instruments or just the sax but I don't care much as sight-reading is sight-reading. Just a bit scared about the flute though, and I still have to work on intonation in the altissimo register (above high D) in the sax and clean up my clarinet articulation. And some other stuff but I coming to this.

So there's sight-reading but I've also seen in some agencies that they were asking for an etude on each instrument. I don't know what kind of etude they are expecting but I picked the Klose books for both sax and clarinet and Gariboldi etudes for flute (maybe those flute etudes are too low for their expectation but I'll talk about that with my flute teacher). I'll start them over from the beginning, practice all of those and pick those I'm most comfortable with (or at least those with which I'd make the best impression).

Then, last but not least, there's the jazz/improv part. Again, this part doesn't show up for all auditions but it still has to be worked on. So you have to pick a standard (from a real book), some med. swing or something like that, and play and improvise on it. I'm not new to the jazz improvisation but I'm no pro either. So there's still work to be done on that.

So the auditions for the different agencies are a mix of those 3 parts, almost all of them include the sight-reading part, most of them have the jazz/improv part, and only some have the etudes parts. But I have to be ready for those 3 things.

That's what I'll be working on for the next year and what this blog will keep track of.

Time to practice, another post coming up explaining how I'll put that in practice.

Piano in an empty room

Lately my dad started painting the room where the piano is. That unfortunately means limited access to my piano but when I got to play it earlier today, with the room emptied of all the other pieces of furnitures, the resonnance was so full.
I mean, it wasn't that kind of resonnance where you still hear the note 10 seconds after you released it, no, it's the kind of resonnance that makes an upright piano sound like a full concert grand. Well maybe not but still the sound was so full I couldn't stop playing mellow stuff, making my mind wonder into this vast full sound.
Fascinating, really. But soon the room will be again full of unnecessary stuff !

Oh and, by the way, my E-flat clarinet hasn't arrived yet =(
I hope I'll get it monday morning, because no one's home in the afternoon !
I was hoping I could spend my whole sunday having fun with it but I won't be able to. I've got loaaaads of other stuff to do anyway =/