Just wondering.This is the christmas season and everything so most likely everyone has interesting stories to tell!! (mine have been rather gruesome this year )

Well, several...
1. Falling off the risers at the B'ham conservatoire - slipped
2. Playing a B natural against a whole load of Bb's
3. The music falling off my stand because our conductor was making very...erm.. enthusiastic arm motions - luckily I knew it though from practising it so much.
4. Coming in a beat early with my part - only two of us on that part anyway.
5. Your mind going blank during a rehersal from memory - didn't happen in the concert though...

Thats all that comes to mind... theres probably more though...

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Playing a B natural against a whole load of Bb's

Was that in Symphony Hall?

I can't think of a really bad performance I have done this year, but will share if I can think of one!

Being the only one in the whole orchestra who played the repeat (we had been going to, but the conductor decided we wouldn't in the concert- but he didn't tell me), so everyone else had stopped and I carried on for about half a bar...

QUOTE (nicki_flute @ Dec 23 2004, 07:47 AM)

QUOTE Playing a B natural against a whole load of Bb's Was that in Symphony Hall?

Yes, that one that was nearly right in your ear...

- singing 'sleigh ride' from memory (with my choir) and singing different words (I was singing the wrong verse)!
- playing a flute solo and messing up on the second-to-last bar (so annoying!!!)
there are probably loads more that I've successfully managed to erase from my memory...

Just hoping my mad clarinettist doesn't decide to syncopate the carols too wildly when we do our stint at Smiths in just a few hours. He won't play completely sober so it's a problem of getting the balance just right...or he won't be balancing at all well.

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He won't play completely sober so it's a problem of getting the balance just right...or he won't be balancing at all well.

Hehe!! Hope he plays alright and doesn't sound too out of place!

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Yes, that one that was nearly right in your ear...

Hehe! It didn't stand out though!

- missing the end 3 bars of flute Loilett sonata...went silent and then made up some ending
- prom performance...hands were stiff because it was too cold...couldnt move hands on piano...played wrong notes and repeated the piece 3 times when it was meant to be 2

so embaressing!

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hands were stiff because it was too cold

I can't play very well with cold hands either- when I did a performance for my GCSE music last year I had a piece on the piano with lots of running semiquavers, and went round wearing gloves all day so that my hands didn't get cold! I looked like an idiot, but at least I didn't mess up my piece

Playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and my shoulder rest slipped off and I didn't have time to slip it back on so I had to play the entire piece with wood sticking into my shoulder and my neck at an uncomfortable angle, then finding that my G string was out of tune as the pegs had slipped so it had gone completely flat and I only found after I had started playing. All this happened last Saturday.

Playing carols in my string quartet and all the lights went out for about a minute, but we just all carried on playing! They weren't hard to remember so that was ok
jess

we did a band concert and the whole clarinet section didn't come in in one piece so there was this huge silence. None of the firsts count except me, excpet I forgot, and the seconds and thirds just follow the firsts. And then the tuba player came in with her solo 2 bars late, so the clarinet section came in too early for the next section, because the rest of the band waited for her to finish and we didn't and it nearly fell apart. Was quite funny though!

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None of the firsts count except me, excpet I forgot, and the seconds and thirds just follow the firsts

That sounds like a few band rehearsals I've had where we have had fast runs and everybody is waiting for everybody else to play them, and then we miss them. We perfected them for a concert though!

QUOTE (nicki_flute @ Dec 23 2004, 07:42 PM)

QUOTE None of the firsts count except me, excpet I forgot, and the seconds and thirds just follow the firsts That sounds like a few band rehearsals I've had where we have had fast runs and everybody is waiting for everybody else to play them, and then we miss them. We perfected them for a concert though!

Yeah, sounds like some of flute choir! Our conductor goes mad...

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Yeah, sounds like some of flute choir! Our conductor goes mad...

Our conductor is really nice, I am so glad I have him as one.

QUOTE (nicki_flute @ Dec 23 2004, 09:29 PM)

QUOTE Yeah, sounds like some of flute choir! Our conductor goes mad... Our conductor is really nice, I am so glad I have him as one.

Well, yeah Im glad we've got sandy, but you've never seen him angry! Everyones quaking in their shoes by the end of the rehersals!

I can't imagine him angry I don't think.

Hmmm... where do I start?

I think I can safely say, that my grade 8 was the worst performance of my life! But instead of going into details, I think I'll just conclude that just when you think things can't get any worse, they do!

in my grade 5 piano exam, i was asked to play f# minor but i played f# major

Subatomic_Star - do you live in / near Birmingham? Have you ever helped out with Artsfest? I've worked at the festival for the last 3 years.

QUOTE (Rosemary @ Jan 6 2005, 09:03 PM)

Subatomic_Star - do you live in / near Birmingham? Have you ever helped out with Artsfest? I've worked at the festival for the last 3 years.

Yes I do...
I have never actually been to artsfest, when is the next one??

P.s. How do you know I live in Birmingham...?

I don't as such - it's just that you mentioned playing at the Conservatoire or Symphony Hall!

I don't live in Birmingham myself but have helped with the Artsfest weekends. They are held during the second weekend in September usually and the whole of Broad Street is closed off. They always want volunteers from the summer onwards, liaising with the venues and performers etc.

www.artsfest.org.uk

It's a really great weekend and gives you lots of experience of working backstage at different venues. In 2004 I worked at the REP - the theatre that's just hit the headlines!

Check out the web site above.

Rosemary.

Years and years ago, I attempted to perform Franz Liszt's "Liebestraume" to a local fellowship group in a Village Hall. During the performance, I was so nervous that I just lost all concentration and became a mess of neuroticness and insecurity. Luckily, my fingers just kept going by themselves for a while but eventually something had to give. Surely enough, being so nervous and unfocused on the music, during a particularly difficult passage, two-thirds into the piece, I had a total memory lapse. I skipped a whole page of music but, during the eerie silence that pervaded the Hall, (which only magnified my memory-lapse and seemed to last an eternity) I eventually managed, through sheer terror and a sober realisation of the situation, to gather my thoughts together and turn the page over. I jumped to the next section which was an easier quiet reprise of the melody (crossing L.H. over) which seemed very appropriate music under the circumstances....a kind of sad lament!
It didn't put me off performing music in public though, only playing difficult music by composers such as Franz Liszt in public (or basically, anything too difficult for me!!)
The weird thing is that nobody consoled me at the end but only congratulated me. So, either they were very sympathetic and kind in their praise or they genuinely didn't notice the page and a half of music left out. I suppose if your'e audience is not familiar with a piece of music sometimes you can get away with quite a lot.

Gae

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I don't as such - it's just that you mentioned playing at the Conservatoire or Symphony Hall!

Ahh that makes sense.

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In 2004 I worked at the REP - the theatre that's just hit the headlines!

I know, we saw it. It was the same night as a concert at Symphony Hall, so we were on our way home and there was a load of sikhs descending on the rep. Twas actually quite scary to think about!

Yes I think it must have been....not very nice at all.

It was nice and peaceful when I was there - but quite tiring when you get to the end of a day and realise that you haven't stopped at all, but really satisfying. Each time I take part I think 'maybe I'll stop doing it after this one' and then I just get hooked. I leave the weekend thinking 'where shall I ask to work next year?' Next year? Again?

There are some talented performers that take part so you meet some really interesting diverse people too. Anyone can participate - from professional orchestras or ballet companies, to a single comedian or duo who do a few gigs here and there. There's something for everyone if you have an interest in the Arts.

Well, the worst was when I was accompanying in a concert the drums player was supposed to tap his sticks four times (each tap is half a beat) before I started playing the introduction but I was too nervous and received that as 1 beat a tap! So I played 2 times faster but the choir director shook her head and I started again, but failed 4 times! In the end, she asked the rest of the band to give the introduction.

QUOTE (cecilia @ Dec 23 2004, 03:25 PM)

QUOTE hands were stiff because it was too cold I can't play very well with cold hands either- when I did a performance for my GCSE music last year I had a piece on the piano with lots of running semiquavers, and went round wearing gloves all day so that my hands didn't get cold! I looked like an idiot, but at least I didn't mess up my piece

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went round wearing gloves all day so that my hands didn't get cold!  I looked like an idiot, but at least I didn't mess up my piece  :D

I do that all the time. People have just resigned to thinking of me as a completely obsessed idiot.

QUOTE (cecilia @ Dec 23 2004, 09:29 AM)

Being the only one in the whole orchestra who played the repeat (we had been going to, but the conductor decided we wouldn't in the concert- but he didn't tell me), so everyone else had stopped and I carried on for about half a bar...  :ph34r:

You have company: one of the Vienna Phil trumpeters did that, or the other way round (going on when the others repeated), in the New Year concert.