As promised, this entry is mostly just to dump a few pictures from the SERTEC trip in Chattanooga. More precisely, it’s to put some of the pictures from the cemetery. None of the shots from inside the hall came out very well.
Practiced the tuba again today for probably an hour total. I got some embouchure-building exercises from John Sizemore that seemed like good things to play, so did those along with scales, long tones, and a few Bordogni etudes. Not happy with my sound today.
I don’t know how many of you know John. I first met him when I was in high school and he attended the church that Mom, Dad and I went to. I thought he was an insurance agent who gigged on the side at the time, but I guess he’s been teaching private lessons for a long time. If I’m not mistaken, he was one of the founding members of the Metropolitan Brass Quintet.
At any rate, he play duets with me a few times, gave me a bunch of sheet music, got me my first professional gig (filling in for him with the Foothills Brass Quintet), and once spent an entire afternoon with me when I came upon a homeless vet sitting on the church steps who was obviously not in great mental shape. John just happened to drive into the parking lot when I was trying to figure out how to help this guy, and he (Sizemore) ended up driving us all to the VA hospital in Hendersonville, NC (or maybe it was Asheville or Brevard…I don’t know. I was about 15), then back to his (homeless guy) daughter’s house north of Travelers Rest. It was sort of a strange afternoon for all three of us, I think, but proved on some level that I’m a decent human being.
At any rate, I completely lost track of John after high school and just happened to find him on Facebook a year or so ago. I’ve since learned that he’s a very-highly-regarded low brass teacher and one of his former students is Demondrae Thurman, who was one of the featured euphoniumists who played with us at SERTEC. Small world, huh?
Wow. While looking for a link for Demondrae, I stumbled across a Wikipedia article about the euphonium. It’s strangely fascinating to peruse the list of tuba and euphonium instructors in the US and realize that I know, have played with, or am Facebook “friends” with about 75% of them.
Moving on. At rehearsal last night, we read a couple of fairly heavy-duty test pieces. I did not fare well on the tenor horn, I’m afraid. It’s one thing to have to count rhythms, but quite another to do it when you’re really not sure where any particular note is on the horn that you’re playing. Basically, I waggled my fingers around and blew for two hours.
Don’t think I’ve mentioned it here previously, but Dad is getting married in 5 days. Weird, huh? His fiance flew to SC yesterday. I’ll get to meet this lady on Saturday (when Nathan will be playing Harold Hill in a production of The Music Man), and then, around 4:00 Sunday afternoon, I’ll be a stepson.
How weird is that?
I’m also told that my oldest nephew, Wesley, is getting hitched in May. And I’m playing at his wedding. That should be fun.
Enough of this. Let me throw some pictures in here and call it a night.
