Interesting story. I had a flitting thought or two about the correlation to road rage. Musicians tend to sit next to each other in closer quarters than most workers do, and have to work more closely together than a lot of people do. There's often no email or memo filter between one musician and the other, and yet a lot of times people still cloister themselves off in groups, politics can happen, and someone who is a problem musician (whether they unwittingly know it or not) can often be ostracized even if they really don't mean any harm by it. I've had the misfortune of having a few personality deficiencies and so for me I often can't easily tell whether what I'm doing is something that is annoying another, and in that case I'd rather be told (diplomatically) than let it get worse and worse. I've had the even further misfortune of learning that what I did or didn't do at rehearsal x, y, or z, annoyed person alpha or zeta years after the fact. So, I wonder, if when we don't politely put our hands on the shoulders of our colleagues and explain to them nicely what they might be doing wrong, we let things build and build and build until we explode. Sure, the concertmaster had the right idea in stopping it, but perhaps he went about it the wrong way. Or perhaps the section could have explained things a little better. I guess this ties into road rage because the similar thing happens while driving. We may be in close quarters with another motorist, but we're cloistered away from them. We usually don't know them and the little things they do on the road build and build until we explode. The person that forgot to use his turn signal could have been a complete jerk, or could have been a saintly person who simply forgot. Yet, it's human nature unfortunately to judge the entire person on one action. Another good example goes for any celebrity. A celebrity could spend decades doing volunteer and charity work, and lose all of the respect in the world for a single gaffe. I can't say I'm proud of some of the gaffes I've made in life, and I will keep trying to improve myself as much as possible. However, I do wish sometimes I had someone politely place a hand on my shoulder and guide me, rather than keeping it bottled in for me to find out about it five years later. Yes, there are going to always be jerks who won't listen, but you'll also find genuinely nice people who don't know the ramifications of what they are doing. Then again what do I know. I'm quickly turning into a rambling old fool faster than most people! -William In a message dated 4/6/2011 12:02:53 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
"Playing Your Instrument During Break/Intermission" (when everyone just wants peace and quiet) Anyone who has played a pit orchestra gig knows that 'burned out' feelings you get after the first four hours of nonstop 'noise'. The pit orchestra had just come to the intermission of the second out of three shows for the day. This was when the third hornplayer decided it was time to practice ... Not long tones. Not quiet little scale riffs. No..he went for the 'whole banana'; orchestral excerpts featuring any of the louder Strauss and Wagner clips you care to think of. It could have been louder, but he was not playing an Elkhart Conn 8d.... <heh> This went on for about ten minutes until the concertmaster of the group (may he rest in peace!) leaned into the backstage area and bellowed: "PRACTICE AT HOME!" Mercifully, the guy stopped playing. He looked a little surprised though-maybe he thought folks didn't like his interpretation?? _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/valkhorn%40aol.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
