Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 30

Thread: Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

  1. #1

    Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    Please share any bizzare stories that have happened during or around a gig. (Keep it clean please!)
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  2. #2

    Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    When I was in a drum corps two Summers ago, we went to a gig in Kalamazoo. It was just a normal day. Wake up and go to drill practice, you know the sort.

    Anyway on the way to drill practice, me and some corps mates came across a dead cat. It's sad, but the way it was lying was almost comical.

    It was flattened out in X fashion. It kind of looked like a cartoon or something.

  3. #3

    Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    I played trumpet in my high school Jazz Band. Each year, we would go to the Jazz Invitational sponsored by the University of Nevada- Reno. My first year there, some of the older players thought they would "initiate" me. I woke up from a sound sleep to find a couple guys pinning my arms down while another spread Jalapeno pepper sauce all over my lips!!! I was pretty mad about it, and it certainly didnt help my playing any. (BTW, I cannot type apostrophes. It opens up the search feature-- is this normal???)

    FWIW,

    Smitty

  4. Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    There was a perfessional Tuba quartet that came to the convention center that was cancelled because someone left their tuba on the bus!

  5. #5

    Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    At Secondary School our windband participated in the annual eistedfod. This is a yearly event where bands and musicians have the opportunity to show what they are made of.

    We were setup on stage with limited space. Well we were playing colonel bogey march and of course I had to do play the euph counter melody. We completed the intro. As I was about to launch into this magnificent counter melody, my chair some how slipped of the edge and I fell backwards off the stage.

    My now wife at that point was playing euph for about 9 months. She never really mastered the counter melody up until that point! With me being out for the count she played that counter melody like it was an old pro.

    Regards

  6. Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    High School marching band, with the football team at the state playoffs. My squad mate forgot his horn (sad to admit, a euphonium). He marched at the pregame with a piccollo (looked funny in our squad) and at halftime with cymbals (even funnier) only because one gal carried the cymbals in pre-game and played her piccollo at halftime!

  7. #7

    Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    Oh, yeah - that high school marching band story reminded me of a little disaster I caused. At Davenport Central High School we had a pretty good music program and marching band. We were doing an elaborate routine that we had memorized (well, mostly memorized in my case). At one point I was leading a line of 8 players and did a perfect right turn, which should have been a left turn. All the other players in the line followed me, which was fine until we ran head-long into another line of players who had turned the correct way and were not supposed to encounter anyone. It was a really fine head-on collision, and both lines did an accordian-like collapse into each other. Hard to forget that one! Too bad that was before the days of consumer-owned video cameras.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  8. #8

    Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    In Minot, for the NorthWest Music Festival in the university ensembles concert, the tuba player (who's one of the librarians) didn't show at the downbeat of the concert band. The first piece we played was October by Eric Whitacre (cool piece btw). One of the trombone players had the tuba parts to cover this spot. Seeing we had 3 euph players. , I had the trombone player give me the tuba part and I played it as written, sight reading the tuba part. That went well for me actually. The tuba player showed up in his tux, right after we finished October, ready to play. He liked how I covered the tuba part. The band director did announce that the tuba player is here.


  9. #9

    Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig


    In 1970 I was a freshman at FSU and a member of the FSU Marching Chiefs. One of our entrances onto the field was from the sidelines, a column every 10 yards, coming on at a flat out sprint. We would come out about 20 yards and make a 90 degree turn so that the band would end up facing the home side in rows. On this occasion the field was a little muddy and when making my 90 degree I slipped. Attempting to keep my balance, I flung my horn (school owned!) out towards the middle of the field! As it happens, this game was nationally televised and the alert cameraman picked up my mishap! My 15 seconds of fame! Alas! I performed the whole halftime show without my instrument because breaking ranks was unthinkable. When I got back to the stands someone brought me the horn and mouthpiece, the mp and leadpipe filled with mud, so I didn't play the entire game. I heard that for the next few years the band leaders used my experience as the *right* way to handle the situation but my non band friends who saw the game on TV got a kick for a long time telling the story.

    - Carroll
    Carroll Arbogast
    Piano Technician
    CMA Piano Care

  10. Odd or Funny Things that Happened During a Gig

    I was doing Endearing Young Charms with a community band and OH BOY let me tell you this was my nightmare come true...luckily the slip i made due to my nerves was easily covered as a humerous tribute to the old Bugs Bunny cartoons where they hit the wrong note while playing this song...so after straigtening it out and a cymball crash by a close friend in the percussion(simulating an explosion i guess) it was on with the piece...it went well the theme and variation one went really well...minus the flute players music flying off the stand and forgetting the melody...so it was just the variation...then variation 2 came about and durring one of the runs a friendly little bee decided to sting me in the hand which caught me by complete surprise and caused me to drop a few notes...by this point I was thiking what else could possibly go wrong...which was my mistake..durring variation 3 some how the band got lost and stoped playing and i was like well ok they must think I'm doing a cadenza? So I motioned with my horn to the director that I wasnt at the cadenza well when I reached the cadenza something quite off happend they all came in and then stoped and I finished the cadenza with all of them playing the last oh 12bars of the piece and pauseing for my cadenza even though I was already done. What gets me it never went bad durring the rehersals...I guess it was just the day

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •