Things That Grind My Gears

[officermayo]

Not at all. Your breath comes from your lungs, not your mouth.

Hmmmm.
I tried getting air from my lungs to a mouthpiece without it going through my mouth.
Never could figure out how to do that. ?????????

Someone once suggested I give it a try. I believe they said, "Blow it out your ass".

[CharlieB]

Lots of gears grinding here now !!!!

[BrassSection]

Decent drummers who won’t play with an ensemble because:
A. It’s not their style, or
B. They have never seen drum music before

Decent keyboard players that only can play by a chord sheet. Can’t even play something simple like this

35F3000C-6923-4FE0-B859-30151D45BD98.jpeg

Ditto that for guitar players

Chord sheet only players that don’t even know how to interpret what I need after putting hay in the barn.

[dukesboneman]

One thing that really bothers me are "Classical" or Symphonic Players that think they can just play with a Big Band but... are always letting you know how their "world" needs auditions . 10 out of 10 times they couldn`t swing if their life depended on it

[LeTromboniste]

Oh, just too many things, some of which I couldn't possibly write on TromboneChat without offending a large portion of its members

But yeah.
-Foot tapping.
-Hand-counting.
-Playing with roughness.
-Conductors who stop after 3 bars, or abort their start mid-cue after you've already breathed.
-As a conductor, people who complain or act exasperated at my stopping after 3 bars or aborting my start mid-cue

-As a conductor: people not looking at me (hey, it's not together, maybe it might help if you looked up to the guy waving his hands in front...)
-Also as a conductor: people looking at me (hey, it's not together, maybe it might help if you looked at each other...)


Joking aside, maybe the biggest one and most all-encompassing for me is people not being proactive about making musical decisions (even small ones) and following each other's intentions and just being overall engaged; there will never, ever, ever be enough rehearsal time to collectively decide every detail, or in orchestras or large groups, for the conductor to give every indication they could or would want to, or can even think about making a decision on. But every detail can contribute to making the music better. So it's also each player's and/or each section's responsibility to make decisions (and even without any discussion involved, just for example the first chairs making musical decisions assertively, and others being diligent about listening and following them). It frustrates me to no end when I play in a section with a principal who doesn't lead or make discernable musical gestures, or is inconsistent and unpredictable; or when I play bass next to a second who doesn't follow leads and doesn't match the principal's intentions properly; or when I'm in a group that's not really sounding cohesive and I look around and see people sitting back just waiting for the conductor/leader to say something to them, and I see no one communicating, cueing, looking at each other while playing, or just showing in any way that they are cultivating an awareness of how their part fits in with others and how and when they have to have an ear out to this person one moment but his other person the next, or look here one bar, there the next, at the conductor for this moment, at the concertmaster for that. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often, but when it does it just baffles me, because our one job (and our passion) is supposed to be making the best music we can, and none of this is actually difficult to do, it's entirely a question of mindset, focus, discipline and engagement. If I ranked the musically best performances I've been part of, and ranked the performances where I've had the best contact with other people and seen others have the most contact between them, I'm pretty sure the two lists would be almost identical.

[tbdana]

Oh, just too many things, some of which I couldn't possibly write on TromboneChat without offending a large portion of its members

But yeah.
-Foot tapping.

Oh, I'm so with you on that! And if you watch all the foot tappers, you immediately notice that no two feet strike the ground at the same time. Grrr!

-Hand-counting.

I'm okay with this if it's subtle and not a big display. Keep it to yourself and don't make it a distraction, and I'm fine with using hand counting or whatever you need to do to get through those 172 bars rest without losing your place or your mind. Of course, as a friend of mine once said, "Counting rests? Oh, that's what the second trombone player is for."

-Playing with roughness.

Oh, lordy. You are my hero for saying that. Bless you, sir. You have a special place in heaven for that one.

[officermayo]

How about learning the piece and knowing the cues from other sections instead of just counting rests?

[Posaunus]

How about learning the piece and knowing the cues from other sections instead of just counting rests?

I guess you haven't played a lot of orchestral repertoire. If you don't count, you're dead - or at least fired!

[Burgerbob]

1. soprano trombone
2. contrabass trombone
3. every pre-war peashooter friction-fit thing in silver plate with a fancy engraving

[Bach5G]

People who complain all the time.

[officermayo]

How about learning the piece and knowing the cues from other sections instead of just counting rests?

I guess you haven't played a lot of orchestral repertoire. If you don't count, you're dead - or at least fired!

Actually, I have and I do count, but only as a back up to knowing the material.

[JohnL]

How about learning the piece and knowing the cues from other sections instead of just counting rests?

That works great in an orchestra that's good enough that you can trust everyone else to play their parts correctly. In an amateur orchestra? You count like your life depends on it.

[TomInME]

Drummers who kick off a chart without letting anyone know where beat 1 is, verbally or with their playing.
Drummers who try to be so extra with their solo that they distort time and lose the whole band (and possibly the audience too).
Drummers who have a special thing they like to do that doesn't fit the music, like playing 4 over 3 on a slowish jazz waltz while the band has swing eighths. (I love you, man, but that one just kills me)

[tbdana]

Drummers who kick off a chart without letting anyone know where beat 1 is, verbally or with their playing.
Drummers who try to be so extra with their solo that they distort time and lose the whole band (and possibly the audience too).
Drummers who have a special thing they like to do that doesn't fit the music, like playing 4 over 3 on a slowish jazz waltz while the band has swing eighths. (I love you, man, but that one just kills me)

So, drummers, then...

[TomInME]

Every drummer some of the time, and some drummers all of the time, but not all drummers all of the time.

[BrassSection]

At least our last drummer was level headed…he drools equally out of both sides of his mouth!