Transcript Summary
He started off with Carl Leach, and then he moved over to Klod for a number of years.
Graduated from San Jose State University, went over to UCLA, studied.
Got his master's in theory composition. Did you get your doctor?
Half of it.
Half of it.
Over at UCLA. And he went off, at that point went off into the recording industry.
And pretty soon I was talking to him on the phone, and he started getting some jobs
actually writing out musical scores for movies. He's done quite a few, about nine or ten movies.
I'm sorry, what?
Nine or ten movies.
What? About a...
Have you done the scores for those?
A little more than that, yeah.
Quite a few.
And then, just recently now, for about, I guess a year, he's been working as a record producer
for a French record company, where they produce classical records.
And this guy's all over the United States, all year long.
He's up in the Bay Area at Lucas Studios up there, over in Berkeley.
He's down here, goes back east, and he helps produce these classical albums.
So he's very knowledgeable in the studio end of the business.
Very knowledgeable in the recording end.
He's one of those kind of guys. He teaches trumpet up.
Still, playing, still practicing.
I want to introduce you to Paul Witt.
Yeah.
Microphone, right?
Yeah.
That's psychic.
Quick reality check here.
How many people in the room right now think that they might be interested, maybe, in the future
in playing, as Thomas said, in the recording industry, say, for films and television, things like that?
It's a wish list.
You don't have to think, oh, I never would, so I don't want to.
If you had the chance, raise your hand.
If you had the chance, then you'd do it.
Okay.
That's rare, but that's great.
Okay.
I assume the others would like to do something else as a player, which is wonderful.
One of the things that I like to say right at the beginning about this is that what I'm telling you now,
I gave you a little bit of history about the film world and music related to music,
but other than that, everything that I tell you is basically applicable to other things that you do in playing.
In school, in community orchestras or bands, in brass quintets that you've got, all the different kinds of things like that.
There are certain just techniques, ways to deport yourself at rehearsals, at concerts, things like that,
ways to deal with those situations, as Carl would say.
Conversely, if you are interested in going to recording, in the recording you think,
well, yeah, but I never get any chance to practice.
I'm not going to make it into recording unless I've already had the experience.
No one's going to call me.
Number one, that's not necessarily true.
And number two, the things that I'll tell you about, you can actually practice in your situation you're in now,
in school or like I say in community groups and things like that,
so that when you get into the situation or if you get the opportunity,
we've talked all week about being ready.
Being ready has two functions.
One is so you don't make fool out of yourself because you're the only one who hasn't been there before
and everybody else acts one way and you don't know what to do.
And the other is really a nerves thing.
If you feel like you've in some way experienced or have some idea of what's going on before you get there,
number one, you're more likely to say, yeah, I'll do the gig great rather than just to pass on it.
And number two, maybe you'll have a jump on sort of assessing the situation.
You sit down and you see somebody act a certain way.
You'll have some idea of what they're doing rather than being completely new to the situation.
So you'll hopefully be a little more comfortable on your first real sort of access into the business.
And like I say, you can practice this in your school bands and in your local orchestras and community groups and stuff like that.
And it'll make you a better player and it'll make you a better member of the group there too.
So for what it's worth, try to pay attention to these things and see how they apply.
And if you have any questions, if you can't figure out how these could possibly fit in what you do now, ask questions.
Ask me.
In fact, that's one of the things coming up later too about dealing with these situations.
But feel free to ask me.
I know we've all said that and very often people are sort of timid and one person sort of breaks the ice and asks a question and then things start happening.
Feel free.
The whole point about this whole week is that you should be able to take this home and not get home with this brain full of, you know,
over full of information and about a week later say it doesn't really make sense and it starts disappearing from you because you really can't relate it.
Ask questions.
Or if you have an insight, some of you have probably done some recording or been in certain situations in school band where it's applied to that.
If you have an insight into it or a question or whatever, please feel free.
We're all in this boat together.
Okay?
Okay, good.
I just want to start before we go to anything else with just the history, basically just sort of a short history of music relating to film.
I won't say television first because obviously television came quite a bit later because of technology.
You all are familiar with the idea of silent films, right?
They came and they didn't have a way to actually print music or sound of any kind for that matter on the actual acetate on the film itself.
So what they did, they just had these silent films and they realized very, very quickly that the image, number one, it's very vague.
As you know, when you look at, they say a picture paints a thousand words, a picture represents a thousand words or whatever.
The problem is it can be several different words and all conflicting.
And they realized that, number one, people weren't very strongly affected by just a silent picture.
And number two, they often got conflicting views.
So they had to have something.
And you know, when mouths move and things like that and they're not in synchronization, any of you ever seen dubbed foreign films?
It's just weird.
And that's not necessarily the kind of effect you want to get either.
But with music, music can do what we call an arch.
It can take an emotion and carry it, which it does.
That's what it is, really.
Any art form is some sort of expression of emotion over time.
And in music, it happens over time.
It can take a time arch and tell you what to feel.
You see two characters on screen and the music subtly can tell you, oh, something, you know, sad is going on here.
Or something tense or things like that that you might not necessarily pick up with the picture, especially in the early days,
when it wasn't very sophisticated as far as editing and different kinds of image, you know, capturing the image.
So they started using music.
Now, they couldn't print anything on the film.
So what they first started doing is they'd have a little organist sort of roll in.
The guy would roll into town with his little machine, prank machine, and some stock film.
And they'd watch it, and the local guy would kind of come up with some music.
They'd know there's supposed to be tense here, there's supposed to be a love theme or whatever.
They'd just sort of improvise some stuff.
Now, that adapted into people writing things down.
So you had classic chase, little chase things, whatever kind of deal, right?
And love things.
And they'd very frequently take things from Rossini or from some of the operas or whatever, little tiny bits, you know,
love themes and action things and drama and tension sort of deals.
And there actually became a library for that.
And a lot of that, unfortunately, has been destroyed because of very short-sighted people in the studios.
Actually, all of the MGM, I don't know if you know anything about musicals,
the MGM musicals of the 40s and Vincent Vanilli and Busby Berkeley and stuff like that.
MGM, in cleaning out their library, I think it was 10 years, 15 years ago,
they said, we've got this big library, cold, you know, cold storage, fireproof vault and everything.
And it's just too full.
So one of their high execs who's in charge of cleaning things up just dumped it, dumped it.
I mean, the movie still exists, although the acetate is not lasting too well.
Some people are trying to reproduce these things and clean them up, you know, this kind of stuff.
The scores in the hand of these great composers, of Fran Swaxman,
and the guys' names that you probably don't know, gone.
But, you know, a lot of it's getting pieced back together.
There's actually a thing going on in LA now where there's a grant where people are going back
and writing out, rewriting the parts, but still.
Anyway, so they became a big library of just sort of stock types of things.
And then that would go out.
You'd have the organ player, and the organs became more sophisticated.
Have you all been to one of these pizza deals where they have an organ with the drums
and all this jazz all over the walls?
Well, those are called theater organs, and that's the reason.
They used to be for that theater, and you have rum-pum, rum-pum.
You know, playing this and that, the snare drum going and all this stuff.
And they became very, very sophisticated.
In short order, they started having house bands, small combos, who would do the same thing.
They'd have a conductor and he'd be watching the film, and they'd pass out some parts.
Very often it was original, new stuff.
And then again, you started getting this library stuff.
And they'd play.
So you still have live people playing.
Carl was talking about that live experience of seeing.
I like to go to the orchestra.
I like to watch people work.
I like how they do it.
It's really interesting.
And you had that close thing.
And you also didn't have, you know, seven, I don't know, 900-seat theaters, you know,
and all this big, effective sound kind of thing.
Well, as you all know around, actually before The Jazz Singer, in America the first sound film
where they actually were able to sync the film up was The Jazz Singer, Al Jolson.
And with that, they were able to sync music up too.
So you started being able to put music on the film, what you wanted, when you wanted it,
put it on the film.
And it would go out.
And they could edit it and, you know, the whole thing.
It would always be the same, pretty much.
Now that still was not as sophisticated as it is today, quote,
because they really didn't have the ability to do several tracks to do this kind of thing.
They had three tracks.
They had dialogue on one track, like a tape recorder.
You know what a stereo tape recorder is, two tracks?
They had three.
They have dialogue, sound effects, and music.
So the music was one track and it just ran.
So in a lot of the, like, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers deals,
the orchestra's sitting right there off to the side playing.
And you watch those things and they're dancing around and the camera's following them.
There's no cut.
The reason there's no cut is because a cut would be,
if you watch a movie and you see two people and they're sort of dancing around or whatever.
And then all of a sudden they cut to one guy looking like this.
You know, it's immediate.
It's not the camera moves.
It just, poof, all of a sudden you're seeing one of the guys.
And then you're seeing the girl and then you're seeing the band leader and all this jazz.
They couldn't do that because you could hear the music jump.
You don't get affected by all of a sudden seeing, you know, you don't ever go,
you know, and you're seeing different things.
But the camera does that all the time when you think about it.
It doesn't bother you.
You accept it, you know, with music.
Actually, one of the reasons it's so effective,
a great composer named Earl Hagan who did everything in TV in the 50s and 60s, everything,
said to me that he felt, and he had heard for many years,
that one of the things about film music is that people do not have ear lids,
that they are not able to shut it out.
So you kind of slip in.
You know, but it's also always happening.
So if you cut music all of a sudden, bang, it feels very funny,
unless you do it in a very sophisticated way like in Fantasia.
And even then people who know the score will sort of flinch because the music is not expected.
So anyway, they didn't know how to do that.
They got later on the ability to make these cuts in the music.
So, and the film.
So what they can do now is, and up to now,
is that they can shoot the film and make the edits
and then record the music separately after they've made all the edits
and they've got everything laid down.
So now the music can be recorded afterwards.
In fact, it has to be because you ever see people dancing around
and the music's going and they're making all these cuts?
Well, those people are actually dancing.
Either there's some guy off stage going like this or something
so they can all be in time.
But there's no sound.
There's no music.
If there was music, you couldn't hear the dialogue.
And when you made the cut, everything, you know, the music would get cut up.
So they have it to silence if they're going to record the dialogue especially,
and even if not.
And then they record the music, then so the commode has to figure out
what the tempo is or do something
and write a tune that bridges this arc once they've cut the thing together.
And also that way they can decide to recut it
and change it up to literally the last second,
which is another nightmare that you don't have to worry about.
Anyway, the point is the technology has constantly been growing.
Unfortunately, well, it's become sort of a technology of electronics people
from editing to some extent, to a bit of an extent, to the music nowadays.
There are very sophisticated computers that do the editing
that help with the editing, I should say.
It still takes a human being to do it.
And more and more, I'm sure you're aware,
if any of you watch television or a fair amount of films now,
they actually have quite a bit of electronics in the films.
So, you know, that's coming.
It's odd because it's almost sort of a perverse cycle
because the electronics are obviously done by a keyboardist very often,
which is sort of how this thing started with the theater organ.
It's kind of an odd thing.
The best movies, i.e. the ones they spend the most money on frequently,
have an orchestral score.
If they can afford it, very often they do.
My complaint with them very often is that they can afford it
before they think they can.
You know, they very often will spend $500,000 to blow up a tree,
and they can have a whole score for that.
Anyway, I should probably cut that out.
Anyway, so that's sort of the arc of the way film has sort of come around
to what it's doing today.
And it's the same thing with TV now.
TV came in, of course, there was already sound,
there was already fairly sophisticated editing,
although they really didn't have a way to save video images.
So the earliest TV, again, was live, and you had live bands.
You had the situation, which now you see really only on The Tonight Show,
and you just get to see what's called Play Ons and Play Offs.
They're swinging during the whole commercial,
and you're watching dog food or something, kind of drag.
Anyway, so that's that.
Now I want to get into just the, any questions, actually?
Did I sort of glaze through everything, or?
So you're saying all of the musicals that you've been watching
have those dances and not just the music?
No, no, no.
The old musicals, they didn't have the ability to edit like that.
No, there's a band sitting offstage.
You said there was a guy offstage?
That's now.
You know, I was talking when I was saying Fred Astaire
and the Vincent Minnelli musicals, those kind of deals.
They didn't have that kind of ability.
Watch an old movie, get an old Fred Astaire movie,
if nothing else because they're great.
And if nothing else because they don't do that like that now,
for a lot of reasons.
One, because any BuzzFeed Berkeley musical would cost more to make
Terminator 2 right now.
Anyway, get them.
And you will see, they start dancing and you'll see,
the early ones because obviously the technology came in during,
Astaire's still alive I think.
No?
Oh yeah, this year.
That sounds like last year.
Well, okay.
He's alive on celluloids.
That's important.
God, I didn't realize that.
Anyway, he lived and he was actually functioning up through all of this.
All of this stuff.
So the later ones, you can see the difference.
But they'll sock that camera in and those guys come in
and they dance and dance and dance and dance
and Claude's offstage blasting away or somebody.
And that's another thing about the accuracy.
My God, what are they going to say?
I'm sorry, Mr. Note, can you go back and,
Fred, can you go back and do that step again?
I'm sorry, man.
I didn't practice.
I don't think that would actually happen.
Okay.
No, it's then.
Now it's different.
I mean, now it's like, I don't know, urban cowboy or what was that,
you know, these deals when people are dancing sort of thing.
And it's funny too because every once in a while they'll pan the band
and you're listening to synthesizers and going to funk rock beat
because that's what the producer thought the kids would want to see.
And they pan the band and there's like a drum and a trumpet player
and an accordion.
And you say, hmm, interesting.
Must be on a break but just sort of holding the instruments out.
Or there's a sax on the soundtrack and there's a trumpet.
We try our best, you know, but you never know.
Now that's what I meant.
You know, it's like in the 30s and the early 40s.
Other?
Okay.
Now this stuff is, this is actually what you can do, like I said,
you can practice it in your own school band or your local places.
And it's things sort of that are expected
and anybody's had any experience with this stuff,
please feel free to chime in if I grossly neglect anything
or slide any of this kind of stuff.
And I'll kind of read it because there are things I want to make sure
you get a little bit.
I sort of broke this, you can see the sheet here
so you can prepare your questions early.
I broke this in, it's under the studio musician, the business.
Absolutely be early.
That story that Claude told about Pete Gandoli,
you know Pete?
Pete Gandoli?
That story, the conductor was Moyes.
It was me.
And Pete does literally end up walking in frequently,
like 30 seconds before downbeat.
Do not take that to heart.
It doesn't make you look good.
It doesn't make you look special.
Pete established himself in Page's Deuce before any of us were born.
And he is a great, great player.
And it's not like he got in his car 20 minutes before the gig
to drive there either.
It's like he's next door eating breakfast or something.
He knows he's going to be on time.
He knows it.
Flat tires, this, that, bad traffic lights will kill you.
Nobody takes that chance.
He is not leaving home 30 minutes late.
He's not like brushing in the door.
He's like coming in the door because he's right next door
or, you know, just outside.
So it's a funny story, but you never do that as a matter of course.
Okay?
Okay.
I just wanted to say that.
Being early is also really good.
Carl pointed out.
Carl?
Yeah.
No, not you.
The other Carl.
I kind of got his wire in there.
Carl pointed out.
Sorry, a little memory lapse here.
Carl was talking about being early.
Right.
About that people expect you to be early if you are,
and they worry about you.
And that's really a good thing to have, but they also love that.
Because if you're not there like a half hour before, 15, 20 minutes before,
let's say half hour before, the contractor is already going,
let's see, how soon can I get another trumpet player
if this guy did die on the freeway or something?
You know, well 15 minutes before he can't get someone on time.
But if you mosey in the door a half hour before and you're sitting there,
you're having breakfast or you're right next door
and you see him in the parking lot or something like that,
he's just sitting, great.
You know, and all these little tension feelings about,
I wonder if he's dead on the freeway, I wonder if he forgot the gig,
I wonder if whatever, have your name like glued on him.
And it's going in this contractor's head,
contractors do like to be comfortable.
You can be a phenomenal player and not get worked
if you're not reliable or even if you're on the edge.
Reliable, there's a big space.
I've never been late, but if you've just sort of pushed it,
it gets tight, it gets very tight.
Very, very important.
The next thing I had to do is be of good humor.
It's really very helpful.
I mean, this is for the leader and the contractor
and everybody, the people you work with.
It gets me tense.
You've got lots of money going.
Now, again, this isn't necessarily true in school,
but you guys have a competition to go to,
you have a concert coming up, you have parents' night
that you're going to play for,
you have a big marching band thing or whatever.
There's a lot of tension for the people who are putting it together
or the guy next to you who's got a solo or you who have a solo.
If you don't make the situation worse by putting these out,
this guy can't play, whatever.
Just enjoy it.
You're in it.
If you really hate it, look around you.
There are lots of guys who would love to be doing it.
If you hate it, get out of it.
If you just have this kind of attitude thing,
try to work on it.
It doesn't make life any fun, number one,
and it won't help your career.
You have to be able to be worked with.
In the studio, you're locked in there for three hours,
10-minute breaks with a guy,
and then another hour break, and then three more hours,
and it gets bleak.
No one wants to be sitting next to somebody
and sort of grousing all the time,
and those people sort of disappear,
unless they're phenomenal,
and those guys tend not to be this way anyway.
They tend to be a real personable,
because they're happy.
They're doing their job.
They're having a good time.
Be of good humor.
Very, very important.
If you're not, evaluate that
and see what's wrong with your life.
You know, what's wrong with this picture?
Why aren't I having a good time?
Or why ain't I having a good time?
And how to warm up on a date.
I love this one,
because this sort of relates to me, too.
Although I don't have a story about it.
I used to start this class by saying,
okay, everybody warm up,
and then I'll talk a little bit,
and then we'll play.
And I let everybody sort of blast away.
I want you to focus your attention back to
Sunday, Monday.
Have you noticed how people play a little differently
or are practicing a little differently now?
You know, people were trying to peel paint out there,
and I don't know, kill weeds outside.
But that sort of changed,
and that's really good.
You don't go in.
What I used to do is let them go for about 10 minutes
while I set up chairs and do my thing.
And then I'd walk down,
and I'd look to try to see the people
that weren't going to pass out
and run off crying because I said it.
But I would point out weaknesses in players,
because obviously you can hear it.
You know, these guys are doing, screaming away up here,
not doing range studies.
You know, three and you're out.
That's fair.
You miss three times.
That's great, because you're pushing.
But you don't be, oh yeah, oh yeah.
You know, it's all this terrible,
this blasting away trying to do it.
It's faster than you can play.
You know, it's longer than possible with the breath.
That's great, but faster than you can play
is not, higher than you can play is not great.
Because people will, the conductor and the contractors
immediately know what your weaknesses are.
So when you warm up on a date, you're already warm.
You warm up at home.
When you come to a date, you're on,
because people are listening to you.
If they, people who like you,
that you don't want to make not like you,
if they're people who don't know you,
that you want to like you, I mean, you know,
respect your playing,
or the conductor who is counting on your playing,
or the writer,
you want to show them only the best.
If you play everything and it sounds fine,
you know, do your warm up,
do a little bit, just get yourself going,
because you've already warmed up at home.
But you do stuff and they're thinking,
boy, that sounds great.
They have no reason to think that you can't play
a triple Z with a beautiful tone.
But they haven't heard it, but that's okay.
If they've heard you blow a G,
they know pretty well that you can't play
up in the upper register.
Or if you're hacking away at something,
have a terrible sound, you know, you know.
Taste becomes a big thing.
You know, if you come in and look or act or play
in sort of a crass, unmusical manner,
you're pegged, boom, like that, in a second.
We don't do it on purpose.
Nobody does it on purpose.
Everybody's under pressure.
You meet someone, you know,
and if they're like going,
like that when you meet them,
you say, you guys, disgusting, I don't think.
No, I'm not going to do that to the camera.
I'm sorry.
I probably will.
Just have to watch.
Anyway, it's very important.
Remember that you're on when the time you walk in there.
Once you establish yourself after the first 30 years or so,
that's cool.
But, you know, you're on.
So you warm up at home, you come to the gig,
and you just sort of get things going again.
Okay?
Even if it's at 10 o'clock,
you can play at practice at 6 in the morning,
you can whack in a practice mute,
and you can do your things.
And if you're keeping up with your routines,
which you should be doing anyway,
it doesn't take that much.
You know, it's not like you have to figure out
where the mouthpiece is going every day.
Okay?
You just need something to get the wind going
and that kind of jazz.
All right?
Look at the music, do all that kind of stuff.
Bring a book.
Now, this doesn't apply to school.
I said that.
It doesn't apply to school.
Okay?
This is for the recording industry.
It's not when the conductor's talking to you.
It's not when musical stuff is happening.
It's when the tape breaks.
Or during a break, if you don't want to go out and schmooze,
which is actually a good idea to do,
go out and schmooze and meet other players.
It's for when the producer goes,
I hate that music and the conductor go off
and the writer go off
and they're trying to figure out some new stuff
and you're just sitting there.
Don't bring newspapers.
Newspapers are...
You know, they ruffle on the floor,
and that's not good.
A book.
And you, because they're thinking
and there's pressure and there's big pressure.
There are producers and there's sometimes
$10,000 a minute going down.
Okay?
So it's pressure.
So you just quietly read your book and wait.
You don't be having, hey, how are the kids?
Good to see you, you know, because they
need to be in here working on the piano,
or they need to be doing something.
So bring a book.
At school, you don't do that.
You don't have those kind of technical deals, hopefully.
Cool.
Exciting.
OK.
Bring all your mutes.
Bring all your instruments.
Now, how many people are in the union?
OK.
Well, there's a thing with the union that you should know.
Basically, what you do, it's called doubles.
You will be told to bring an extra instrument
if you need it.
But sometimes they rewrite the parts,
because they know they've seen the score and all that.
But sometimes they rewrite the parts, and they need the apps.
And they'll pay you for it.
But they won't pay you to drive home and get it and come back.
So bring the stuff.
It's just good to have all your stuff.
And, of course, if you haven't practiced on something
like your piano, you're not going to be able to do that.
Like your piccolo trumpet for 10 months or something,
you don't own it.
Don't bring it.
I'm sorry, I haven't got one.
It's much better than, ah, like that.
OK.
So you bring all that stuff.
You will be paid if you need to use it.
And the contractor's not going to go,
I told you I had to bring a flugel.
I'm not going to pay you for that.
Don't worry about that.
Leave it in the car, do whatever.
OK.
Ask questions.
I know that Dave mentioned that you don't really
want to handle your stuff because you
don't want to be making this sort of verbal deal,
going back and forth with the conductor.
That's true.
You don't go back and forth.
But if you have a specific question,
if you're looking around your music
and something doesn't look right or you've got a note missing
and you can't figure it out with the principal
or the principal can't figure it out, ask.
There is no harm in that.
The worst thing is, and this happens,
you get to the end of the gig, you've
taken 20 takes on everything or four takes
or whatever on everything.
You've now got five minutes to do a five-minute
and one-second chart.
It's all going to be sight reading.
And the end of that last second is a high F sharp.
But you notice, the first time through that phrase
it was an F, but you're just wondering
if it's a copy mistake because you're afraid to ask.
That's no good because they do this chart
and you go, eh, on the F sharp at the end.
And they say, oh, that should have been an F.
And you're looking, and now you're in overtime
and they're upset.
Ask.
Phrasing, all that kind of stuff.
Check it out in your section with your principal
and then ask if you can't solve it.
Never be afraid.
It doesn't look bad to you at all when you ask questions.
Meet the composers and arrangers.
Extremely important.
If you're in school, this is very important.
Every school has a film department of sorts.
You're going to love this, Tim.
Every school has a film department of sorts.
You can meet the composers in your music school.
You can meet the arrangers because they're
the ones that give you the jobs.
If you, I'm sorry, I'm a little distracted.
Can you guys hear this tune?
It's really good.
You'll hear it all tonight.
These are all brass ensemble things.
If you get to know these guys, one, very frequently
they will write stuff for you.
Yeah, Carl's playing lead.
You can tell.
OK.
They will write stuff for you, number one,
which is really good.
And number two, if they decide to get into film
or they happen to get something,
they'll probably call you to do it,
which is also very good.
Or if they get a regular project
and they get a contractor to hire for them,
they will give your name or app.
It's very, very important.
Those of you who like to do writing
and things like that, go over to the film school.
Find some guy doing a student film.
You know all kinds of players in the music department.
Say, hey, I can get a little combo together.
Your original music for your thing
instead of you just sort of running on
records of The Who behind it
and picking up the needle every couple of scenes
and things like that.
So it's really good to get to know these guys.
And you'll get work from it.
And they all are going through this.
They're all graduating and going in
to become editors, to become this or that.
That's how I started working at
the first couple of film things I did.
This girl became an editor
at New World, which doesn't exist.
It actually does TV now,
but it did films in those days.
This was about eight years ago.
She was right down the hall from the producer,
the executive producer of the place.
And, hey, wait, I feel like that guy's tape
I brought you, you know, it's really good.
You know, walk by, walk by again
for lunch, go get some glass of water.
You know, it's that guy's tape, yeah.
You did a hell of a job on my student recital.
I hope the mic wasn't working too well.
Anyway, it's very important.
And then you all kind of come up together.
All of, I mean Kent, Tom,
and myself all kind of came up together
as players, and this is a treat for all of us, too.
Because we see each other now like once a year
because everybody's getting on,
you know, different parts of it.
You know, you meet people, you get jobs.
Also, you know, it makes for a good life.
It's what this whole thing is about anyway,
having, you know, a nice life
and having nice people to work with, that kind of stuff.
Okay.
Any questions?
One last thing about this is
I have a special deal.
I put here EVI, does everybody know what that is?
It's called an electronic valve instrument.
Actually, this is sort of old
and it's not a big deal right now
because actually most people do play
a little bit of keyboard.
And so the EVI was like a trumpet valve deal
but it drove a synthesizer.
It only played one note at a time
so you don't see it a lot anymore
because obviously keyboard
we can play several at a time
sort of out, it took over,
you know, it's much better
so they don't use EVI.
So a lot of guys play at least a little keyboard
and it's sort of a thing maybe
that's special
so they have to call you, there's a guy in LA
that developed the EVI
and he gets called for most of the gigs
for that.
Not because he's a great, great trumpet player
but because he started it
and he did a few
and then, you know, they hear this movie
and the director or somebody says
I like that sound, use that sound
and the conductor says okay, I wonder what that sound is
and he figures it out
and he calls in for the day, yeah.
Where can you find a Rachel Steiner EVI?
Also using a keyboard is better.
The EVI itself sort of got outcompeted
by the EWI which is a woodwind
instrument and woodwind
it just worked out better.
The electronics of the trumpet
it was crazy, it looked like a bug sprayer
and you played these fingers
but then to do the partials
you had to turn your hand like this
and you can learn to do it
just like you learn to control your
what?
You can learn to do it
but, you know, nobody really wanted to
so you don't see a lot
it's just not fast.
I just think it's not related to the trumpet at all
except it has three walls.
It's real deep, yeah, it's real weird
so people just hated it
and of course it's worse in that
it ends up sounding like a synthesizer
which is real pleasing too.
But a lot of guys have some sort of electronic rig
that they can bring in
or do something bizarre
I mean this goes all the way back
forget electronics
you all know of a record called Tootie's Trumpets?
Well, it's this record
an arranger, a writer
wasn't it 50s or 40s?
50s, yeah, right
Tootie Camerata is a big arranger
and he did this record
five or six of the top trumpets in town
and I won't name them
because I'll probably miss a couple
I'm not going to get into that
but like Manny Klein and Connie Gazzo
these guys
and what he did
each one of those guys
Gazzo is a great lead player
Manny is a great soloist
Pete Candoli was on this record
Condi Candoli, his brother
he had kind of developed this weird half valve deal
so the arranger wrote tunes
that featured each of these guys
doing their sort of specialty
it's a lot like what I talk about the cornet players
the old cornet players
who had a cadenza that they always did
it was like their signature
this is sort of that, so you can listen
you can hear Manny do something
that's completely Manny
and then there's a thing where Gazzo is below in lead
over the top of everybody
and they all had their specialty
and they got called for that kind of stuff
at all, seriously
nowadays, unfortunately
you have to do what you do
and electronics seems to be
a way to add to this
the young guys, Fazzuti is doing it
a lot of guys, you'll see them with
little deals on the end of their trumpets
little microphones on the end of the trumpets
and then that goes into something
that you've got to pull around with the sound
it's not great, and it's not for all the time
it's just for a little taste of change
now and again, but they will hire you
and then there you sit with the trumpet
so you will play all the trumpet stuff
they're not going to hire you
just go, wow
and then you get another trumpet player
and you get to do it all
something special
jazz soloing
a great sound, great legit chops
something that they can pick you out on
as Frank made the point
of 15 minutes trying to
convince people that they can't live without you
if they need you
if they need you they'll call you
that's the bottom line, forever
just some quick techniques about this
there are several different ways you have to play
and most of them relate to things you can do at school too
you have to be able to play with the conductor
now in film we call that free timing
that means there's no click track
or no deal out there
there are just marks on the film
and mostly the music can stretch
just like an orchestral piece
you can mostly give and take
very frequently in film stuff
it has to be
synchronized very carefully
and we'll get into that, I'll get you guys playing
it's kind of like playing
to a video metronome
so it's a little different
I just try to make music with it
click track is the other one
that's just like playing with your metronome
practice with the metronome
it's good for your playing in general
it's good for your timing, your time sense
and also if you do any of these kind of things
chances are you are going to run face long
at one point or another
and as I'm sure you're all going to test
those first couple of months
you notice that it takes about five months
for a metronome you just bought
to work right
it always slows down and speeds up
and in about five months of working with it
it's fine
it's always fine
alright
work with them
because you don't want to do that in front of people
you want to do it at home
a rhythm track
that would be piano, bass and drums
or orchestra or whatever
that's been recorded previously
it's really hard, Dave talked about playing
with the abrasol tapes
it's just like that
they're already there, they're not going to react to you
you have to react to them
you have to know what they're doing
and be sensitive and try to make music
even though these guys actually exist on a piece of tape
that's like this
it's an art
not just to have
strings playing while you do the solo
but try to make music
try to make music with the pre-existing thing
it's tough, really it's tough
and it comes up, it comes up a lot on record dates
where they'll put the brass
and they have laid in the strings
they put in the brass and then they put in the vocals
so you're playing back up to a song
there's no song, there's no voice
and you're still trying to stay out of the way of the voice
go figure
get used to it, that's a rhythm track
it could also be an orchestral track
I'm going to write that in there
other pre-recorded tracks
any combination of the above
playing with a microphone
it's really hard to wear headphones
and play because as you know
when you cover up your ears
everything sounds buzzy inside
frequently what they do is they'll give you
a one sided earphone
or else they can put your sound in the mix
so that you hear your sound coming through
that's a little weird
but just be prepared
you very often have to use headphones
or at least principle players have to use headphones
sometimes not
we won't hear because just logistically
we don't have enough headphones
be flexible
keep an open mind
this is part of the be a good humor thing too
if someone tells you to play a phrase the way that you know
isn't going to work
you play it anyway
it's not only your job to play it
it's your job to make it work
don't let you do what you think is musical
especially if they know you
if they don't know you they'll ask you
to play a certain way
and just do it
don't argue
if you have terrible reservations
try your best to make it work
and then maybe quietly
off somewhere
offer another possible humble suggestion
as to how it may work
but that's it
and if they won't budge
and then let them a week later in the mix go
wow that didn't work
but it's their problem
if they do that and it was your idea
guess who?
be real flexible
that has to do with styles
and with anything
not necessarily with breaks
but try to do the best you can
silent phrasing
be able to perform all styles
here's something
everybody put your horns down on the floor
be careful
or hold your horns and everybody stand up
now I'm going to ask you about performing
your experience
right now
or in the past performing in certain groups
if
and this could be school
this doesn't have to be right now
it can be in the past
in school or
whatever
if you've never played in
a jazz band
a symphony or a jazz band
if you've never played in a jazz band
sit down
everybody else stays up
you don't stand back up
if you sat down stay down
if you've never played in
a marching band
sit down
although this one's sort of iffy
if you've never played
if you've never played in a wind band
a wind ensemble
sit down
yeah?
you will though
you're perfect because you've got all kinds of time
to do all this
you've never played in a symphony orchestra
at all
sit down
you've never played in a brass window
sit down
oh I got you
I got you
if you've ever played in any rock charts
like in a rock ensemble
sit down
you say how
huh?
alright sit down
no no I know you've done that
now look around
no you stay sitting down
I did play in a brass quartet
so you've done all this stuff
you've done everything so far
well stand up
if you've never
alright you can exist
ok now everybody look around
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
9, 10, 11, 12
I knew that
13, 14
14 out of what
we have about 60 people in this room
this is why
there's no problem
if you're prepared getting work
because hardly anybody
is prepared for the work
when you sit down
when you sit in
get called
if you're going to do studio work
and try to make a living
they're going to call you for a Dixieland band
Dixieland band
and they're going to say oh yeah
because the film is a serious drama
about this and that
and they just happen to be walking
talking about Kafka on the street
and they walk by a Dixieland club
so what
somebody's got to play this Dixieland chart
and now they're talking again
they've got Sad Street
and they keep walking down the street
and they go by a swing club
or a rock band
I don't know how many of you saw Scrooge
but at one point they're just talking
and they're out in the street
and they walk by and there's this
these guys are doing We Three Kings
it's this little combo
looks like bag people on the street playing
it's Miles Davis and Paul Schaefer
it's really funny
check out the movie you've got
it's like two seconds and it's Miles on
and they just keep walking
they make some rude comment about the group
but anyway
you have to be prepared for all this stuff
because it all comes up number one
number two
depending on how a lot of people feel about it
it's all music
so far
rap is alright we can talk
but
you have to be prepared
Frank made a great comment
about making
your family eating
even if you don't have a family
you might be interested in that yourself
you need to be able to do all this stuff
because they're not going to hire five guys
if they don't have to
they're going to hire one guy
to do all this stuff
guy being male, female
vegetation
I don't know
singers
they'll hire
one person
and you have to be able to do it
and there's also the possibility
that you sat there
and they said it's a legit gig
and you play the brass quintet so you can do this
and they have to decide
we should have a tempo thing here
and there you sit with your trumpet
you can't get on the phone and call someone else
you'd be dead
get the experience
a lot of people don't get into jazz band
or orchestra
because they're afraid they're going to blow it
school is where you blow it
school is where you do it
that's where you make your mistakes
and you learn your stuff
you don't learn your stuff while they're paying you
you learn your stuff while you're paying them
remember you're paying them
so you've got a lot to learn
from the conductor
you've got a lot to learn from all your teachers
and all your coaches
you are paying us to teach you
you are not paying us to say
you can't play classical
so I'm not going to let you in the orchestra
because my reputation is at stake
and you say
we told the check this year
it doesn't work that way unfortunately
but that's the point
you are paying us to teach you
you go out there and you blow it
destroy yourself
as far as your regulation
all the way through jazz band
it's going to be fun
make your mistakes there
you don't want to go out and have your first thing sat in a jazz band
when they're paying you
$173 for three hours
it's $200 and something now
$205 for a three hour session
because that's not good
perfect opportunity
school, community orchestras
community big band
you all have a junior college value that has a big band in it
or a wind band
you all know brass
you all have a junior college there
and know nothing
know nothing?
what about a municipal band?
san jose
you got a car or not?
do what you can
look around
you guys have shown a lot of initiative
you've dragged yourself out for a whole week of the summer
to come here and listen to us
that's some initiative
use that back at home
put together a group
right
they're putting together a community jazz band
for those of you that didn't hear
the worst thing that can happen
is you'll meet a lot of really neat people
and you'll have a lot of fun
the best thing that could happen
is you put this thing together
people show up to concerts
and start really getting into it in the school
then they look over at the junior college and say
you guys don't have a jazz band
take some initiative
do you know how that friend was talking about changing the union?
that's how we change our situation
hopefully all together
very good
go out and find these things
play anything you can
even if you can only get a brass band together
you can get these weird arrangements of pixie land charts
and classical things
play all the styles
and don't be afraid to mess up
that's what it's all about
have fun, you'll learn a lot more messing up
and overcoming it
on a job, don't take it if you can't
if you're pretty sure you can't do it
for a school thing, take anything
or a learning experience thing
take anything
and go and learn, sit fourth, sit fifth
sit whatever and learn
and move on
that's really it
I have a little thing about a demo tape here
the reality is
demo tapes are okay
but no one
but no one will hire you on a demo tape
they will hear you play
or they will hear a dear friend of theirs
who they completely trust
who said they heard you play
and that you were great
that's the only way you'll get a call
you'll never get hired off a demo tape
especially nowadays
because the editing is so good
you can make things amazing
but even if it wasn't
people will hear you
demo tapes are okay, but you're not going to get your jobs up
any other questions?
oh
okay, everybody awake?
okay, good
make any sense
okay, yes
I have one question about the extra stuff
I know there's another device
called the pitch writer
oh, pitch followers
there are a lot of different ones like that
they're getting better and better
but they're not very reliable yet
there's a thing that will actually take the sound
and figure out what note that is
and transfer it into a synthesizer
so if you play a C
or a Bb concert
it will trigger a Bb
in the synthesizer and make that sound come out
but they're sort of unreliable
the problem is it's a time lag
that's what it's figuring
we are a lot smarter than computers
that's just the reality
and we always will be
whether we use that
or choose to use it
in certain ways is another story
but a computer
has not been made yet
that can do what we can do
to get better
faster than it can
I don't understand digital sampling
I haven't heard that much about it
oh, yeah, right
I really didn't go through that, did I?
digital sampling is not something you really have to worry about
if someone says
if you're ever recording something
or someone's got a recorder around you
and says, yeah, do me a favor
and put a little space between each one
okay?
don't do that
what they do is
they've gone along through sampling instruments
which means that
you know what a CD is
it's like a CD
on a computer or on some kind of synthesizer deal
and what they can actually do is
they capture what's called the waveform
the way your sound looks
if you put it on a graph
of different amplitude
loudnesses and frequencies
different pitches
y'all know this whole overtone scale thing?
well, it's a whole bit of that
there's a bit of the overtone scale in every sound
and they can actually capture
a CD of each note you play
they can plug it into an instrument
and say, okay, when I push this key
play that back
this kind of deal
all the trumpet samples sound horrible
so it's not really something you have to worry about
for that reason
it's not bad
the thing that comes on about
that's what digital sampling is
the thing that comes into it
is that it has to be very unmusical
we do unbelievable things
as we play
we change every attack, whether we know it or not
just for a matter of feel
we change every volume
we change every note from the time you start it
to the time you end it
there's just not enough memory
right now you could fill this room
there will not be enough
to play one melody
on a synthesizer the way a musician would
and even if it was
it would just be one melody
and every time they played it would be the same way
and you can't have that either
again, every time we play through a thing
we play it a little different
which is what it's all about
and it's no way
there is no way that that's possible
and if it ever
becomes even part way possible
if it's expensive, they won't do it
because it would be cheaper to use this
here's something I always ask people
I forgot about this
and then we'll get to the playing thing
how many
I want you to
I guess I can move around
I want you to give me
how do you call this
okay
to be thinking about this
what do you think it takes
to be a studio player
as in what things you think
you need to learn
or rather
because that's what I showed you now
what
what great studio players
do
not all these kind of little special
things I told you now
I mean what you need
accuracy or whatever
those kind of things that people are looking for
in a player
so
I can't figure out how to do this
I can't get over this
any ideas
no I mean it's a length thing
anything else
great sound
thank you
no one's ever said that before
anything else
very good
accuracy
improvisation
intonation
great
you know this is really excellent
I tried this this way this year
usually I start out by asking this question
and it goes a completely different way
and I wanted to try it this year
and see
see what would happen and this is actually really good
anymore
yeah
personability
that's absolutely true
you make it
how it is
it's tough sometimes
okay that's very very good
usually believe it or not
see if this sounds familiar to something
maybe you would have thought of in the past
absolute
perfect accuracy
number one
number two the ability to do something over
and over and over exactly the same way
three never miss
four
four
great technique
velocity
ability to play things very very fast
very very high very very low
all that all the time
and there were four or five just like that
now you get the idea where this thing is going
no
but where it's going
yeah it sounds mechanical
and I mean there was a time
when that was the idea
you got to be perfect we want it just like this
just like this
you remember that
that was ten years ago
to some extent it still happens
well you know what does that real real real well
any guesses
drum machines, midi, synthesizers
computers
can do that they can blow you away
with accuracy they'll do it
exactly the same every time
if you want to change a little thing you can change a little thing
and they'll do it exactly different
every time
oddly enough
that's not enough
that doesn't have any life to it
and people have started to notice
that that doesn't have any life to it
so even nowadays you'll see synth stores
good ones
that have ten guys listed at the end
that's not a full orchestra but it's ten guys