Question For The Classical Guys

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

(Hi, Sas )

 

How many pieces do you guys rehearse? How many pieces could you guys play (competently and publicly) if called upon to do so right now?

 

I'm asking because I'm struggling through one of Bach's concertos for the cello (on bass) and I'm thinking it looks like a full-time job. It's something like three and a half minutes of really full on arpeggios.

 

Do you guys practice a complete repertoire, like a band would practice a set, or do you just practice one piece at a time?

[fantasticsound]

I believe I read somewhere that classical players at the top of the game have less than 20 - 25 pieces that are performance ready at any given time.

 

Of course they know more songs than that, but being ready to nail any given one takes more practice.

 

I'm trying to remember but I'm almost sure it was Christopher Parkening who said that in an interview.

[soggybomb]

I believe I read somewhere that classical players at the top of the game have less than 20 - 25 pieces that are performance ready at any given time.

 

Of course they know more songs than that, but being ready to nail any given one takes more practice.

 

I'm trying to remember but I'm almost sure it was Christopher Parkening who said that in an interview.

I play classical shows at private parties (and rock shows in bars), and i usually have enough of a repertoire to play solo for about 1-1.5 hours straight. i don't know how many songs i can play, just the length of the show. i have a lot of sheet music, so i always bring that along with me, which expands what i can do live, as memorizing a classical piece is really hard.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

i have a lot of sheet music, so i always bring that along with me, which expands what i can do live, as memorizing a classical piece is really hard.

 

Yes, I guess it must be. I'm amazed at how much work seems to be involved.

 

[Justus A. Picker]

When I did restaurant gigs I had about 90 minutes of music memorized and another 30-40 pieces I could fake my way through with the music in front of me.

 

Practicing was almost a full-time job in and of itself! If I wasn't working the "real" job I had a guitar in my hands. These days I'd be lucky if I could pull off 15 minutes of simple classical stuff without some serious woodshedding.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Yes, I'm finding that too: so much rides on the purity of the tone and the only way one can do that is by being more than perfect in one's technique. I'm enjoying it because it's like normal practicing, but on steroids I can really see why people can spend months preparing a single concerto for performance.

[A String]

I've learned a ton of classical songs. The problem is, I seem to have to relearn them every few years. I find that I if I don't practise classical pieces on a regular basis, they slowly slip away. Of all the ones I've learned, I would have to say that only four or five have made it through. Back to the wood shed...

[Fingerstyle_Jim]

Even though I'm only playing part time now I can still put together a couple of hours worth for a gig. I discovered early on that unless you are shooting for the concert stage you don't need to be knocking yourself out trying to learn and keep all the most difficult to play material out there. Like Justus, I have my best songs memorized, but I keep a book with easy to read peices handy, especially the ones that don't stray much from the first position. Look for early studies by Guiliani, Carulli, Aguado and you'll find a lot of nice music that makes you feel good for two reasons, 1. They sound nice and 2. You get a feeling of accomplishment. I too tackled some high-level Bach in my early days, and after spending months struggling with it and not liking what I was hearing myself do I put it away and grabbed a copy of book one from the Royal Conservatory of Music and discovered that I could actually play several of the songs right away, and they even sounded good. But the bigger discovery came later, when I was playing a real gig(sorry for the length of this post). I was booked to play at a "cocktail hour" type of thing for a couple of hours so I had to pull out all the music I had, and all of the top shelf music went right by everybody while the easy stuff I mentioned above got remarks of approval(they don't applaud at this type of event, it's almost like the piano bar thing). So now, after having spent about 10 years playing a lot of gigs(and I mean a LOT), I only play one every couple of months and given a two or three week lead I can pull my repertoire into shape with an hour a day of practise. But I still noodle around every other day or so even if there's no date on the calendar. One more point, when you are booked to play a "background music" type of gig you will usually find that people aren't into zeroing in on a masterpiece, they just want something that sounds nice and doesn't challenge them to engage in it. These gigs are called "potted plant gigs" around here, and not every musician can do this type of gig, especially if they are looking for applause and high praise. I always left feeling good after doing one though,

 

Jim

[Rhino Madness]

Jim, that is awesome info on this type of gigs, thanks!

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Jim, that is awesome info on this type of gigs, thanks!

 

What he said! Thanks!