[Trombone-l] Coffee talk...

[Wayne Dyess]

I beg to differ.  I think you CAN play good music with mediocre  
musicians.  Now, if you're talking about beginners with bad tones...  
that is one thing.  Good tone quality leads to good intonation.  You  
generally can't have one without the other, and it almost always  
starts with good fundamental SOUND.

What I am talking about here is the British Brass Band kind of  
player.  He works a day job, but plays on the side for fun.  We have  
those in the U.S., too, though not always in a brass band variety.   
Community bands... big bands.  My Night & Day Orchestra, for  
instance, is comprised of players who might not always get a call for  
a gig, but they love to play.  Most played in a good college jazz  
band.  Some play professionally on the side.  Are they bad players?   
I don't think so.  They may not sight-read as well as the union guys,  
but they can darn sure work up just about any chart we care to tackle  
and sound good on it.

Having a good MUSICIAN rehearsing the band can bring out all that is  
needed to make what might have been mediocre at best, and make it  
into some really good, impressive sounding MUSIC.

Bad musicians?  Hardly.  Bad players?  Not on my watch.

I don't associate with folks who can't make a good fundamental  
sound.  Those types won't get the call to even sit in.  If those are  
the kinds of folks we're talking about, then yeah -- I'd agree.  But  
if by "bad" you mean non-union players who play for the fun of it?  I  
vehemently disagree that they can't make good music!

--Wayne


On Jun 28, 2007, at 1:10 PM, Joe Norcross wrote:

> You really can not play good music with bad musicians, but good  
> musicians
> can make bad music sound better than it should
>
> Joe Norcross
> Tuba COS Sequoia Winds, Visalia CA
> Tuba-Announcer Kingsburg City Band
> joetuba at lightspeed.net

Wayne Dyess
The Night & Day Orchestra
http://www.ndotex.com
Lamar University-Beaumont, Texas
Professor of Music