Confessions of a brass player

So, you may as well know that since our return to Saint Paul in September I have been playing with the Luther Brass group. We are a small brass ensemble made up of students and other people on campus who play brass instruments. We have two trumpet players, two french horn players, two trombone players and a baritone player for a total of seven players in all. Now, with all of this surrounding support of other players I had been hoping to simply play along in simple obscurity for the most part, but when our tuba player dropped out of the group it became necessary for our other trombone player to bring out his bass trombone to fill out the low brass sound. He prefers playing that instrument anyway, so he is truly enjoying himself. The only problem is that now there is only one instrument in the entire ensemble on the tenor part. Want to know who it is? I'll give you a hint; the full name of the instrument I play is "tenor trombone." So there you go, I am carrying the trombone part all by myself! I suppose one day I should really learn how to play the thing! Actually, it is all coming back to me with the help of the handy chart above.

Seriously, I am having fun and we are playing regularly in chapel and even a little bit outside of chapel. We have played three times in chapel so far this semester, and last Friday we played for the youngsters in the seminary day-care. Today, in honor of Reformation Sunday yesterday, we played Reformation chorales from the roof of Olson Campus Center. You've heard of a Fiddler on the Roof? Well, this was kind of like that except there were seven of us, plus our director, Dr. Paul Westermeyer, and none of us were playing fiddle, so really it was nothing like that. Besides which, our roof is flat and surrounded by brick so that no one ever falls off, and there is even a small eating area for people to enjoy in nice weather. Today was a bit cold for eating outside; with the temperature in the mid-forties while we played. Still, we drew a crowd of onlookers from the walkway below, and we had fun, which is the main idea. Now if only I could remember that F# is in fifth position I'll be fine! See? Seminary isn't all serious theology! Blogged by Don