Show of the Night

[ravedodger]

A guy I know had the quarters or semis recording and the sop soloist did fine then. I first saw that show on a crappy tape of the PBS broadcast. They showed some clips from I&E and there was a Phantom sop guy playing variation 3 of Fantasy Brillante.

Yeah, that's the same guy. Ray Vasquez's rookie year. Known today as Dr. Vasquez. DCP's trptjock--or tptjock.

[Phansouth]

He's at Auburn, right??????/

[trptjock]

Yeah,

I am at Auburn University.

[The Tsar]

Yeah,

I am at Auburn University.

Hey there, Ray Ray...

:P

Hope all is well up there in War Eagle land...

[trptjock]

So here was the deal with my solo in the 1991 production.

As I got into the beginning portion of the solo, everything was going great (some of this is a little bit foggy--remembering what happened 15 years ago-----man I'm old) but one of my valves was sticking-so that was fun to deal with.

At the end of the first portion of the solo (during rehearsals) my soprano tech (Albert Lo-now a DCI Judge) told me to do something different rather than just walk up to the front of the field and play the second part of the solo. So I decided to spin my horn like I had seen with the trumpet player from Earth, Wind and Fire do during concerts and on TV. So I did that which was fun to do (and got a crowd reaction-which was very effective) but I had to rig my horn so that my thrid valve slide would not move as I spun the horn.

Now, because I spun the horn around, some spit moved towards the mouthpiece end which made my normal seal on my lips more slippery than what I usually play on. I play on a dry embouchure rather than a wet one-for those of you who care about that stuff. So with saliva in my mouthpiece, it made the initial few notes of the second portion of the solo not respond like I would have liked. Which, in turn affected the outcome of a portion of the solo. But the final notes of the solo came out like they were supposed to...ending on a double B-natural (on a G bugle).

So hopefully that answers some questions about why that solo was not at the "Level" as the rest of the show.

Also, keep in mind that this was my rookie year and I caught grief the entire summer from "Power vets" about my being a rookie soloist which was unheard of for that corps at that time.

But I would not have traded my experience with Regiment for the world. I was very lucky to have marched three fantastic years with the corps.

1991-Phantom Voices

1992-War and Peace

1993-the Modern Imagination

Regardless of the turn out from the placement of how we did during those three years (3rd, 8th, 3rd), the various shows from those three summers of all the corps were quite memorable.Very Very cool stuff.

"Practice Hard, don't Hardly Practice"

Edited September 20, 2006 by trptjock

[Chris Scott]

Nuttin but love for ya Dr. V.

Nuttin but love.

:)

[trptjock]

Tsar NICK,

Dude, things in Tiger land are going great. Trying to get more students in the trumpet studio at Auburn University, but that is a given. Right now, the trumpet section in the marching band is a good 60 members strong which is a 33% improvement from last year. The trumpet studio here is 15 members strong and looking to get bigger next year.

Keep it real for Regiment in 91 BABY.

SUTA

[angelbugler]

Ray,

Hombre, the solo is still wildly effective! Crowds those days weren't as sophisticated back then. (haha) #### those King Valves.... I can't believe you didn't stick to the routine you had all year. Talk about shoddy teaching, courtesy of one Albert Lo. (ha ha) That's blasphemy for a soloist or athlete.

Question, what mouthpiece were you using for the summer?

Edited September 20, 2006 by angelbugler

[gellio]

Should have been 2nd to Cavvies at finals; Star had a less than stellar performance that night. SCV was on fire too (Miss Saigon). Most of us in top section, side 2 on the 0 yard line had it

Cavvies

Phantom/SCV

BD/Cadets

Star

Base on the performances we witnessed that evening.

Flame shields up.

Flame shields should go up! I love Phantom that year (my 2nd favorite after Star) and Cavies too (my third favorite), but I thought Star should have won by a good 2 points.

[trptjock]

Agnelbugler,

So, the instruction was not shoddy, as I had performed the solo the entire summer. The added "Special effects" were done so two weeks before finals, so I had rehearsed them but never performed them in a show until the week prior to Finals. Albert only recommended that I try something different. Working on that GE moment before finals went fine. Nobody can judge when saliva will enter the mouthpiece at any given moment, especially under the hot lights of Finals night. So there ya go.

As far as my mouthpiece I used back then, I was playing on a Schilke 13A4. I have changed mouthpieces for specialty playing from then. I now use a Karl Hammond RV Model (Ray Vasquez) for lead work. It is similar to a Marcinkewicz "Roger Ingram" model mouthpiece. Very good for lead playing-not for all types of playing.

Good times.

Ray

Ray,

Hombre, the solo is still wildly effective! Crowds those days weren't as sophisticated back then. (haha) #### those King Valves.... I can't believe you didn't stick to the routine you had all year. Talk about shoddy teaching, courtesy of one Albert Lo. (ha ha) That's blasphemy for a soloist or athlete.

Question, what mouthpiece were you using for the summer?