It's the day after rehearsal 7. It is our big band's first concert of the semester and I get a ticket for unloading equipment. I parked near the red curb because the loading zone is full and far away.
Our Big Band is the main source of entertainment for this college fair. We will be performing outside in the college quad area. It's actually a giant hole in the middle of the quad. The audience will be very far away. There are many signs telling students to keep off the grass. 😐
No, this is not a paid gig and by the way, if an event's coordinators are cutting corners with entertainment and food, you can be certain they're cutting corners in other areas too.
No donut today and very little coffee for me. I'm trying to quit or maybe I should say cut back and eventually quit. Maybe I picked the wrong day?
Traffic and parking pains...
Traffic is flowing. This unpaid concert is in the middle of the day. Most people are working, so traffic hasn't built up yet and I would have been happy about that 2 years ago. A recent revelation about my injury tells me I shouldn't be driving at all. My sacrum still hates me.
First Parking ticket update:
Second Parking Ticket Update:
I didn't send in money with my appeal this time. I did the work myself. I read the fine print and made a proper first level appeal.
I'm contesting this second ticket and this is what I wrote into the online appeal form:
"I was loading equipment for a college sanctioned event and momentaraly parked in that location long enough to remove two large items, alone. I was asked to volunteer my musical services at THE college's college fair. Official loading zones are too far from the venue and are often occupied by other vehicles because the loading zone is too small to begin with. Instead, there are paid parking spots available directly in front of a door used for loading into the theater or fire exit, where the yellow loading zone should extend. Smells like maximizing parking profits off the backs of students. Fire code violation?""Parking far away and loading equipment with a back injury is an unacceptable expectation for volunteers providing services. Musicians were already volunteering their time in the middle of the day, to make that event a success. Musicians don't NEED to play music for anyone for free. Don't we all download enough music for free already anyway?! Are we taxing the musicians for serving us with music now? Musicians spend a lot of time mastering their instruments. Talent is an illusion that gives us an excuse to forgive ourselves for our perceived shortcomings."
"This $100 citation equals a lot of groceries to me and it's a real life definition of kicking a man while he is down.
Student deserve leniency and warnings. 100 is a lot of money for many student. Citations don't even go towards the cost of a parking pass and your credit card background clearly shows who or what you and Santa Ana College serve."
To be continued...
🎦 Live Big Band Broadcasts:
First we do a sound check. It's amazing how relaxed my attitude is when I'm stubborn about using my hands. It's good to check the balance of the band. By the time we perform I'll probably be tired thanks to this sound check. You're either practiced enough or you're not. There's no point going through every single part of every song unless you've skip rehearsals.🎥 I have one broadcast for this performance. Click this link if you want to see the concert from the start: https://www.pscp.tv/w/b3QkazFtTUtQdldZa3lnRUd8MW5BS0V5RVpyak9LTNwH9fd3SQCDCyBqitWVfN3-K_fwpTNg5jkqXoThiBIt?t=2s
💣🐢 Most of the broadcast features our other bass player, but I play a song [here at 18:49:] https://www.periscope.tv/Tetrahedroseph/1nAKEyEZrjOKL?t=18m49s
The wind didn't want me to play this song and you can see me fighting with the sheet music while I play. This is a major downside to performing big band outside. I prefer to use 8x11 sheets of clear acrylic to hold the sheet music down, but the director didn't bring them. We used something similar that look like a clear rulers attached to a clothespin. They suck. They don't hold down the entire piece of paper. I miss the large flat acrylic sheets this director once used.
📹 See me reveal to the other bass player that the second page of the song she is about to perform is for an entirely different song: https://www.periscope.tv/Tetrahedroseph/1nAKEyEZrjOKL?t=24m24s
Some would say I did her a disservices by helping so much, but sometime I want our team and our people to be well. It reflects upon us all and the wind dynamic is hard to anticipate. I should have know. I've been in windy situations before. If we only had the large acrylic sheets... blah, blah, blah.
📽 See me jump up like a ninja and stop the other bass player's music chart from blowing away here at 26:01: https://www.periscope.tv/Tetrahedroseph/1nAKEyEZrjOKL?t=26m1s
My right hand to snatch a piece of paper trying to escape and the left hand on my knee to hold up my back muscles. See the next screen shot.
📱🔥 My broadcast ended abruptly because my phone's touch screen has a mind of its own. (Word to the wise: don't put your Coinbase desktop shortcut in the region of your touchscreen that malfunctions the most.) Heat from the sun, in combination with the cracked screen protector creates a random button pressing issue. Oh and the screen was replaced once already. iPhone 7 forever baby!
🐢💨💩Click here at 29:32 to see the ground while listening to me play a song before the broadcast ends: https://www.periscope.tv/Tetrahedroseph/1nAKEyEZrjOKL?t=29m32s
The next GIF features the images my touch screen created for me while I was performing:
By the time I perform our last three songs, my camera phone is flipping back and forth the between the front and back facing camera as it tries to stream. Eventually, it stops switching a we get a good closeup shot of a crack in the cement.
Big band is Jazz too.
Of corse it's Jazz. It's possibly the oldest part of the Jazz music genre. Big band is also considered an era. The "swing era" is often used to describe Big Band because jazz music swings. Even though that may be true, big bands usually play serval styles of music. Bossa Nova, Rumba, Cha-Cha, Beguine, Samba, and Afro Cuban are some of the "latin" styles featured in big band. There are many pop songs with big band arrangement too. Remember that previous image of "Sir Duke?" That is a songs from Stevie Wonder.
If you've been following along in this series, you have probably read about the rhythm section most of the time. I play bass in this big band and that's why. You know, walking bass.
The rhythm section commonly consists of piano, bass, guitar, drums and percussion. If you see a vibraphone player, they are considered part of the rhythm section too. Am I missing anything? Synth, marimba, yeah sure, maybe. They are rhythm section also. Singers? No, they don't even have rhythm. Just kidding... a little. (I'm gonna catch shit for that joke.)I'll continue this section in the next big band post.Bass amps:
I'm using my own rig. It's the bass amp and satellite I've been using for almost 9 years with perform with Steel Parade. Funny thing, my amp was performing with Steel Parade before I was. I purchased it from the former bass player. It's a slightly modified Mesa Boogie Walkabout.
Our other big band bass player is going to use the school's bass amp because she knows how to use it now. She's done her homework and kinda knows how to adjust for the feedback issues she has been having. I taught her how to use the gain knob and master knob to find a balance in sensitivity.
Her stand up/double bass has a pickup on the outside and it's extremely sensitive. It's almost debilitating. She needs to increase the gain on the amp to play softer, but that just makes it too sensitive. This over sensitivity will require her to play harder. I guess that's fine for one concert, but if she had to play all the songs and play a gig tomorrow, her hand would be in pain. We are not sharing bass amps. We did that yesterday at the rehearsal. It was a disruption for me to adjust all my tone knobs on the my guitar. All the controls on the amp are tweaked to accommodate the feedback issues her bass has been having. I'm afraid for her when we get to the final concert of the semester because it's in a large theater with a full PA system and monitors. I told here she needs to bring socks to help reduce the vibration feeding into her bass.I eventually solve her feed back issues. I teach her and the big band director what to do in the future. It's easy and maybe you already know about. Few people do. I'll talk about this in a later post. Be sure to stick with my series.
Cost of a Big Band Beat Down:
Last time, I included the costs of the first ticket and also the wages I would lose performing in today's concert. That total came out $126.30.😒
For today's concert, I will add the usual $6 for parking and gas. My new estimate should be $132.30.
🤬 Spoiler alert: I'm going to add in the new $100 fine for this second parking ticket. Dumb drum roll please...
My new total expense is $232.30!
NEXT: Big Band Series Part 8, Rehearsal 9: I'm cutting my costs and therefor I skipped rehearsal 8.
Previous posts in this series:
1. "2019 Big Band Series Warning from Steemseph" https://steempeak.com/music/@steemseph/caution-2019-big-band-series-from-steemseph-coming-soon or https://steemit.com/music/@steemseph/caution-2019-big-band-series-from-steemseph-coming-soon
2. "Big Band Rehearsals 1 and 2 February 2019 Part 1" https://steemit.com/steempeak/@steemseph/big-band-rehearsals-1-and-2-february-2019-part-1
3. "That guy who plays Monday night Big Band bass. Part 2 Rehearsal 3 scrambled and ticketed" https://steemit.com/music/@steemseph/that-guy-who-plays-monday-night-big-band-bass-part-2-rehearsal-3-scrambled-and-ticketed
4. "That guy who plays Big Band bass gives an update. Part 3: Rehearsal 4 is neat and parking tickets suck." https://steempeak.com/@steemseph/that-guy-who-plays-big-band-bass-gives-an-update-part-3-rehearsal-4-is-neat-and-parking-tickets-suck
5. "Big band Part 4: Rehearsal 5 Fancy Gear goes boink and a percussion lesson." https://steemit.com/steempeak/@steemseph/big-band-part-4-rehearsal-5-fancy-gear-goes-boink-and-a-percussion-lesson
6. "That bass guitar guy who plays bass in a Big Band Part 5: It's rehearsal 6. Do We Sound Better?" https://steemit.com/music/@steemseph/that-bass-guitar-guy-who-plays-bass-in-a-big-band-part-5-it-s-rehearsal-6-do-we-sound-better
7. "Big Band Part 6, Rehearsal 7 for a concert that will cost me $126.30!?!" https://steemit.com/music/@steemseph/big-music-is-big-band-part-6-rehearsal-7-for-a-concert-that-will-cost-me-usd126-30
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My music on BandCamp is here: https://tetrahedroseph.bandcamp.com/music
My music on BandCamp is here: https://tetrahedroseph.bandcamp.com/music
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