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The Other Side

Trey Reely | August 2011



   Last year I joined the North Little Community Band as a euphonium player. It was the first time that I was performing regularly in an ensemble since I began teaching, and on an unfamiliar instrument at that. (I played trumpet during my formative years). It has been interesting to be on the other side of the baton, and the experience has given me a chance to reflect on my teaching over the past 26 years.
   Probably the toughest part of trading places was the loss of control. I joined the community band because I wanted to play, not conduct. There was some relief in this but it was still difficult not to be the one who picks the music, sets the tempos, makes the corrections, attempts humor, and brings everything together.
   Some of my rehearsal perspectives have reverted back to those of my younger days. I began to judge a piece but how interesting my part was. The melody-deprived euphonium has made me practice what I preached to low brass players over the years – make the most out of every whole and half note. A snippet of melody in some pieces is like an oasis in the Sahara.
   I am rather picky about what marches I like as a conductor but as a euphonium player I never met a march I didn’t like and Karl King is my new hero. Of course, we play more than marches; being in a community band has been like entering a musical time machine. Band classics from my youth and before pepper our programs: Instant Concert, The Blue and the Gray, Stars and Stripes Forever, The Trombone King, The Big Bass Drum, The Roosters Lay Eggs in Kansas, On the Mall, Strategic Air Command, The Glory of the Yankee Navy, and many others.
   To my shame I found that my attention span as a player was shorter than when I conducted. A conductor score has always demanded my full attention, but I found that when presented with only a single part, my mind would sometimes begin to wander. I’d think, “I wonder how old that saxophone player is over there? He must be in his 80s. Music really is for all ages. I can’t wait till we play a march. Man, I still need to plan out tomorrow’s rehearsal.” Then I snapped back only to find that I did not know where we were resuming our playing. I was a little more understanding my own ensemble the next day.
   I have also come to appreciate how much trust a player has to have in the director regarding balances. We can tell students to listen all we want but what they hear can vary greatly based on where they are sitting. Periodically, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for directors to sit within the group in various locations to discover exactly what students are hearing. I played euphonium with a large student group a few months ago with a tuba in my right ear and a last chair horn player aiming at my left ear. Many of my judgments about balance were completely based on what the conductor asked me to do, not what I could hear for myself.
   I have also gained a new appreciation for the desire of players to spend most of the rehearsal playing, not listening to the conductor talk. Thankfully, we spend most of our time playing in the community band, but I was a member of a demonstration ensemble for a conducting clinic last year where the clinician talked so much that I felt as antsy as a kindergartner gorged with chocolate. (Admittedly, a clinician is expect to talk more than in a normal rehearsal, but it was ironic that he was verbally explaining how to communicate musical ideas more than showing how to communicate those ideas.)
   I have made mistakes as a conductor, but usually my students do not catch them. As a director playing in a community band there is an inner pressure to keep up appearances and play perfectly. A solid dose of humility is required to accept correction during a rehearsal and then mark the music with a pencil to make sure it doesn’t happen again. This has served me well and given extra incentive to push my players to mark their music. I tell them, “I’ve been around music my whole life and still mark things in my music during community band rehearsals. You should, too.”
   One unexpected feeling I have developed is a slight jealousy of the flute players in the front row who get to hear all of the director’s asides. I never considered how much better I get to know the front-row players during a rehearsal. On the other hand there are some advantages to sitting in the back; my front-row players sometimes complain about me spitting when I talk.
   Finally, and maybe most important, I have rediscovered the sense of camaraderie between players, which is a different dynamic than that between conductor and player. You want to please the conductor, of course, but when another player tells you that you did a good job, it is special because you are in the musical trenches together.
   I plan on continuing my community band experience, and I will keep learning new things and relearning old concepts and applying that knowledge to my conducting when I am back on the podium. I am glad that I don’t have to trade my instrument in for a baton. I can have the best of both worlds.