For as few gigs I play, rehearsals take up a lot of time. I also go to a lot of concerts-- at least once a month. I LOVE MUSIC! When there's no events going on, I get bored and end up finding something else to keep me on my toes. The past couple years school had kept me too busy, but this year I had a free summer.
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| Pit Orchestra Rehearsal |
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| Herriman Orchestra |
The Search Begins:
I grew restless knowing I didn't have any upcoming projects over the summer. My band was on hiatus and I didn't know what was going on with anything else, I found myself with more time than I knew what to do with. For a while I had wanted to return to the theater aspect of performing arts. I had a lot of fun playing in West Side Story and Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in high school. I knew that it was time to find a pit orchestra that would take me. After doing some digging around my community, I came up empty on local theater companies with live orchestras.
One of my friends was playing guitar in a musical, and after the show one night, I got talking with the drummer. In the program her biography listed countless groups she played professionally with. These groups were all pit orchestras.We talked about my frustrations of a lack of local theater companies with live pits, she gave me some pointers and suggestions about where to go from here. She suggested a local company 20 minutes from my house, doing "Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" over the summer. I could not be more ecstatic.
I reached out the Arts Council and was pointed in the right direction. It's a community orchestra, with volunteers who just want to play. Luckily, I fit the criteria and had the opportunity to join.
Trial By Fire:
The Orchestra didn't need more woodwinds, but they did need guitarists. I somehow wound up in a situation where I had agreed to play guitar for them. Being aware that I needed to play guitar, I was in dire need for an upgraded rig. I bought a new Boss Katana 100 amp and a neat Fender Stratocaster to pair with my Taylor GS Mini. Knowing guitar is not my strongest instrument, I decided to take private lessons through a teacher I work with. He was very helpful and willing to explain concepts that were foreign to me. The second I got the music, I went through it and realized it was going to be more work than I thought. I would need to learn a whole new instrument and be able to play it proficiently in five months. Piece of cake, right?My weekly lessons started before our weekly rehearsals, before I knew it, the full cast rehearsals had begun. In the blink of an eye I found myself at Tech Week. I started freaking out because I realized I didn't know the music. I was playing lead guitar and there were whole songs that I still could not play. I would get home from rehearsal in a panic thinking to myself "I can't do this," and "I should quit now." There were days where I spent three hours practicing and my fingers hurt. Some of the songs were melodic and I couldn't play them to speed, other songs had chords I wasn't familiar with.
My guitar teacher was very nice and encouraging. He told me I could do it, and I had been working hard. Even when I voiced my concerns with some of the orchestra members they told me that "some guitar is better than no guitar at all."
I could do this.
Playout
The shows came and went, and now I sit here one week after closing night thinking about how grateful I am for the opportunity to have played the show. I realize that I'm not sad it's over, because deep down I know that I will always have a home with the Herriman Orchestra whether that's as a guitarist or as a saxophonist. It's wild to think that all my new friends met me as a guitarist.I'm glad I did it. All it took was a leap of faith.
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| I'm so grateful to have played a show I am familiar with, and love. It made learning a new instrument a lot easier. |
