[Menvi-discuss] Dealing with sighted bandmates

[Brandon Keith Biggs]

Hello,
I've never delbt with people saying I'm incompetent, but what I have done is 
play along with the other people a microsecond after they play. I hear the 
note and if I know my instrument well enough I can instantly play that note 
on my instrument. Of course, if the jumps are odd or very large I'm a little 
slow, but following by ear is how I learn choir music when I don't have it 
in music and also how I learned band music before I read music. The down 
side is you are only as good as the person next to you, so that is when you 
really want to sit next to the leaders of the section.
I would just ignore them and play your solo rep and band rep as best as you 
can.
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs
-----Original Message----- 
From: Kaiti Shelton
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 3:56 PM
To: menvi-discuss at menvi.org
Subject: [Menvi-discuss] Dealing with sighted bandmates

One of the frustrating things I've dealt with for a while is when my
sighted bandmates talk behind my back or make comments about my
incompetent playing.  Of course, I am not an incompetent player and
have actually been told by directors things like I have great
musicality and a nice tone and such.  Right now this is happening in
my college's top wind ensemble in my section because I am waiting to
receive my music back from my transcriber.  Instead of just sitting
through the 2 hour rehearsals doing nothing I've decided to make the
effort to learn as much as I can by ear and then supplement/fix my
learning once I have my music.

I know that the people doing it aren't the most mature people in the
section and that they're all not really my friends or anything, but I
at least thought I was on friendly terms with each of them and that
they'd understand that I'm a good player who just doesn't have music
like they do yet.  (They've all heard me play fine in other
ensembles).  I'm past the point of high school where something like
this would get to my head and actually effect my playing, and it's not
crushing or anything emotionally since it's not like a friend saying
things behind my back, but it is getting old after putting up with it
all through high school.  I thought college musicians might have a
little more maturity, and most at my university seem to have it, but
at the same time I don't really feel like they have the right to judge
since none of them have probably ever tried to learn a piece
completely by ear without print in front of them.  I actually heard
them earlier this week because they were talking pretty close to my
band locker, and my section leader in another band reprimanded one of
the girls for saying the same thing when we were learning music a few
weeks ago and specifically mentioned that I was playing by ear, so I
know this has at least happened twice.  I almost confronted them when
I was at my locker and thought about suggesting that if they care
enough to talk amongst themselves about it that they should help to be
a part of the solution instead of perpetuating the problem, but of
course they scattered once I shut my locker and they saw me.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had to deal with similar situations
and if so what did you do.  Did you ignore it and write it off as
people being narrow-minded and immature, or did you make more of an
effort to call them out on it than I did?

Kaiti

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