Sydney Week #7: Jazzy Pit

We are now one and a half months into pit orchestra and so far we are halfway through the second act of the show. This year is the fastest that we have ever gotten through the music because at this point we would usually only be through the first act if even that.

It’s also interesting because we don’t really know how we keep getting through the music this fast. It couldn’t be that the music is easier this year because if anything it is much more difficult rhythm and tempo wise. According to Mr. Hilborn the third song we play has the hardest eight measures that he’s ever conducted, and it is definitely very difficult to play since the measures are extremely syncopated and seemingly random.

Another troubling issue is the fact that most of the music is jazzy. This means a LOT of syncopation, hard rhythms, hard key signatures, and swinging the notes. Now swing might seem simple, but when half of the ensemble have been trained in classical music, making the switch to jazz is very difficult. Most of the ensemble is constantly switching over to playing the notes straight which doesn’t fit with the style of the music, so Mr. Hilborn has decided that he’s gonna need to teach us jazz the correct way by bringing in a professional jazz musician to show us the ropes.

The only plausible reason that we came up with for the rate of us learning the songs is that most of the key signatures are flat. This may not seem like a big deal, but when we don’t need to worry about the key signatures, it makes sight reading and learning the music much much easier. Either way I’m still very glad that I’m having the chance to be in pit orchestra again because it’s very fun to be playing hard music with amazing musicians…. And hearing all the weird and funny things people say when we’re dead tired.

What activities do you love even though they can be extremely tiring?