Not too much to report. I was fortunate to have the monitor wedge right next to me (YESSSSSS!) but unfortunate to have everything but me in it (NOOOOOO!). After a song or two, I grabbed it and slid it past me so the bass and drums could hear it. It was not helping me at all.
At some point during the service, we were playing a song in A major, and I managed to fit Michael Brecker's entire solo on Still Crazy After All these Years into the church song THREE TIMES. By the third time through the solo my eyes were watering because I was laughing at myself. They probably thought I was really feeling the spirit.
Am I going to hell for that?
It's still one of my favorite songs (and favorite solos).
Nobody called me out about the solo--they even gave me a check! So I went home and immediately fell asleep for a few hours.
I woke up a few hours later and drove to Peachtree City to celebrate my niece's birthday. Due to bad traffic, I was only able to stay for twenty-five minutes before I had to drive back to Atlanta and play my second church gig.
Not much happened at the second church gig. Hot usher again. Yeah.
I ran out of church at 8 PM and went straight to a rehearsal for The Greater Vavoom. The elected to go with no EWI, just saxophone. It sounded much better, and there were no EWI disasters either.
I got home after 11 PM and probably passed out on the couch soon after that.
Monday started with a trip to the eye doctor to get a new prescription for glasses. I then did some exciting things around the house like change sheets before Jack came home. Reggie needed a bath worse than anything else on Earth, so I took care of that too. He left some funk in my truck, so I took care of that too.
Monday afternoon I spent several hours trying to approximate the clarinet trio that plays on When I'm Sixty-Four. I need it for the Please Pleaserock Me show this Wednesday. What does one do when one hears three clarinets, but one's horn section only has one clarinetist? Second clarinet=alto and bass clarinet=trombone. Voila! Here's my arrangement:
It's probably a shock to think that I could do something with MIDI without a whole bunch of cussing.
Monday evening was another run through of the Greater Vavoom stuff. It was super loud. I looked in my case for my earplugs, but I had left them in a suit pocket. Not doing me much good there...
All my tenor reeds died. Number two warped last night at rehearsal so I pitched it. Number three was warped, so I pitched it. Number four was dead. Number one was dead, but it was the last reed I had in my case, so I played it through the rest of rehearsal and then broke it in half (to show it who was boss). I started breaking in some new reeds on Friday; I now pronounce them fit for action. Your training is over, soldier!
I came home and knocked out another couple of charts for Beatles rehearsal tomorrow morning (It Don't Come Easy and Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite). Nothing terribly difficult. Not like the clarinet thing.
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