Helping!

Keith is arranging a song to play with the Mississippi River Brass Band on their Germany/Czech Republic tour this July. He has arranged lots of songs. He works at the computer (although I do remember the ledger paper/pencil days) and the song plays over and over and over as he figures out what he wants it to sound like. I do not hear it. (I do not hear him practice, either. My brain just tunes it out. I can go to bed and he is practicing down the hall and I go right to sleep.) When the computer was in the family room while the kids were medium sized, I remember Alexander was on the floor drawing (With a pencil. On tiny paper.) and Keith was arranging a tune for brass band that Alexander had suggested (Roads, from the animated Hobbit). There was a pause after the computer played the arrangement so far, and Alexander said move that line from the flugel horn and give the tenor horns something to do. Mmmm. (Everyone in this family is way more musical than I am. I can help carry instruments. And stands.)

Today, Keith asked me to come up to hear the first finished arrangement (it will evolve). I listened. I liked it. But the last couple bars didn’t do what I expected. In my very musical way, I said the end needs to go up more, more zing, more ta da. It’s too lame. He was willing to listen. I have noticed when I try to sing something, it sounds very, very different in my head than what comes out of my mouth. I didn’t even have a sure thought in my head, so I didn’t even try to sing. He changed some notes. I said nooo, maybe more doodly doodle daaah. He changed some notes. (It’s really cool to watch him do that.) No, higher. And less scale-y. More changes. He said, “Oh, maybe you want something like this note at the end.” It played. Yes! He smiled a lot and said, “I’m not playing that note.”

I gave more masterful tips. He tried a lot of things. I suggested he go back to the original. He said no, he’d keep working on it.

He just finished. The end is back to the original. It’s really good.

Here is a link to a great ad for a local concert by the brass band – https://www.stillwaterzephyrtheatre.org/event/mississippi-river-brass-band-concert/