so last night was the first rehearsal at the local community college. i showed up early to meet the director who is a nice guy. i meet the other new person who, unlike me, had been playing since she was nine. the rest of the section shows up a little later and they are fairly friendly. we start playing and that is when i realized that i should take up kazoo. i cant remember the names of the pieces but one was buy hindemith and the other buy milhaud. one piece wasn't bad except for the fact that i started to play the cello line at first and this weird triplet thing twords the middle which i hope to have down by next week. the other piece killed me. i have spent the last month going through different wookbooks and scales/arpeg. hoping (sp?) that this would get me ready but for some reason i froze when i saw this stuff. very weird time sig. changes, no real key signature that i could tell, on top of entire sections that we just don't play for 30 or so measures (sp?). oh well, all and all i had fun, and it definitaly puts my playing into perspective. sorry for the long post that goes nowhere, maybe some one wants to read this. one last thing, just wanted to say thanks to the people on here who kinda talked me into going back to school a few months ago.

kazoo is hard, you have to worry about tearing the paper and such.

Hey, don't worry! When I first started playing bass straight 8th note passages freaked me out:p The best thing you can do is practice the pieces at 1/2 tempo (or slower if need be) and as you play through the passages perfectly raise the tempo. If you make a mistake, play them again at the same tempo or slower if you still can't get it. For the oddly-metered passages break it down to the lowest common denominator. For passages that go between 3/4 and 5/8 (for example) set the metronome for eighth notes. You'll find in no time that things will start making a whole lot more sense. Also, to help with odd rhythms, try tapping them out on your legs as you walk around. Good rhythms to get down are 2 against 3, 4 against 3, 5 against 3, and 5 against 4. You'll see them from time to time later on. Hope that helps:p