Working with the bass book for the musical, "Chicago"

For a while all the bassists who played in the Navy bands had to double on tuba...the idea being, there's not enough room on an aircraft carrier for a double bass, or fo an electric bass + amplifier.


Whenever I get parts written for tuba (or written by idiotic arrangers/copyists) I just pencil in noteheads up the octave.

 

I used to play with a local concert band, and was regularly presented with tuba music, so got reasonably proficient at reading up an octave.

Maybe not something you could master in a couple of weeks, but definitely a skill that has stood me well on occasions since..

For this gig, I'd pencil in the note heads an octave above as suggested...

 

Penciling in the octave up (if they are not already) is a valid solution.

These days a doubler is more likely to play upright and electric instead of tuba.

Back in the day i tried tuba had the embouchure but no wind.

 

I played tuba in high school and through my 2nd year of college... but have never been in a situation where I had to double on tuba and bass. It would take me a mighty long time to get my tuba chops back up to performance quality.

Anyway, good luck. "Chicago" is a great show and you should have fun. I'd recommend writing in the higher octave though it's gonna be a PITA to erase all that when it's time to turn the book back in.

 

Nix on the white out, those books are leased and who knows where it will go after your show. Plus if the leasing company sees the white out you may be responsible for replacing the book, can get pretty expensive. Penciling in changes and notes is a common practice but making permanent changes by using a pen or marker can result in fines.

Maybe but again that is usually a violation of the leasing agreement.

 

I've played the show twice; different theatres and requirements (one they requested me play electric for the show!).

At church I usually read piano parts that have ledger lines lower than a regular bass can hit and over the years I've become good at reading them and automatically transposing them up the octave on the fly. So for me, I didn't do anything different in terms of prepping the book. You can pencil in the notes an octave higher if it helps, but given that you'll probably have to erase everything you put in there (one theatre in town does it for you, but most do not), you might want to keep that to a minimum.

Honestly, that book is very easy that it's pretty simple to figure out the 8vb stuff by listening to the music. Good luck!

 

Depending on publishing house, it can range from $150-$250 or even higher, depending. We have in our contracts in theatres now that if we don't return the books completely erased, we get fined that amount.

However, there have been a number of times where I've received books that I've had to erase prior to doing anything, so while these companies may charge for erasing them, I'm not sure how many actually do that.

There is, however, ways that if the book has actual mistakes (and given the copiers of these, it's not surprising) that you can leave those in and have a note to the publishing house explaining them in the hopes that they'll fix it, reprint the book and have a more accurate score out there.

Very true. However, I don't think I've ever worked with a pianist in a theatre setting that didn't have their own copied score so they could more easily navigate it.

A lot of publishers now are starting to offer the books in pdf format that the theatre prints, distributes and then destroys at the end of the run. I've done three shows in the past year that have been done this way.

 

Learn to sightread up the octave-it's a useful skill. Do not indelibly mark or alter the original part in any way.

 

Thanx one bad monkey, it's been a while since i have played thru a leased book so I wasn't sure what may have changed.

The pdf thing sounds like a good idea, as long as the copies are actually destroyed (or not).

 

The ones I've used have a "Licensed to (local theatre)" on top of every page, I'm assuming as a deterrent to copying them and passing them around. If one of those got out, it would be pretty easy to figure out what theatre let it go.

 

Three weeks is a lot of time, if you worked on it an hour every day you should be able to do it.

You really should be learning the music, the better you know it, the less hampered you'll be by the handwritten score. I play in a concert band and often get parts that are written for "Basses" and sometimes it's just all ledger lines and fast too. The time you put into isn't lost because it's easier to read the next time around, look at it as an investment in your skill set.

 

I hope you read my original reply; I've played that show twice, most recently last June.

And threads here almost ALWAYS derail at some point here, like any actual casual conversation.

 

Well you did hear from someone that played the show twice and my comments come from reading lots of stuff for "Basses" which is often written for a Tuba(I play in a concert band), ledger lines and all and so I'm telling you what I do even though I haven't played that particular show.

Lastly, I said 1 hour a day, not hours a day.