Gongs and More
Nov. 26th, 2023 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfHad the first rehearsal with the Gong Orchestra yesterday! First I came early to help load in and set up. I was right on time but the first to arrive, but Tatsuya showed up just a few minutes later. And then the second time I tried knocking someone answered so we got in. We set up stuff and that went well and then to the few volunteers (me and two others) he was just like, start playing wherever you want. Then he looked at me and said, you were here last year weren't you? Yeah. You're the one who broke my bow? Hanging my head in shame, yeah. Then he laughed and asked if I wanted to play the same gong as I did last year so I was like sure. So I'm back on Earth! (Once again, that's the largest of all the gongs.) He showed me the bow I'd broken and where he'd repaired it. It's still his favorite bow. Earth is now using a different bow, a little larger and heavier. So me and the other guys start just playing and getting the hang of it. I was going to go home between the setup and the rehearsal but I had some good practice time before everyone else got there. Really getting the hang of it much more this time. Last year, it was just all I could do to get the sound and I'd want to respond to it and play off the vibrations I was getting, but I was just hanging on to get the basic sound. But now I feel I can respond to it and work with different tonalities much better and get volume increases when I want to. I'm pretty happy with my playing now and Tatsuya seems so too. I was talking to the guy next to me, Zach, and we talked some about music and he says he also makes experimental electronic music. He goes by DJ Wook. We shared music links and I checked his stuff out much later after I got home from all the things yesterday and I see that he'd done a split with Sci Fi Industries, so I'll have to ask him about Luís today.
The other volunteers trickled in and everyone fell in with their gong and we all just kind of informally played around and he'd help people with technique and stuff, and we worked on just the basics of getting sounds out of our gongs. Today will be working with the full set of orchestration hand signals and all that. A few people I know also showed up: Jenny, Graham, Jill, and Suroor. Jill and Suroor arrived a little late, but when Jill got there I was happy to see someone I knew from last year. Jill came in first and ended up getting the last gong. Then Suroor walked in a couple minutes later. After a minute, Tatsuya walked out and came back with Eric. When we first started Tatsuya had asked if everyone had watched the video. These two guys on the end said they hadn't. I think they may have been the alternates. Anyway, when Eric came back out, he told them that they weren't going to be able to use them since they hadn't watched the video. So then they left and Suroor got one of the gongs and then there was an extra left over (Eric knows someone who will be getting that tomorrow). Well, after rehearsal I was chatting with Eric and got the full backstory! So Tatsuya came out and was like, There are these two guys here who are drunk. They didn't watch the video. Now we have too many people. What should we do? And Eric was like, uh, I guess we get rid of the drunk guys? Yeah! Can you do that for me? Also, while I was talking to Zach he said that he'd listened to them on the radio earlier (Tatsuya and Eric were on the radio to promote the show and all) and (as everyone knew I'd broken a bow last year) he said I was mentioned! (Not by name, but probably, some guy in Memphis who broke my bow.) After practice I told Tatsuya I heard he'd talked about me on the radio. And he was all, yeah that's the only time it's ever happened. See, last year he was all diplomatic and said, it happens. But no, it doesn't except to me! I guess that's how I put my stamp out there. I'll always be remembered as the guy who fucks things up! Again, he's been nice about it and he seems to be happy with my playing so far! But I'd best not jinx it! Oh, and Jill had a Mr. Holland's Opus breakthrough moment (I've never seen the movie, so forgive me if my analogy is completely off-base, but it fits in my unknowledgeable mind). They were struggling for a good while and Tatsuya kept coming back having them repeat and try and maybe here and there it'd get a little better but he wasn't happy with the tone. After a good while of going around to other people and stuff, he came back again, gave one more pointer and then all of a sudden they had it and he applauded. I dunno, it was kinda funny. I do remember last year, we spent a good part of the rehearsal all sounding bad and then by the end, we were just starting to sound like a real orchestra!
After rehearsal I stopped off at home to eat real quick and pick up Mary Beth to go to a house show at Haven Haus. We'd missed Vincent Maynard's set and aster was playing when we arrived. I hadn't seen aster in years ('cuz he hasn't played shows in years! he was saying the streaming show we did early in the pandemic was the last show he'd done). We only caught the end of his set, but it was still awesome to see him. Saw people there and chatted (I mean, like half may friends were playing this show). But this lady who was in the gong orchestra earlier today was there. I didn't know her beforehand, but we recognized each other and chatted some. Her name's Laura. Pas moi was up next and they had a good though short set. Kole borrowed the ottoman to play on and was trying to come up with a pun involving "avant garde" and "ottoman" but couldn't do it. Then after the set they asked Zachary if they wanted to use it and they didn't, so I said "you might say, nottoman" so I got the ottoman pun in! Nonconnah's set was really good. Then Maggie Trisler played last. It was originally going to be a full Mystic Light Casino show, but she'd told the rest of the band the wrong day so it ended up being a solo set. It worked well as a solo set though. It was a fun show and time. I even got to finally introduce Mary Beth to Suroor so they could talk about Deluze (which was done, but uh, about only so far as yeah, Deluze, but then Vinnie also chimed in for a second about it). Anyway yeah, don't have a whole lot of time before the big rehearsal starts.
The other volunteers trickled in and everyone fell in with their gong and we all just kind of informally played around and he'd help people with technique and stuff, and we worked on just the basics of getting sounds out of our gongs. Today will be working with the full set of orchestration hand signals and all that. A few people I know also showed up: Jenny, Graham, Jill, and Suroor. Jill and Suroor arrived a little late, but when Jill got there I was happy to see someone I knew from last year. Jill came in first and ended up getting the last gong. Then Suroor walked in a couple minutes later. After a minute, Tatsuya walked out and came back with Eric. When we first started Tatsuya had asked if everyone had watched the video. These two guys on the end said they hadn't. I think they may have been the alternates. Anyway, when Eric came back out, he told them that they weren't going to be able to use them since they hadn't watched the video. So then they left and Suroor got one of the gongs and then there was an extra left over (Eric knows someone who will be getting that tomorrow). Well, after rehearsal I was chatting with Eric and got the full backstory! So Tatsuya came out and was like, There are these two guys here who are drunk. They didn't watch the video. Now we have too many people. What should we do? And Eric was like, uh, I guess we get rid of the drunk guys? Yeah! Can you do that for me? Also, while I was talking to Zach he said that he'd listened to them on the radio earlier (Tatsuya and Eric were on the radio to promote the show and all) and (as everyone knew I'd broken a bow last year) he said I was mentioned! (Not by name, but probably, some guy in Memphis who broke my bow.) After practice I told Tatsuya I heard he'd talked about me on the radio. And he was all, yeah that's the only time it's ever happened. See, last year he was all diplomatic and said, it happens. But no, it doesn't except to me! I guess that's how I put my stamp out there. I'll always be remembered as the guy who fucks things up! Again, he's been nice about it and he seems to be happy with my playing so far! But I'd best not jinx it! Oh, and Jill had a Mr. Holland's Opus breakthrough moment (I've never seen the movie, so forgive me if my analogy is completely off-base, but it fits in my unknowledgeable mind). They were struggling for a good while and Tatsuya kept coming back having them repeat and try and maybe here and there it'd get a little better but he wasn't happy with the tone. After a good while of going around to other people and stuff, he came back again, gave one more pointer and then all of a sudden they had it and he applauded. I dunno, it was kinda funny. I do remember last year, we spent a good part of the rehearsal all sounding bad and then by the end, we were just starting to sound like a real orchestra!
After rehearsal I stopped off at home to eat real quick and pick up Mary Beth to go to a house show at Haven Haus. We'd missed Vincent Maynard's set and aster was playing when we arrived. I hadn't seen aster in years ('cuz he hasn't played shows in years! he was saying the streaming show we did early in the pandemic was the last show he'd done). We only caught the end of his set, but it was still awesome to see him. Saw people there and chatted (I mean, like half may friends were playing this show). But this lady who was in the gong orchestra earlier today was there. I didn't know her beforehand, but we recognized each other and chatted some. Her name's Laura. Pas moi was up next and they had a good though short set. Kole borrowed the ottoman to play on and was trying to come up with a pun involving "avant garde" and "ottoman" but couldn't do it. Then after the set they asked Zachary if they wanted to use it and they didn't, so I said "you might say, nottoman" so I got the ottoman pun in! Nonconnah's set was really good. Then Maggie Trisler played last. It was originally going to be a full Mystic Light Casino show, but she'd told the rest of the band the wrong day so it ended up being a solo set. It worked well as a solo set though. It was a fun show and time. I even got to finally introduce Mary Beth to Suroor so they could talk about Deluze (which was done, but uh, about only so far as yeah, Deluze, but then Vinnie also chimed in for a second about it). Anyway yeah, don't have a whole lot of time before the big rehearsal starts.
