When It Says Solo, Learn to Play It

When I did Joseph at Prendie for St. Andrews Parish I had another memorable memory.

The director was an excellent choral director. As far as the singing went, he put a lot of work into making sure making sure that the cast and all did their part. As far as the pit went ... well, there was me on clarinet, Justin also on clarinet who was a guy a year ahead of me who looked so much like Doug that that became his name, Jenny, the girl I liked on flute, and Gillian, a tall and quirky girl also on flute. And we had two percussionists. Oh, and the director on piano. So music-wise, it's a very limited ensemble.

I was lead reed (ladies and gentlemen, the world's tallest midget!). As such, I had to play most of the cue notes since there wasn't really anyone else. Thankfully, the director was more or less prepared to do the show entirely with just the piano accompaniment.

That is except for "Those Canaan Days" whereupon I decided not to learn the cue notes meant for an accordion. Part of that reasoning includes laziness but it also involved me assuming the director was going to play it himself.

Imagine my surprise opening night, when some classmates of mine who attended St. Andrews Elementary, walk up to me and say good job and all and that's when director starts chewing me out. Well, he wanted those cue notes covered too. They were a solo after all.

Every performance thereafter I played it, fairly well too, I might add.