What's in my shed

woodshed [v.] -

To lock oneself away with a musical instrument and practice, either a particular piece or in general, until the player has improved greatly or can perfectly play the piece he has been practicing.

I've had my hands full on a couple of very difficult parts on some great arrangements of some holiday classics.  These tunes may or may not end up being publicly performed this season, but I have a feeling I'm going to need to take out these parts every year before Thanksgiving, so they don't get colder than the turkey.

Yes, that's a flute you hear with the trumpet in harmon mute, I'm guessing Sal Lozano on the flute part.  It's high, it's fast, it's arpeggiated.  Plenty of super Ab's and Bb's, and there's no warm up prep beforehand to get you into your flute chops.  

Jeff Driskill wrote this absolutely killer, and extremely difficult jazzy arrangement of Sleigh Ride for clarinet quartet.  He also plays all the parts in this recording, and sounds amazing.  You've got modern jazz harmony in a fast swing style and a constant rush of eighth-notes.  I'm hoping to rehearse this with a some of the area's elder statesmen of clarinet.  I'm working on the 3rd clarinet part, which in my humble opinion, is the most difficult part.  As it bounces around the throat tones and is mostly harmony so it doesn't lay as easily on the horn as the melody part (much like a 2nd tenor part in a big band chart).

Rhythm Changes in Ab (concert), I've got the first 2 choruses transcribed for an upcoming skype lesson with Jay Mason.  This transcription has been great because I've gotten a lot of play time on my bari and have really gotten to warm back up to an old, but great hard rubber custom mouthpiece, by Ernie Northway.  It's also forced me to practice some altissimo on the baritone, and there are some great ii-V patterns in here as well.

What's in your shed?