The story of how Aaron became the Milli Vanilli of his youth orchestra!
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Story created & performed by: Aaron Calafato
Senior Audio Engineer: Ken Wendt
Additional vocals: Cori Birce
Art: Pete Whitehead
Original Music: thomas j. duke
Transcript
[00:00:00] Aaron Calafato: Hey everybody, Aaron here. So we got some housekeeping before we get this week's episode started. You know, it's only five more episodes, five more seven-minute stories in season four, and then that's it. But it's not it because wanted to announce this summer, instead of just going completely dark for two to three months before the next season launches, we're going to be releasing a best of season one, which at this point Is like almost four or five years ago, which is crazy to think about.
[00:00:30] Anyways, throughout the summer on every Thursday, you'll get the best of season one, uh, each week as you're traveling, you're doing your thing, you're enjoying summer. And I know many of you have not heard. All of season one, we have a lot of new listeners, so maybe you haven't gone all the way back in the archive.
[00:00:49] So it's just great episodes to revisit and to keep that pulse going, um, throughout the summer and then season five premieres the beginning of September. [00:01:00] So all good stuff there. Okay. We also have already run out of our merch that we ordered on January 1st of this year, and there's only a few t shirts left.
[00:01:10] So Cori Birce decided to do a price drop and like a spring sale. I don't know anything about this stuff, but basically the good news is. A price drop. There's a few t shirts left because several of you who've already jumped on it and bought them. Thank you for that. We'll be shipping those to you shortly. Uh, and remember when you purchase this stuff, it just helps independent creators create and insurers as it has been now for a while.
[00:01:33] Four seasons, that seven minute stories will always remain commercial free and available to everybody. So thank you for that. All right. This week's story. Well, I don't know if any of you are familiar with Millie Vanillie, the story of Millie Vanillie. Being a kid who was born, I say, I'm still a kid being someone who was born in 1983.
[00:01:56] I was very familiar with this controversial story at the [00:02:00] time, which is hilarious because there's so many people now using technology and voiceover and filters to create their own music that it's almost artificial. But anyways, Milli Vanilli got a ton of flack for lip syncing and they got caught in this very public way.
[00:02:14] And it was a pretty dramatic thing and actually tragic, not only for the band, one of its members. So anyways. This story, I believe is titled the Milli Vanilli of Violinists, and this points to me and you'll see what I'm talking about here, I think, in this funny, nostalgic, uh, story we all can relate to. So, without further ado, enjoy this week's episode.
[00:02:44] I don't remember how I got into the elementary school orchestra, but I do remember our first practice. I'm playing the violin. And there's a few features of this that I remember one, just sitting in the classroom, all the kids with their stringed instruments, I remember seeing the [00:03:00] size of the cello and the bass and being like, that is an unbelievably physically imposing instrument.
[00:03:06] I thought to myself, and I'm glad I played the violin because it was portable. I could carry it around the sound. It made though. Not so good for me. At least the squeaking of the, of the bow against the strings. That was something I was like, Oh, I better get better at this. And then like the rosin, like the dust.
[00:03:27] I remember that. And I just remember having a music stand in front of me and the teacher kind of guiding us through reading music. The basic elements, EGBDFFACE kind of thing, and also learning basic songs. And when I could play the basic songs, it felt really good. I remember Mary Had a Little Lamb, Good King Wenceslas, or Wenceslas, right?
[00:03:52] Isn't that the, la da da dee dee dee da, la da dee dee dee dee dee. I don't know if that's the same song, but that's what I [00:04:00] remember. I was at family Christmas, my mom's side. And they were like. Aaron, would you play good King Wenceslas? And I remember playing it and just being like, yes, this is an amazing moment.
[00:04:15] Flipping it now being an adult, it's like some kids squeaking along in the violin. For me, I was like. This is a concert that could change the world. So I performed it. So I enjoyed being in the orchestra and I enjoyed playing the violin and we kept learning pretty cool pieces of music, but they were simple for me because I could follow along on the sheet music and I could start to play.
[00:04:37] I started sounding good. And because I started sounding good, . I decided to improvise a little bit during these rehearsals, right? And then I would go like and the conductor teacher was like, she was like, bro, you can't do that. I'm like, just stop. Gotta stick with the song, man. [00:05:00] It's like, okay, I'll fit in the box.
[00:05:03] No extemporaneous improvisation for me. I'll stay in this box. But when we weren't in actual rehearsal at home, I was just. Making my own music and not reading it as the year went on and the rehearsals went on. I noticed a couple more things. One, I was having a hard time keeping up with the written music because it got more complicated before with the earlier songs, pretty simple, but with eighth notes and 16th notes and arrests and all that kind of stuff, I was having a hard time following along.
[00:05:31] I'm looking around and there was a skills gap that was starting to emerge. The other violinists. In the orchestra, we're excelling. There was this dude, Roland. I remember my man's playing concertos.
[00:05:47] I'm like, Whoa, I'm falling way behind. And so I'm being really self conscious here. And as we're practicing and we're reading the music, the only thing I could think to do to keep up was to do [00:06:00] what I knew well, which was to use my memory and play from memory and perform for memory. So I didn't have perfect pitch.
[00:06:08] I didn't know what that was called at the time, but I had a really good memory. Melodically for sounds I can mimic really well. And so I would just listen to the song and eventually I would memorize it and play it. So I essentially stopped reading music and then I began to pretend it was a performance art because I'm pretending to read the music and looking at it and just playing from memory.
[00:06:31] I did this for months at concerts and for a while no one knew the difference, but then a couple of things happened. One, the music got more and more complicated so I could only remember certain portions. So I'm at these concerts and to overcompensate. Instead of just laying low, I'm playing the violin.
[00:06:50] Like I'm the greatest violinist on earth. I'm halfway standing up from the seat. I'm shaking my head. My hair is flopping everywhere. I'm [00:07:00] performing. And then what happened was when I couldn't read the music anymore and I couldn't play any of the song, I was literally pretending to play entire songs with the orchestra.
[00:07:15] During the concerts, I became the Milli Vanilli. Of elementary school violinists. I gotta be honest. It was fun, but because my performances started getting out of control and I'm standing up and bringing attention to myself, the teacher conductor, she noticed she didn't say anything during one of the shows, but the next rehearsal that we had in class, she called me early.
[00:07:37] She sat me down and she said, do you know how to read music? And I was like, yeah, a little bit. She said, a little bit, I said, yeah, she goes, are you pretending to play the songs during our concerts? I was like, what are you talking about? And she puts a sheet of music in front of me. She goes, play this. [00:08:00] And I lift the violin up and the bow, sprinkle a little rosin on there.
[00:08:08] And I said, I can't do it. I can't play it. Don't know how to read music. Sorry. The jig was up. She was so disappointed in me. And I remember her head sort of like slumped down and she said, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the orchestra. They kicked me out. I had never picked up a violin since that moment.
[00:08:29] So I was embarrassed. And you would think from that terrible moment of embarrassment, I would learn not a chance. If you listen to this podcast for a long time, you can go back and listen to called the audition. Whereas nearly a 20 year old man, I audition for a college program with the guitar, which I had learned to improvise and play, but I didn't learn how to read music because it was so damn hard.
[00:08:53] And I just wanted to do it my way and play music my way and sing with the instrument my way that I failed in an audition to [00:09:00] get into college. So yeah, history repeats itself, but maybe it was all supposed to happen because I eventually abandoned all those instruments. I mean, I still play the guitar, but I'm saying traditionally, right?
[00:09:12] Cause all I wanted to do. Was tell a story melodically from my memory. So I just have a new instrument now. It's my voice and a microphone. Now there's not an orchestra or a conductor to tell me what to do. I'm the conductor and now it's just a show of one. It's just me and I'm not reading any music. I'm just playing from memory between me and you.
[00:09:44] This. Is my every week concert that I perform week. After a week, after a week, after a week, la da da dee dee dee dee la da dee dee dee dee [00:10:00] dee. I'll talk to you next week.
[00:10:15] Our senior audio engineer is Ken Wendt. Our resident artist is Pete Whitehead. Original music by T. J. Duke. If you or your company needs help starting a podcast, Aaron and Ken's company, Valley View, does just that. Reach out to them at valleyview. fm. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And I'm Cori Birce.
[00:10:35] Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
