Greg Jbara

[phoebe]

Those risk-taking actors will do anything for a laugh!

[atreyu]

Anyone know if Greg has perfect pitch? Just wondering, because I noted in my recent BETM London viewing the first time I have heard Dad being given the note to start Deep Into the Ground. So either Greg doesn't need the note or I've missed the cue in the four times I've seen Greg in the role (and once with Joel Hatch).

[Billy Whiz]

If my memory is correct I remember ERinVA having a discussion with Greg about this very thing.

If I am right then I'm sure she will enlighten us when she reads this post.

[ERinVA]

Yes, I did have a conversation with Greg about this, and his explanation was exactly what I thought. He finds his pitch by remembering the last note of "Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher" and finding the beginning note of "Deep Into the Ground" by mentally singing the interval between the two notes. After you've done this enough, it just becomes automatic, and you don't really have to think about it anymore. It's not a whole lot different from finding your pitch from a pitch pipe that's giving you the tonic of the first chord. When I sang in my college choir, we often moved from one piece to the next by remembering the last note of the previous piece and finding our next pitch from it. When you have time and dialogue between the last note you sang and the new note you need to find, it becomes a bit more difficult, but obviously not impossible, as Greg demonstrates at every performance.

[phoebe]

He is a true pro. When you're watching him, you've got absolutely no idea that he's working to keep a note in his mind.

[ERinVA]

With a lot of regular practice, you can also learn to "pull a note out of the air" without a previous one to cue from. Our choir director used to have us do this with A. She would tell us to sing the note, and then after we sang it, she would play it on the piano to see how close we came. It was amazing how after a while, almost everyone in the group could sing that A pretty consistently. Sometimes we might be a half step off, but usually no more than that. You just get a physical sense of where the note lies and what it feels like, and somehow you do it. And you don't have to have perfect pitch to accomplish it.

[phoebe]

I know people with perfect pitch. I have had the eerie experience of tuning a guitar to a person's singing the notes. That is a gift a few people are born with. Lots of people have a good ear and can sing on pitch, but to find an exact note with little context takes a lot of practice, as you describe, ERinVA.

[ERinVA]

Anyway, so now we know how Greg seemingly pulls that first note out of the air. Practice!

[atreyu]

Anyway, so now we know how Greg seemingly pulls that first note out of the air. Practice!

Great info, thanks for that, ERinVA. Still a substantial risk doing it that way and a credit to Greg. Doesn't take much to sound flat or sharp and it's not like the orchestra can adjust. Enough risk that London apparently leaves nothing to chance.

[ERinVA]

Greg is the only Dad I have seen who does it. Occasionally, he will be a tad off, but not very noticeably so. In short, he's good.