Date with destiny

The ninth of July is just around the corner, now. Just one more rehearsal to go before our world premiere of Aaron Parker’s “Dancing Rings”, marking a new high in our involvement in Making Music’s “Adopt A Composer” scheme.
The performance will be recorded by the BBC, for broadcast to a grateful nation sometime in August.

Band members might want to think about making a special effort to be there on Wednesday (and obviously on Saturday as well).

Find outlined below the full programme for 9th July at Rayleigh Baptist Church. Rumours that the BBC will also record sugar sweet Candyman are as yet unconfirmed.  Uniform is black trousers, black jackets, black shoes, white shirts/blouses (with collar).  Don’t forget your music, toothbrush and black/silver music stand.

1          Entry of the Gladiators
2          Trapeze Waltz
3          Duke of Cambridge
4          Dancing Rings Mvt 3
5          Tatarian Dances
6          tbc
7          Dancing Rings Mvt 2
8          The Acrobat
9          Barnum

Interval
1          Carousel
2          Send in the Clowns
3          76 Trombones
4          Dancing Rings Mvt 1
5          Dumbo
6          Merry-go Round
7          Cirque du Soleil
8          Candy Man

Trombone acoustics

Posted by: Peter

Have you seen this article about the shock waves generated by trombones? I’m intrigued.

“Musicians sitting in front of the trombone or trumpet have suffered from these shock waves.”, it says. It’s OK, though, because they’re only generated when playing ff or fff – like the rest of us, our trombonists are a sensitive bunch, so this doesn’t happen very often.

Still, I’m glad that 76 Trombones form part or our repertoire rather than our membership!

Revised Bandstand Programme

Southend Bandstand Revised Programme
1 Entry Of the Gladiators (3 mins)
2 Trapeze Waltz (3 mins)
3 Duke of Cambridge March (3 mins)
4 Tatarian Dances (10 mins)
5 Carousel (5 mins)
6 Tango (2 mins)
7 Merry-Go-Round (4 mins)
8 Barnum (12 mins)

Interval
1 Seventy-Six Trombones (4 mins)
2 Send in the Clowns (3 mins)
3 Dumbo(6 mins)
4 Peter and the Wolf March (4 mins)
5 Heroes and Villains (12 mins)
6 Cirque du Soleil (7 mins)
7 Candyman (3 mins)
8 Hootenanny (5 mins)

Sunday in Southend

If you’ve checked our concerts page recently, you’ll know we have a concert coming up this Sunday, at Southend Band Stand in Priory Park, from 3pm – 5pm.

The sun will shine, it won’t be very windy and there will be no rain.

The updated programme for this event is:

1. Entry Of the Gladiators
2. Trapeze Waltz
3. Duke of Cambridge March
4. Tatarian Dances
5. Carousel
6. Tango
7. Merry-go-round
8. Barnum

Interval

1. Seventy-Six Trombones
2. Send in the Clowns
3. Dumbo
4. Peter and the Wolf March
5. Heroes and villains
6. Cirque du Soleil
7. Candyman
8. Hootenanny

Scales

Dear Band Member

Please find  below video Roy was using to explain about scales on Wednesday

Money, tattoos and sight-reading

Posted by: Peter

We had our AGM last night: congratulations to all members of the committee on bringing us through another year in such good shape! And good luck to you for the year to come!

I think it was a good meeting – overall very positive, and highlighted some of the effort that’s required to keep things going. I’m not going to go into detail here – you’ll just have to wait for the minutes, which will be available at our 2012 AGM in about 12 months’ time.

There were a couple of things in the various reports that stood out for me. The first was from Penny, our treasurer, where she said that she will continue to look for sponsorship from companies, and opportunities for additional funding. With Penny’s track record in this area, I’m very optimistic, but I also think that this is something we should all be thinking about: do we have contacts or do we work for organisations who might consider sponsoring us? It’s not that we’re destitute, but sponsorship and funding enable us to do things we might not otherwise consider. There are benefits for organisations as well, in terms of their Corporate Social Responsibility agendas, and increased exposure (we’re happy to acknowledge their contributions, on our website, on this blog, on other materials we produce, and if the amount is sufficient, I’m sure a committee member would be happy to have the organisation’s logo tattooed somewhere on their person).

The other thing came from the Music Director’s report. Roy was very complimentary of our efforts at our concert last Saturday – and rightly so!* It was a great night for us, for our audience, and for the various charities that will benefit from the £3000 or so that was raised.

But the bit that made me think was when Roy was talking about sight-reading. (We’re not too shabby at this, but there’s always room for improvement.) He said:

• The first thing to look for is the key signature
• The second thing to look for is the time signature.

I’ve always thought it was the other way around! I mean, so long as you play in time, you can get away with the odd bum note (well, for the first couple of times, rather than as a general rule, though I admit that I’ve pretty much made this my personal philosophy), but if you’re not in time, it doesn’t really matter if it’s the right note or not (in fact, the right note at the wrong time is actually the wrong note…).

Am I reading too much into this? Is it just me? Do all sax players think this way? (Would that explain anything?) What do you think?

*IMHO

Back in action

Posted by: Peter

It’s been a while, but I’ve finally gotten around to an update. This year’s concert list is now available on our website, and right here on this blog.

With any bit of luck at all, there’ll be some passing similarity between the two lists.

Cancelled, again

Posted by: Peter

We’ve had to cancel today’s concert, unfortunately, due to the snow and the risk of further snow showers later.

Hopefully, we all enjoyed rehearsing the Christmas music at any rate, and when we come back in January, we’ll have some brand new music to play with!

I’m reliably informed that the first rehearsal in the New Year will be on Wed 5 January. In the meantime, have a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Informed uniformity

Well, it’s started snowing again, but hopefully we’re all still on for Sunday’s concert.

There’s been a slight change of plan with the dress code: band members should now wear the standard uniform. However, Christmassy ornamentation is permitted and even positively encouraged.

As before, members of the audience can wear whatever they want.

Christmas concert

Our Christmas concert has been rearranged for 19 December, at URC in Rayleigh. It will start at 3pm and end at 5pm, so band members should turn up at around 2:30pm. Our formal dress code has been suspended, as it’s Christmas, but alas this doesn’t mean that anything goes: decorum must be maintained, obviously.

So, no jeans, denim, skirts, combat trousers, T shirts or trainers. Unless you’re a member of the audience, in which case what you wear is up to you.

Tomorrow night is our last rehearsal of 2010, but we’ll be back in 2011!