Bring on the community bands

Bring on the community bands!



So, where was I? Oh yes, the uni years.

I left high school after doing year 12 twice and the first year of it, getting to participate in the school musical (another blog entry). It only took about 2 months for me to really start to miss playing. I hadn't had lessons in almost 2 years and so I had no repertoire to practice and I was really worried that I was going to lose my fledgling skills on the instrument.

Then one day, my mum told me that there was a community concert band that had advertised for players in my council area in the local Messenger and so I went along on a Wed night. I didn't know what I expected after high school but it wasn't this. This was a band with only 2 people younger than me and mostly older men. I was introduced to the band secretary (who later became a very close friend and father figure, may he rest in peace) who immediately heard that I had played until year 12 and shoved me on 1st clarinet. This music wasn't like high school though. Very old school band music that looked like it had been in their library for centuries. I began my journey through community banding with pieces such as Hootenanny (which, if anyone has heard it, has a quite amusing clarinet 'chicken reel' up in the altissimo register for 1st clarinets, a bit that at first eluded me, technically). We opened EVERY concert (gulp!) with the Sousa march, The Thunderer, and played horrible marches like Mountbatten March (which partially caused my dear friend M to leave the band in a huff...) and old school tunes such as Keep Smiling Through.....

I have both fond and shudder-worthy memories of the old Hal Leonard arrangement of The Wizard Of Oz, the annoying chromatic dixieland piece Jazzamatazz (which sadly had a piccolo solo), My Heart Will Go On (and on and on and on....) and Bands Around The World (complete with narration and the clarinets acting like bagpipes).

I, however, don't have fond memories of the guy I sat next to. He smelled really bad and caused a lot of people to leave, unfortunately. I remember the bari sax player saying "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR! I'M DOWN WIND!" So funny! :) But he helped me a lot. He could play everything technically very well and I felt a lot more confident with him there. But as I got better, it became frustrating that I was almost overtaking him in ability and yet I would never be able to play any of the solos and be able to hold my own. He was there EVERY week, no fail, and so I never really got a chance to play on my own. And the conductor was getting on my goat. He was a lovely man who stepped in when noone else would do the job and so every credit to him. But he was getting old and didn't like change. So my good friend Andrew finally won the job of conducting this band and the band hasn't looked back since.

During this time, I answered another advertisement that my nan found in the Australian about a community ensemble converting from brass band to concert band and looking for wind players. I wasn't entirely happy with just playing alongside Mr Stinky Pants and I wanted another musical outlet. So I went along there. This was one of the best things I ever did for several reasons:

1. I met someone I dated for several years without whom I wouldn't have EVER auditioned for the conservatorium

2. I met one of my closest friends in the world

3. I gained so much confidence about solo playing

Even though I later left this band because of stylistic reasons, uni commitments and also because I improved too fast for the band (it remained a beginner-like band, whilst I improved dramatically), I have fond memories of rehearsals above the bar downstairs, spending many a Thursday night gasbagging until the early hours of the morning, the social times,

I remember some of the terrible gigs we did - the Norwood Food and Wine Festival was a particular highlight. I remember playing the original theme from Neighbours at my first ever performance with this band and a couple of coppers standing by the side of the marquee cacking their pants. It was hilarious. Not at all humiliating... But we also had some great social events such as the annual bbq at the MD's house, the 'Eisteddfod' where our MD played Advance Australia Fair on 12 different instruments and where Matt, Mo and I did a great whistling trio to Mozart's Rondo A La Turk. A fun event that should be mandatory for all bands, esp on band camp.

The AMEB years to come....