Walsallbrass
New Member
Are there less people interested in playing brass these days as we seem to find its difficult finding people interested in the West Midlands area and wondered if this is nationwide?
Roger Bates.
Roger Bates.
Are there less people interested in playing brass these days as we seem to find its difficult finding people interested in the West Midlands area and wondered if this is nationwide?
Roger Bates.
I can only speak with reference to the band that I'm learning with - but based on my admittedly very limited experience, I'd say that the problem is less likely to be where a band is based and more on the band's approach to recruitment. Once upon a time, I understand that many bands left basic teaching to ordinary schools, and relied on them for a steady stream of new recruits trained up to a decent standard. In effect, they used the schools as 'training bands'. But now that so many schools have axed music programmes altogether from their syllabus, bands which expect to rely on 'somebody else' to find and train their recruits are going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Basically, I think it's a case of "if you want trained players to come into your band, either find them and train them yourself, or get used to putting out frantic calls for deps for every engagement."Are there less people interested in playing brass these days as we seem to find its difficult finding people interested in the West Midlands area and wondered if this is nationwide?
Roger Bates.
The Band I played for folded just after Christmas, the reasons were shortage of players, three Championship bands within Twenty square miles, a Conductor with too many Irons in too many fires and a god awful Road system
called the M25 inc. the Dartford Crossing which seems to shut down in the evenings for thorough maintenance.
The other Band I play for which is non Contesting has players falling out of the Doors. So is it Contesting part of the Problem are lack of training/Teaching in Schools?
In public schools the main brass instruments taught, is Trumpet, Trombone ( Bass Clef) , F Horn & Tuba (Bass Clef)
In the school I work at there are 5 euphoniums in our cupboard, the only problem is the specialists want to teach the orchestral instruments. What a shame
I can only speak with reference to the band that I'm learning with - but based on my admittedly very limited experience, I'd say that the problem is less likely to be where a band is based and more on the band's approach to recruitment. Once upon a time, I understand that many bands left basic teaching to ordinary schools, and relied on them for a steady stream of new recruits trained up to a decent standard. In effect, they used the schools as 'training bands'. But now that so many schools have axed music programmes altogether from their syllabus, bands which expect to rely on 'somebody else' to find and train their recruits are going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Basically, I think it's a case of "if you want trained players to come into your band, either find them and train them yourself, or get used to putting out frantic calls for deps for every engagement."
The band I'm learning with has put consistent effort into recruiting and training players from scratch ever since it was first set up. The band is willing to take on complete beginners, lend them a band instrument, a tutorial book, and provide a lesson every week, free of charge - there are no subs, and all the band asks is that learners show up for their lessons, and practise in between. Once the learners have reached a reasonable standard, they are invited to play with the junior band - and the juniors play three numbers during the main band's interval at concerts three or four times a year. At every concert, the MD makes a point of telling the audience about the opportunities available to anyone who wants to have a go at playing brass, regardless of their age and previous musical training (or total lack of it!) - and, of course, the pieces played by the juniors at main concerts are a perfect way to get that point across.
Once the learners are up to it, they are also invited to join the improvers' group, where the rehearsals are more demanding, both in terms of the material and the standards of playing they expected to work towards - and later on sit in with main band rehearsals to get to grips with the simpler pieces in the repertoire (then sitting out when the main band work on the fancier stuff), as a stepping stone towards playing with the main band in public.
Yes, it all takes a lot of commitment from the main band players who work as tutors with the MD (and some of those tutors are still in their teens!), as well as the rest of the band being willing to work with improvers at main band rehearsals; it's demanding in terms of time and effort; and frequently new entrants drop out for a variety of reasons - but enough stay to make it worthwhile.
To repeat the points I made in the earlier thread to which 2nd Tenor linked:
The first time that I saw our band play, the MD told the audience that out of (I think) 34 people on stage, all but five of them had learnt to play with the band - and the home grown players include the solo cornet, rep cornet, sop cornet, solo horn, first horn, first trombone and first baritone;
11 players are still at school (the two youngest have just turned 12), and another 5 are under 30 years old;
The last time the juniors played we fielded 18 players (ages ranged from about 6 / 7 years old to me at 71!);
And that tally doesn't include the learners who are working their way up to junior level;
And the main band is First Section.
As 2nd Tenor pointed out, there is no quick fix; but I think it's fair to say that any band which doesn't have some sort of training scheme running is pushing it's luck - and I think having the whole band committed to making it work vastly outweighs other considerations, such as what sort of music the band plays, and what their uniforms (if any) are like.
Best regards,
Jack
Thats all well and good, but finding the kids that WANT to play in a brass band rather than the usual interests is the hard thing. If you cant attract them in the 1st place no amount of commitment from senior players will make diddly squat difference.
Thats all well and good, but finding the kids that WANT to play in a brass band rather than the usual interests is the hard thing. If you cant attract them in the 1st place no amount of commitment from senior players will make diddly squat difference.
Thats all well and good, but finding the kids that WANT to play in a brass band rather than the usual interests is the hard thing.
RooterTooter:- in my post, above, I not only pointed out that it can be done, and is being done - I also offered some constructive suggestions as to how it can be done, all of which are based on successful, practical experience. Do you think that just complaining about how hard it is to attract new players will change matters for a band with empty seats?
Most potential newcomers aren't going to beat a path to your door; you have to be willing to put the effort into:
1) finding them;
2) giving them the support to encourage them to stay;
3) keep on plugging away at it, knowing that a certain percentage of them will drop out after a while;
4) when they do, let them go making it clear that there are no hard feelings.
Some of those who drop out may decide to return later on - but, even if they don't, that means there's one more learner out there who might just pass the word onto somebody else.
And why do you assume that the only newcomers you can find will be "kids"? Do you think that anyone out of their teens is incapable of learning? Six of the players in our 'junior' band are adults; two of them are returning to playing, but the others (including me) all started learning with our band, from scratch, as adults - and I didn't start until I was 68.
I know; my band has been doing it for over a century. But it's also common knowledge that many bands which are constantly short of players aren't doing any of them.Your 1 - 4 are exactly what Bands have been doing for years, its nothing new.
. . . but not necessarily in the opinion of the OP, who wrote "people", not young people.Its great that you have started playing at the ripe old age of 68, good for you, also good on the other adult learners, but in terms of longevity (the whole reason for this thread in my opinion) . . .
So what? The approach taken by my band - which is what drew me in to join them - has been just as effective at drawing in the rest of our learners, the majority of whom are still in primary school.. . . I would suggest that you are unlikely to be parping your Baritone in say 10 , 15 ,20 years.
If you want to avoid being insulting, you could try writing about me playing my baritone, rather than 'parping' it, and (as I've pointed out to you before) writing my name correctly as Jack, rather than 'JackiE' - as though I was Jade Goodey's idiot mother.Please don't take that comment as an insult, I'm just trying to address your comments realistically.
JackiE, Ive been involved in Banding since The late 70's and there has been a steady decline in numbers of people wanting to play in Bands, just as there has been a decline in numbers of people wanting to fish, to Morriss dance and many other pastimes.
It is a cyclical thing, things become popular then become less popular so I am not moaning about it, I was merely stating my thoughts on it (sorry if my experience is different to yours).
Your 1 - 4 are exactly what Bands have been doing for years, its nothing new.
Its great that you have started playing at the ripe old age of 68, good for you, also good on the other adult learners, but in terms of longevity (the whole reason for this thread in my opinion) I would suggest that you are unlikely to be parping your Baritone in say 10 , 15 ,20 years. Please dont take that comment as an insult, Im just trying to address your comments realistically.
Not at all, 2nd Tenor!I hope no one minds me butting in here.
Very true - but when Rootertooter replied to another one of my posts, he / she addressed me as Jackie - and the tone of that response was none too polite, either.JakeiE ?? Well we also have a slip of the fingers from time to time and then there is ‘auto correct’ which seems to have a mind of its own.
I certainly hope so, 2nd T - my uncle played in an Irish wind band (mix of wind and brass) until well into his eighties, so I'll do my best to follow in his footsteps! And even when I'm not up to playing in a band, I may well be able to make some music, just for my own pleasure - and there's nothing wrong with that.I would suggest that Jack has a good chance of still playing in ten years time and very possibly longer, from the people that I come across playing into your late eighties isn’t that unusual - if you’re still breathing and have your faculties then you can play at some level.