Dave Payn
Active Member
After yesterday’s round of contests at Stevenage I feel emboldened to share with tMP, something that’s been bugging me for years.
OK, apologies if this has been said many times before, or if I’m missing something blatantly obvious, or if I’m messing about with ‘tradition’ too much or even whether ‘it’s the same for every band’, but what, oh what is the point of not allowing tuning up, blowing a few notes, getting a feel for drums etc. on stage before a contest performance. In the concert hall you see an orchestra walk on, tune form the oboe and generally get the ‘feel’ for acoustics. Even when I’ve been to concerts given by the likes of PJBE, London Brass etc. I can hear them warming up backstage just prior to coming on stage. OK, so no band’s performance needs to be spoiled by hearing another band going through their exercises etc. in another room, so why not on stage, eh? When adjudicators come up with remarks like (This didn’t happen to Fulham, by the way – this is a general question!) ‘Basses were too loud for the acoustics’ (It has happened…). How the Hell are we supposed to know with venues we play in for 12-20 minutes once a year? Surely the least we can do is get a brief feel for the ambience of the hall!
Some might say in reply that at top section level, it might encourage band spotting by adjudicators. So what? I’ve long been an advocate of open adjudication anyway, and if you can’t trust judges to give a fair result if they know who’s playing, don’t bloody employ them!
It needn’t take much more, if any, time from when a band walks on stage anyway. Percussion usually spend a few minutes sorting their gear out, they can perhaps use an extra minute to tune the timps properly (are they allowed to do this already? If not then they should be! I remember at a recent contest that in one particular section, the tuning of the timps was all over the shop with the vast majority of bands. I requested in the interval to go and tune them myself, only to find the gauges were all wrong. I don’t say this to boast (honestly!) but once it had been sorted, the timp notes in the following sections resembled the notes they were supposed to be playing! Why not allow proper percussionists - of which I'm not one! - to do this before each performance anyway, quietly or whatever?)
We’re talking about, in brass especially, instruments that need to be warm, warmed up, and gauged for the acoustics before a performance. I mean, am I talking rocket science here??
Again, apologies if I’ve missed something obvious or am trying to interfere with tradition, but whilst it didn’t affect me personally yesterday (I’d still have played lousy even with a tootle on stage!) I would feel more comfortable doing my own quick blowing exercise for a couple of minutes before performance. I know some contests (like SCABA’s Autumn contest at Folkestone) ) have an own choice hymn tune and test piece which is a good idea in principle. However, some bands take liberties with this and play florid hymn tune arrangements which last almost as long as the test piece itself! Personally, hymn tunes work for that contest, but I'd much rather do my own designed warm up on stage before a contest, concert, etc.
What do the rest of you think?
Kind regards
OK, apologies if this has been said many times before, or if I’m missing something blatantly obvious, or if I’m messing about with ‘tradition’ too much or even whether ‘it’s the same for every band’, but what, oh what is the point of not allowing tuning up, blowing a few notes, getting a feel for drums etc. on stage before a contest performance. In the concert hall you see an orchestra walk on, tune form the oboe and generally get the ‘feel’ for acoustics. Even when I’ve been to concerts given by the likes of PJBE, London Brass etc. I can hear them warming up backstage just prior to coming on stage. OK, so no band’s performance needs to be spoiled by hearing another band going through their exercises etc. in another room, so why not on stage, eh? When adjudicators come up with remarks like (This didn’t happen to Fulham, by the way – this is a general question!) ‘Basses were too loud for the acoustics’ (It has happened…). How the Hell are we supposed to know with venues we play in for 12-20 minutes once a year? Surely the least we can do is get a brief feel for the ambience of the hall!
Some might say in reply that at top section level, it might encourage band spotting by adjudicators. So what? I’ve long been an advocate of open adjudication anyway, and if you can’t trust judges to give a fair result if they know who’s playing, don’t bloody employ them!
It needn’t take much more, if any, time from when a band walks on stage anyway. Percussion usually spend a few minutes sorting their gear out, they can perhaps use an extra minute to tune the timps properly (are they allowed to do this already? If not then they should be! I remember at a recent contest that in one particular section, the tuning of the timps was all over the shop with the vast majority of bands. I requested in the interval to go and tune them myself, only to find the gauges were all wrong. I don’t say this to boast (honestly!) but once it had been sorted, the timp notes in the following sections resembled the notes they were supposed to be playing! Why not allow proper percussionists - of which I'm not one! - to do this before each performance anyway, quietly or whatever?)
We’re talking about, in brass especially, instruments that need to be warm, warmed up, and gauged for the acoustics before a performance. I mean, am I talking rocket science here??
Again, apologies if I’ve missed something obvious or am trying to interfere with tradition, but whilst it didn’t affect me personally yesterday (I’d still have played lousy even with a tootle on stage!) I would feel more comfortable doing my own quick blowing exercise for a couple of minutes before performance. I know some contests (like SCABA’s Autumn contest at Folkestone) ) have an own choice hymn tune and test piece which is a good idea in principle. However, some bands take liberties with this and play florid hymn tune arrangements which last almost as long as the test piece itself! Personally, hymn tunes work for that contest, but I'd much rather do my own designed warm up on stage before a contest, concert, etc.
What do the rest of you think?
Kind regards
