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No Band Thread?

tictactux

Distinguished Member
Distinguished Member
Uhm...what I always miss in those whateverwinds newsgroups is a subforum about bands, especially community bands. Who we are, what problems we have, what repertoire we do. It's not limited to woodwinds, but it's not about something instrument-specific anyway.

So then - how do you get new players? What's the age structure (ouf, I just avoided the word 'pyramid') of your band? Where do you play? What repertoire? How often?
 
Ben,

I normally like to fill-in where needed (clarinet or sax).

Right now i'm filing in on a college band. Playing 3rd clarinet. The entire section. I have 4 practices before the concert .. no real issues .. I love sightreading.

My main issue from my first rehearsal with them last week was balance. A medium bore just wasn't cutting it (Leblanc LL). Tomorrow, i'm going to bring a large bore clarinet and hopefully I should be able to balance a bit more easily. The conductor said I did a good job but a med bore is simply more laborous to do that then a large bore.

The college band is mostly non-college folk that I know from other areas - Big Bands (saxs), etc. They seem to have issues finding enough members so they get temp players from time to time Many members also play in other community bands.
 
We'll take a second look at having a section dedicated to community bands.

Thanks for the great idea.
 
I look forward to this as the Community band has morphed into an organization with a concert band, jazz ensemble, and big band with a number of adjunct small groups (Dixie, jazz combo, and the like). I have gone on record predicting that the aging baby boomers are going to be looking for more playing opportunities. We have waiting lists for our big three bands.

And then there is the always interesting debate about auditioning vs not, funding a community band, and festivals. So I was understandably very interested in tictactux's suggestion.
 
tictactux said:
Uhm...what I always miss in those whateverwinds newsgroups is a subforum about bands, especially community bands. Who we are, what problems we have, what repertoire we do. It's not limited to woodwinds, but it's not about something instrument-specific anyway.
Here ya be. Enjoy.
 
pete said:
Here ya be. Enjoy.
Whoa. <wades through the thick and unstained carpet, admires the sax chandelier>. Cool.

Okay, there goes: "my" band is roughly 30 people strong, average age of 40ish. Slightly more ladies than gents. We think we're at a lower limit re staffing, because if only two or three people of the same instrument family call in sick or are on vacation etc, we run into problems with certain music parts. Oops, no first trumpets today? Uh-oh.
As part of a section of the municipal wind music association (which is part of the state ass. which in turn is part of the federal association) we do get some modest funding for which we have to perform a number of public and free of charge concerts in the city. The rest of the budget is covered by active and passive membership fees, one summer and one winter concert, and the occasional paid gig for another local association.
We do not have auditions in the classic sense; new members join us as guests during the year, but only by the end of the year the active corps elects them as full members into the band. By then the qualities of the player should be obvious to anyone, and there is no stress about a botched audition etc. After all, we're an amateur orchestra.

Here's the web site - it's in German only, however.
 
Gandalfe said:
Uniforms? Wowser, that's a heavy expense. But I guess that's one way to insure a longer commitment; you pay for the uniforms and you'd probably think twice about quitting.
Er, no, the band is paying for the uniforms. There's a funds for that hidden in the treasure chest somewhere. That's one reason for the rather long waiting periods - they don't issue uniforms just like that...
 
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