Life of Wiley

The rehearsal with the band last night was excellent. It was lead by Glyn Williams, the Principle Euphonium of Foden’s and he took the band through some interesting exercises based on a hymn tune just to get us playing together, not only starting the notes together but also finishing together too. Unfortunately I arrived a bit late but it sounded like he’d also taken the band through some basic breathing and preparation techniques too.

We spent a long time going through the first movement of Divertimento, the test piece for the regional qualifiers next week. It was all really good stuff, but I fear it may be too late for it to make a significant difference. Interestingly Glyn altered the way Martyn was having us play some parts of the piece. It’ll be interesting to see how Thursday’s rehearsal goes on that basis.

I also took the opportunity to play a Courtois cornet. In summary it’s clearly a very well made cornet but I found it a little stuffy for my liking. The valves were good and very responsive though I suspect they could have done with a little oil. After playing it for about 40 minutes I switched back to my own cornet and was immediately much more comfortable as it’s more free blowing.

I’ve been talking to a fellow band member about the issue of the getting everyone to play the same instruments and the possibility of the band buying a set of instruments for such a purpose and he says, and I completely agree with him, that we’d be better off getting the existing instruments repaired (or replaced where appropriate) and spending time and money on having a weekend brass workshop with some people of the calibre of Glyn, perhaps we could persuade Glyn to bring some of his other Foden’s colleagues.

Getting the players playing properly would be the biggest gain for the band without a huge outlay of cash and we could use it to give those who play on band instruments the opportunity to try some other makes of instrument under expert guidance to try and find the right instrument for them.

It appears that my gripes about how rehearsals were being taken have been reinforced by others in the band and the recently rehearsals have been a lot better, though there’s always a danger of it slipping back through habit.

I’m particularly looking forward to next Tuesday’s rehearsal as we have members of Fodens band coming to give instruction and also to let us try some of their old Courtois instruments. It’s always good to get advice from other players, particularly from those who play in one of the top brass bands in the UK.

One concern I have though is that we have been told that it is the band’s intention to purchase a set of instruments, possibly the set from Foden’s, with a view to everyone in each section playing the same type of instrument. This concerns me because I currently play a Besson Sovereign cornet and choose this instrument after auditioning it alongside other cornets from Schilke, Getzen and Holton. I settled on the Sov because it was comfortable for me to play, offering the right amount of feedback, had the right weight and produced a nice tone. I don’t pretend that I can play it well, but for me, it was the right instrument.

I don’t mind trying new instruments, after all I’ve never played a Courtois cornet and it may be that I get on with really well. But what if I don’t? Am I going to be forced to play an instrument that I don’t find right for me? If it comes down to this I suspect I’ll be looking for another band.

My son, Euan, has started using a turn of phrase that I find very annoying. He is now inserting the word “so” in places where it’s not required. This phrasing seems to be quite popular amongst the yoof. I wouldn’t mind so much if Euan was a teenager, but he’s only just turned 5! I wasn’t expecting to have to deal with this for at least another 8 years.

It’s so not fair!