Open Rehearsal

It seemed like within days of me taking home a large coffin-looking, ragged, old box that contained an equally ragged, old trombone I was a member of the Barley Mow Junior School Band. From that day forth, I have realised the real value behind being part of a larger group. And with that in mind, it was terrific last Tuesday for the City of Birmingham Band to host an "Open Rehearsal" in our home of the Joseph Chamberlain 6th Form College to give the young whipper-snappers a bash with the big boys (and girls)!
And boy, oh boy, did they take the bull by the horns! (Including a stray French one!)
The Fantastic Five - Elly-Jo, Daria, Lewis, Peter and Teresa - turned up and blew us away - literally! They must've been just the tiniest bit nervous (come on, aren't we all a bit nervous when we turn up to a new band, but these guys were just 10/11/12 years old, turning up to a band full of strange adults - and I use the word "strange" advisedly here!)
We started with a hymn (of course) - bit of tuning, bit of ensemble - just to settle the nerves (of the adults really!) and then worked on a few pieces with the aim of putting on a little informal concert at the end of the evening to those parents and family members who'd so kindly come to support their talented youngsters.
I was told beforehand that most of these girls and boys were Grade I standard - but you'd've never have thought it! Got stuck in straight away! I think it's fair to say that they really took the band by surprise, with their courage and determination.
I'd chosen a few pieces that would give us a good little concert: a simple antiphonal fanfare calle Intratum; Eye of the Tiger (theme from 'Rocky III'); a hymn; and a an appropriately titled "Grand Day Out" to finish.
Intratum - two choirs of brass at either side of the hall. All sight-reading - all note-perfect!
Eye of the Tiger - there's some tricky rhythms in this...did it stop them? No way! If anyone ever needed proof that playing in a band accelerates learning, here it was.
Hymn - Rubato, dynamics, pauses, ensemble - "Bring it on!" they cried.
A Grand Day Out - Afterbeats galore! Bum-cha, bum-cha, bum-cha, bum-cha - again "What's hard about that?!"
It's the first time City of Birmingham Band have done anything like this (our new home at JCC gives us the opportunity to fulfil lots of our plans - our own concert hall to rehearse and perform in, lots of space to split and rehearse in sections or as ensembles - it's just great!). The feedback from everyone was terrific - the kids loved it; the band loved it; the parents loved it. It's definitely on the calendar to do more.
A big thank you once again to Elly-Jo, Daria, Lewis, Peter and Teresa, and to all their supportive folks. The band were so proud of them.
A Grand Day Out it certainly was!
WB

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