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Okay. Last night I showed up and played the last Christmas concert of a community band I used to "belong" to as it was also the 90 year old conductor's last concert conducting. Several friends in the band kept asking me to not just listen but to play and when I called the conductor, I got his blessing.

That old man still has a clean stick that tells me ahead of time what he wants and he picked a nice selection of music. In his day as a school music teacher, he could have picked up ANY instrument and played it well enough to get accepted at a typical Liberal Arts College, he is that musical. The meanest thing he ever said in a rehearsal was, "PLEASE feel free to take the music home and practice." He didn't choose just the watered down crap that was easy to play. There were plenty enough rough spots on a few War Horse pieces to make my wife say something like "The Band sounds better when everyone is playing the same thing." I know that. But I had FUN concentrating on reading the right notes and rhythms. I made one wrong entrance last night and yet my old friends were glad I was there and playing. I left there with a big grin on my face.

With my current, much closer community band, I make more mistakes from daydreaming in the middle of the concert because we have rehearsed the same crap for 4 months before the string of several concerts playing the same crap with a conductor that telegraphs nothing prior to sudden tempo changes. The concerts of my over rehearsed current band are more "Polished" but I leave the rehearsals and concerts feeling like a little of my soul is diminished.

If it weren't for my good friend and fellow tubist in the current community band.......well, I have a little soul searching ahead of me about where I am spending my precious spare time.

Does anyone else go through something like this?

Six years ago I cherry picked some fun people from different places, and started a mixed septet myself. We have deep experience, pick only moderately difficult music, and repeat the program through the year. Number of needed rehearsals is one or two a year, done in the spring for a summer season. You might be surprised at how good the music can sound when people are accustomed to performing it. The sense of urgency at the two practices is a lot higher as well.

Yes, Matt I recognize some of what you are saying. Seems to be the same all over the world, and in a lot of different "colours". I am lucky enough to play in different ensembles of good quality (some regularly, some at intervals as a "guest player"). But the community band in the little Dutch village I live in, some two years ago "convinced " me, that it was more or less an obligation for me as a member of this community to join. With some reservations and hesitation as well, I gave in to this "call for duty". Since then, most Friday evenings I sit in the back row and try to survive the probably loudest band of the region. Almost every time I come home with a new amazing story for my wife, about remarks and statements of the conductor, about behaviour and strange or weard abilities of some members producing non-musical noises and so on. But the third half is always enjoyable (as is the beer). We will see how long my stamina will last.....
Beste wishes from the Netherlands,
Hubert

At any given time I am in at least 4 bands, plus subbing for others. There is always a balance between "good" and "fun." The best band I'm in (a brass band with british instrumentation) is very good. We spend a lot of time working on intonation, uniform attack, subtle dynamics, etc. etc. It's not always fun but it is always worthwhile. It is extraordinarily satisfying to complete a well-played concert with this band.

I'm in another band that plays at a much lower level. I have left bands that played better. This band plays relatively easy music, and not always well. But the rehearsals are easy-going and people enjoy themselves. However, the real reason I stay with this band is to see how the conductor gets the band up to a level this is something near it's best potential. He's a retired music teacher and knows every trick in the book to get a moderate player to solve problems that are within his ability to solve (this is a very special quality that a lot of otherwise good conductors don't have). He enjoys it, he's good at it, and his attitude makes playing in these rehearsals a lot of fun.

So I would say that if I'm balancing good with fun, it has to be the right type of good or the right type of fun.

Hup

I play in 3 different "community" bands. One has been playing continuously for over 120 years. Some members of that band have been playing for 50 years or more. They seldom play something new. It is almost on automatic. The group is composed of mostly really old friends that play for the social aspect as much as the music. They play reasonably hard music and play it well. This band is in danger of dying because there are so few young players joining.

The second band never practices (OK, once per quarter, maybe). We play simpler music for people in nursing homes and assisted living. That is just fun to play for them because they enjoy the music so much. This is mostly old players, but some new ones are joining too.

The third is in-between these two examples. It has a lot of old members and is starting to get younger ones. The director is working hard to upgrade the band to sound better. He is making progress. That band is more for good than fun.

In general, I think volunteer bands have to be fun to get and keep members. Being good, in most cases, is part of the fun.

Matt -- I hear you loud and clear.

I used to play in a band that I called the "Groundhog's Day Band." Just like the movie, every rehearsal was always *exactly* the same. Start and stop same places. Rehearse the same things. Every single time.

When concerts rolled around, the parts that were rehearsed were very clean, telegraphed, and boring as hell. Transitions, openings, and endings were a mess, because we never practiced those parts. I didn't like it, and eventually, I quit.

Hi Matt, When I was in NY, I played in ensembles where I was always paid to play. Most of them were quite good. That was the scene on Long Island, not far from NYC. It was fairly lucrative in the 70's and 80's, and not as good after that, but they were paid gigs with good musicians. Then when I moved here, I hoped to break into the scene and resume what I did in NY. Nope! There is no scene here for "classical style ensembles" where one can get paid to play. So, I joined a few community groups, hoping to network and after 1 year, I left all but 1 concert band. One conductor was extremely good, one not so bad, but I couldn't take rehearsing the same music week after week, and paying dues to do it, in groups with mostly so so recreational musicians and playing several concerts, many on holidays, for small audiences. I would go home depressed after many of these rehearsals. If I hadn't come from the scene on LI first, I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it and I probably would continue to play in the groups here just to continue playing. But, moving here was a musical culture shock for me and I found it difficult to adjust to it.

So, I continue to play in one concert band, The Cedar Park Winds, which was put together by my daughter and her husband who is the conductor. It's an outstanding band comprised mostly of band directors and lesson teachers. We play 2 concerts a year and rehearse specifically for 7-8 weeks leading up to those concerts. Rehearsals are 90 min. and there are no dues. We played at TBA a few years ago and we applied to play at Mid West next year. The audience for these concerts always exceeds 500 people. It's fun to play in a fine group for a large appreciative audience. Otherwise, here I play trad. jazz and in a brass quintet. I'm happy. This probably doesn't address your post, Matt, but Happy Holidays and I'll see you in DC.

Yes indeed, Matt - in a nutshell, your question is the "story of my (musical) life".

In my opinion, if you're playing for fun, if it ain't good (meaning "not working for you", whatever that might be) it ain't fun.

When I was a full-time player, I had to take some gigs that when I was done, all I wanted to do was throw my horn in the garbage. Now, my horn doesn't come out of its case unless there is something fulfilling in it for me.

Life is too short to waste your precious free time on things that are not important to you.

Best wishes to you - you deserve it!

One of the best threads around in a while. My experience is that it can be very rewarding to play In a larger tuba section where players are skilled in and focused on decent intonation and dynamics (equipment choice, alternate fingerings, etc) It may sound weird, but it's always a treat for me when circumstances dictate being a lone tuba player in the wind band setting and I'm using my larger horn. Let's you really control the feel of the ensemble.

There are several rewarding aspects when it comes to community band.
Musicianship may be one of them.
Best example was our band´s last concert, two weeks ago:

- There´s more to band practise than trying to master the repertoire. Otherwise, I´d have myself excused until two weeks before concert.
- I had administered the band´s youth program for a while, until about two years ago. Some of "my" kids had their debut appearance with the full band on stage this year. It´s AWESOME to watch young persons grow and become part of the band COMMUNITY. And I take it as a huge virtual pat on my back, although it was not I who did their work to become musically efficient enough to join band.
- I particularly enjoyed the band´s team spirit, having fun after concert until morning hours.
- A few years ago a section mate turned 70 and decided it was time to retire from band. After a year, band Virus struck him hard, so he motivated himself to come back, having shown no such foolish inclinations ever since.
- there´s a lot more situations and observations of this kind to mention here, but the theme is clear, I guess.

The joy in this kind of thing comes with YEARS in band.
From the musical point of view, it may be more rewarding to just sub all the time.
While I´ve always felt free to do that, I still know why I want to be part of THAT band.

Hans