I played in high school and college, then went about 25 years with no playing. I joined a New Horizons band, and have subsequently joined another community concert band, a community marching band, and a tuba ensemble. I get a great deal of pleasure from playing, and like another poster, can arrive at rehearsal grumpy, sad, irritated and leave in a much better frame of mind. I feel much happier since returning to playing, and have made some amazing friends playing music.
Two of the bands are dues supported, one is dues/donor, and one is routinely payed for gigs and has nominal dues.
Ally"the trombone/french horn player with a euphonium name who plays the tuba"House
Community Bands
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bearphonium
- 5 valves
- Posts: 1077
- Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:21 pm
- Location: Making mischief in the back row at 44, 1' 49"N, 123, 8'10"W
Re: Community Bands
Mirafone 186 BBb
VMI 201 3/4 BBb
King Sousaphone
Conn 19I 4-valve non-comp Euph
What Would Xena Do?
VMI 201 3/4 BBb
King Sousaphone
Conn 19I 4-valve non-comp Euph
What Would Xena Do?
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tubaknut
- bugler
- Posts: 42
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 5:59 am
- Location: Oslo, Norway
- Contact:
Re: Community Bands
My reason for playing in a community band is to experience the tremendous pleasure of giving the band, and the audience deep and emotional musical experiences. Being able to create music with other people, is a gift I'm very glad to hold.
For the last few years I've started to get involved with the board of the band, and getting to influence the decisions we make and where we're going is also quite rewarding, but I often think that just playing would be the best thing for me. I'd rather play with many different bands, and focus solely on the playing, than having to take care of other members,information, marketing and every other aspect of running a community band.
Knut, the tuba playing composoductor, with a few responsibilities besides performing in the band.
For the last few years I've started to get involved with the board of the band, and getting to influence the decisions we make and where we're going is also quite rewarding, but I often think that just playing would be the best thing for me. I'd rather play with many different bands, and focus solely on the playing, than having to take care of other members,information, marketing and every other aspect of running a community band.
Knut, the tuba playing composoductor, with a few responsibilities besides performing in the band.
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Besson 994 Bb
Rudolf Meinl 5/4 CC
Besson Sovereign 981 Eb
Besson 994 Bb
Rudolf Meinl 5/4 CC
Besson Sovereign 981 Eb
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sloan
- On Ice
- Posts: 1827
- Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2004 10:34 pm
- Location: Nutley, NJ
Re: Community Bands
I played in high school and college, always using school-owned sousaphones (and, of course, always in BBb). When college ended, I didn't have a tuba, couldn't really afford one (well, maybe I could have) and didn't have any place to play. It never occurred to me that there might be such a thing as a "community band". Band was associated with school - otherwise, if you weren't paid to play, you didn't. I was (I think) a competent player - but no one was going to pay me to play and I wasn't planning on getting a degree in music). I put in a few appearances with the old college band on special occasions - and I even flirted with playing in the marching band when I went to grad school, a few years later - but somehow it just wasn't the same.
My wife was slightly more ambitious - she plays the flute and is very, very good. During college, she rode the bus for an hour each way to take private lessons. After college, she continued with the private lessons, spent her summer vacation going to "flute camp"...and seriously considered going to grad school for a performance degree, in case the Biology stuff didn't work out.
25 years later, she was a professor of anatomy and I was a professor of computer science, and our oldest son was performing in his first middle-school band performance. Light bulbs went off over both of our heads (I think her light bulb went off a year before...) I remember sitting in the audience thinking "I used to enjoy being UP THERE. Why am I DOWN HERE?". So, I wrote a check. I bought a tuba, and all (repeat: ALL) the method books/etude books/whatever recommended by one and all (I still have them all, somewhere) and started on page one, line one. By all accounts, it was pretty painful, for quite some time.
In 5 months I was (I thought) ready to play in the "July 4th all-comers band". When I walked in, I was pounced on by someone who recruited me for another "all-comers" community band that met year round. In the meantime, my wife had found yet another (much better - invitation only) community band. And...we were up and running. Buying a tuba will make you a LOT of friends...
12 years later, we both play in a total of 3 (or 4, or 5, depending on how you count) community bands. Travel plans often revolve around performances and rehearsals. It's very hard to imagine life without 6-10 "band" events each month. She has joined the "all-comers" band, and I finally managed to wangle an invitation to play in the "invitation only" band.
In the interim, it's not exactly as if there was no music in our lives - I've always had a piano handy, and my wife never went more than a year or two without getting out the flute and getting back up to speed again. But - we had no *performance* or *social* outlet. It's playing for other people that makes the difference. And - make no mistake - at a community band rehearsal you are "playing for other people". We average about 6-8 rehearsals for every performance - for us, the community band experience is really about the rehearsals.
When we started, the community bands were mostly populated by local band directors and retired folk (retired musicians, and retired "just about everything"). Nowadays, we push hard to involve the younger crowd - those who (like us 40 years ago) have left college and no longer have a college marching band, or wind ensemble, or even orchestra, to play with.
Many college bands are made up of "non-music-majors". The music majors may fill most of the seats in the primo ensembles - but there are other bands where most of the players are not music majors. Community bands serve the same purpose, later in life. It's a place for non-paid musicians to rehearse and perform - not because of the envelope handed out at the end of the session, but simply to enjoy making music TOGETHER.
And, of course, to buy toys. In school, I played whatever BBb Sousaphone was issued to me by the band director. Now, I have an alarming array of interesting instruments - each with it's own history and it's own ecological niche. I haven't "mastered" any of them - but they all have a place: BBb, EEb, tuba, helicon, tiny, huge...and the middle of the road instrument that I bring when it's really important for me to play my best (i.e., when I'm in "professional" mode). I don't (yet) own a Sousaphone, though. When I play in the Skating Band, I think it's best if I borrow a horn....
The folk who do the hard work to organize community bands and make it all happen tell many different stories about why they do it. One band may be aimed at a particular event (July 4th before/during the fireworks); others aim at community service (tour local retirement homes during the Christmas season); others pretend that they are semi-commercial enterprises, arranging "paid" gigs where the musicians might get gas-money. But, the truth is that it's all about the rehearsals. The *worst* "community band" experiences I have had involve bands that bring in paid ringers to fill out the instrumentation and make sure that those difficult parts get covered. I have all-but dropped out of one band that typically has 10 people for rehearsal and 30 people for a performance (and tries to play full wind band arrangements). Performances have to be "as good as we can do" - but in the community band world any choice between good rehearsals and good performances is (in my opinion) heavily weighted towards the rehearsals. That's where the "community" is.
My wife was slightly more ambitious - she plays the flute and is very, very good. During college, she rode the bus for an hour each way to take private lessons. After college, she continued with the private lessons, spent her summer vacation going to "flute camp"...and seriously considered going to grad school for a performance degree, in case the Biology stuff didn't work out.
25 years later, she was a professor of anatomy and I was a professor of computer science, and our oldest son was performing in his first middle-school band performance. Light bulbs went off over both of our heads (I think her light bulb went off a year before...) I remember sitting in the audience thinking "I used to enjoy being UP THERE. Why am I DOWN HERE?". So, I wrote a check. I bought a tuba, and all (repeat: ALL) the method books/etude books/whatever recommended by one and all (I still have them all, somewhere) and started on page one, line one. By all accounts, it was pretty painful, for quite some time.
In 5 months I was (I thought) ready to play in the "July 4th all-comers band". When I walked in, I was pounced on by someone who recruited me for another "all-comers" community band that met year round. In the meantime, my wife had found yet another (much better - invitation only) community band. And...we were up and running. Buying a tuba will make you a LOT of friends...
12 years later, we both play in a total of 3 (or 4, or 5, depending on how you count) community bands. Travel plans often revolve around performances and rehearsals. It's very hard to imagine life without 6-10 "band" events each month. She has joined the "all-comers" band, and I finally managed to wangle an invitation to play in the "invitation only" band.
In the interim, it's not exactly as if there was no music in our lives - I've always had a piano handy, and my wife never went more than a year or two without getting out the flute and getting back up to speed again. But - we had no *performance* or *social* outlet. It's playing for other people that makes the difference. And - make no mistake - at a community band rehearsal you are "playing for other people". We average about 6-8 rehearsals for every performance - for us, the community band experience is really about the rehearsals.
When we started, the community bands were mostly populated by local band directors and retired folk (retired musicians, and retired "just about everything"). Nowadays, we push hard to involve the younger crowd - those who (like us 40 years ago) have left college and no longer have a college marching band, or wind ensemble, or even orchestra, to play with.
Many college bands are made up of "non-music-majors". The music majors may fill most of the seats in the primo ensembles - but there are other bands where most of the players are not music majors. Community bands serve the same purpose, later in life. It's a place for non-paid musicians to rehearse and perform - not because of the envelope handed out at the end of the session, but simply to enjoy making music TOGETHER.
And, of course, to buy toys. In school, I played whatever BBb Sousaphone was issued to me by the band director. Now, I have an alarming array of interesting instruments - each with it's own history and it's own ecological niche. I haven't "mastered" any of them - but they all have a place: BBb, EEb, tuba, helicon, tiny, huge...and the middle of the road instrument that I bring when it's really important for me to play my best (i.e., when I'm in "professional" mode). I don't (yet) own a Sousaphone, though. When I play in the Skating Band, I think it's best if I borrow a horn....
The folk who do the hard work to organize community bands and make it all happen tell many different stories about why they do it. One band may be aimed at a particular event (July 4th before/during the fireworks); others aim at community service (tour local retirement homes during the Christmas season); others pretend that they are semi-commercial enterprises, arranging "paid" gigs where the musicians might get gas-money. But, the truth is that it's all about the rehearsals. The *worst* "community band" experiences I have had involve bands that bring in paid ringers to fill out the instrumentation and make sure that those difficult parts get covered. I have all-but dropped out of one band that typically has 10 people for rehearsal and 30 people for a performance (and tries to play full wind band arrangements). Performances have to be "as good as we can do" - but in the community band world any choice between good rehearsals and good performances is (in my opinion) heavily weighted towards the rehearsals. That's where the "community" is.
Kenneth Sloan