Practise

I have a few performances coming up, with wind band, brass band and orchestra.   Now as a conductor I am always telling the members of the band that they have to practise, it's simply not enough to rely in the playing we do at rehearsals.   We need to practise so that when we get to the rehearsal we are ready to rehears the piece not practise the instrument.

The trouble is a lot of the time I don't follow my own advise, and now I have been found out big time!   All the time I was playing Tuba I was OK, I could pretty much cope with anything thrown at me, but at both the Orchestra and the Wind Band I will be playing Bass Trombone at the next few performances, and I NEED TO PRACTISE.   If you live near me I apologise but I just have to do it.

The Orchestral job is with the London Charity Orchestra and we are going to be playing lots of "lolly pops" including the Capriccio Italien, Roman Carnival, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, and Dambusters, so it looks as though I could end up with quite a bit to do.

Apologies

First things first I owe Jim an apology I put him in the wrong regiment, and of course the Grenadiers are a very different outfit from the Coldstream. Sorry Jim!

When I started this blog I thought I would record my journey in music, but looking at what I have written so far I seem to write about just about anything but. Maybe this is just a reflection of what is really on my mind, or how I actually spend my time. Certainly now that my main income comes from Gardening rather than playing music things like weather play a much bigger part in my life. The other side of it is that at the moment there is not a lot actually happening with my music.

Of the two orchestras I am a regular player with one, the London Charity Orchestra ( http://www.londoncharityorchestra.co.uk/ ) have decided that this spring the concert will be classical music - Mozart and Schumann - so no need for Trombones and Tuba, this is a shame for me since I enjoy this orchestra so much I always play Bass Trombone with them since they seem to have loads of good tuba players but struggle to find mediocre Bass Trombones!

The picture shows the LCO in a concert we played at LSO St Luke's a while back, this was a big orchestra since we had the Planets on the program.

The All Souls Orchestra ( http://www.allsoulsorchestra.org/ ) are a christian orchestra based on All Souls Church Langham Place - next to the BBC - and call on players from across London and the South East, for the first part of this year they have decided to use younger players and since there is only ever one Tuba or Bass Trombone this leaves some of us older guys out of it.

This is of course an admirable idea and in theory I absolutely applaud it. However in practise it has left me with a few issues to deal with, there is a definite feeling of rejection, as well as disappointment at not playing at some events that I really enjoy. Maybe this means that I have been thinking playing with ASO too much as simple music performance rather than worship, and putting myself at the centre rather than putting God at the centre.

Still I do have a few things coming up other the next few weeks, including a concert with a local orchestra I haven't played with for about 20 years, so in effect new ground. So plenty to look forward to.