Untitled Document
     
Advertisement Click to advertise with us!
     

The Community Band of the Future

Gandalfe

Striving to play the changes in a melodic way.
Staff member
Administrator
I wrote this today on the Community Music forum in Yahoo. It is comprised mostly of band directors.

As our community band grew I came to the realization that baby boomers were returning to band and music performance in a big way.

We had a lot of dead weight in the band at that time including people who had been in the band for years, couldn't even tune their instrument, with broken instruments, and no desire to practice. The community band was a social group more than a music experience.

So after three years of lobbying, the chance acquisition of a superior director that we wanted to keep, and support from friends on the board we instituted a set of new policies. The section sizes were determined by the director. Where we had too many players we just waited for the downsizing using attrition.

For sections needed new players we instituted an audition process, the first for this band. The audition is run by the section leader and consists of playing some scales and sight reading. Those who didn't make the grade were gently given the suggestion that they take lesssons and try again in the future.

Finally our director started upping the ante with music that was as difficult as it was dramatic. Interestingly enough as the performance requirements became more challenging, the more the dead weight started to move on. And there was never a shortage of people who wanted to join the band. We turn away or place on a waiting list 5 to 10 people a year.

Not everyone is happy about this move from a mostly social to a mostly music organization. And handled poorly this could destroy a community band. I suspect that if your CB is in a small town your options could be limited. But so far the quality of the music provided by this band has improved immeasurably and the size of the audience is continuing to grow.
 
So with all the retiring baby boomers, with more time on their hands, I would suspect that many are looking at joining community bands. Are you experiencing that in the bands you are in? I'm on the board so I am seeing a lot of applicants get turned away lately.
 
Side note: Wikipedia says that the US Census considers "baby boomers" as someone born between 1946 and 1964.

As I've mentioned before, I've worked and volunteered in church music ensembles for 20-ish years. Considering that most of these are all volunteer, I'd assume that they're closer to a community band than anything else. Maybe more regular gigs, tho :).

There are a couple of ways of looking at it:

* Generally after a big production (Christmas, Easter, etc.) you'd get a lot of butts in seats at the next rehearsal. Sometimes the folks are very good former musicians that have just "picked it up again" and other folks just want to be part of a group that sings or plays. In the former case, you have a lot of attrition when they find out that we generally DON'T do things that are that musically complex because of those folks that fall in the latter group -- and they get "attritioned" when they find out that the music is a bit more complex than they expected and/or takes up more time than expected.

* Auditions winnow out a lot of people. Sometimes too many. That's always been my problem with auditions -- and the same problem that most of the other directors I've talked with in church music. Hey, these folks want an outlet to sing or play and it's definitely hard for a director that's generally significantly younger than the applicant to say, "Sorry. You're just not good enough." Especially if that person's a member of the church board or is a major contributor.

Because of either of these or both of these means that your group is generally about the same size.

FWIW, while I'm sure that there are a few community bands around me, I never see much advertisement for them. Maybe I just don't look in the right places.

As another point, if you're talking about late baby boomers, how many of them played band instruments? These folks were in their teens when the Beatles and other British Invasion bands were at their height. How many traded acoustic instruments for electric guitars?
 
I've played in three community bands, open to anyone who wants to join, but each with a good portion of semi-pro musicians. The worst players haven't held the bands back, because they tend to play very quietly, or just quit playing when the music is more complex than they can handle (well, with the exception of the 2nd and 3rd trumpets in one band). But they contribute as they can. There is a reason these organizations are called "community" bands.
 
(I'm on the board of a concert band)

We're expecting the arrival of returning 30..50yo players any minute.

There's an ongoing discussion in our band about how to catch those dropping out of youth band (there's an age limit there), and we think this could be a waste of energy because more often than not those 20+yo folks wander off soon, pursuing a career, founding a family, seeking the meaning of life and whatnot.

Only after they're done spending time on job and family they remember their good times with the instrument on their lips, and that's where we should be lurking round the corner.

But whatever their age, player don't just call on like that. We have maybe one or two new serious players per year. There are no auditions, but a longish probationary period (we admit new members only once a year, in December). Only one trumpet player quit after two rehearsals because she wasn't given first chair on the spot. All the other applicants stayed, and none has been refused for lack of skills.

Maybe there are too many concert bands in town, (20 for adults, three for youths in a city with 380K inhabitants)...
 
...There's an ongoing discussion in our band about how to catch those dropping out of youth band (there's an age limit there), and we think this could be a waste of energy because more often than not those 20+yo folks wander off soon, pursuing a career, founding a family, seeking the meaning of life and whatnot.

Only after they're done spending time on job and family they remember their good times with the instrument on their lips, and that's where we should be lurking round the corner.

...

Only one trumpet player quit after two rehearsals because she wasn't given first chair on the spot. All the other applicants stayed, and none has been refused for lack of skills.
Sounds like you got lucky on that trumpet player. :cool:

We find the same to be true about most young people in our area too. Especially after the birth of their first child.
 
Back
Top Bottom