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Requiem for a Concert Band

My sort of a take on Rod Serling's "Requiem for a Heavyweight"

I wonder if anyone else has played in a community band that had difficulty in attracting member and sort of is coming /came apart.

Our already small community band started up again in October.
I missed the first rehearsal, and when I showed up, was greeted by one of the band members who told me that the 4 flute players, the Oboe player, and the drummer had decided not to return. We also lost a Tenor and an Alto player as they had moved away

So now we have 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, 1 Clarinet (me), the director, who is now playing flute and conducting, her husband who is making an effort to cover the percussion part, and an Alto player who almost never practices and can barely play the horn.

The band is due to return in February, I have a feeling that the director may not want to continue. All the flute players left and didn't return the music.

There is a large well organized community band nearby that I could join, but I want to give this band a chance, I have decided to stick it out for now.
We did play a Christmas concert at an Assisted Living Home, and another at the Church where we practice. The concerts came off quite well We had one part in one of the pieces where there were four measures with no one playing. The audience was confused, but we started up again after 4 measures, if I had thought of it I would have written in something to play

I'm not sure why this band has a difficult time attracting members. It is located in a town that is off the beaten path. Also I think that those that show up, and never return, are put off by the mostly simple music, and the time spent on the Alto player- who is also the director's student

The good new is I have lots of solos!
 
I'm not sure why this band has a difficult time attracting members.
Sometimes the public doesn't know you're looking for folks. The other major reason is if you require an audition. That can be intimidating ... but potentially necessary.

Post an ad in the church's newsletter or Sunday program, maybe? Local music store/grocery store?
 
Local community bands in my area are having trouble recruiting young musicians these days.....due to the fact that the two towns and city in my immediate local do not have strong high school band programs. Kids just aren't taking lessons these days as in past years. When June rolls around, they put their instruments away for the summer......
Most kids don't practice at home. Parents think that their child playing a band instrument is an activity similar to their kid taking horseback riding lessons: drop him/her off for their one-hour pony ride once a week & "see you next week".
I just finished a two-month fill-in position for a middle school band/instrumental teacher who was on an extended leave. Probably one out of five students took their instruments home to practice.......very frustrating.
 
It's not for lack of trying- I created a web site for the band that was up for ~3 years, and got 0 responses. The church we practice in does post us in their bulletin, and we are displayed on the church activities calendar. The band director owns the local music store, and tries to interest her students and customers in the band. She does not require an audition, and will allow anyone who is breathing to join the band.

I hear you Mike concerning the current school music scene. While viewing last year's Christmas parade, I noticed that the HS band is at least
half the size of prior years. I'm sure the pandemic has had an impact on participation in school music programs. My old HS has a small pep squad for a band, even before the pandemic. Sad to see.

Our Alto player is 60 years old, I'm not sure why he stays with the band,

I forgot to mention that we have a 2nd trumpet player. He is a retired school music teacher and I think he signed on to support our director who is also a retired music teacher. He also was in my high school band, and got me a few gigs way back when.
 
While viewing last year's Christmas parade, I noticed that the HS band is at least half the size of prior years.
I hate parades and marching. I managed to avoid most of this during my middle school and high school years, but if that were ever a requirement for me to join a band, I'd opt out. Unless money. Lots of money.

You do have the makings of a decent quintet. Get someone to borrow a synth with a good tuba sound, move you to bari (as trombone) or another alto/tenor (french horn parts) and there ya go. If you can double the 60 yo on something, that might help.
 
I hate parades and marching. I managed to avoid most of this during my middle school and high school years, but if that were ever a requirement for me to join a band, I'd opt out. Unless money. Lots of money.

You do have the makings of a decent quintet. Get someone to borrow a synth with a good tuba sound, move you to bari (as trombone) or another alto/tenor (french horn parts) and there ya go. If you can double the 60 yo on something, that might help.
I'm with you about parades and marching. Back in HS days, the band director made it a requirement that we had to participate in the marching band, or we couldn't play in the Jazz band (This didn't apply to the piano player or the guitar player).

I did put together a "Brass Quartet" a few years ago - We had 2 trombones, a trumpet, and me on Bari playing one of the trombone parts, I think one of the trombones covered the Tuba part.

The 60 yo Alto player should probably move on, since he clearly isn't interested in playing .

I noticed that the other community band that I have considered joining doesn't have a Bari Sax listed on their web page, so if the band folds, I will probably go there.

I'll stick it out for now and see how things go. I like the people, and I do enjoy playing in the band.
 
I'll stick it out for now and see how things go. I like the people, and I do enjoy playing in the band.
There's a lot to be said for being able to work with folks you like and doing stuff you enjoy.
 
A friends grandson was assigned trombone when he joined MS band. He wanted percussion, and was refused. He plays nothing now. This is so sufferent from my school band experience (50 yrs ago). I wonder if this causes less participation?
 
or......
A "former" private student of mine (sax player) plays rather well (made junior high District / SEMSBA while in middle school).
His parents sent him to a "private high school" 12 miles from his home. He signed up for band class (during the school day) and was told that he HAD to play in the HS Pep band for all football and basketball games in order to be in in band.
Due to his parents work schedule he could not attend all of the after school games - so he withdrew from band (and subsequently stopped taking lessons from me) and doesn't play anymore.
This was 4 months ago - What a shame!
 
We HAD to be in marching band if we were any part of the instrumental program. High school kids are more independent, tho. I assume some kids didn't make it all the time. Not my job to keep track.
 
The clarinet/saxophonist son of a friend in Oklahoma solved the problem of compulsory participation in the HS marching band as a prerequisite for playing in any of the other school music programs. He became the klutz who couldn't keep the step and who frequently confused left and right. The other kids knew what he was doing and actively supported him, and he was such a standout musician with such excellent academic grades that eventually the music dept decided that they needed his musical and academic talents more than they needed another clarinet player on the sports field.
 
The football season and parades are the only times that the band is seen by the community. Most don't attend the concerts, unless they have some connection to the band. If the band is seen performing, then it is easier for the band director to make the case to fund the music program.

I don't have to like it though :)
 
Our community band was at around 30 people but we are now back to over 50. But then we live in a suburb of Seattle so there are a *lot* of musicians to pull from. At most we had 60 some and the stage we used wasn't big enough. Almost went to auditions, but we didn't and then the pandemic hit.
 
A friends grandson was assigned trombone when he joined MS band. He wanted percussion, and was refused. He plays nothing now. This is so sufferent from my school band experience (50 yrs ago). I wonder if this causes less participation?

My understanding is that it's typical for far too many kids want to sign up for percussion than makes sense for the group. I remember being told as a fifth grader almost four decades ago that 4 years of piano lessons would be a requisite. By the time one of my nephews joined, they waived that requirement, but eventually pushed him to Trumpet because of the numbers problem.
 
Band teachers need to decide if band is for winning awards for perfect sound etc OR for teaching kids to love music.
 
Band teachers need to decide if band is for winning awards for perfect sound etc OR for teaching kids to love music.
You have opened a big can-of-worms.
As a retired music teacher / band director I dealt with a few marching-band-is-everything directors.
My (percussionist) son's HS band program (I was an elementary band teacher in the system at that time) had a director that was one of 'em; marching band & winter percussion was all that he cared about.
My son did not do marching band but I made him do winter percussion his freshman year so that the director wouldn't think that I was a "prema-donna".
My son did not sign up for winter perc over the rest of his HS years..... At a department meeting the band director took me aside, handed the winter perc to he, and told me to show it to my son "we're playing some great stuff" he said.
I looked at the charts and told him that my son can sight-read it..........so why would he waste his time attending all of the rehearsals while the other catch up.
The guy was dumbfounded.
My son, instead, used his time to take lessons & practice (perc; mallets, etc.). He made regional District Band multiple years and All State twice although he did not audition for anything his senior year.

After being accepted at a well known Boston college/university (chemical engineering major) he was in need of financial help. He submitted his musical resume to the school's band director and was invited to audition for a "music scholarship" percussion position in the music program.

He won the position and held it....(he had to audition every year..) for all 5 years of his college career.

Now, if my son had joined the hs marching band/perc ensemble all four years he would not have had the time to develop his skills/take lessons, probably would not have made any honors bands, would not have been invited to audition, and would be sitting on a hefty "student loan" at this time.

Being a marching nip-nop would not have been good for my son - just saying.
/rant
 
I left the band - we had six players, along with the director's husband attempting percussion, and the director playing flute.
My wife recorded a practice session. When I played it back, it was so bad, that I knew I had to leave.

The woodwind section consists of the Alto Sax player, who never practices, and has not improved at all over the 3 years that I was with the band, and me, still on Clarinet.

It's like putting on a play, and one of the actor's shows up at every rehearsal not knowing his lines. Then the director then spends significant time with the miscreant, while you sit and wait.

A Clarinet player has answered my web site ad, and I hooked her up with the band, so they can go on with the Clarinet spot filled. For some reason, the web site continues on, even though I no longer pay for it. Maybe someone out there knows why that would be? I am planning on playing in a larger more established band this fall. I may still play Clarinet - it's easy to carry around - I'll see what they want. They are also closer to where I live.

The band is a part of the New Horizon's association, where "Your best is good enough",
sadly, the Alto player did not put forth his best.
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One of the bands I play in is part of the "New Horizons" association. For the most part the members are keen and conscientious with regard to practise and puctuality but there are a few who can't, don't or won't practise or who always arrive late, and because of the bands inclusion policy it's difficult to weed them out. Peer disapproval sometimes works. We changed the motto to "Where your best is yet to come". We don't have a problem with dwindling membership, but unfortunately because of the band's age demographic they keep dying. Sometimes when we're rehearsing a difficult piece the whole band has its collective fingers crossed that the second trombone can hang on just a little bit longer.
 
Sometimes when we're rehearsing a difficult piece the whole band has its collective fingers crossed that the second trombone can hang on just a little bit longer.
i.e. another part to assign to the person playing bari sax or bass clarinet :D.
 
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