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Thread: 20+ years off the horn: a registry

  1. I hope it is ok to bump this thread with a long-winded story. My amateur musical "career?" has proceeded in fits and starts. But, it has been loads of fun. My time away from music was never 20 years straight, but nearly added up to it.

    I started elementary school band in 4th grade at the age of 8 (1973). I started out playing my older brothers Bundy cornet (still have it, plays great). At that time, our small town had only one band teacher who went from to elementary, middle and high schools every day and was the band teacher for all 3. It made for good continuity, but must have been a heck of a schedule for Mr. Bragg. In fifth grade, I was persuaded to switch to baritone. I say persuaded since the band director offered me a new horn he was ordering in return for switching. (ah, the good old days of school band funding...) If I recall correctly, it was a Conn, bell-front which was very common then. I enjoyed playing through middle and high school. Our bands consistently won awards and high marks. Then, in my senior year, a new principal decided I needed a year of gym class to graduate. At the time, I was playing 2 sports and in the marching band, so I was not in need of the exercise!

    Since I needed everything else though, I had to drop out of band and take gym. At that point, I thought my musical days were over. I went to college majoring in Aerospace Engineering and was told flat out by my advisor that I did not have time for band, so do not bother asking. In my junior year, however, I saw a fellow engineering student carrying a tub case and asked him what was up. He said he was going to practice since he wanted to audition for the symphonic band. I immediately wanted to join, but, I had always played a school horn and did not even know where to look for a baritone or euphonium. This was pre-internet of course. I put the word out to friends and family to be on the lookout for one. When I went home for Thanksgiving or Christmas (cannot remember), my parents said a math teacher from the middle school had located a horn for me. He is a brass player of considerable talent and heard I was looking. He directed me to an older couple who owned the jewelry store in town. I went to their home and the gentleman showed me a King upright baritone that had belonged to his late older brother. He sold it to me for $75 (probably the original price when new!) and the promise not to sell it unless it was to someone who would cherish it and PLAY it. (I still have it). That horn served me well through undergrad days. But, grad school, again in aerospace engineering, made me put aside my horn for studies.

    I somehow heard about the Baltimore TubaChristmas and contacted one of the hosts, Ed Goldstein (who some of you probably know). He said it would be good if I got the music right away to practice a little and invited me to his home to pick it up. He interrupted Hannukah studies for his kids to do this for me and I am so grateful to him. TubaChristmas became my only musical outlet for a few years until I ran into the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band at TubaChristmas. They were recruiting! The band had originally been the Colts Marching band. When their team left town, the band president, John Ziemann, had kept the band going for all those years. Within a few weeks, I was playing a Yamaha marching baritone and learning field shows. Eventually, I became section leader, marched in a U.S. Presidential inaugural parade, played shows with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marvin Hamlish, played the opening ceremony for Special Olympics and, of course, played at many NFL games. It was a series of musical dreams come true. However, with a move to a new house and 2 kids starting band themselves I made the difficult decision to quit the Ravens.

    It was back to a few Maryland, DC area TubaChristmases and helping with the elementary school band for me. Then, an article in the paper said a recently retired local band director was starting a community band. It has been 5 years now and The MidShore Community Band (www.mscb.org) is going stronger than ever. I currently play a Weril 4 valve (the Yamaha 321 copy) which does the job well for me. I am an inveterate horn collector and have quite an assortment of horns that I rotate through for fun. A series of dedicated amateurs and professional musicians alike have enabled and encouraged me to play music and I am indebted to them all.
    Last edited by Will; 03-21-2014 at 09:23 AM.

  2. Your time with the Marching Ravens sounds like a blast! There are many amateurs I'm sure who lurk on forums such as these who draw inspiration from stories such as yours. I enjoy the community band environment as well and have meet some extremely talented people. The only down side is that there is often no "quality cut" and that can throw a wrench in the works and hold back the ensemble and even drive away some players. As well, many do not practice their parts. But then again, it's a "community" band so in smaller towns it's difficult to exclude players or hold auditions I suppose. I wonder if many community bands have an audition process. Thoughts?
    Bob Tampa FL USA
    Euph -- 1984 B&H Round Stamp Sovereign 967 / 1978 Besson NS 767 / Early 90s Sterling MP: 4AL and GW Carbonaria
    Tuba -- 2014 Wisemann 900 CC / 2013 Mack 410 MP: Blokepiece Symphony American Shank and 33.2 #2 Rim

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Central North Carolina
    Posts
    2,369
    Around here, some have auditions and some don't. Some restrict the size of the organization (so there must be an "opening" for your instrument), and some don't. Among those with auditions, some are fairly "formal" (listing some pieces you will be expected to play for a couple of members who judge the audition), and some are more along the lines of a "mutual acceptance period". So it's pretty much all over the place.
    Gary Merrill
    Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
    Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
    Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
    1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
    Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
    1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)

  4. Quote Originally Posted by tampaworth View Post
    Your time with the Marching Ravens sounds like a blast! There are many amateurs I'm sure who lurk on forums such as these who draw inspiration from stories such as yours. I enjoy the community band environment as well and have meet some extremely talented people. The only down side is that there is often no "quality cut" and that can throw a wrench in the works and hold back the ensemble and even drive away some players. As well, many do not practice their parts. But then again, it's a "community" band so in smaller towns it's difficult to exclude players or hold auditions I suppose. I wonder if many community bands have an audition process. Thoughts?
    It was a blast. However, after a while, it got to be more like a job. Managing a section of 8 to 12 baritones, most of which were high school students meant less time to enjoy the music and the experience. I still would not trade it for anything.
    As to community band, for membership, ours requires one to be an adult with prior experience. We work with those who have been out of the game for a long time. I think a few people probably dropped out due to it being a little too challenging versus the amount of time they had to devote to getting better. I think we try to strike a balance between good enough playing and hard enough music. We also allow kids in who have made All-Shore Honors band or by audition with the director (retired after 30 years as middle school band director). My daughter plays trombone in the band and I hope to have the other kids join eventually too.
    Audience and family members have posted a lot of our performances on youtube (link in my signature).
    Weril H980 euph
    Besson 4v comp euph 314xxx
    Besson 3v comp euph 455xxx
    King 3v bari. 20xxx
    King 4v double-bell euph 50xxx
    Conn 5v double-bell euph 355xxx
    Buescher 3+1 double-bell euph 285xxx
    Olds bell-front 3v bari
    Holton alto horn
    Holton 3v tuba
    Belleville Helicon
    Some of the performances of the Mid-Shore Community Band:
    http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...ty%20band&sm=3

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