Hmm, well, last night’s rehearsal didn’t go too well. It started late which didn’t help, but was partially my fault as I had a rush on to get various forms and monies before turning up.

We ran through the first 2 movements of Edward Gregson’s Partita that we’ll be playing in the Brass Band Championship regional qualifiers in Stevenage in March. This went quite well considering we hadn’t played it for a while. In the second half we played some of the stuff for the entertainment contest in Milton Keynes in February, this was very disappointing as we’d done these quite well last week. I overplayed and blew my lips out on the opening number, got through the second, but it all went to pot on the third and 4th pieces. We’ll really have to work on accurate dynamics for the next couple of weeks! And I’ll have to try and improve my endurance too.

And as if to make matters worse, just as I thought I’d got all the players sorted out for the contest it turns out that most of our trombone section can’t make it for the Milton Keynes contest! Well Mike does have a good excuse, he can hardly turn down a gig with the Syd Lawrence Orchestra can he?

Fortunately we have a new trombone player about to transfer to the band so hopefully we can get leniency to get his transfer through in time. Here’s hoping…