Life of Wiley

Oh dear. Whilst we had a good rehearsal last night going through stuff for the first gig of this year’s banding “season” at the Lemsford Village Fete on Monday, I felt completely knackered at the end. I’m putting this down to a serious lack of home practise over the past 3-4 weeks as I’ve been [...]

Yesterday’s recording session was excellent. It took a while to get going whilst the gear was set up and adjustments made to mic positioning. They had to get the trombones to sit quite apart from the rest of the band as they were being picked up on all the mics and they had to shield [...]

Were there any post contest blues at our first rehearsal since the contest on Sunday? Well if there were I didn’t notice them. We had a good rehearsal with all but one turning up (and he didn’t turn up because he’d injured his foot and couldn’t drive!). Usually after a contest the first rehearsal is [...]

The big day (band wise) came and went on Sunday. We were in the first half of the 4th section draw, drawn 7th and played at around midday. Organisationally, it went off smoothly enough everyone turned up with their instruments and music. Everyone got tickets and registration cards; no problems there. Big problem was nerves. [...]

I was shocked to learn on Sunday of the death, on Saturday, of Steve Freckleton, bass trombone and chairman of Langley Band. Steve had been playing for his band and then Enderby Band before retiring to a pub for a drink and well earned break, whereupon Steve collapsed and, despite paramedic attention, later died in [...]

Last night we had our cornet sectional rehearsal for the contest. It worked out very well; Martyn took us as a group altogether for the first 15 minutes and worked on the section producing the same rounded sound throughout and good legato. Kenny our 2nd trombone player arrived and as he’s the MD at Ware [...]

Yay! It’s been confirmed that I can have a trumpet for my upcoming birthday. I’m probably going to get the Conn International recommended by my former tutor and playing partner. I need to investigate whether to get it from Phil Parker or from a retailer in the States given the value of the £ against [...]

I’ve decided to ditch playing out of Wynton Marsalis’ Carnaval book as I think it’s holding me back. I mean that in the sense that I’m just hacking away at the music during my practise sessions without making any improvements, except maybe with finger dexterity. I keep doing this, but I’m going back to basics [...]

Good rehearsal tonight, only let down was the trombone section but then one had been in a car accident and the other had a paying job! The excuses some people will come up with not to turn up:) Curiously we didn’t spend any time on Partita (hence the title of this entry), the contest piece [...]

It looked like we weren’t going to get too many people turn up to the rehearsal last Tuesday, but in the end we maintained our excellent turn out to rehearsals. All the sections were full and we even had a couple of visitors, who even joined us in the pub afterwards. So if you’re reading [...]