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Nov 2020
10:08am, 11 Nov 2020
20,397 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
Same here with the bands situation. The music teachers do their best but it’s nothing like the opportunities we had in the ‘80s.
Tenor horn is a lovely instrument. My brother plays one, having moved up from cornet.
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Nov 2020
10:20am, 11 Nov 2020
13,410 posts
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Cerrertonia
Our village secondary school has multiple bands and orchestras. They do a week long trip to Europe each year, by coach. Cambs gets amongst the lowest school funding in the country (£400 per child lower than the average) so I don't think it's entirely down to money although I guess it relies on having a sufficient number of middle-class parents paying for lessons, instruments etc. There's also a village jazz orchestra which provides some support.
My son has very fond memories of a band trip to Croatia, where the teacher in charge negotiated free pizzas from a restaurant in return for them setting up outside and providing music for a couple of hours. He was able to play in bands at school and university, but is now at a bit of a loss, although I think covid is the main reason. If you play jazz or folk, it's relatively easy to find other people to play with, but an orchestra is a bit trickier.
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Nov 2020
11:13am, 11 Nov 2020
35 posts
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GetOutTheDoor
Tenor horn can have a nice mellow tone - and not as bonkers loud as some of the orchestral brass. Our 13 year old plays it - and his teacher is all about tone rather than volume.
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Nov 2020
11:34am, 11 Nov 2020
12,633 posts
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larkim
I grew up in Bury and the breadth of bands and orchestras there run by the peripatetic music teachers from across the borough was outstanding. A 3 night concert in the Town Hall every year, trips to twin towns with really high quality concert bands, brass bands and orchestras, all run on a Saturday morning in a primary school that was taken over for the day every week. Don't know if it still operates, but as a child you imagine every area has one of those - as it turns out, it was either a rarity or simply something that has faded away.
It also helped that both of my parents were music teachers so they were well connected and knew about this stuff; I imagine if I was a music teacher then I'd probably have identified bands and groups for my lads to play in, but whereas I was a one trick pony and the only extra curriculur thing I did was play the clarinet and piano, my boys do scouts, athletics, drama groups, rugby etc etc so actually fitting in running them around to a regular music session 10 miles away would be hugely challenging!
During lockdown my dad has been keeping his hand in with teaching my youngest singing and piano over Zoom. A technological challenge, but it's been a great way of keeping him in touch with his grandchildren without having to have the formality of a "catch up phone call".
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Nov 2020
11:44am, 11 Nov 2020
4,496 posts
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westmoors
I had lots of opportunities as a kid to play in groups. Along with the school 'music workshop' I played in a Saturday morning orchestra, the local district wind orchestra and the county wind orchestra. The first two were open to anyone of any standard, but to play in the wind orchestras you had to pass an audition.
The county also had an annual residential music course during the Easter school holidays. You had to have attained a minimum of grade 5 to be able to apply. I went 5 times!
I also went on a 2 week European tour with the County playing in a variety of venues.
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Nov 2020
11:48am, 11 Nov 2020
5,661 posts
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Alice the Camel
My experience was similar to westmoors.
What saddened me was that although there were plenty of opportunities for kids, there was nothing to move onto post 18. I believe it’s the same now in that area, bar one or two silver/brass bands.
Here in Wiltshire it seems that every town/village has its own band or orchestra!
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Nov 2020
11:55am, 11 Nov 2020
4,498 posts
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westmoors
Yes, once 18 you got kicked out of everything with nothing to replace it unless you were going the professional route.
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Nov 2020
11:57am, 11 Nov 2020
14,456 posts
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Garfield
High school band at home (Ottawa, Canada) was a load of fun and when I finished my second year of high school, I joined my local community band on clarinet, then moved over to oboe when I mastered it, also playing flute and piccolo, then learning trumpet. When I finished high school and was working, I was sometimes playing with up to 3 different bands, occasionally an orchestra and a big band (trumpet).
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Nov 2020
11:58am, 11 Nov 2020
11,004 posts
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ITG 🇮🇸
I was in everything as a kid! We had the schools string orchestra (ok), the school windband (terrible! I 'learned' the trumpet in my final year of school as I had already taken all my exams. I was ALWAYS flat but they made me first trumpet because the difference between me and the other kids was that at least I knew I was flat), local community orchestra (pretty awful) and audition-based youth orchestras for Highland Region Youth Orchestra (symphony) and National School Strings Orchestra of Scotland. Some of the best times of my youth!
I joined Glasgow Uni orchestra in my first year but it was so dull, just turning up to play then going home again. No social  I also played with a community orchestra in Toronto when I was doing my doctorate which was wonderful! So good for me to meet all sorts of people from all walks of life and not just the neurotic academics from law school and (even more neurotic) OH's philosophy grad school.
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Nov 2020
11:58am, 11 Nov 2020
14,457 posts
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Garfield
We had more groups for grownups than youngsters!
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