February 4, 2024 • 27 mins
This is the AI description of our content….take from it what you will….
Get ready to immerse yourself in the vibrant world of band music in the first episode of our new podcast, Brass Band Cast. Your hosts Tim and Roslyn, both band enthusiasts and instrumentalists, welcome you to their show dedicated to the fascinating universe of all things band.
The premiere episode is all about band-life and what actually happens behind the scenes and on-stage during music competitions. Tune in to hear hilarious anecdotes, from on-stage mishaps like knocking down music stands in the middle of performances, to comical conducting blunders. You'll find that every musician's journey is a blend of earnest passion, amusing bloopers, and resilience.
Our discussion takes a humorous turn with tales of unexpected guests at rehearsals, such as babies and dogs. Delve into our light-hearted conversation about the strange choice of instruments musicians sometimes carry along, and hear our intriguing thoughts on discontinuing regular practice after reaching a certain level of competency.
While keeping the tone breezy and fun, we also touch upon the intense pressure of participating in national-level music competitions. We highlight the importance of adaptability, resilience, and a good sense of humor when facing errors and embarrassments onstage.
Join us now for an episode replete with laughter, camaraderie, honesty, and of course, music. Discover our choice for 'best instrument', our unique 'falling over on stage' stories, and much more. This shouldn't be missed by any band enthusiast!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, loyal viewers. Hello, loyal listeners. Hello, everyone on the internet.
Welcome to our show. This is our first episode, can you tell?
Welcome to Brass Band Cast, the podcast where you get to listen to us yabbering
on. Hi, everyone who's still there. Welcome to the podcast.
My name's Tim and... My name's Roslyn. We're really good at talking and this
is a podcast about bands, brass bands.
(00:22):
Concert bands and pipe bands. We're just going to do, this is a podcast,
a little bit of a test. Releasing an episode a week is our aim over the next
eight weeks. Yep. It will be so fun.
All right. People are like, what is your podcast about? Everyone's asked me,
what is our podcast about, Tim?
Well, it's about life and it's about music and it's about bands, really.
(00:44):
It's about brass bands and playing in a band or conducting a band or a concert band, pipe band.
It's really for people who play in bands, I think.
If you play in a band, you may find this interesting. Maybe if you don't play
in a band and want to play in a band, you'll find this interesting.
Maybe you just like the sound of our voices. Voices. Voices, voices.
(01:05):
All right. And our structure, our structure for each week will be just like a band contest.
It'll be the same each week. It'll be the same each week. We're going to have special guests on.
So if you want to be on our show, you could email us and maybe even be on our
show if you're an interesting person. So conductor, player, you might play,
(01:26):
you know, the flute, all the bagpipes, all the drums.
Dunno. Or you might be an adjudicator. Composer.
Adjudicating or composing more interested in bands. And we'd love to hear from you.
So you can email us at our email address, which is awesome at brassband.com. Okay.
(01:48):
We'll send you the email address. All right. Right. So every week we're going
to be interviewing people, but this week we'll interview each other.
So you know who the hell we are.
You might know who Tim is, but you probably don't know who I am unless you've
seen me be loud. Yeah. Great point, Robyn.
Robyn, who are you? Who am I? Hi everyone.
I'm Robyn and I've been around town for a bit, but coming back on the scene, I had a couple of kids.
(02:13):
I had to kind of dip out there for a while. No one saw me for a bit,
but I'm back. I'm back, baby. Kids are out of nappies.
When you say you're back, you're back, what do you play?
I play the euphronium and Nox Winsome B, and I conduct Burundara Harmony Brass,
which is a D-grade band, and I occasionally play in Burundara Normal Brass.
(02:34):
They're just called Burundara Brass Euphronium, and I occasionally play percussion
with Danny on. So I'm all around town.
And Tim and I met through MYSB back in the day. We should tell our history.
Oh, we should. an all the new synth band in.
Ken Waterworth was our conductor in. And then Marty McCauley conducted us. I can't remember.
(02:58):
A lot of people did. Andrew Mathers was even there for a while.
Yeah. So we played, we met in NYSB. We went to the con together.
I got roped into playing with Melbourne University of Music.
We, I got roped into playing with Footscray Yarraville by Richard Bluffjoy, who's still in the band.
He must have been in the band for like 30 years now. Hi, Richard. Hi, Richard.
(03:21):
Again, I played in Footscray for about six months, and then I roped Tim in.
And then you are still there. You're, like, incredibly loyal.
No, well, I'm still there. And I... Yes.
Well, I don't play anywhere else. And sometimes I still go back there.
But I'm going to play with Footscray at Nationals this year.
It's going to be fun. I play the tuba.
The tuba. Everyone knows that, right? No? Tim plays the tuba.
(03:44):
So we were in the low brass crew together.
For about five years, I moved to Boorindara Brass because of a boy.
It's always a boy, isn't it? And what a boy. What a boy, yeah.
And now I am happily married and with three kids.
Burundara's full of married people. It's quite a fun band. Super fun.
Yeah, everyone found their life partner there.
(04:05):
And is Burundara looking for new members?
No, I don't think. I think they're jam-packed full of a lot of women with babies,
so they're always like, I'm too pregnant to play.
And then they just won't leave. No one leaves. Once you're in, you're in for life.
I've heard round the traps that, like, all of the A-grade bands around Melbourne are super full.
Like, I know Footscray is chockers and apparently Darabin's pretty full and Glenferry.
(04:29):
Yeah, well, that's because they used to be five and then they're four.
So, yeah, well, I reckon it's on the up. Bands are on the up.
We had our COVID downturn and now we're on the up. Yeah, I think there's more
people who want to play after COVID than pre-COVID.
That's sort of why I went back to playing a bit more than I was before.
Or realise what they missed and kind of came back into it.
(04:50):
Yeah, it's our warm and fuzzies. What else do we, we also sometimes play in Granger, don't we, Tim?
We play in the Granger Wind Symphony with the magnificent maestro Roland Young.
But there's actually a rehearsal tonight because it's currently Wednesday the
31st of January and Roland asked if we could play and I said,
I can't, I've got to do a recording. Hi, Roland.
Oops, sorry if Roland's listening to this. That's okay.
(05:13):
That's okay. Yeah, we just flit around band town. I know if you want to tuber your friend, call us.
We'll probably say yes and come to one rehearsal or do a gig.
We love doing that. No, Tim won't. You're playing.
I'll say yes and I won't shock. No, I don't do that.
Yeah, you generally don't agree to things you know you won't do.
Yeah, that's what you'll see. Don't expect that.
(05:34):
We play in brass bands. We play in concert. And I've done, I do a bunch of like
video streaming of stuff, in case you didn't know.
You can check that out. But I also video stream the pipe band competitions with
the bagpipes and the drums, which is like, there's no tubas or low brass in that.
But it's a surprisingly similar culture of like community-minded musicians who
(05:56):
enjoy what they do and get together and give it a go and sound as good as they can.
And they do like concerts and competitions just like woodwind people or brass people.
So we'll try and do a little bit of pipe band stuff. Have a pipe band?
They always dress so beautifully. We always look so scummy compared to a pipe band.
They just like shine their shoes and stuff, don't they? Yeah,
(06:17):
what do you wear for uniform?
Like, oh, they just wear like whatever blacks I get from Kmart, you know?
We have like an orange tie that we're getting rid of because we didn't have
enough and we had to share them around and that's why. So just a bit sad.
Yulu, you're a – Pippa Clay's got a jacket, a nice jacket. I do like a jacket
on a band. I think all bands should have jackets.
(06:39):
Oh, that's one of our questions in our question thing. Oh, we're cross-referencing.
Anyway, we finished our warm and fuzzies. That's the hymn.
As their own choice is talking about ourself. Have we talked about ourselves enough, do you think?
People are probably really interested in us. How about you? Why did you play the tuba?
What's your real beginning story? Oh, well, I was going to school,
(07:01):
so I managed to do high school.
I reckon I was in year 10 or year 11, and the school band got to go on a band camp at the Gold Coast.
And two of my sisters were in the band, and I was exceptionally jealous.
So when they came back, I asked the band director dude,
can I join? What do I have to do to join the band? Because I want to do fun stuff.
(07:24):
And he said, you should play the tuba, because you're kind of big and so is
that. And then I took it home, and then I came back and I could play it.
Tuba's really easy. It doesn't take much.
Yeah, you just need someone strong to lift it. I can't play the tuba if it's so heavy.
I lived near, close to the school, so I didn't have to take it very far.
So I'd just walk to school with a tuba, don't have to put it on a bus.
(07:44):
So it was sort of evolution, I guess. Selection of the fittest.
What about you, Robyn? Why did you start on euphonium? I got plenty of euphonium.
I started on trombone and that was pretty fun, but for some reason I kind of,
oh, I just like the euphonium. I thought that would be easy because it had buttons.
Trombone is like a little bit of hard work with the moving of the arm. I'm pretty lazy.
(08:06):
But I also wanted to go and like, yeah, so that made me, that wound out the tube out.
They do those tests. When I was in year seven, I don't know if it's scientifically proven,
ribbon they like sit everyone down and they do this like hearing like
test and they play all these sounds and they say which sound do
you like and you do this like you put
your answers in and then they said they pick your instrument based on that
but I'm pretty sure it was a complete scam and they just wanted a well-balanced
(08:30):
band without 25 saxophones in it I don't know I'm gonna have to ask a teacher
from the 90s if that was a real like bona fide test I'd have to get someone
on but anyway and they're like you're a 12 out of 12 for the tuba it's too heavy
so they gave me funny things.
Which I liked. It had buttons and it's really like the euphonium was a real
sweet spotting band where you didn't have to be that good because there weren't very many of them.
(08:54):
So you'd get into like pretty good bands. This was in MYM where you kind of,
you auditioned to get into the next band up and my sister played the flute and
she was really good, but she'd often not get in, she'd get in the same band
as me or definitely not a high band because flute's really competitive.
Lots of people play the flute. You have to be really good to stand out,
but I'd just rock up being the only euphonium and barely have to practice and
(09:15):
just sail along that way.
I was also generally the only girl in the section. That was always a bonus,
going to hang out with the boys. The boys.
Yeah, there were a couple of cute tuba players, a lot of cute tuba players, yeah. No, it wasn't you.
Ah, wasn't me. No, a girl never told, but yeah. All the flutes were jealous
(09:36):
of me. I heard from my sister that I'd sit next to a cute tuba player one summer school.
Nice job. Good work, Robyn. That's my one of life.
And then brass band, your first brass band was the Footscray?
I went straight into the A-grade band playing euphonium and I couldn't even play.
I'd come all the way from wind band, couldn't even read treble clef.
You couldn't read treble clef because you went from E-flat and it's like weird
(09:57):
bass clef-y. Still can't. Still can't.
Oh, my God. Why did I make you play in treble clef? It's so,
like, it was ridiculously hard.
I think I did one contest on euphonium and they were like, damn,
great, I need a second baritone.
And that was all right. I stayed there for like a year or two where I could
gradually read and up so I could go back up and oh, it was harsh.
(10:19):
It was it. And what year was your first contest that you played UFO?
It would have been the States sometime. And then we did Mount Gambier and that was fun.
And then there was Nationals in Adelaide 19 years ago. And that was when you
kept going, the one you came along to.
Year of the Dragon. Year of the Dragon. We played Year of the Dragon.
Did you know this is another Year of the Dragon?
(10:42):
2024. I wonder if it may be a Hello, Philip Spark, if you're listening.
It's on the podcast. Are you going to do an update of Year of the Dragon? Year of the Dragon.
I'm with Uniqlo to buy a black t-shirt, and they were selling things called
Year of the Dragon t-shirt. Okay.
What year are you born? What year are you born? What year was I born?
I don't know. Hang on. I'll Google it. You talk and entertain our people for a while.
(11:05):
So anyway, this is our first podcast, and we're trying to not talk over each
other, and we're failing a little bit. I keep interrupting.
Sorry, Robin. But we'll get better. We'll get better.
We... Year of the Ox. Year of the Ox. Okay. Thanks for continuing to listen.
What are you, Tim? You're the rat. You're the rat. I'm the rat.
(11:26):
I'm the rat. The structure of our show, did we say the structure of our show
is going to be the him is first? Yeah, we've done him.
We've just done our own choice. We're talking about our history.
We've done the history. And now, after we've done our warm and fuzzies,
our history, we've got a Braf band questionnaire.
It's a test. So it goes him, own choice, then test. And now it's time for the test.
(11:49):
I knew the questions I probably should have thought of answers,
but I didn't think about it before this point. No, no, you've got to be unprepared. That's the point.
All right. Okay. All right. I'll ask you the questions. Maybe we'll just do
one each and we won't answer the same ones. Okay.
All right. What are your thoughts on, oh, we already asked this.
See, Jack, what's your Jack like uniform? What do you like about the uniform?
(12:11):
Oh, oh, uniform. Uniform is good. Bands should have uniforms that make them
look cool. that look really indistinguishable from just people who are non-musical
and is that like a server at a restaurant?
Is it like an usher at a cinema?
I like bands that wear colourful jackets and it's like, wow,
that's a new... What's your favourite when you've gone somewhere and seen a really cool uniform?
(12:36):
What do you reckon the best? The best uniform I ever saw in Australia was Kensington
and Norwood Brass, K&N from South Australia because they had uniform pants that
had a gold stripe down the pants.
Beautiful pants. That's real commitment to the band. That's a lot of commitment.
Because, like, uniform jacket, like, hard enough. Get one that fits.
But, like, sizing up the pants for a whole band, like...
(12:58):
Good luck. Good luck. So I'm a big fan of uniforms and uniform pants and stripes.
Sound race? Stripes down the leg, yeah. Perfect. And like little caps,
marching caps, like old school.
Yeah, I played in marching band in the USA. That's a little tidbit about me.
And like the uniforms were extreme.
They were about like 10 pieces of things you had. You had the things on your
arms and the gloves and the hat. I had a big feather in the hat. It was insane.
(13:23):
But it really like you put on the uniform and you're like, yeah, I'm ready to go.
And do the thing. Do you have any photos of yourself in that uniform?
We can post one to the side.
Yeah, I'll find one. We'll find one. All right. Oh, well, I'll do one.
The biggest mistake you ever made on stage or like something that's gone wrong in a performance.
(13:44):
Yeah, tell me. Tell me. Biggest thing that's gone wrong.
Oh, I don't have anything funny. Oh, no, no, no. I'm over now. Okay.
I was doing the solos at Nationals. So at Nationals, you can go and compete
as a band and then on the following day, you can play something like a concerto
or whatever with an accompanist and they just judge.
So I was in the opening for any of the solos and I was starting with a mute
(14:06):
and then I took the mute out and like knocked over the music stand.
And so I had my phone in one hand, the mute in the other hand,
and the music sound like quite comically slow motion was falling.
I was like, oh, I'm going to drop the mute.
The stand just like splatters on the floor with all music everywhere.
It was pretty funny. I don't think the UK wasn't behind a screen or anything,
so I think they just laughed at me. I came second last.
(14:29):
Who came last? I missed quite a sizable chunk of music. That was fun.
In a band, you can stuff up and no one notices, do they?
I've conducted the wrong amount of bars in, I think. I did, last time I did
a conductor, I just added an entire extra bar and I was like,
why isn't anyone coming in?
And then, like, everyone's just laughing at me because I did it in all the rehearsals
(14:50):
too. And I said, I won't make that mistake on stage, and then I did.
So there you go. Conducting is pretty stressful when you think something's in your scores.
There's lots of notes on there. I just can't read it. I just can't go and remember.
As a conductor, do you have to be able to read music? To be a conductor?
Yeah, I just want to check. because sometimes I see conductors and I'm like.
(15:12):
It's like it's how you turn the pages and like I think that by the time you
get to the performance, you're really just conducting tempo changes.
It's like if someone's going to take off, they're kind of going to take off.
There's not much you can do. You can't really stop.
Although, has anyone had a conductor stop you on stage? You say,
no, you've done that wrong.
That's a pretty rare one. Yeah. No, I've seen it happen.
(15:33):
I've seen it happen in a couple of contests where like, Like,
I can't remember, but I've seen it at least two or three times where,
like, a band, maybe, like, a C or D grade band would come on and have a really
bad opening, like, first couple of bars, and then it just goes,
no, no, no, we're just going to do that again.
And they stopped and left to go again. I respect that. You respect it?
Wouldn't you be, oh, I don't know. I'm in two minds with that.
(15:53):
I'm in two minds, but I think, like...
Wouldn't it put everyone off if you stopped and played again?
Because then you'd be like, oh, that was... What if it got worse the second time?
All right. Well, that was my... All right. Things, people falling over,
that's a bit related to mine. Have you ever had a thing or a person fall over and it ginked him?
Oh, no, nothing. Fallen off a stage would be a good one. No one's ever fallen
(16:18):
off a stage that I know about.
Like something in the percussion section often falls over and goes smash,
but like rarely at a concert performance.
Like in a rehearsal, I feel like percussion's just like doing whatever they do and dropping stuff.
No, I've never had a really big fall over. I've seen a tuba fall over.
Like someone put a tuba down and it just sort of, that someone was me and it
(16:39):
fell over and I was a bit sad, but it was fine. Bounced.
No, I don't have a good falling over on stage story.
Do you have any? Someone has a good falling over story.
All right. Ben, what's the worst precaution to pull at like a suspended cymbal
stand? Wing chimes? Marimba?
Marimba didn't fall over. All right, I know. This one's a funny one.
(16:59):
Okay, Tim. Imagine your band, any of your bands.
This is a hypothetical person. Someone came to a first rehearsal and they were
like, I'm never coming back. Why?
I feel like it is going to be, for my bands, it'll be dependent on who they're
sitting next to more than who the conductor is.
I feel like my conductors are always and have always been very nice people.
(17:21):
But I think sometimes there can be some people in some bands who you might not
necessarily want to sit next to.
For reasons of odour or jokiness or maybe just playing always a little bit out of tune.
Is that too harsh? That's just what I assume. That's what I assume.
(17:42):
I mean, you know, it's like, why didn't I feel the other second corner chair? It's like, why?
What's up with that second corner section? It's like, I don't know.
Have you seen so-and-so? Just, yeah. There's always one there.
All right. Oh, we can both answer this one. All right, what's the best instrument?
That's not included. Maybe we can't say your own one. I think you could play any other instrument.
(18:06):
I want to say bagpipes. No, I don't. I don't want to say bagpipes.
I can sort of play bagpipes. I think a trombone is probably the coolest one
because I feel like the trombone is like you can do the jazz,
you can do the orchestra, you can do the bands, you can do it all,
and you're not like a corny trumpet person because then you don't have a big head.
Best instrument? I'll tell you what. My favourite instrument,
if I didn't play euphonium, the bassoon. I love the bassoon. Really? It's so like...
(18:33):
And it makes me laugh every time. But whenever I'm in wind band and I have a
line with the bassoon, I just feel sorry for them because no one can hear them because I'm way louder.
Yeah, I had to play orchestra. Can I talk orchestra? Or is that rude?
Do you remember Matthew Neill, Matty Neill? He played bassoon in NYSB.
Anyway, he's a super amazing bassoon player now, like all around the world is touring and stuff.
(18:56):
I remember I had to play Melbourne Youth Orchestra was doing Symphony Fantastique
by Berlioz and Fabian Russell was conducting.
And I was just working at the concert venue and then suddenly the other tuba
player couldn't do the gig.
So I had to like sight read it on stage with Fabian conducting.
I remember distinctly Matty Neal was playing bassoon.
(19:20):
He played something, there's like a unison line that had like two tubas on it.
I think it was me and Danny Malia, if you know Danny, and then Matty Neal playing bassoon.
And he sounded like the most glorious chainsaw noise, just like bassoon power,
like cutting through the tubas. And it was really, really cool.
So yeah, bassoon, good choice. Good choice.
I think I've always loved the Sorcerer's Apprentice, you know.
(19:41):
Whatever solo a bassoon has. And the grandfather in Peter and the North,
it's the only time I like a bassoon.
All right, different instrument. Okay, here's the real, this is the real question.
Question. Team, do you practice?
When was the last time you practiced? Honesty hour. Honesty hour.
I did not practice. So I did an undergrad music degree and I probably stopped
(20:02):
practicing after my last exam.
And I feel like I've only really, sorry, every other conductor I've ever had
only really started practicing properly again in maybe like the last couple of weeks.
So I was like, Ooh, I, so I would say I've gone like, I don't know,
probably 18 years without practising.
I feel like you reach your standard and you kind of like you come down and beat
(20:24):
it, but like you can kind of maintain it, can't you?
As long as you've got somewhere in uni, you can just coast for a little bit.
I mean, many people like to cigarette me.
Yeah, I think especially on like maybe instruments that traditionally have a
less technical part to play.
I feel like if you know how to breathe good and you play low brass, you're kind of fine.
And like you can visualise, like you look at notes, you're like,
I know how that should sound.
(20:46):
Yeah. And then like you can always get close enough usually to not get second
looked at, but perfect, maybe not so often.
Yeah. So I reckon I probably stopped practicing for like many,
many years. But you got it out again a few weeks ago.
I'm back. I got it out. I got it out. I'm practicing. I'm committing.
(21:06):
I'm going to sound real good again. Yeah.
What about you, Robin? I don't practice at all. I got to a band the other night.
I was like, well, last time I literally get my instrument out at gigs.
My fourth valve didn't work the other night. Cool. I had big cadenzas.
Better practice it in the break.
Lucky no one else can see my music except Brendan and Chibu Player who then
(21:28):
gave me this really sarcastic clap and everyone else started clapping.
I was like, I don't know if that's right.
But the cadenza, no one else knows what notes I'm supposed to write.
As long as you own it, you've got to sell it. And the rest of the time,
I had this other euphonium guy called Doug, and he played all the hard notes for me. It was awesome.
How is Doug? How is Doug? Is Doug still playing?
He's playing the bassoon in Knoxville. I was about to say we should get him
(21:50):
on. We should get him on, get a bassoonist for you. We should get him on.
We'll get him. Well, we've got to not just interview our friends.
We're going to cast a wide net.
So maybe if you're not friends with us, get in touch with us,
and we can meet you, and then we can be friends.
That would be good, wouldn't it? That would be great. More friends.
We've probably talked too long. Oh, well, our time limit was 20 minutes,
half an hour. What are we at? Hold on.
(22:11):
29 minutes. All right. All right. After our questions, or were there any more good questions?
There was a question about the Year of the Dragon. What's the weirdest thing
someone brought to a rehearsal that you've been at? Baby.
Yeah, baby. Baby. Who brought a baby to your rehearsal? I bring babies to my
rehearsals, but they're my own babies at that time.
Oh, just, you know, back in the day, people had brought babies to rehearsals,
(22:34):
and I'm like, why is a baby here? What's going on?
It's weird. Why is there a baby here? What the arsehole?
I used to just like have the baby in the carrier and some people would just
like, I'll just be playing along and be like, baby attached to your stomach?
Like, ah, what's it to you? Got the little headphones on, I protect these ears.
So once I put the baby down right in front of the base sand and then the guy
(22:55):
started playing and the baby started crying.
But I felt like a bad mum. But you're not, you're not a bad mum,
Robin. You're a great mum.
You're a great mum. We left the baby, two-week-old baby, just on the side of
the stage at an Oktoberfest.
It's like, whose baby is that? It's like someone in the band.
Child protection's listening. Child protection's listening.
(23:15):
Ah, they're all fine. They're all very well-adjusted. And who knows?
They'll be all musicians one day, or they'll be kicked out of our family.
What about dogs? Anyone brought a dog? Anyone brought a bagpipe?
Torodosu, Lenira, and Osu?
Some people have some interesting things, I think. I think tubers get interesting
at a rehearsal, I reckon.
(23:36):
Just like, I know we're finishing up, but like, sometimes you see a tuba player
rock up with like a couple of different tubas, as well as like a couple of moots.
And it's like, why did you bring all of this stuff to rehearsal?
It's like, no one understands how hard it is to play tuba.
It's tough. It doesn't fit anyway. Why do you need different tubas?
Explain that tuba sense to me. We don't really have time.
There are tubas in four different keys. They're in B flat, they're in C, and E flat and F.
(24:01):
And it's not very confusing with the fingering. Depends on how big your brain
is. So for me, constantly confused, constantly confused.
But in bass clef in a concert band, like none of the parts are transposed.
So everything's written that pitch and you just got another four different fingerings
for that pitch if you're playing the four different tubas.
And then there's some tubas like the biggest gap is like a B flat tuba to an F tuba. So like a fifth.
(24:22):
So if you're playing high bits, you play the high tuba or low bits,
you play the low tuba. That feels like cheating to me. See, I play all the bits
on the one instrument. instrument.
Yeah, but tubas are more special.
So special, so special. It's like the person with the biggest instrument then
has to bring two of those instruments. It really doesn't seem fair to me.
I feel like flute should have to bring two flutes.
(24:42):
I think there was something in the UK where one of the test pieces that was
chosen kind of recently had two different mutes that the tubas had to use.
So not only did bands have to get there with their tubas tough enough,
but I guess it's the UK, so everything's just a bus ride away. No big deal, right?
But then they had It had to come with like a straight mute and like the Dennis
Wick-y cup mute things as well.
A tuba cup mute? I've never seen such a ridiculous thing.
(25:04):
It's a big silver thing. It looks like a spaceship that sticks on the top.
No, I'm not going to cut really deep, but like for a tuba. Yeah,
I'm sure I've seen it. Yeah.
Dennis Wick makes everything. Hi, Dennis, if you're listening.
That seems ridiculous. I'm sure it makes the sound different,
but anyway. All right. Here we go.
We've done our brass band questionnaire to each other. Yay.
(25:27):
All right. Now we move on to the March. Current events. Oh, so currently, yeah.
We're all just getting ready for nationals, really, aren't we?
Got any more gigs in our bands? I've got lots going on.
Footscray. Footscray, our city band's got a bunch of gigs coming up.
I think we've got something in February and like a pre-nationals concert in
March. But then also the New Zealand Pipe Band Championships are coming up.
(25:51):
I'm going to go to them and stream them, but I'm not going to play there in
March as well. So March is a bit dizzy. And then maybe I'm going to play with Granger Wind Symphony.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to do a gig there. They're always fun.
I like to sing that. Some bands just do like, we're just going to do five concerts
a year and you just play your Newsy, you can play the concert and they're really,
(26:13):
it's nice. Whereas the brass bands are like very contest.
It's like high stress, like lots of rehearsals. Whereas often concert bands just have a nice kind of.
Yeah, it's true. And I think as well, probably like the two weeks before nationals
or week before nationals will be like the most concerts by bands going on on
the same day right around the country.
(26:34):
I reckon every band will do like their pre-nationals concert run through like
week before or two weeks before. So 17th of March, 23rd of March,
go get out there. I'm sure there'll be a concert.
That was our current event section. All right, we need a sign-off, a song, a song.
We can sing Year of the Dragon, the fast bit.
(26:59):
Oh, no.
Okay, bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you.
Hello, loyal viewers. Hello, loyal listeners. Hello, everyone on the internet.
Welcome to our show. This is our first episode, can you tell?
Welcome to Brass Band Cast, the podcast where you get to listen to us yabbering
on. Hi, everyone who's still there. Welcome to the podcast.
My name's Tim and... My name's Roslyn. We're really good at talking and this
is a podcast about bands, brass bands.
(00:22):
Concert bands and pipe bands. We're just going to do, this is a podcast,
a little bit of a test. Releasing an episode a week is our aim over the next
eight weeks. Yep. It will be so fun.
All right. People are like, what is your podcast about? Everyone's asked me,
what is our podcast about, Tim?
Well, it's about life and it's about music and it's about bands, really.
(00:44):
It's about brass bands and playing in a band or conducting a band or a concert band, pipe band.
It's really for people who play in bands, I think.
If you play in a band, you may find this interesting. Maybe if you don't play
in a band and want to play in a band, you'll find this interesting.
Maybe you just like the sound of our voices. Voices. Voices, voices.
(01:05):
All right. And our structure, our structure for each week will be just like a band contest.
It'll be the same each week. It'll be the same each week. We're going to have special guests on.
So if you want to be on our show, you could email us and maybe even be on our
show if you're an interesting person. So conductor, player, you might play,
(01:26):
you know, the flute, all the bagpipes, all the drums.
Dunno. Or you might be an adjudicator. Composer.
Adjudicating or composing more interested in bands. And we'd love to hear from you.
So you can email us at our email address, which is awesome at brassband.com. Okay.
(01:48):
We'll send you the email address. All right. Right. So every week we're going
to be interviewing people, but this week we'll interview each other.
So you know who the hell we are.
You might know who Tim is, but you probably don't know who I am unless you've
seen me be loud. Yeah. Great point, Robyn.
Robyn, who are you? Who am I? Hi everyone.
I'm Robyn and I've been around town for a bit, but coming back on the scene, I had a couple of kids.
(02:13):
I had to kind of dip out there for a while. No one saw me for a bit,
but I'm back. I'm back, baby. Kids are out of nappies.
When you say you're back, you're back, what do you play?
I play the euphronium and Nox Winsome B, and I conduct Burundara Harmony Brass,
which is a D-grade band, and I occasionally play in Burundara Normal Brass.
(02:34):
They're just called Burundara Brass Euphronium, and I occasionally play percussion
with Danny on. So I'm all around town.
And Tim and I met through MYSB back in the day. We should tell our history.
Oh, we should. an all the new synth band in.
Ken Waterworth was our conductor in. And then Marty McCauley conducted us. I can't remember.
(02:58):
A lot of people did. Andrew Mathers was even there for a while.
Yeah. So we played, we met in NYSB. We went to the con together.
I got roped into playing with Melbourne University of Music.
We, I got roped into playing with Footscray Yarraville by Richard Bluffjoy, who's still in the band.
He must have been in the band for like 30 years now. Hi, Richard. Hi, Richard.
(03:21):
Again, I played in Footscray for about six months, and then I roped Tim in.
And then you are still there. You're, like, incredibly loyal.
No, well, I'm still there. And I... Yes.
Well, I don't play anywhere else. And sometimes I still go back there.
But I'm going to play with Footscray at Nationals this year.
It's going to be fun. I play the tuba.
The tuba. Everyone knows that, right? No? Tim plays the tuba.
(03:44):
So we were in the low brass crew together.
For about five years, I moved to Boorindara Brass because of a boy.
It's always a boy, isn't it? And what a boy. What a boy, yeah.
And now I am happily married and with three kids.
Burundara's full of married people. It's quite a fun band. Super fun.
Yeah, everyone found their life partner there.
(04:05):
And is Burundara looking for new members?
No, I don't think. I think they're jam-packed full of a lot of women with babies,
so they're always like, I'm too pregnant to play.
And then they just won't leave. No one leaves. Once you're in, you're in for life.
I've heard round the traps that, like, all of the A-grade bands around Melbourne are super full.
Like, I know Footscray is chockers and apparently Darabin's pretty full and Glenferry.
(04:29):
Yeah, well, that's because they used to be five and then they're four.
So, yeah, well, I reckon it's on the up. Bands are on the up.
We had our COVID downturn and now we're on the up. Yeah, I think there's more
people who want to play after COVID than pre-COVID.
That's sort of why I went back to playing a bit more than I was before.
Or realise what they missed and kind of came back into it.
(04:50):
Yeah, it's our warm and fuzzies. What else do we, we also sometimes play in Granger, don't we, Tim?
We play in the Granger Wind Symphony with the magnificent maestro Roland Young.
But there's actually a rehearsal tonight because it's currently Wednesday the
31st of January and Roland asked if we could play and I said,
I can't, I've got to do a recording. Hi, Roland.
Oops, sorry if Roland's listening to this. That's okay.
(05:13):
That's okay. Yeah, we just flit around band town. I know if you want to tuber your friend, call us.
We'll probably say yes and come to one rehearsal or do a gig.
We love doing that. No, Tim won't. You're playing.
I'll say yes and I won't shock. No, I don't do that.
Yeah, you generally don't agree to things you know you won't do.
Yeah, that's what you'll see. Don't expect that.
(05:34):
We play in brass bands. We play in concert. And I've done, I do a bunch of like
video streaming of stuff, in case you didn't know.
You can check that out. But I also video stream the pipe band competitions with
the bagpipes and the drums, which is like, there's no tubas or low brass in that.
But it's a surprisingly similar culture of like community-minded musicians who
(05:56):
enjoy what they do and get together and give it a go and sound as good as they can.
And they do like concerts and competitions just like woodwind people or brass people.
So we'll try and do a little bit of pipe band stuff. Have a pipe band?
They always dress so beautifully. We always look so scummy compared to a pipe band.
They just like shine their shoes and stuff, don't they? Yeah,
(06:17):
what do you wear for uniform?
Like, oh, they just wear like whatever blacks I get from Kmart, you know?
We have like an orange tie that we're getting rid of because we didn't have
enough and we had to share them around and that's why. So just a bit sad.
Yulu, you're a – Pippa Clay's got a jacket, a nice jacket. I do like a jacket
on a band. I think all bands should have jackets.
(06:39):
Oh, that's one of our questions in our question thing. Oh, we're cross-referencing.
Anyway, we finished our warm and fuzzies. That's the hymn.
As their own choice is talking about ourself. Have we talked about ourselves enough, do you think?
People are probably really interested in us. How about you? Why did you play the tuba?
What's your real beginning story? Oh, well, I was going to school,
(07:01):
so I managed to do high school.
I reckon I was in year 10 or year 11, and the school band got to go on a band camp at the Gold Coast.
And two of my sisters were in the band, and I was exceptionally jealous.
So when they came back, I asked the band director dude,
can I join? What do I have to do to join the band? Because I want to do fun stuff.
(07:24):
And he said, you should play the tuba, because you're kind of big and so is
that. And then I took it home, and then I came back and I could play it.
Tuba's really easy. It doesn't take much.
Yeah, you just need someone strong to lift it. I can't play the tuba if it's so heavy.
I lived near, close to the school, so I didn't have to take it very far.
So I'd just walk to school with a tuba, don't have to put it on a bus.
(07:44):
So it was sort of evolution, I guess. Selection of the fittest.
What about you, Robyn? Why did you start on euphonium? I got plenty of euphonium.
I started on trombone and that was pretty fun, but for some reason I kind of,
oh, I just like the euphonium. I thought that would be easy because it had buttons.
Trombone is like a little bit of hard work with the moving of the arm. I'm pretty lazy.
(08:06):
But I also wanted to go and like, yeah, so that made me, that wound out the tube out.
They do those tests. When I was in year seven, I don't know if it's scientifically proven,
ribbon they like sit everyone down and they do this like hearing like
test and they play all these sounds and they say which sound do
you like and you do this like you put
your answers in and then they said they pick your instrument based on that
but I'm pretty sure it was a complete scam and they just wanted a well-balanced
(08:30):
band without 25 saxophones in it I don't know I'm gonna have to ask a teacher
from the 90s if that was a real like bona fide test I'd have to get someone
on but anyway and they're like you're a 12 out of 12 for the tuba it's too heavy
so they gave me funny things.
Which I liked. It had buttons and it's really like the euphonium was a real
sweet spotting band where you didn't have to be that good because there weren't very many of them.
(08:54):
So you'd get into like pretty good bands. This was in MYM where you kind of,
you auditioned to get into the next band up and my sister played the flute and
she was really good, but she'd often not get in, she'd get in the same band
as me or definitely not a high band because flute's really competitive.
Lots of people play the flute. You have to be really good to stand out,
but I'd just rock up being the only euphonium and barely have to practice and
(09:15):
just sail along that way.
I was also generally the only girl in the section. That was always a bonus,
going to hang out with the boys. The boys.
Yeah, there were a couple of cute tuba players, a lot of cute tuba players, yeah. No, it wasn't you.
Ah, wasn't me. No, a girl never told, but yeah. All the flutes were jealous
(09:36):
of me. I heard from my sister that I'd sit next to a cute tuba player one summer school.
Nice job. Good work, Robyn. That's my one of life.
And then brass band, your first brass band was the Footscray?
I went straight into the A-grade band playing euphonium and I couldn't even play.
I'd come all the way from wind band, couldn't even read treble clef.
You couldn't read treble clef because you went from E-flat and it's like weird
(09:57):
bass clef-y. Still can't. Still can't.
Oh, my God. Why did I make you play in treble clef? It's so,
like, it was ridiculously hard.
I think I did one contest on euphonium and they were like, damn,
great, I need a second baritone.
And that was all right. I stayed there for like a year or two where I could
gradually read and up so I could go back up and oh, it was harsh.
(10:19):
It was it. And what year was your first contest that you played UFO?
It would have been the States sometime. And then we did Mount Gambier and that was fun.
And then there was Nationals in Adelaide 19 years ago. And that was when you
kept going, the one you came along to.
Year of the Dragon. Year of the Dragon. We played Year of the Dragon.
Did you know this is another Year of the Dragon?
(10:42):
2024. I wonder if it may be a Hello, Philip Spark, if you're listening.
It's on the podcast. Are you going to do an update of Year of the Dragon? Year of the Dragon.
I'm with Uniqlo to buy a black t-shirt, and they were selling things called
Year of the Dragon t-shirt. Okay.
What year are you born? What year are you born? What year was I born?
I don't know. Hang on. I'll Google it. You talk and entertain our people for a while.
(11:05):
So anyway, this is our first podcast, and we're trying to not talk over each
other, and we're failing a little bit. I keep interrupting.
Sorry, Robin. But we'll get better. We'll get better.
We... Year of the Ox. Year of the Ox. Okay. Thanks for continuing to listen.
What are you, Tim? You're the rat. You're the rat. I'm the rat.
(11:26):
I'm the rat. The structure of our show, did we say the structure of our show
is going to be the him is first? Yeah, we've done him.
We've just done our own choice. We're talking about our history.
We've done the history. And now, after we've done our warm and fuzzies,
our history, we've got a Braf band questionnaire.
It's a test. So it goes him, own choice, then test. And now it's time for the test.
(11:49):
I knew the questions I probably should have thought of answers,
but I didn't think about it before this point. No, no, you've got to be unprepared. That's the point.
All right. Okay. All right. I'll ask you the questions. Maybe we'll just do
one each and we won't answer the same ones. Okay.
All right. What are your thoughts on, oh, we already asked this.
See, Jack, what's your Jack like uniform? What do you like about the uniform?
(12:11):
Oh, oh, uniform. Uniform is good. Bands should have uniforms that make them
look cool. that look really indistinguishable from just people who are non-musical
and is that like a server at a restaurant?
Is it like an usher at a cinema?
I like bands that wear colourful jackets and it's like, wow,
that's a new... What's your favourite when you've gone somewhere and seen a really cool uniform?
(12:36):
What do you reckon the best? The best uniform I ever saw in Australia was Kensington
and Norwood Brass, K&N from South Australia because they had uniform pants that
had a gold stripe down the pants.
Beautiful pants. That's real commitment to the band. That's a lot of commitment.
Because, like, uniform jacket, like, hard enough. Get one that fits.
But, like, sizing up the pants for a whole band, like...
(12:58):
Good luck. Good luck. So I'm a big fan of uniforms and uniform pants and stripes.
Sound race? Stripes down the leg, yeah. Perfect. And like little caps,
marching caps, like old school.
Yeah, I played in marching band in the USA. That's a little tidbit about me.
And like the uniforms were extreme.
They were about like 10 pieces of things you had. You had the things on your
arms and the gloves and the hat. I had a big feather in the hat. It was insane.
(13:23):
But it really like you put on the uniform and you're like, yeah, I'm ready to go.
And do the thing. Do you have any photos of yourself in that uniform?
We can post one to the side.
Yeah, I'll find one. We'll find one. All right. Oh, well, I'll do one.
The biggest mistake you ever made on stage or like something that's gone wrong in a performance.
(13:44):
Yeah, tell me. Tell me. Biggest thing that's gone wrong.
Oh, I don't have anything funny. Oh, no, no, no. I'm over now. Okay.
I was doing the solos at Nationals. So at Nationals, you can go and compete
as a band and then on the following day, you can play something like a concerto
or whatever with an accompanist and they just judge.
So I was in the opening for any of the solos and I was starting with a mute
(14:06):
and then I took the mute out and like knocked over the music stand.
And so I had my phone in one hand, the mute in the other hand,
and the music sound like quite comically slow motion was falling.
I was like, oh, I'm going to drop the mute.
The stand just like splatters on the floor with all music everywhere.
It was pretty funny. I don't think the UK wasn't behind a screen or anything,
so I think they just laughed at me. I came second last.
(14:29):
Who came last? I missed quite a sizable chunk of music. That was fun.
In a band, you can stuff up and no one notices, do they?
I've conducted the wrong amount of bars in, I think. I did, last time I did
a conductor, I just added an entire extra bar and I was like,
why isn't anyone coming in?
And then, like, everyone's just laughing at me because I did it in all the rehearsals
(14:50):
too. And I said, I won't make that mistake on stage, and then I did.
So there you go. Conducting is pretty stressful when you think something's in your scores.
There's lots of notes on there. I just can't read it. I just can't go and remember.
As a conductor, do you have to be able to read music? To be a conductor?
Yeah, I just want to check. because sometimes I see conductors and I'm like.
(15:12):
It's like it's how you turn the pages and like I think that by the time you
get to the performance, you're really just conducting tempo changes.
It's like if someone's going to take off, they're kind of going to take off.
There's not much you can do. You can't really stop.
Although, has anyone had a conductor stop you on stage? You say,
no, you've done that wrong.
That's a pretty rare one. Yeah. No, I've seen it happen.
(15:33):
I've seen it happen in a couple of contests where like, Like,
I can't remember, but I've seen it at least two or three times where,
like, a band, maybe, like, a C or D grade band would come on and have a really
bad opening, like, first couple of bars, and then it just goes,
no, no, no, we're just going to do that again.
And they stopped and left to go again. I respect that. You respect it?
Wouldn't you be, oh, I don't know. I'm in two minds with that.
(15:53):
I'm in two minds, but I think, like...
Wouldn't it put everyone off if you stopped and played again?
Because then you'd be like, oh, that was... What if it got worse the second time?
All right. Well, that was my... All right. Things, people falling over,
that's a bit related to mine. Have you ever had a thing or a person fall over and it ginked him?
Oh, no, nothing. Fallen off a stage would be a good one. No one's ever fallen
(16:18):
off a stage that I know about.
Like something in the percussion section often falls over and goes smash,
but like rarely at a concert performance.
Like in a rehearsal, I feel like percussion's just like doing whatever they do and dropping stuff.
No, I've never had a really big fall over. I've seen a tuba fall over.
Like someone put a tuba down and it just sort of, that someone was me and it
(16:39):
fell over and I was a bit sad, but it was fine. Bounced.
No, I don't have a good falling over on stage story.
Do you have any? Someone has a good falling over story.
All right. Ben, what's the worst precaution to pull at like a suspended cymbal
stand? Wing chimes? Marimba?
Marimba didn't fall over. All right, I know. This one's a funny one.
(16:59):
Okay, Tim. Imagine your band, any of your bands.
This is a hypothetical person. Someone came to a first rehearsal and they were
like, I'm never coming back. Why?
I feel like it is going to be, for my bands, it'll be dependent on who they're
sitting next to more than who the conductor is.
I feel like my conductors are always and have always been very nice people.
(17:21):
But I think sometimes there can be some people in some bands who you might not
necessarily want to sit next to.
For reasons of odour or jokiness or maybe just playing always a little bit out of tune.
Is that too harsh? That's just what I assume. That's what I assume.
(17:42):
I mean, you know, it's like, why didn't I feel the other second corner chair? It's like, why?
What's up with that second corner section? It's like, I don't know.
Have you seen so-and-so? Just, yeah. There's always one there.
All right. Oh, we can both answer this one. All right, what's the best instrument?
That's not included. Maybe we can't say your own one. I think you could play any other instrument.
(18:06):
I want to say bagpipes. No, I don't. I don't want to say bagpipes.
I can sort of play bagpipes. I think a trombone is probably the coolest one
because I feel like the trombone is like you can do the jazz,
you can do the orchestra, you can do the bands, you can do it all,
and you're not like a corny trumpet person because then you don't have a big head.
Best instrument? I'll tell you what. My favourite instrument,
if I didn't play euphonium, the bassoon. I love the bassoon. Really? It's so like...
(18:33):
And it makes me laugh every time. But whenever I'm in wind band and I have a
line with the bassoon, I just feel sorry for them because no one can hear them because I'm way louder.
Yeah, I had to play orchestra. Can I talk orchestra? Or is that rude?
Do you remember Matthew Neill, Matty Neill? He played bassoon in NYSB.
Anyway, he's a super amazing bassoon player now, like all around the world is touring and stuff.
(18:56):
I remember I had to play Melbourne Youth Orchestra was doing Symphony Fantastique
by Berlioz and Fabian Russell was conducting.
And I was just working at the concert venue and then suddenly the other tuba
player couldn't do the gig.
So I had to like sight read it on stage with Fabian conducting.
I remember distinctly Matty Neal was playing bassoon.
(19:20):
He played something, there's like a unison line that had like two tubas on it.
I think it was me and Danny Malia, if you know Danny, and then Matty Neal playing bassoon.
And he sounded like the most glorious chainsaw noise, just like bassoon power,
like cutting through the tubas. And it was really, really cool.
So yeah, bassoon, good choice. Good choice.
I think I've always loved the Sorcerer's Apprentice, you know.
(19:41):
Whatever solo a bassoon has. And the grandfather in Peter and the North,
it's the only time I like a bassoon.
All right, different instrument. Okay, here's the real, this is the real question.
Question. Team, do you practice?
When was the last time you practiced? Honesty hour. Honesty hour.
I did not practice. So I did an undergrad music degree and I probably stopped
(20:02):
practicing after my last exam.
And I feel like I've only really, sorry, every other conductor I've ever had
only really started practicing properly again in maybe like the last couple of weeks.
So I was like, Ooh, I, so I would say I've gone like, I don't know,
probably 18 years without practising.
I feel like you reach your standard and you kind of like you come down and beat
(20:24):
it, but like you can kind of maintain it, can't you?
As long as you've got somewhere in uni, you can just coast for a little bit.
I mean, many people like to cigarette me.
Yeah, I think especially on like maybe instruments that traditionally have a
less technical part to play.
I feel like if you know how to breathe good and you play low brass, you're kind of fine.
And like you can visualise, like you look at notes, you're like,
I know how that should sound.
(20:46):
Yeah. And then like you can always get close enough usually to not get second
looked at, but perfect, maybe not so often.
Yeah. So I reckon I probably stopped practicing for like many,
many years. But you got it out again a few weeks ago.
I'm back. I got it out. I got it out. I'm practicing. I'm committing.
(21:06):
I'm going to sound real good again. Yeah.
What about you, Robin? I don't practice at all. I got to a band the other night.
I was like, well, last time I literally get my instrument out at gigs.
My fourth valve didn't work the other night. Cool. I had big cadenzas.
Better practice it in the break.
Lucky no one else can see my music except Brendan and Chibu Player who then
(21:28):
gave me this really sarcastic clap and everyone else started clapping.
I was like, I don't know if that's right.
But the cadenza, no one else knows what notes I'm supposed to write.
As long as you own it, you've got to sell it. And the rest of the time,
I had this other euphonium guy called Doug, and he played all the hard notes for me. It was awesome.
How is Doug? How is Doug? Is Doug still playing?
He's playing the bassoon in Knoxville. I was about to say we should get him
(21:50):
on. We should get him on, get a bassoonist for you. We should get him on.
We'll get him. Well, we've got to not just interview our friends.
We're going to cast a wide net.
So maybe if you're not friends with us, get in touch with us,
and we can meet you, and then we can be friends.
That would be good, wouldn't it? That would be great. More friends.
We've probably talked too long. Oh, well, our time limit was 20 minutes,
half an hour. What are we at? Hold on.
(22:11):
29 minutes. All right. All right. After our questions, or were there any more good questions?
There was a question about the Year of the Dragon. What's the weirdest thing
someone brought to a rehearsal that you've been at? Baby.
Yeah, baby. Baby. Who brought a baby to your rehearsal? I bring babies to my
rehearsals, but they're my own babies at that time.
Oh, just, you know, back in the day, people had brought babies to rehearsals,
(22:34):
and I'm like, why is a baby here? What's going on?
It's weird. Why is there a baby here? What the arsehole?
I used to just like have the baby in the carrier and some people would just
like, I'll just be playing along and be like, baby attached to your stomach?
Like, ah, what's it to you? Got the little headphones on, I protect these ears.
So once I put the baby down right in front of the base sand and then the guy
(22:55):
started playing and the baby started crying.
But I felt like a bad mum. But you're not, you're not a bad mum,
Robin. You're a great mum.
You're a great mum. We left the baby, two-week-old baby, just on the side of
the stage at an Oktoberfest.
It's like, whose baby is that? It's like someone in the band.
Child protection's listening. Child protection's listening.
(23:15):
Ah, they're all fine. They're all very well-adjusted. And who knows?
They'll be all musicians one day, or they'll be kicked out of our family.
What about dogs? Anyone brought a dog? Anyone brought a bagpipe?
Torodosu, Lenira, and Osu?
Some people have some interesting things, I think. I think tubers get interesting
at a rehearsal, I reckon.
(23:36):
Just like, I know we're finishing up, but like, sometimes you see a tuba player
rock up with like a couple of different tubas, as well as like a couple of moots.
And it's like, why did you bring all of this stuff to rehearsal?
It's like, no one understands how hard it is to play tuba.
It's tough. It doesn't fit anyway. Why do you need different tubas?
Explain that tuba sense to me. We don't really have time.
There are tubas in four different keys. They're in B flat, they're in C, and E flat and F.
(24:01):
And it's not very confusing with the fingering. Depends on how big your brain
is. So for me, constantly confused, constantly confused.
But in bass clef in a concert band, like none of the parts are transposed.
So everything's written that pitch and you just got another four different fingerings
for that pitch if you're playing the four different tubas.
And then there's some tubas like the biggest gap is like a B flat tuba to an F tuba. So like a fifth.
(24:22):
So if you're playing high bits, you play the high tuba or low bits,
you play the low tuba. That feels like cheating to me. See, I play all the bits
on the one instrument. instrument.
Yeah, but tubas are more special.
So special, so special. It's like the person with the biggest instrument then
has to bring two of those instruments. It really doesn't seem fair to me.
I feel like flute should have to bring two flutes.
(24:42):
I think there was something in the UK where one of the test pieces that was
chosen kind of recently had two different mutes that the tubas had to use.
So not only did bands have to get there with their tubas tough enough,
but I guess it's the UK, so everything's just a bus ride away. No big deal, right?
But then they had It had to come with like a straight mute and like the Dennis
Wick-y cup mute things as well.
A tuba cup mute? I've never seen such a ridiculous thing.
(25:04):
It's a big silver thing. It looks like a spaceship that sticks on the top.
No, I'm not going to cut really deep, but like for a tuba. Yeah,
I'm sure I've seen it. Yeah.
Dennis Wick makes everything. Hi, Dennis, if you're listening.
That seems ridiculous. I'm sure it makes the sound different,
but anyway. All right. Here we go.
We've done our brass band questionnaire to each other. Yay.
(25:27):
All right. Now we move on to the March. Current events. Oh, so currently, yeah.
We're all just getting ready for nationals, really, aren't we?
Got any more gigs in our bands? I've got lots going on.
Footscray. Footscray, our city band's got a bunch of gigs coming up.
I think we've got something in February and like a pre-nationals concert in
March. But then also the New Zealand Pipe Band Championships are coming up.
(25:51):
I'm going to go to them and stream them, but I'm not going to play there in
March as well. So March is a bit dizzy. And then maybe I'm going to play with Granger Wind Symphony.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to do a gig there. They're always fun.
I like to sing that. Some bands just do like, we're just going to do five concerts
a year and you just play your Newsy, you can play the concert and they're really,
(26:13):
it's nice. Whereas the brass bands are like very contest.
It's like high stress, like lots of rehearsals. Whereas often concert bands just have a nice kind of.
Yeah, it's true. And I think as well, probably like the two weeks before nationals
or week before nationals will be like the most concerts by bands going on on
the same day right around the country.
(26:34):
I reckon every band will do like their pre-nationals concert run through like
week before or two weeks before. So 17th of March, 23rd of March,
go get out there. I'm sure there'll be a concert.
That was our current event section. All right, we need a sign-off, a song, a song.
We can sing Year of the Dragon, the fast bit.
(26:59):
Oh, no.
Okay, bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you.
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