I started playing trombone back in 2011, when I bought an alto on the grounds that it was smaller and less objectionable to the neighbours. However, as I dislike most of my neighbours intensely* and the alto was a bit pointless, I bought a tenor after all and started learning properly.
I played a Conn 77H horn which I bought on Ebay for around a hundred quid and which, while a bit battered and needing the odd repair, makes a pretty nice noise. I discovered Rudy Muck mouthpieces after experimenting with all sorts of things, and ended up using an old refurbished 23 which is nearly as old as me and yet still goes parp in fine style.
The Conn has now been replaced with a French beast made by Antoine Courtois with a larger bore and and therefore much harder to blow. But the tone is lovely. Sometimes.
Then I got bored with that and, having messed about with a cornet for a while to learn the fingering, bought a euphonium from Wessex on the grounds that the parts were more interesting. Which indeed they are, and a bit harder too…
I started off at the Tarporley Silver Band, near Chester, where I was playing baritone parts as they already had a ful complem ent of euphoniums. Or possibly euphonia.
I then discovered and joined the Over Alderley Band as a euphonium player, and a bit later the St Bartholomew’s Band in Wilmslow, where, as I was actually playing baritone horn parts (as I was at Tarporley), I bought one of those as well. It seemed logical at the time.
And now as a new euphonium player has joined the Over Alderley Band, I’ve decided to move on an play drums instead, so have acquired through devious means and my credit card a set of Roland electronic drums, which rather neatly fold together and fit into a (large) bag for portability. Luckily, my son, who runs a music school (the Music Factory) in Birkenhead, is a drum teacher and is showing considerable patience as we go along…
That’s it for brass bands. They are a lot of fun, and you should definitely book a local one for your fete. None of this recorded rubbish - keep music live!
*Since writing this nonsense I have moved house and would just like to stress that my new neighbours are lovely and nothing like the evil-minded, aggressive, noisy and unpleasant lot I had last time!
