What an good rehearsal, solid playing for 2 hours and the band maintained its focus the whole time. I believe we can officially say we are back!
Starting out with our hymns for Remembrance Day; breath control is so important in slow tune playing, so we can maintain intonation and balance but also so we can play the tune like it is meant to be sung. Speaking of singing, during the early days of lockdown we discussed looking at the words of hymns and slow tunes and seeing how they fit into the phrases we currently play, you may find it interesting to look at words at the end of phrases and how they sound as we often tend to bite the last note short.
Some excellent work being done on phantom, which bodes a strong return to this piece as our centrepiece in our delayed concert, we contrasted the section of Notes, from Phantom to the section in Lord of the Rings bar 155 Hobbits…. There is very similar writing here and similar style, there needs to be a lightness in our playing that is achieved by using the marked articulations and dynamics but also playing with a light feel which will make both these sections flow easily and with lift.
Overall, our band is sounding strong and it was great to see a few more missing faces back in the ranks, thank you to all our team for your continued efforts, I look forward to each rehearsal with anticipation and even more towards our next performance.
Murray