What did you play today?

[prairieboy1]

Today was a deep dive into the folders of two of the three bands that I play in. The first is a community concert band with many friendly people, a fine conductor and plenty of music that is easy to listen to and easy to play. The second is my Brass Band which requires a much higher standard of playing.We are blessed with a terrific conductor. Many new pieces were handed out last week. Selections include:"The Gladiators' Farewell" March, "A Festival Prelude" Alfred Reed,"A Gallimaufry Suite" Philip Harper and "A Malvern Suite" Philip Sparke. More music to come on Thursday night. Today's workhorse was the Holton 'Mammoth". It provides a tremendous workout and is not very tolerant of error!

[tclements]

Game 1, buck short. Game 2, I pitched.

[prairieboy1]

Danzon#2 was put on the stand for tonight's other Community Concert Band rehearsal. I love this piece and am really glad that we are playing it again. The second of our three indoor concerts this season is on February 8,2026 at the historic Broadway Theatre here in Saskatoon. It seats about 350 people and has marvellous acoustics as well as a stage that 55 musicians can comfortably sit. Tomorrow is Brass Band and more fine music is on the way! Plenty of woodshedding in the next two months!

[prairieboy1]

Danzon#2 was put on the stand for tonight's other Community Concert Band rehearsal. I love this piece and am really glad that we are playing it again. The second of our three indoor concerts this season is on February 8,2026 at the historic Broadway Theatre here in Saskatoon. It seats about 350 people and has marvellous acoustics as well as a stage where 55 musicians can comfortably sit. Tomorrow is Brass Band and more fine music is on the way! Plenty of woodshedding in the next two months!

[Grumpikins]

This week I have been practicing the super bass nasalblatt mating call on several boxes of tis shoes. I just cant get a good vibrato like my son does. He's a pro nasalblatt mating caller...

[gocsick]

First Street band rehearsal of the year tonight. A bunch of new charts... Had a lot of fun with "I hope" originally by the Youngblood Brass Band.. Bandleader wanted ad lib walking bassline instead of a typical New Orleans vamp plus a 32 bar tuba solo back into the bassline to close out the solo section . We ran it down twice.. two different ideas turned into two really solid solos that got the head nods from the right people in the band.. Felt good to be in the groove and not second guessing myself for once.

It's a fun group but with so many charts (over 100 in the drive for active rotation) it is hard to get out of the paper sometimes. I wish we played more from leadsheets rather than more complete arrangements. Like Bloke asked "are we really a Street Band of we have stands? "

[sdloveless]

Hadn't touched the horn in 3 months. Went to band practice last night. Lots and lots of wrong notes. Maybe this should be in the bad ideas thread...

[the elephant]

All this week, I will be playing Wagner's "Parsifal" prelude, as well as some ridiculously difficult piece by our music director, entitled "Passages". It is not bad, but it takes some work. (We premiered it about six years ago. It was hard then, too, heh, heh…)

The other half of the program is entitled "TUBA — TACET".

I am using my homemade 186 that started its life in Q1 of 1971 as a 186-4U BBb but is now transformed into a 186-5U CC. That's right. I rescued it from the scrap pile, silver soldered all the many holes and cracks in the bell and outer branches, I added a valve, and I CUT that bad boy to play 200¢ sharp.

And — perhaps a bit surprisingly — it is a very good tuba.

[anadmai]

Last night, I played Variations on Maccabeus by Kevin Norbury. We're also playing Cause for Celebration by Bill Himes and Prelude on Rhosymedre by Vaughan Williams.

Good stuff..

[anadmai]

Tomorrow is Brass Band and more fine music is on the way! Plenty of woodshedding in the next two months!

What Brass Band do you play in? What music are you currently playing?

[anadmai]

Sheetz.

Ahhh Sheetz. I love Sheetz..

[Mary Ann]

I played all over the cello. I am gratified that it is going as well as it is. My goal is to be "as good" (whatever that means) on cello as I was on violin, which I assume will open up pretty advanced amateur chamber music playing to me. I'm starting to sound like me on the cello, with limited positions to date. It is still a battle to get sound out of this instrument, but I decided to love the one I'm with.

[prairieboy1]

Tomorrow is Brass Band and more fine music is on the way! Plenty of woodshedding in the next two months!

What Brass Band do you play in? What music are you currently playing?

I play in the Bridge City Brass Band based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Our group numbers about 23 players at present and we rehearse in a fantastic space, Grace-Westminster United Church here in the city. We are preparing for our next concert which will be in the middle of March. The set list is not yet complete, however here is what we have been working on so far: Some will make the cut and others will not.
A Festival Prelude-Alfred Reed/ GrahamBruce
A Gallimaufry Suite-Philip Harper
A Malvern Suite-Philip Sparke
Eternity=Michael Bojesen/David Robb
Flying Eagle March-H.L.Blankenburg
The Gladiator's Farewell March-H.L Blankenburg
More music will be arriving at our rehearsal this coming Thursday night. We'll have a completed set list by the middle of February, at least I hope so!

[anadmai]

Tomorrow is Brass Band and more fine music is on the way! Plenty of woodshedding in the next two months!

What Brass Band do you play in? What music are you currently playing?

I play in the Bridge City Brass Band based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Very cool.. Need to up my brass band swag.

[C J]

With the brass ensemble new music this evening: Feierliche Einzug (R.Strauss)
Elsa Procession to the cathedral and the The Fairie Round suite by Richard Holborne.

I love these evenings.

[prairieboy1]

Danzon#2 was put on the stand for tonight's other Community Concert Band rehearsal. I love this piece and am really glad that we are playing it again. The second of our three indoor concerts this season is on February 7, 2026 at the historic Broadway Theatre here in Saskatoon. It seats about 350 people and has marvellous acoustics as well as a stage that 55 musicians can comfortably sit. Tomorrow is Brass Band and more fine music is on the way! Plenty of woodshedding in the next two months!

[Mary Ann]

We are doing a newly written piece in brass band. Often I simply do not like recently written pieces and find they hurt my ears. We read one at the beginning of the year that was like that -- I characterized it as sounding like someone fell on a piano and then wrote it down.
But this piece, I actually like. It's called "Oboe, Brass Band, and Dragons, Oh My!" and has several movements. It has neat sonorities, neat effects, and it is an oboe solo on top of (hopefully) the band. We also have an excellent oboe player so that helps.
If anyone is interested I can get more info; for me to recommend a modern piece is unusual.

[gocsick]

I have been working on improving my low range lately... I set a silly goal of extending my useful low end from pedal Bb down to F0. Today Was working through the Munsters exercise @the elephant put up a while ago and I had a bit of breakthrough. I've never been able to get the G0 to speak really clearly and couldn't get the Gb at all. Well today they both came came out loud and clear.I have no idea what I did differently... usually how things go for me.. they probably won't be there Friday when I will have a chance to pick up the tuba again.

[bloke]

I've never been able to play much below the Bosendorfer piano (triple low?) F.

On very rare occasions, I've been able to produce an (actually resonant, and not ghosted) E natural or E flat, but almost never.

It's easier for me to produce that very very low F on smaller instruments which offer more resistance. To play it on my really gigantic and really large bore B-flat, I need to be very warmed up and/or in a regular practice schedule of at least an hour daily.

The bottom of my nose cartilage is not very far from where my lips part, which is one reason why I prefer thin and not particularly flat rims (though another advantage to the style of rim that I prefer is flexibility, because the shape of rim that I prefer slides across the indention above the chin with very little resistance - which helps with crazy passages written by composers or arrangers who either just want to challenge us inexplicably, or who simply don't know any better).

I'm pretty sure that the fact that I can't move the mouthpiece any higher on my face than where my nose cartilage will allow is what sort of puts a roadblock to me playing any lower than I can (again, which is quite low enough). That said, (again) I can play way lower than I'm ever asked to play, and I can play as low as I'm ever asked to play well enough to be hired back.

[Mary Ann]

Maybe if you made some of those promised 30mm mouthpieces you could play two or three mm lower.