As a boy, helping a local agricultural contractor at weekends, I was captivated by farming and the people who did the farming. There was, for instance, a muck spreading contractor whose favourite saying was: "No good getting older if you don't get wiser" - sound advice which I have always tried to follow.
When teaching youngsters at the Band learning from experience and watching the way others do things, especially our Musical Director, Guy James, it has become increasingly apparent that the virtues of patience, encouragement and equal investment produce the best results. Another realisation is that you cannot predict which young players will carry the torch in the future. The perfect little bandsman might one day turn around and leave, just as a lively, easily distracted little player might in ten years' time be one of the core members.
The late Nobby Challis, the legendary Band trainer at the City of Oxford Band, once said that if he had to teach a hundred to get one, then it would be worth it, and he certainly produced some excellent players. From the last Training Band group four have stuck at it and are now in the Senior Band. Just before the Band's Annual Concert back in November Guy informed me that he could not believe how well they were doing. This made it seem worthwhile.
The concert itself was a very satisfying evening. The Senior Band, nearly all of whom started with us as beginners and most of whom have been with us for some time now, put on some first-class entertainment. We were also able to show off our latest Training Band, who are growing musically and in numbers.
A Happy New Year to all of you from everybody at Yarnton Band!
With the countdown to Christmas now on you can feel the excitement building up. Christmas remains a very special time of year. Listening to the travel broadcast one Christmas Eve tea-time, the presenter announced: "On the railways, all main line Inter City trains will have left the capital by 9.00 p.m." Isn't that incredible? There is a cut-off point and all the people rush to get back to their home town to be with their families for Christmas.
Christmas is a special time for the Band as well. After officially forming the Band in November 1959, George Tutte took a small group of children carolling to try and raise money for some more instruments. Groups of youngsters have done the same almost every Christmas since. The Training Band has been asking whether they will all be going out carolling, which they will be of course, and the little ones in the Beginners' Group have been practising "Jingle Bells" for a long time. We will be out and about in the village as usual, and on Sunday 19th December we will be playing for the Christmas Songs of Praise in the church at 3.00 p.m.
A very Happy Christmas to all of you from everybody at Yarnton Band!
As usual, November will be a very busy month for the Band. On Remembrance Day, Sunday 14th, the Band will be playing at the Senotaph in Woodstock in the morning, and then in the afternoon at the remembrance service and remembrance songs of praise, complete with "The last post" and "Reveille", in the church here in Yarnton. The Cubs, Scouts, Guides and Brownies will be present, who have in previous years contributed to a moving service.
On Saturday 20th November, Father Christmas arrives at Yarnton Nursery by helicopter, and we will play "Jingle Bells" as he passes by with his sack full of goodies. This is a wonderful event for the children, not least the ones in the Band, and one we really look forward to.
On November 27th we have our Annual Concert to mark the formation of the Band by George Tutte in November 1959. Some really good pieces are being rehearsed for that, including film themes from "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings" and a new arrangement of the theme from "The Godfather" in which the flugel horn player plays into the bell of the E flat bass to create that mandolin-type sound. Remember that courtship scene in the sultry, Sicilian summer.
I hope you all enjoyed the summer. The band's first engagement following the holiday period will be The Hanborough Show on September 11th. In recent years the show has enjoyed some beautiful late summer afternoons, so hopefully that will be the case again.
The late summer for youngsters is also a time of change: changing class, changing school and indeed going off to university or its equivalent. As I have stated before, we need to keep recruiting. We are particularly keen to recruit in the village, which has traditionally been our stronghold, though at the moment the ratio of Yarnton players is lower than it has been for some time.
Everyone is welcome from those who have never play an instrument before or read music to those who can already play. If you would like more details please ring me on the number above or just come along on a practice evening to see what we do.
The Band rehearses on Mondays and Thursdays at the William Fletcher Primary School. There are three groups:
| Absolute Beginners: | 6.30 p.m. - 7.15 p.m. |
| Training Band: | 6.30 p.m. - 7.15 p.m. |
| Senior Band: | 7.30 p.m. - 8.45 p.m. |
As we are almost exclusively a youth band we do not take on any band jobs throughout the school holidays. Many of our young players are away on the family holiday or farmed out to relations by the seaside and all the other things that young people do during the long summer break. We do continue to rehearse, however, although with reduced numbers and often with key people missing, but we still manage to have enjoyable and worthwhile sessions. It is a chance for the younger players to try out the solo parts and for anyone, for that matter, to be a little more adventurous.
I mentioned before that as we are predominantly a youth band, although we do have a nucleus of adults, we are continually losing players. The ones who stay with us right through generally go on to higher education and, of course, there are those who have other interests and cannot do everything.
We currently have an excellent group in the Training Band, but if we are to learn from the experience of the last ten years, then we need to add to the organization a recruitment vehicle and an intermediate group between the Training Band and Guy's group. This would enable us to continually meet the Band's commitments year in year out without losing players and not being able to replace them.
Adults are required as well to maybe learn and play along with their child or simply to be there as a support or even help with the organization. There is an opportunity here in Yarnton to have a really good youth band with girls and boys aged between six and eighteen and with adults able to join in the fun as well.
George Tutte came down for the day when the Band played on the bandstand in Garth Park, Bicester. With George now living in the West Midlands, Bicester is easy for him to get to by train. The original Yarnton Band banners, which George's wife Doreen made to hang on the music stands, read "Yarnton Youth Band 1962". It is amazing that after all these years George can look upon the Band he founded, which still carries on the ideal of music for young people.
The Senior Band has played at some very nice summer venues, including on the lawn at Yarnton Manor. The Training Band also played their little programme that day and lots of photographs were taken. In a few years' time photographs like that will be of some interest:"Yarnton Band performs on the lawn at the Manor 2004". The Band also played at the William Fletcher School fete, which is very much our home ground. This is always nice as there are always some old friends to see and say hello to. Again both the Senior Band and Training Band were in action.
As we are continually having to replenish the Band as the older players go off to university and the likes, we are always delighted to welcome beginners. As those of you who saw the Training Band in action will know, youngsters learn quickly and are soon able to play a few tunes.
The merry month of May was indeed a very busy one for the band with the Oxford and District Solo, Duets and Ensemble Contest, closely followed by the A.G.M. and our belated annual concert. There was much to be gained from all three events, not least that our wonderful chairman, Mike Groves, is continuing as is David Casey, our able treasurer. There is always plenty of work to be done simply to keep the band going, let alone producing our little successes. We certainly need to build up the committee. As Yarnton is almost exclusively a youth band, they need adults to organise things for them.
The concert was a very satisfying event all round. Don't ask me why some performances have that extra something, but this one certainly did. It was a mellow evening following a beautiful day and everyone, the players and the audience, seemed very relaxed and the whole thing went very well. Our guests of honour were George Tutte, of course, and David Jenkins, the renowned brass teacher. Both said how much they had enjoyed the performance and there was a special mention of our latest and rather exciting Training Band.
As most of the young people who stick with us right through until they are eighteen now go to university, it is paramount that we continue to recruit. The only only way to find out whether you like it is to come up and give it a try. We rehearse at the William Fletcher School on Monday and Thursday evenings from 6.30 p.m. onwards.
The Band once again had a very successful day at the Oxford and District Brass Band Association Solos, Duets and Ensembles Contest held for the first time at a brand new school at Sandhills in Headington. This proved to be an excellent venue with all the required facilities plus an adventure playground where the little ones soon forgot their nervous anticipation.
Throughout the day the Band collected two first prizes, four second prizes, six third prizes and eight merit awards. Erica James, the daughter of our Musical Director Guy, received the award for the best girl under fifteen. David Chesterman, who is six years old and in the Training Band, received the trophy for the youngest contestant with a cup to keep and a giant teddy bear thrown in. The Band received the trophy for the most entries under nineteen years.
We were pleased that three of our Mums volunteered to help with the refreshments. The organisers and the adjudicators also did well. Players who have volunteered to play and be judged on their performances do not need any further comment. We are just delighted that they all had a go.
May will be an extremely busy month for Yarnton Band with the Oxford and District Brass Band Association holding their annual solo, duet and ensemble competition at Sandhills School in Oxford, and then our annual concert in the village hall in Yarnton on Saturday May 15th at 7.30 pm.
The Band recently performed a concert in Long Hanborough Methodist Chapel which was organised by the West Oxfordshire Vetka Association, which was well received. We have since added some new music to our repertoire including tunes from the musical "Grease."
We held our own internal solo contest at the end of March, an event to which our Musical Director, Guy James, attaches great value. It is certainly a good afternoon's bonding and gives players who are entering the May contest a chance to air their piece. It also gives Guy a chance to listen to the players as individuals and point our how much they have improved since last year (in most cases). A lot of hard work will be needed for the May contest, especially with the younger players who will need a lot of help and encouragement.
Also on May 10th is the band A.G.M.The secretary, Jackie Goodwin, will be retiring from the committee and we thank her for all the work she has put in over the last three years.
During a recent television programme "The Voice" a black, female american singer was discussing the merits of Frank Sinatra's singing, including his breath control, phrasing, punctuation etc., concluding that he could "bring a song to life", that "he could make the music come right off the page". I like that. "He could make the music come right off the page". The Americans certainly have a turn of phrase.
Of course professional singers and musicians play to a very high standard by comparison to the rest of us, just as a professional footballer does. So when they admire the greats they probably do so even more than we do. The closer you get to excellence the more elusive it becomes off the page."
That said, anyone young or slightly older who comes along to our Beginners' Group, learns to produce notes on an instrument and read music, then puts together their rendition of "Oats and Beans" has indeed succeeded in "making the music come off the page". This is no mean feat when you think about it. Can you do it? Well, there you are then.
In our current Beginners' Group we have a couple who are learning to play with their children. This is often a successful combination. Our solo trombone player, John Carr, learned to play along with his daughter Alex. Alex is now a professional French horn player.
During the first couple of months of the year many bands throughout the country will be working hard on test pieces for the various area contests. The winners and runners-up from each area will then go to the finals later in the year and battle it out to see who is the best in the country.
At Yarnton, because we are mainly a youth band, our Musical Director has tended to feel that we have not been quite ready for national contesting in recent years, although we do enter the local Oxford Association contests. This year, however, with Guy amongst others not being available, we will be unable to attend the winter contest in February.
The rehearsal time will still be put to good use as we have to put together a concert programme for concerts in Yarnton and Long Hanborough. This will also provide good experience for the younger players who have just come up from the Training Band.
A Skittles evening is also being arranged and we are looking to have more regular social events.
A Happy New Year to all of you from everybody at Yarnton Band. The festive season followed by the New Year celebrations is very much a time for looking forward and probably a little forgive and forget along the way.
The band certainly finished last year on a bit of a high. Caitlin Dimond's performance at Woodstock cenotaph was incredible, especially considering she is only ten years old. She was on her own and all the rest of us could do was sit there. We were all very proud of her and afterwards her peers run up and made a big fuss of her.
Several youngsters from the Training Band have recently been promoted to the main group, in time to join in the Christmas engagements. The older girls have gone out of their way to make them feel welcome. The youngsters seem to be making friends with some of the other younger players they did not already know. As a result we have enjoyed well-attended rehearsals and jobs, which is particularly pleasing as we have had guest conductors some of the time.
All Emma's beginners have now moved up to the Training Band and have settled in well. This now means that we need to recruit more beginners. We like as many village children as we can get, after all it is Yarnton Band and we will welcome anybody who would like to have a go.
News Archive from 2003