Back home from London.  Trip was great.  London was great.  Playing in Royal Albert Hall was wonderful and the show was sold out.  We were joined by Grimethorpe and accompanied a 1500 voice choir of people from all over the UK.  Really not the most polished performance you can imagine but outstanding none the less.  You just a thrill to walk out onto that stage to play with two of the world’s best brass bands.

In B&R I sit next to 2nd horn Ian “Dusty” Dust.  He is a wonderful player and very nice person.  Each time I sit down next to him he says “Hi Bryan, still living the dream?”……..um……YES! 🙂

This weekend I had some wonderful conversations with B&R folk about with it takes to be a great UK brass band player.  I’ll be sure to report in more detail later but you can get an idea of where they are coming from based on the following statement:  “I have, in the past, called out sick to work, but even on those days I never missed band practice.”  Now I’m not saying ABB or anyone else has attendance or attitude problems.  I only wish to point out the perspective over here.

Sal has reported ABB had a very successful first performance and I have also heard attendance is at an all time high.  This is wonderful news. I wish I was there with you…..well maybe only a little bit.

As I went to sleep last night (at 3AM!!!!) I was thinking about the back row in ABB and dynamics.  OK maybe I shouldn’t admit that………

However, it occurred to me, you might think of back row cornet dynamics based on what I’m hearing here.  Outside of light articulated stuff and never sounding harsh, I’m really hearing 3 dynamic levels:

• soft, warm, resonant (ppp-mp)
• loud, bright, clear, big, full and over the front row (mf-f)
• dominant, brilliant, loud to the point of not being able to hear myself or even think (f-fff)

That’s all for now.

Cheers,

B-