After being away for a week I was glad to be back with Lindley tonight.  It has only been 9-days since our contest but it seems longer.  I’m down a chair to 3rd man for our show this weekend.  Regular 2nd man (Steve, who has good chops) is back in his usual spot from when he played back row and 4th solo for the contest.

For this show (on Saturday) we have 3 rehearsals (last week was the first), which brings me to another point about how things are a bit different here than in the US.  We are doing a show 14-days after a contest and we have……………wait for it……….34 pieces to play!!!!!  No I’m not kidding.  OK not all of them are long or that difficult but still…….34!!

So the sheer number is large.  The other thing I found interesting was the programing of solos for cornet and then VERY late in the show, flugel.   And to be honest, neither player seems worried about chops at all.  In fact tonight after 2 hours of blowing, my chops were done, but our flugel player (Nicola) sounded fresh as ever.  Chops to burn.  I have no doubt she’ll sail through her solo no problem.  And tonight our principal cornet Adam was still playing after everyone had packed up to head for the pub…..so I guess I still have a way to go before I can call myself  a real cornet player.

Cheers,

B-