I'd like to hear anyones/everyones views on this:
Is the brass band movement still going strong as it was at the turn of the last centuary, where "the brass band contest is the one and only successful rival to the football match" (george miller) or has it gone down hill to the point where youth bands are struggling to attract new members and no one is filling growing number of places in senior bands?

All thoughts welcome

I'm guessing it depends on the area. I'm not a brass player myself, but there are a fair number of excellent brass bands in my area. A few weeks ago I went to an open air concert with the combined strengths of two local bands down by the lake in my town: the members ranged from middle aged (someone I know in the band is a granddad) right down to girls who I would have imagined were no older than 12 or 13. The son of the member I know played in the local one, too, till he passed away last year (he had cancer ) and I recall that the band got into one of the major finals for something and dedicated their performance to Roy's memory.

I don't know that the competitions have quite the cachet and interest that they once had, but there are certainly, at least in our area, a good few bands keeping up the traditions and going strong, with youngsters heavily involved.

Where I live there are several brass bands. My brothre goes to one. He is 9 and plays the euphonium. He is in the junior section, but they also hhave youth bands, B bands, silver bands etc. They all have lessons and get their instruments from the band. It's really good. My brother did his grade one Euphonium on Tuesdsay. The answer to your question is yes, bands are still going strong, especially where I live.

I think you may be right Sarah. From my (rather sketchy) knowledge, the brass band movement still seems to be strong in Northern England. Here in South London, there seems to be more in the way of wind bands than brass bands, but that has really been the case for at least the past 20 years or so.

Have a look at www.themouthpiece.com for some interesting discussions on brass bands! It shows that there is still a big interest, and lots of younger people, but also the vacant positions and deps wanted are numerous. I play in a brass band, which is doing quite well at the moment (nationals in september! ), but we are always in need of more players, we are short on cornets at the moment, and in the youth band there are none ready to move up. Of all the people to join the band in the last 6 months or so there have been a mix of ages, both young (14) and old. Our youth band is variable - a few weeks ago it had shrunk to nearly half the size it was when I joined, but it has sprung up again as a few beginners have started. I think that once young people have become interested most carry on, it is only with pressures of school work / jobs that some give up (and braces in a few cases!)

PS I live in the Gloucestershire/Forest of Dean area - I guess brass bands are typically associated with ex-mining areas, so it figures (though I don't think it was ever coal round here)

I've just been to our bands junior band commitee meeting, the junior band is a very small ensemble, that seems to exist for the sole purpose of keeping the senior band from dying out (quite litterally i'm afraid) they are planning to move up many members to the junior band this term, leaving around 6 in the juniors, and annother 4 in the new begginers. This does constrast heavily to the nearby somerset area, where the county music service funds bands, both giving financial support to existing bands and running county/area bands, last night I went to a concert to where over 200 brass players (all under 18) played together, although it is just 1/2 an hour in the car away it is almost impossible to believe that something simmilar could happen in wiltshire, and prehaps other counties are the same... I think that neglect for brass bands has happened in some places more than others, of prehaps over places haven't become part of the "youth movement" or a brass band revival that seems to be happening in Somerset.

We have quite a few excellent bands in Cornwall.

I'd love to live in cornwall, not only are the beaches amazing, but the brass band movement is still very strong.

That would be Drybrook then. They qualified for the National Finals 4th section last year.

Yes - they also played at Roy's funeral. I guess it was mentioned at the performance? I'm not expert but when I have heard them play they have seemed pretty good to me.

Where I live, there are many brass bands which vary from non-contesting bands to championship section bands and traing and youth bands. However the general consencus is that there are not enough players to go around as there are some players which regualarly play for more thatn one band for concerts etc.

HI Welshclarinet, I'm guessing that seeing as you live on Anglesea that your brother goes to Beaumaris band? I used to have a boyfriend who played and still does, with the top band!!!!

I dont't know about brass bands, but the brass section in my school orchestra drives everyone up the wall! (When they turn up, that is) There's only 4 of them, in a school of 1800. Not a particularly impressive orchestra.

I was in a brass band this year in Hull, and they were struggling to get people to stay in it. Everyone in it probably were all really good musicians and some point, but coz they're getting a bit old, struggle with reading music. They really relied on the younger people my age to keep going. We did some cool stuff like playing in York Minster at Christmas, but I never really got into it properly coz we entered a contest and the difficulty of the music was waaay harder than I could;ve ever coped with! Parts divided everywhere, and the playing was beyond most people's abilities there, but it was a set piece so we had to play it. Maybe that's what's putting people off doing contests?

Is this normal for brass band contests? For the wind band contest I've done at school and the community band there is always a list of set pieces, you have to choose one piece from the highlighted ones. Generally it's about 80 pieces, in reality it has to be an appropriate level for the class you are in, which narrows it to about 15.

Incidently, where I live it seems very much wind bands and choirs, and in Edinburgh orchestras and jazz bands are the big thing.

It mainly depends on the contest and whether it is a local contest or a national contest. For the local contests, which tend to be smaller, then the contest officials may say and test piece or a piece by a specific composer. The larger copetitions which are things like the brass band championship of Great Britain (both regionals and finals) and contests which are held annually at Pontins and Butlins always in my experience set a piece that every band in the section has to play.

I'm from yorkshire where the brass band thing is still strong! I don't play in one myself, because im at boarding school and so home and away at various times...but i went to one rehearsal to see what it was like, and they still take it all VERY seriously, and there are still all the competitions n all... x

What is it like to be at bording school?

well i love it. basically, i live in a house called Bates with 18 other girls (actually, i've just left that house and am transferring to 6th form, but i'll tell you about last year). The woman in charge of us is the housemistress, and she registers in the morning, and is the person we should go to if we have a problem. during the day we are involved in normal school life and then after school when the day pupils go home at 6 o clock we have dinner in the school dining room. At 7 we are registered again by our housemistress (the boys go to their own house, and their own housemaster) and then we have prep time. this is the time when we do our homework, and we have to be in our rooms in silence. after 8.30 we have free time and can go outside and meet up with the boys (but cant go off the school campus) or we can go and watch tv in the common room...or stay in our rooms, or go to other girls rooms...or do music practice...(thats me!) or oplay sport...or anything really. my house is only for girls in year 9 - 11. I was a house prefect so it was my job to put the younger girls to bed. the year 9s have to be in the house by 9.45 and in bed by 10, when i go and turn their lights out. then the pattern for year 10s is the same but 15minutes later, and then for year 11s 15 minutes later than that, so lights out is at 10.30. then we should go to sleep, but i usually stay up and work because i am an insomniac, and its fine as long as i dont disturb anyone.

In Bates the rooms are either single or pairs, but some boarding schools have bigger rooms...with up to 8 or 10 girls in a room. When i was in year 9 and 10 i shared a room, and even though i didnt like the girl i shared with at the beginning of year 10, we ended up being really good friends in year 11 i had a single room, which was awesome because it ended up feeling more like home than my real bedroom at home. it was bigger for a start! I could put up my own pictures and photos on the walls and my desk was a mess but i had shelves and drawers for my stuff. In each room there is also a wardrobe each and obviously beds so its just like being at home. Some people get really homesick, but i found that after a bit, i prefered to be at school. We are allowed to go home every weekend if we want, but i stayed in at the weekends because i find it easier to work than at home and also sometimes there are weekend activities like cinema trips and ice skating and stuff well yes. ask me if you have any more questions! sorry to everyone else as this isnt really about brass bands... xxx

Nationally I think Brass bands are still going strong but it does very much depend on the area in which you live. North West, Yorkshire and South West seem to be doing very well sadly London suffers not from lack of bands, but from a lack of players.

What I find really sad is that most BB's these days end up having to start their own junior bands to train youngsters as local education music authorities really don't want to support their local bands (though their are exceptions) unless the teachers themselves are involved. In fact when we first started the junior band where I play I heard from some of the kids that their teacher had told them not to go!. Fortunately there is a new brass teacher who activley encourages the kids to come to us. After all when they leave school where are they going to play?. Wind bands and Orchestras only have limited spaces and don't seem to present as many opporunities for performance ( this is based solely from my own experience of Wind bands, for example the Brass Band I play in rehearses twice a week and does two jobs a month, we would do more but we have set a limit on the number of jobs we do, whereas the wind bands I have played in have only ever done two or three a year! ), certainly when I looked into playing with an Orchestra as a trumpet player I found there were only one or two orchestras in my area, all demanded grade 8+ and had no vacancies anyway, whereas I can name 4 or 5 bands within driving distance and all bar one (who are a "top" band in the area) welcome players of varying standards.

Sadly though the number of brass musicians in london seems to be dwindling at a frightening rate. Good news for my Son though whos learning Tuba! (now THERES a rare breed ).

There never seem to be any youngsters in the brass bands around here; indeed, the members tend to be middle aged plus. This doesn't bode well for a new generation of members.

This is what is happening in my local band, and one of the reasons I started this thread - I am the youngest player in the local band, and at 16, I don't think I should be, The band seemsfar too political, and is held back by money and procedure, no one seems to care about keeping the band going, there is a junior band, but no one moves up, and people leave, rather than go to the main band, it's quite distressing to think that I may be the only person left in the band by the time I am the age of some of its current members!

That's a shame our local band has children who I'd judge to be as young as 11 in it.

That's a shame Jon. Is it worth doing lots of promotion of your band for new members, in local papers and the like? In London, there aren't that many brass bands - and although I'm not a brass player, I think that's a shame.

Are you on the band's committee - can you speak out about what's happening - and would they listen to your concerns? I hope they would.

Often the repertoire doesn't help to encourage young people - more senior clientele often favour wartime music etc, thus acting as a repellant for the rising generation.

In our area, the wind bands have a higher profile than the brass bands, and I suspect that the increase in their numbers has caused some of the shortages of players in the brass bands. I played in a brass band up to 1952 and have just done a short stint as conductor of one. The recent one had much higher standards of tuning and tone than the one I played in, but had a repertoire containing lots of modern popular music, not always well arranged, and were rather slow learning new pieces, so it was difficult to make much difference to this.

What is your area? Profile is mostly about perception. For example I live in West (Greater) London hardly the brass band heartland, yet I can name at least 10 or 12 bands within driving distance who do regular concerts etc. I don't know of ANY windbands....(and my experience of windbands as a youngster put me off for life I'm sad to say).

If you play in windbands you tend to socialise with others who play in windbands so you get to know all the windbands in the area.

Going back to the age thing. Yes it's true that amongst lower section bands (for those that don't know brass bands that compete are graded into sections ranging from 4th (lowest) to Championship (pretty much proffessional, Dyke, Grimethorpe, Brighouse etc). there are quite a few "oldies" however this is mostly due to a) youngsters leaving for uni / finishing uni
Youngsters leaving for better bands.

The band I play in has an active training band of which most I hope will end up in the main band. Our youngsters are encouraged to sit in on main band rehearsals and our training band performs at our annual concert with the main band. The problem is is that as the main band improves it becomes harder to feed the students in unless they are good. Some bands I know of even have a 'B' band as an intermediatry.

If you want an indication of the state of banding have a look at www.themouthpiece.com and www.4barsrest.com