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MY THOUGHTS

Hello everyone, my names Mark and I recently joined this mailing list a few
weeks ago.  I have been following some of the
message traffic about peoples opions on "iffy bands" etc.  I thought that it
was time to take the plunge and add something
to this debate.  I have been involved with brass bands for about 30 years,
as I am only 36 that means I have spent most of
my life involved with them.  I have been involved with 3 bands, none of them
were contesting bands, just what you would
consider "village" bands.  Everyone who played in the bands did so because
they enjoyed it, they liked the friendship, the
comradeship that they experienced in the band.  Not all the players in the
bands were what you would call talented, but
each band had a solid group of players that the band was formed around,
everybody else played to the best of their abilities.
One thing that was told to me by an older member of the first band I joined
has stuck with me all through my banding life,
there are musicians and there are bandsmen (forgive me for not being PC).
In my last band, I had a person who would never
make a cornet player, but he would turn up to every practice, and come rain
or shine he would be at every engagement that
the band had.  To me this person is a bandsman, someone who would go to any
lengths to play or to help out any other band,
and would not expect anything in return.  I could not even consider asking
someone who was this loyal to the band to leave.
I know that perhaps my outlook on this is different from a conductor of a
contesting band , my main concern is having a band
that enjoy their music, and enjoy the comradeship that comes with it,
regardless of the abilities of the players.  I don't mean this
letter to sound like I am trying to split banding into two catagories.  I
have learnt during my 30 or so years that the musician v bandsmen  as a
theory is not a hard and fast rule.  I feel that everyone who is involved in
brass banding, in anyway, knows what they want out of it for themselves, if
we all wanted the same thing, it will be a pretty boring world.  I know that
when I
see my band standing up to take the applause and see all their smiling
faces, knowing that everyone of them has given all
they can, for themselves and for the band, it makes me really proud to be
their conductor and I wouldn't change any of them for the world.

Mark Floyd
Lakenheath Silver Band


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