The Brass Band Forum

I play with a brass band in Suffolk and we are currently really struggling to get and keep adult members.

We are in a fantastic postion, having good band instruments, a huge library of music that is added to regulary, enjoyable and well paying jobs and a junior band. We don't contest but do tour to Europe at least every other year.

However, because we have a number of junior members and therefore the standard of music is not as challenging as it maybe it used to be, we seem to be losing players commitment.

As we are at the stage that we have a lot of young members, we really want to encourage old players or people that haven't played for a while back so they can get back into banding without any pressure. We currently have one sixty year old 'junior' but would love to have more.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we can market ourselves and keep the players we have? If we can't sort this out, our band won't be getting to its fifthieth birthday.

How many players do you have in each category? Do you have
enough to have separate A and B bands (different personnel)
or a concert band with a subset as a contest band (same personnel)?

-Nigel

Yeah, working on contest pieces is always good for everyone in the band. the less confident players grow in ability because they know the piece very well by the time the contest comes. and the more able players are able to work in detail on the test piece, the MD being alowed higher expectations.

also, and I am sure your MD is doing this, But having a variaty in the standard of music in the pads...... somthing for everyone.

We have about 8 committed adults, 6 that are on their way out and 13 juniors.

We particulary struggle because the players we do have don't make a very balanced band. We have no euphs or baris apart from one junior that swapped from cornet to baritone a month ago and and similar with our horns. However, we can quite frequently have six trombones.

We have been thinking of setting up a quintet for the adult members to give them more challenging pieces to play and possibly creating this as an 'elite' group that the juniors aspire to belong to.

If you do decide to set up a quintet I suggest that they contest.
Brass band ensemble contests such as quartet contests do still
exist (I recently adjudicated the one in Rhyl), though they are not as common as they once where. It will help to (re-)establish the name of the band in contesting circles.

You could also consider a march/hymn contest. So called junior and
non-contesting bands often contest there to get their name publicised.

And don't forget (if you haven't done so already) to advertise at www.bandsman.co.uk/vacant.htm

Thanks a lot! I didn't know that there were contests for ensemble group and that could be a great way of getting that kind of commitment.

Will definitely look into it.

Thanks for your help.

Don't forget to let us know here what you decide to do...

Also, it might be wise to set up a youth group... quintet or other ... after all the youth of a band is the bands future!

there is a bit of youth band music about especially at mostyn music.

I think contesting is really important in a band cos it gives you something to work towards. ideally our band would do 2 or 3 a year, but because of funding, we only do the regionals every year, plus one in the autumn maybe. They stretch they band and keep players interested.

Also, you didn't mention doing/not doing this, band socials make us feel like a team and we're all mates and are therefore reluctant to ever leave!