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What is the reality of a "small" brass band!

Oct 25, 2022

Suddenly, what kind of image do you have of a "brass band"?

They are often performing prominently at school events such as cultural festivals and athletic meets, and you see them cheering for high school baseball games in the summer,
You also see them cheering for high school baseball games in the summer.

The brass band's activities are often featured on TV and in other media,
I think people have a strong image of the brass band as "a club activity in which a large number of people play a variety of musical instruments.

However, brass bands are not only about playing with a large number of players.
Depending on the school, there may be as few as a dozen or as many as a few people.
Some schools have brass band clubs with as few as a dozen or a few members.
Such a brass band with less than 30 members is called "small orchestra".

I was also a member of a small brass band in high school.
However, it is quite few times that the activities of a small brass band are taken up.
In this article, we would like to introduce the reality and charm of small brass band clubs, which are not well known.


◆Take charge of various parts.

Small brass band clubs have only a few members,
Since a small brass band has only a few members, there will naturally be some instruments or parts that are not played by anyone.
In such cases, we play only the parts that are necessary on different instruments,
In such cases, we play only the parts that need to be played on different instruments, or the members switch instruments to make up for the missing parts .

In fact, the author was a member of a "small" brass band in my youth.
I played clarinet at the time,
At a festival in my first year, there was no one to play the cymbals, which were absolutely necessary for the piece.
At that time, I played the cymbals for one bar and played the clarinet for all the rest of the piece.
Looking back, the clarinetist suddenly got up while I was playing,
It is quite surreal that the clarinetist would suddenly get up and come back to play the cymbals, but it was a common occurrence at the time.

Incidentally, this is also related to musical instruments,
Double reed instruments such as oboe and bassoon, and contrabass are used in small ensembles,
Contrabass is often absent from small brass bands.


◆Each individual has great responsibility.

You might think that "fewer people = weaker" but this is surprisingly not the case.
The smaller the number of people playing instruments, the heavier each person's responsibility becomes.
If someone makes a mistake during a performance or stops playing halfway through, it is usually obvious.
The quality of the performance improves because each person has a lot of responsibility.

The All Japan Brass Band Competition is held every summer,
It is a famous competition that many people know about even if they do not have brass band experience.

The brass band competition is also divided into two sections, the large ensemble section and the small ensemble section.
The enthusiasm of the members of both the small and large ensembles for this competition is no different.
The only difference is that the large ensemble division goes all the way to the national competition,
The small group division is divided into two sections: the large group division and the small group division.

Here is a video of a performance by the Ota City Daisan Junior High School, which participated in the 2010 brass band competition in Shimane Prefecture, and which became a hot topic for a while.
Please search for "Ota City Daisan Junior High School Brass Band" on YouTube!

With only seven members, they played several instruments and performed well.
Without a lot of practice, it is difficult for junior high school students to achieve this quality.

It is not that the level is low because the number of members is small,
Many members of the small group practice motivatedly day in and day out.


◆Problems of small brass band.

This is not limited to brass bands, though,
Even if they have the desire to play well, there is little support from the school due to the small number of students,
However, even if they want to do well, the small number of students makes it difficult for them to receive proper guidance.

In fact, the clubs that originally had a small number of members began to decline even further,
In fact, there was a brass band club at another school that had a small number of members in the first place, and in the end it was almost abolished with no members.

Later, after graduating from high school, I met a friend who was from a strong brass band school that competed in national competitions.
He had many opportunities to learn from professionals, and I was surprised at the difference in practice.
A highly motivated small brass band,
It is also a challenge to make sure that the highly motivated small brass band can practice in an even better environment.

This is all about the charm and reality of small brass bands.

The responsibility of each individual is heavy in a small brass band.
It is very difficult to improve only at school.
For those people, we recommend taking online lessons at home.
You can easily take lessons from professional instructors and performers.

It is difficult to keep up with club activities. Want to play solo well. I want to learn the basics. 。。。。
Your problems can be solved with online lessons.

The appeal of the online music lesson "Lesson Grid" is the ease of use of the tools and the abundant instructors.
If you are at all curious, please take a trial lesson♪

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