Dr Robert Childs - brass band masterclass - LIVE!

Moments after the Open D Grade section wrapped at the 2018 NSW Band Championships, Brassbanned’s cameras stayed rolling for something special: Dr Robert Childs — one of the banding world’s most decorated conductors and euphonium players — taking a band through a live on-stage masterclass.

This is rare, practical gold for anyone who plays in, conducts, or simply loves brass bands: how to prepare a band to deliver its very best performance when it matters, with a live Q&A from players in the hall and viewers on the stream.

In this masterclass

• How to structure rehearsals in the lead-up to a contest
• Drawing a band’s best playing out on stage, not just in the band room
• Live Q&A with players and the streaming audience

Transcript

Auto-generated from the live stream — expect the occasional robot mishearing.

ok ladies and gentlemen this is what’s going on we are live we’ve just concluded the end of the open D great section here at the New South Wales band championships and how do Decatur dr. Bob childs it’s down and say he’s gonna say a few comments he’s gonna do a bit of a workshop with the band on stage and this is your chance or if you’re watching rudder in the world to ask any questions that you might have about anything at all and they’ll be selected questions will be passed on to dr.

Charles you might have some good answers for us as well see how this goes my name’s Tim from brass band but you’ve enjoyed the coverage for joining us on Facebook the Facebook quality isn’t quite as good as the quality you’ll see on brass band comm but it’s still pretty good you can type your questions into the Facebook comment chat or on the live chat on brass band icon and we’ll get the questions have already had a stack of nice questions so we’ll see what happens let us know what you think here we go everybody nice to see you all and yeah it’s been a wonderful days listening actually yesterday and today yesterday I think I started at 10 and then we had the champion champion so we finished about 8 o’clock and today started slightly earlier at 8:00 8:30 and here we are roughing up about 6 o’clock so a man can’t ask for any more than that so much music in two days and it’s been been really good fun I’ve listened to have enjoyed listening to all the different age groups especially it enjoyed listening to the young children this morning that was quite quite quite a thrill but those results are out we’ve been listening to the B to the C and D grid today and I’m just going to make a few comments on on the on that playing really in the C grade the test piece plays winners music for festival and Oregon were really good choices in actual fact the choices that we made their own choices were also good good in as much as there was three pieces of contrasting styles and contrast in length I thought the conductors did a really good job of just thinking about the programs thinking about their bands there was the the perennial should I say the perennial problems of intonation balance balance between the percussion and the band clarity in the percussion the percussion was always quite loud but not always clear and I think we can maybe in the workshop just show some of that and what we can do to clear those things up and then some of the higher order skills of vibrato legato playing phrasing made all the things that that that are up there beyond just playing the notes the dynamics and the right tempos it’s said very often that because something is easy to assess it doesn’t mean that it’s important and what that refers to is because it would be easy for me to sit up there and and and judge the band that plays the softest or the band that plays the loudest or where the composer says crotchety 168 plus which leaves the tempo to the to the conductors and so it could be I could choose the fastest band or I could choose the band that played the slowest in the sacred item I could maybe choose the thesaurus that played the highest or the tuba that was very clear in the pedals plays a play low but of course just because something is easy to assess doesn’t mean to say that it’s important and some of the things that are important and the most difficult to assess it’s one of those things whereby you sort of know when you’re in the presence of something good in a sacred number for instance if you get a tingle up your arm and the baqia neck that x-factor we’re not too sure how to achieve it but we know when it’s there and once or twice today I’ve had that feeling with with a few buns and it’s usually because it’s perfectly in tune and there’s lovely phrasing the vibrato ‘z are well matched and there’s good balance not just balance within the bands I’ve done me like a balance between just the core it’s the horns the trombones and the tubers but a good balance within their sections so that when I’m listening for the third corners I can hear the third chord as well as the soprano I can hear the second on as well as the flugelhorn I can hear the b-flat tuba as well as the forum or sometimes is the first tuba in in a band so that that’s what I’ve been listening to I’m sure that you love your own opinions based on whether your children or your family play in the band as to who the winners are you might have you might have made your opinions based on yep the speed that the band plays it because that makes it really exciting or sometimes how slow they play but the fact is that I’ve got all the scores so I can see what tempos should be played and I can see what dynamics should be played and so I’ve got the criteria right in front of me because people talk about a criteria in adjudication there’s somebody somebody’s come up with an idea of let’s let’s have ten marks for sound let’s have ten marks for temple ten marks for intonation ten marks for the best soloist and put all that together and you should get a good result of course that isn’t what happens in reality is it because the first thing that strikes any listener with anything to do with music whether you’re singing whether you’re a soloist whether you’re a band where the stringed instrument a woodwind instrument a brass instrument or a percussion instrument it’s the son the quality of the sound that that person or that band of that section makes if you don’t make a fundamental sound if you don’t good sound nobody wants to listen to you and so sometimes we forget that you know in our quest to play fast and loud we lose the quality and certainly when you play loud you can lose your intonation you could lose your ears you could you’re playing loud all you can hear is yourself and sometimes a competition also I don’t know if you’ve ever if you’ve ever experienced this when you sit in an in a contest in a band and you are so nervous the only concentrating on is your own part and he come offstage and one of your pals says to you oh that was pretty good there was a little mistake in the middle movement wasn’t it did he hear that and they say no I didn’t hear anything I was just concentrating on my own part well then that that means you’re probably concentrating a bit too much because playing in a band band is plural for player when you play in a band you are in a band of men a band of men and women and you need to listen to what they’re doing it’s quite nice to watch the conductor from time to time but my own experience is that not many players do that very often it’s much more important to listen listen to your fellow players so if you’re concentrating so much that you can’t listen to anything but yourself or you playing so loud that you can’t anything else but yourself or you could be sitting right in front of the percussion and you can’t hear anything else but then there’s lots of reasons why I get it I understand I’ve been in bands all my life and I’ve played in the fourth section in it what you call DS degrade and I’ve played in the championship in the a great as well and I’ve conducted in all four as well and it’s been difficult and I understand that you don’t always get all full rehearsals you some bands I mean even got a full band there was one band here today didn’t play with any percussion and I can fully understand the situation we’re in and actually I applaud them for coming to the contest without the percussion at least they still came they still experience what you experience but I know how difficult it is run in a band and how difficult it is to get people to to rehearsals and so I’d like to congratulate all the individual plays that took part over over the whole of this festival I’d like to congratulate the conductor’s I’d like to thank the organizers especially Jeff and it’s and his wonderful team here from New South Wales I’d like to thank Adam love from Besson they’ve paid for me to fly over here and do this competition without sponsors like Besson we our movement wouldn’t exist and without the team of volunteers that’s been helping Jeff with his administration you know it’s exactly the same everywhere I go recently I’ve been to Norway Canada Japan and now I’m here an experienced brass band in just like this and it’s the same in the UK without volunteers we wouldn’t be anywhere so let’s bow our hands together please to thank all those people first [Applause] what we thought was what we thought we’d do is listen to yesterday what we did anyway we listened to at the test piece and then I drew up a list of things that were generally not wrong but could have been improved if you like with the test piece and then we work with the band and went through it and what I’d like to try and do this afternoon if it’s okay with you one of the one of the test pieces in the C grid was Philip sparks prize winners and there was common problems in there as I’ve already mentioned details like accents de carros tenuto x’ phrasing dynamics intonation they’re all there they’re all there to be they’re all challenges to be to be conquered ugly and they’re the sort of things that you know you can actually get them right in the band room and all of a sudden you come to a contest and this book all gone out the window so that is just live music if you were if you were playing concerts every single weekend playing in public would become second nature but for a lot of us we only play once every three months once every six months in public and so that becomes quite a nervous experience first and I’d like to just maybe before before we do anything else maybe help one or two people with with the stress that that goes under the thing is it’s the fear of the unknown that that that really scares us and and when you are sitting there like I did on Soul via phone iam with black dyke band and you walk onto the Royal Albert Hall stage and you go through this little tunnel to get onto the stage all you can see is the Queen’s is the Queen’s box on the tier and and all you can see is about five people there and as you walk through the tunnel it gradually opens out until you’ve stood on stage and there’s 5,000 people watching you and then you sit down and you’ve got to start playing and all of a sudden you realize that you’re sweating and you realize that you heart pounding and you realize that your palms of your hands are wet and you need a wobbling and there’s this person in your head they’re saying ha ha ha now player best you got a trained silence that diamond on the on that side of your head now on this side of me I’m lucky I ever got my wife and my mother they think I can do anything okay so they so they the ones they’re the ones that say to say you can do anything Robert don’t worry about that guy on this side of you mind just play but it’s not as easy as that so what I do is I straight to simulate the conditions I teach at they’re all Welsh College of Music in Cardiff and in the fourth year of of the degree course these poor old students have got to do a recital and that recital will determine whether they pass their degree or not they’ve already paid nine thousand pounds per year in fees and then probably another nine thousand pounds in accommodation and beer and so they’re in debt to the tune of about sixty thousand pounds and they’ve got to play a recital to get through their degree so I talked to him but exactly what I’m gonna talk to you about now I try and get them to simulate the conditions so I get them to walk up and down the stairs a few times to get their heart beating really fast and then when they go on stage and their heart’s beating fast and the demon says your heart beating fast you’re gonna mess it up you can say no no no you can your mother or your wife on this side don’t worry about it you’ve practiced it that way you’ve walked up and down the stairs where you’re out being fast it’s no problem and of course it isn’t it might you might have to just move your breath marks a little bit your breathing gets a bit smaller but you still get through it and yeah but yeah but then this guy says yeah but what about all the sweat running down your fears and your most pieces sliding all over the place ice finally I put some Vaseline on my lips and I practice with a sliding lip there’s no problem you got to try an answer and so the questions because the question you can’t answer is if you can’t play it in the first place if you can’t play the music then you just go do some practice but I might I remember being really worried about a Topsy that was in a solo and I just wrote it out that or nya made it a top d and so again when this guy saying the top C is coming you’re gonna mess it up I can see it’s not a problem I’ve played the top D or if you running out of breath practice it slower then the conductor wants it so that when you feel you’re running out of breath you know that you can do extend because you’ve practiced that way so all I would say to you just just have a little think try and simulate the kindy ever think what made you nervous today and then try and simulate those conditions put them into your practice and you’ll be surprised instead of the the negative person talking to you you’ll have a positive one I’ve given you all the answers so I’m gonna work with this band now for a few minutes just working through some of the common problems that we found in in prize winners and I think Tim where’s Tim that is have you got have you got some questions from around Australia that you want to ask around the world it’s not my brother’s been asking questions is it if the trouble is with me and my old family plays I’m one of four children I’m me falling play my brother was a falling player my sister was a trumpet player my other sisters a tenor employer my two sisters are married to instrumentalists and have now spawn children who were also instrumentalists my brother is married to attend Rome player and their daughter plays baritone I’m married to a flugelhorn player my son and daughter both play in fact one one time we appeared on BBC television as a family with my dad conducting us that was quite good fun so if you cover on to my house for dinner and anybody’s welcome by the way if you find yourself in a fence off in the UK actually not just the UK this is New South Wales I live in the old South Wales I live in Cardiff the kaepa till of wales and i live in south wales where the coal fields work but there’s still a lot of tradition and all that sort of stuff as well so yeah if you come to my house for dinner then there’s only one thing we’re going to be talking about and that’s brass bands so you’re welcome to come anytime I’m going to just do a little bit work with a band now and I should have a question first him as anybody here nevermind people on the internet so anybody here got a question no didn’t think so the key ingredient to a successful band rehearsal and full rehearsals and one conductor not 25 everybody in a band things thinking they know better than the conductor the conductor pick up a civility whoever plays very good you know I mean the conductor will tell the bass player these dragon and the bass player will shout back notice the trombones rushing so I think we should the realistic was secret to a successful band is for everybody to know their jobs for the place to know that their job is to play for the conductor to conduct and do whatever else he needs to do and the other kick the other job for the players is to turn up for rehearsals prepared to play and I think in a competition it’s a nice little thought for all the players every single player to think for the band to win the competition they need to win their own personal competition so that means that if you want to win you have to be the best principal corner player on the day you have to be the best second barrel player on the day you have to be the best second B flat bass player on the day if everybody wins their own contest then that band will win win it and the thing is you don’t want some some really loud bass trombone player ripping it out in a in a piece giving like 50% of the band sound there’s 25 players in a band if they all give 4% that adds up to 100% and that’s plenty you don’t need anybody trying to win the war with trying to save the day principle corner players trying to save the day giving 10% just if everybody practices and gives 4% each the band will deliver 100% performance answer good ok next one what’s my favorite test boosts well it’s probably the one that I’m working on at the time because you know a conductor gets really engrossed in the piece that the plane to give you an example if I get a brand-new piece of music the first thing I do is just look look through it and then and then I’ll because like you know like a brass band piece any one of these players can look at this piece call the prizewinners and look at it on two pages and they can see the whole piece the conductor’s score is sometimes 75 pages long so what I’ll do is I’ll make a graphic score of that score on one sheet of paper so I’ll draw all the bars across the top maybe there’s 300 bars I’ll from with my ruler one two three hundred and then I’ll do some dividing lines and I’ll put where the different sections of the piece are and then I’ll write in those sections what’s difficult about it euphonium so low technical time signatures and then at the bottom I’ll draw penis and more piano metro piano and then I’ll just draw a graph that goes through so I can see where the loudest bit is in the piece and then I’ll look at the piece of paper and I can see the whole piece on this graphic then this graphic score so I can see I’m in the early stages I’ll take that piece of paper to band practice so that I can say let’s go from that difficult bit at letter K so I’m not fumbling through the score trying to find it I’m trying to make the rehearsal real really efficient if you like and then and then I’ll get this then I get the score again I’ll photocopy blow it up make it a bit bigger and play through everybody’s parts on the on my iPhone IAM and see where the difficulty is see where the fingering could be changed a little bit where it maybe help the players and then I’ll go through then I go over everybody’s dynamic and everybody’s a crescendo diminuendo with a red pen and as I’m discovering things like for instance the ax for him is marked metaphor T but the rest of the band is marked Mets a piano I’ll write that in pencil across the top of the score now this takes about five days to do and then I’ll when I go to the rehearsal I’m totally prepared for the rehearsal what you’ll find bit has been being a conductor if you’re successful is that you’ve got to put in at least two or three hours practice to prepare a rehearsal and then at the end of the rehearsal I’ll record the band running it through and between that rehearsal and the next one I listen to it lots of times I’ll do what cause a specific listening but that means I’ll just listen to it just for the cornet section and make some little notes and listen to it just the percussion just concentrate on the percussion I listen to it just to see if I’ve got the temples right I look I listen to it just dynamically so I might listen through these 10 times but I’m not like listening to it like we normally listen to a piece like just for fun I’m specifically listening to areas that I want to try and improve because to win a competition it’s all about marginal gain if you can just make a 1-point difference there and another one point difference there another one point difference there they all mount up and at the end you’ve got a big game on it on the other bands and the other thing I like to do is to think in my mind that we starting off with no points zero points and for everything positive and for everything proactive that I do every little crescendo that I have into it or any little detail I find I get an extra point so that means that when I get to the contest it might be I got a hundred and 20 out of 100 whereas somebody that starts off with a hundred and they try and protect that hundred so they play a little bit louder that marked they just want to they don’t wanna make any ugly mistakes so they’re protecting it invariably there will be some mistakes so invariably they always get less than 100 but it’ll be positive than to be negative I think what was the question oh yeah that what I’m working on that’s what I mean so I’m totally engrossed in the piece at the moment called handle in the band but no I probably probably a Phillip Willoughby’s revelation is probably my favorite piece I like that one yeah a lot I like prize winners as well any more questions we my favorite or an audience were probably when my son played in the BBC young musician of the year and he won the brass final I was televised and I was the proudest dad in a place yeah that one he played Annie played there will be your fallen conservative with in it with a professional Symphony Orchestra that was that was good in fact when it as a listener probably listening to my family plane it’s what I like doing mostly there was a time when my son used to start playing that I’d get nervous for him but he’s got so good now that I don’t even get nervous I’ll just enjoy it that’s it so they once a couple of bits in in priceless detail detail is something that the Judith a different spot straightaway and so if you can find some detail in the piece [Music] pretty good play the piece but conductors job trying find extra things now the timpani has two notes before the rest of the band did you don’t do you don’t we didn’t because they’re probably playing it on the beat and that’s that that’s a decision that’s the decision that the conductor can make but for me I want to do something different that I want to do just something different just for the sake of doing something different I want to do something different that the adjudicator looks down says oh yeah I’ve never seen that I didn’t see that before so [Music] so I’m bringing I I can’t ask him to do more on the accent they’re already doing a lot but I can ask him to take off the first note they play so now we’re going to go dig it down this two points already we’ve got marginal game in the first bar and I’ve already got two points more than the other band so let’s say ten horns just we just completely take a rest on the fourth beat we just leave it to the troubles we cheated we’re still in the first bar of the piece now if you went through like I do with a red pen over everybody’s paper you’d find details everywhere like that and of course abandoned individually they all thought they were already doing that but it takes a conductor to save you I know you’re doing you’re thinking it you’re doing it a little bit but it’s to get out of your head to go into your mouthpiece to go around the tubes [Music] the Dementors the accents they’re not just doing the accidents I asked them now they’re doing accents I’ve simulated have stimulated their independent thought all the suddenly think oh well if we do we can do that on the accent we might as well do the other actions as well - buzz piano - bass forty Jonathan played two bars P miscible at two bars fortissimo so that we definitely hear it up there [Music] there’s no dynamics you can hear the difference in the dynamics Carly but there’s also things in there which accents and there’s some two new toes bah bah bah bah so just what’s the difference between an accident a tenuto its conclusion so we’re doing both the same dynamics [Music] we’re just having a bit of fun review were playing with the music that’s one of the things I mentioned yesterday you got to get them you got to get the notes in the right place to the right dynamic they got to be the right notes clearly they’ve got to be at the right temple there’s got to be perfect just like a Sibelius playback you know any when you write music on a computer you press P it comes back it’s perfect but it’s the most emotionless sort of boring music you haven’t got so once you’ve got the music perfect then you can start playing with it instead of just playing it you can play with it and that’s what we’re doing now but just having a bit of fun with it make characterizing the music I don’t know what you think when you it could be anything I mean these young children and they’ve probably got better imaginations than anybody else but it’s like it’s like something creeping through the woods [Music] nobody’s too old to tell a story you could you could put that deep or a story to this music philip Sparks movie is great you could put a film to it and it would work you just go up some imagination and that’s what what once you’ve got the music in the right place you need some imagination to to make the music come alive that’s what it’s all about so dynamics help that an awful lot talk about something boring like intonation because that is a word I’ve used with just about every single battle over the two days intonation and this a few intonation problems here as well because some instruments are more prone to poor internation than others a corner is pretty good at corner it’s pretty well researched and developed the reason for that is that the instrument manufacturers sell hundreds of em the flugel one isn’t a great instrument in terms of intonation it’s one of the most difficult was to play in tune and that’s because there’s only one in a brass band and they don’t sell many so they don’t invest an awful lot of time getting them to play in tune so that means that the players have to work hard to player to friend Sean’s are much better in tune than a tenor Hall because worldwide they sold much more often and they sold in a much bigger profit so you know when you think of it that way sometimes the tubers they have a difficult job to play those instruments in tune the only good thing about the tuber is well as the euphonium asked to play five octaves all they have to play is one octave they’ve only got to get one octave in tune and and this usually there but you got to think about intonation it’s quite useful for to get a tuning machine and to get a friend to just have a tuning machine and mark down the weather the notes are generally flat or sharp or in tune and they give you that piece of paper back and you’d be shocked at what you see but then you can start listening and trying to put it right it might mean you’ve got a pinch up on one dot make me go flatten off for another trombones I’ve got it easier it’s absolutely not excuse where a trombone player should play a tune it’s got seven boys cut the everyone and won’t play this is before litter our one two three four five six seven bars seven bars before letter L [Music] what does mooch do what a mooch do to your instrument in terms of pitch anybody know what do you think they make it sound different if they do and sometimes they make it sound softer as well but much do something to the intonation anybody I’m sure you some of you know it makes it makes it sharp generally it makes a shot but some moods can make it flat as well a captain has the tendency to make it means from the flat a straight move will make you go through shot and if you if you if you learned that then you’ll become a better player because you can sit there you ask questions with the least be aware [Music] we’ve got through that without without anybody in the audience going I said I’ve been sitting in there all day listening to that bit and there’s been some excruciating intonation at that point because all sometimes players do they don’t think there’s a sticker mounting sticking on the face and blow something they don’t even actually if you just listened to the tune and you were able to sing [Music] all because you define their what won’t to sing that [Music] one two [Music] so you’re actually thinking of the pitch snow we can all sing not of it not many of us have songs in the bathroom [Music] so a man and women pull any slides of we when pushed or pulled any slides we’ve just said let’s listen to it unless you initiate a minute unless the conductor says reminds players sometimes they forget and then all they want to do is come to band and actually finish band we go to the problem oh you know just blow loud or play fast and this is this can be quite boring for players just playing slow music like this until you ask him to do things why not ask the place to sing the parts bit of fun it breaks the boredom of the rehearsal and it also first of all first of all I want to listen to what’s going on and tell me what’s what’s who disease got us all [Music] the Tim did here the Tim just listen to the Tim but cussedness don’t like being told what to do okay because we’re all brass players and they are X then X percussionist we know nothing about percussion so the last thing I would do is suggest that he plays with harder sticks because you’d be offended by that but it makes it him I can’t I need more clarity I need the sound even brighter and then you go and pick up some hardest things or remove the sticks to the side of the jump [Music] and all I got in there was like underwater Tim’s I used to have a to play at Corey his name is Alan organ I was still streaming this I need is to purposely use sponge stick so as I couldn’t hear him I look you look great if we pull it over his face but you could know what it means that now that we got a plate crisp like this he’s gonna practice that because the rhythm actually is dead together get them together get the duck together getting a neck they get together get together it’s tricky it is very tricky but whatever he is is those sponge sticks you get away with murder now he thinks that that’s a lot he seriously thinks that that’s a lot clearer but to me and especially if you went up there Ronnie’s done is moved to the edge of the edge of the drum that’s his solution my solution is I want are the sticks but I’m still not going to turn to do that [Music] but from an adjudicative view that’s right when we do you know why because that’s what the compose is written it’s got soul or Tim don’t do it up together get up dumpty and all over but all the rest of underway about is back but back back back and there’s quite a few that played souls in those gaps in the middle from 1 for nine which is the people before the plane query we should be data that that that that death and what I mean especially both of the ones that came along off the beat they got that yet what got that and that that that that they come in the right place but they play the quavers too fast so the coumarine right but the plane that gray was too fast because they panic in the panic in it but I am somebody panicking they’re panicking because they’re gonna count and then play and they breathe in a bit late sometimes so when you count one two three debt that you want to go one duck top breathes when he count him if you leave your breathing too late then you’re gonna snatch your breath and you’re gonna be late coming in and then you’re gonna play too fast to catch up so let’s try again just bring me everybody on a on a concert b-flat [Music] we do one group with that with that trying to get and this is the composer said in his wisdom the composer said crotchety goes 168 that’s fast in it this is 168 beats per minute the sixty the sixty seconds in in in in a minute so that’s more than twice it’s almost it’s almost three and and not only that but he says 168 crotches and then brackets he’s got plus so that is that is for the conductors it’s just a crazy thing because then they’re all of a sudden the old thing they conduct in black tape mills band and then they can play at like 200 well it says 68 plus but you can’t hear anything you can’t get any detail at all so all I would say is play the temple that lets the music speak especially this is a quick reverberant hall on this stage from listening up there anyway so just because it says 168 plus doesn’t mean to say that you’re gonna drive your Fiat Ferrari at 200 miles an hour but I just play this [Music] we’re having a great time they love it when you’re faster though that’s what they were born to do but I’m up there I’m up there and I’m going because you can’t hear the detail hundred and fifty and then you don’t need to speed [Music] and they’re not playing so loud and it’s difficult to play fast and loud it is one of the difficult things to do so taking one of those off making it a bit slower I’m actually asked him to play a bit softer as well you’ve got two things there’s a double whammy you get the advantage of ball so you just have to think because I know I know and I’m not being I’m not being a big head in any way at all but I know that I could have improved a lot of these bands and I think the conductors could have the thing is I don’t know the journey that these that these bands have come through if they’ve started from work down there and they’ve got to where they are they conducted in a fantastic job only if I’m just saying you could go the extra mile and certainly when you when you’re lucky enough to conduct what are the best bangs in the world you know technically speaking they can play like people the principal quarter player Corrib and the principal corner player of black guy band you could feed 100 you could be 200 miles an hour the orbit and they were playing so there’s no restrictions for some conductors the restriction is what did the composer want what does the room allow you to do they have the restriction because if it doesn’t speak then you’re just having a great time I’m not like fulfilling what the composer intended so we could go through this but don’t forget what it’s a marginal game if I’ve got 20 of these places in a piece that’s 20 points that I’ve lifted the ban only that there are little things I want to make do I know it’s cruel but I might if there’s a slow horn cadenza or slow hold solo for instance and I’ve got somebody on so on who is in the autumn of their playing career who’s really good at some things and especially the technical things but they might have one of these young whippersnappers here on first on that maybe makes a more pure sound that more of a choir boy or girls sound then I’m quite happy to have a word with the older person and just say would you mind letting young Johnny or young Alice have a go at this piece because I think they’ll make a better job of it so I don’t mind swapping things wrong because the old purpose to come into a contest is to win you could go to a contest you’ve got a concert and enjoy yourself you have a great time in the band room but if you if you go to a contest with a band you want to play to the the band not the individuals you want to play to the band’s full potential and that might mean I feel awkward conversations for the conductor and something like this don’t go down that road because they want to be everybody’s friend I’m not too bothered about being everybody’s friend I just try and do my job and try and keep a really good discipline in the band and not particularly a religious guy but I very often say to a new band I want the band room to be like a church I don’t want any swearing I don’t want it to if somebody makes a mistake I don’t want you a lot to laugh at him or her cuz that’s not conducive to having a good rehearsal I don’t know anybody swirling don’t anybody belching I don’t anybody fountain well none of that rubbish which some people find very very funny but it’s like a school classroom once you once you’ve got rid of the bully actually everybody likes everybody likes the work in the environment that you’ve created and so that’s what I do with the band’s just bite through in a really good working environment being strong demanding that players come to rehearsal my father if you think I’m tough my dad was worse it was a soprano player in his band once and he said I’m sorry John I can’t come to rehearsal on subtle then get married my dad said what time is the wedding and they both tuned up the rehearsal because we gotcha yeah that gives you an insight into what I do anyway hope you enjoy just a couple more questions and then we’ll call it a day well I’m not so fantastic when Z by time the best one I mean my wife is there she knows exactly what I’m gonna say yeah just you know it we’re not telling lies what does it involve a ball yes so my soprano player said his wife wound up actually said Steve won’t be able to come to band tonight and we still a live stream it’s true story so for soprano player said to me who will now be Philip his wife said to me I my husband can’t come to band tonight he’s been hit by a wrecking ball in the demolition yard you know those massive big steel balls that not houses don’t she said yeah it was worse than that she’s irritated when it went that was she and he managed to get back up and he got him again this way this was like on the Monday night witches but don’t worry you were there on Thursday that’s gotta be the [Applause] ladies and gentleman hope you enjoyed that impromptu little workshop Q&A with Bob child’s hopefully you had a chance to get your questions answered we did what we could were there we’re about to go into the results for the open sea and I’ve been degrade we’re gonna leave this live stream running if you’re watching on Facebook hi the quality a little bit better on brass band comm if you’ve been watching all day you’re an all weekend on brass band then great to have your company reminder we’re live again in a fortnight with it has many invention ships then a fortnight after that with the Queensland ban Championships so we’ll just keep on rolling through to the results if you want to rewind and re-watch that workshop that’s available on brass band comm and I’ll have a chat with the band and with dr.

childs and see if it’s okay to keep that recording up and if it is we definitely will but it’ll be completely up to him and the band if they’re happy with that or not so stand by and we should have some results very soon thanks for watching