zbd1960

Yesterday was one of those weird life 'milestones'. It was my 66th birthday, which is not a number you'd in the past have said was 'significant'. That's because of government changes to how pensions work. For the majority of my working life my state pension age was 65, but that changed and I'm one of the few that managed to achieve it at 66, unlike my brother who is two years younger than me and his is not until he's 67. So yes, I am officially an OAP now and to celebrate I went to the library and applied for my bus pass 🙂. That was the only exciting thing that happened yesterday. Birthday cards received: one, from a neighbour. Presents received: one, from same neighbour. Getting old is not much fun. Just as well I try to keep busy with various things.

Well, I've conducted two full rehearsals now and they're not throwing pencils or worse at me yet... I've decided to sign-up to a full-blown conducting summer school at Swansea University in late July.

Yeah, I'm about 600' up here at he house and it's a steep hill down into town, which I think is a drop of about 250' - 300'.

Leg is doing OK. I stopped taking pain killers several weeks ago and stopped wearing the boot two weeks ago. I've walked into town three times in the last ten days and yesterday did that without a walking stick. Main issue is the tendons, ligaments, and soft tissue of the ankle which got mangled. That's still sore and not fully functional. Saw physio for first time today at local cottage hospital in town. They're happy with progress and I'll be put into a weekly gym class for 6 or 8 weeks which is supervised by physios. That's at the hospital as well.

I'll probably get confused and turn up with the wrong instrument... cello, sax, 3 manual organ console....

I took my cello to the luthier today for a check-up. Decided it needed new strings - £275 for a set of Larsons...

Talk about things moving and changing rapidly... I started to learn to play euphonium in October. Initially, the tuition was with the beginners' group with the training band. It is significantly harder work and slower to learn than sax or cello (or bass). My big advantage is I already read music and I'm an experienced musician so I don't have most of the issues that add extra challenges to beginners. I started private lessons as well just before Christmas - had about four now - which helps a lot. I'm now playing with the training band, not the beginners' group - I'm the only one that's been asked to move across (some of that is I've been more consistent in attending...). There are notes I can't play as they're beyond my current range. I either read down an octave, or omit them. A couple of weeks ago, the MD messages me 3 hours before rehearsal and says: can you take the rehearsal tonight and conduct it? I have stood in before in various groups and I did do a conducting component at summer school last year. Then I get asked would I consider taking on the conducting post at another band in the area? So, some long phone calls, a visit from the band leader and a long chat, I go to the band's rehearsal last Wednesday and now it seems I'm the conductor of the band in Appleby... I've spent this week trying to find videos (with correct arrangements) of their current list of pieces - not entirely successfully - and I've been marking up scores. Good job I'd already signed-up to the conducting part of the this year's summer school...

But you can spiel?

I attended the rehearsal this evening of a local (adjacent town) brass band - they've asked me to be their conductor. My main aim this evening was just to listen to them, but I did end up conducting some of the rehearsal. Looks like I start properly next week.... there's a full diary of concerts and gigs.... eek.

I think you had clear requirements and elicited the key information (I've been retired from IT for six years, but it still shows through... 🙂)... Yeah, if I were to play sax in a band, I'd want something more than the odd 8 bars in a few pieces.

I should be able to make it. I'm just waiting to get the gig dates for the brass band I'll be working with (I will write more about that under my "non rock'n'roll bassist" thread

I've put it in the diary. The only potential spanner is I am taking on the conducting role for a band and until next week I don't know what their gig diary looks like. Hopefully not a clash.

My current rehearsals are Tuesday evening (choir), Wednesday afternoon (community choir), Thursday afternoon (tenor sax, jazz group), Friday evening (training brass band, euphonium).

I'll send you a message

Some updates... The switch on Dec 24 to the 'moon boot' / boot splint has made life much easier. A month on from the break and I can get around the house much more easily without using crutches. I've started to leave the boot off first thing in the morning and in the evening (recommended by the consultant). I still use crutches when out and about. This is partly as warning signs to stop people barging into me (people can be utterly oblivious). Second subject was a misbehaving tenor sax. The saxes haven't had much playing since the house move. I got the tenor out last week to go to a new sort of jazz group. It's didn't go well. I had trouble getting the mouthpiece on the neck, which gave tuning issues. The reed wouldn't 'wet', which causes squeaking. I thought it was out of regulation as well as there were all sort of weird harmonics coming out.... The problem seemed to be that the neck cork had become very dry and 'ruffled' when the mpc was put on which broke the cork. I think that was also an issue with the reeds - they'd just got very dry and needed much more wetting than usual. Nearest woodwind/brass tech is 40 miles away near Maryport, so it was a day out to get the neck re-corked. Last night I managed to get to choir in Keswick. It was too risky to go with the ice last week. Messiah this term. I've not done it as a main choir concert piece for quite a few years (probably about 15) but I have sung it many times since then in various workshops and 'come and sing' events. I've probably sung it about 100 times over the last thirty-odd years.