zbd1960

After cello, my main instrument is sax, mostly baritone and tenor. I now live in Penrith but I'm struggling to find any wind bands / sax ensembles / community groups / big bands to play with. The main wind bands in the area are Kendal and on the Furness peninsular. Kendal has no vacancies and Furness peninsular is really too far at around 50 miles away. I've tried the usual web sites (e.g. Amateur Orchestras UK) but nothing comes up. Local U3A groups don't have any and I have asked. So, was wondering if anyone on here might have some ideas? I don't really want to try to set a sax ensemble up from scratch myself if I can avoid it - been there, done that, and I end up administrating/conducting and not playing.

hmmm not a public transport friendly site. Given I live in north Cumbria, I'd prefer to be able to travel by train. I realise cost is the issue, but a shame it's not the NEC as that is a direct train from here.

Thankfully the "festive season" is drawing to a close and what passes for normality will return. This time of year is a tough gig for many people, especially those of us that live alone. Looking forward to my musical activities resuming next week after a 6 week hiatus.

Most musicians do not have salaried positions except the very lucky few and have to teach or do something else as well to make a living...

I'm a very experienced choral singer... but I hadn't sung a note until I was in my mid-30s when I started lessons. Since then I have sung with many choirs and I've sung everything from small choir a cappella singing to large choirs singing in major concert halls with big orchestras - all as an amateur. There is technique to being able to sing without straining the voice and risking injury. Too many singers that I've heard singing with bands are just doing 'tuned shouting' and that is a recipe for tiring the voice very quickly and long-term serious problems... Or they sing with a vile very wide throbbing vibrato, partly to disguise that they can't sing in tune. You need to find someone who has trained formally as a singer and preferably holds a singing/vocal training qualification (I'll try to look up what that is - I can't remember). The latter is important to deal with detailed vocal technique issues. My first teacher was a counter tenor who was trained at RNCM, performed as a soloist, and ran a county music service. He got me going and taught me the essentials needed to sing and perform in concerts. After some years of singing I became aware that I had a lot of power at the top of my range singing as a baritone (i.e. around and above middle C), but lacked much power at the bottom of the bass clef. Working with a vocal coach we discovered that my voice had changed and I was really a tenor rather than a baritone and that meant working on detailed technique with a suitable tutor. In case you're wondering - men's voices don't fully 'settle' until mid-30s. Lessons will help with things like breathing, control, sound production, tone, projection, rhythm, pitch... One of the important things is lessons will help to protect and preserve the voice. A full performance of Handel's Messiah is a BIG sing as a chorus member and it is very demanding. With proper training you can survive the on-the-day rehearsal and concert and still have a voice left.

I've had an entirely abstemious 2024 to compensate for the spends in 2023, 2022... I have a major purchase lined up for 2025, whilst it's music related it's not bass related...

At the moment, I have a weekend away in Brighton pencilled in that weekend... however, it might get canned if another trip comes to pass, in which case I'd be free... It will be a while before I know for certain.

You missed whilst digging more holes in Joke Oak Island...

Like all the meaningless anti-money laundering legislation. All that does is make things likesorting out a relative's estate, or buying a house or a car, an expensive pain in the butt and does absolutely nothing about real money laundering e.g. large parts of London's property market. It's being seen to 'do' something whilst not doing anything at all of any meaningful use.

Busy day today. I had my organ practice slot in one of the local churches this morning - trying to get my head around some Bach. Then it was the final rehearsal with the new community choir - we're singing some stuff at the weekend. Then I had my organ lesson.

I'm a very strong advocate of people joining a community orchestra/band as soon as they start playing. I did that with cello when I started in 2011 and also sax about little later.

@StingRayBoy42 have to approve the top hat, goggles etc... I hav ebeen known to be similarly attired...Although the solstice is the shortest day, the earliest sunrise is about a week before that because sunrises continue to get later until the first week of January or so. I encountered something along your lines at Lincoln some years ago....

There is technique to singing well with good tone and without strain. For most people, some or all of that has to be taught. Most untrained singers used 'tuned shouting' which tires the voice and can cause problems long term.

You have to be careful buying older saxophones and check to see if they are stamped LP or HP. Not an issue if you play on your own, but a big problem if you want to play with other people.

I am I suppose what you would call a classically trained singer. I'd never sing until my 30s and started to have singing lessons. I'm a baritone, although I probably should sing tenor). I don't do solo, but I have sung a huge range of the classical repertoire in hundreds of concerts over the last 30+ years. So what happens when I hear your archetypal Karaoke singer? A great deal of wincing. A lot of the classic American songbook stuff (Gershwin, Cole Porter etc) and the 'crooner' repertoire (Bing, Sinatra etc) was written for competent singers with at least a two octave range. Most (not all) untrained singers cannot cover that range. Which is why it often either varies wildly in pitch or it sounds as if the local feline population is being systematically strangled.... People 'think' that singing is easy. For most people, to sing musically, in tune, in rhythm, and conveying the words and sentiment is hard work.

Same here. My last company car was a BMW and I think I confused a lot of other road users.... To avoid confusing other road users, I drive a Skoda since I retired

Quite an old video of his... he can't keep a straight face after a short way in and calls 432Hz out for the nonsense it is. As he says later, pitch standards are essentially arbitrary and A=440Hz was sort of settled on in mid-C20th. As I said in my other post, when I play my viol with other period instruments, we tune to A=415 which is a lot less strain on gut strings.

Historically, tuning was 'local'. Tuning for singers would be whatever the church organ was. Whatever the local music teacher's tuning fork said etc. Pitch standardisation became more of a necessity once musicians are travelling and people from different areas have to play together.

Most songs in the classical repertoire, when you order the music you usually have a choice of high/medium/low voice. This means there are three editions in three keys to accommodate different voice types. So sopranos and tenors would opt for 'high' and altos and basses for 'low'. Some have the 'medium' option which can be useful if you're a baritone/second tenor/mezzo

Last night's gig in Carlisle included the Carol Symphony by Hely-Hutchinson which gets a fair amount of airtime usually on Classic FM at this time of year. The cello part is pretty tricky in some places with very complex rhythms. You can get an idea from this rolling score version on YT The last movement is a challenge to not get lost!

Tuning and temperaments are a very substantial set of rabbit holes you can fall into.... The history of tuning is complex... Ignoring a pile of history and complexity, essentially A=440Hz was 'settled' as a standard in the early to mid-C20th. If you look at the history of it, it has varied significantly - even from one town to another - from A=380 to A=460 and no doubt more besides. The idea that A=432Hz has some sort of universal harmonic resonance that harmonises with your crystals and chakras... is a heap of steaming ordure. The 'historically informed performance' movement has 'settled' on A=415Hz which is about a semi-tone down from concert A. This helps a lot with gut strings as the tension is a bit lower. It also makes singing the high notes a bit easier since as a bass those top F#s in Handel and Bach are down to being Fs. Whenever I've sung baroque repertoire with a period instrument orchestra it's always at A=415. I play the viol (viola da gamba) and that has gut strings. If I'm playing with say recorders which are A440 then I ahve to tune the viol up to that and it's always a worry about the possibility of strings snapping - which does happen. It's a serious issue with the higher stirngs as they tend to be plain gut, the lower strings are usually twisted gut which are stronger and the lowest strings may be wire wound as well (viols have a common ancestry with guitars and mostly have 6 strings)

Orchestra gig tonight in Carlisle with the cello. A première of a new work, Holst's Perfect Fool ballet suite then the Lieutenant Kijé suite by Prokofiev and the Carol Symphony by Hely-Hutchinson. Decent audience around 200. Survived despite the H-H being very tricky....

You all need to learn to play the theorbo.... no frets on the diapason strings.... lots on the others....

I agree - it's going to be similar to cello bows. Go to a string dealer/shop/luthier and try some out - including secondhand ones. Avoid Amazon, E-bay etc. Get a wooden one, do not get fibreglass type ones as they're awful. Also avoid the dirt cheap carbon fibre ones as they're also usually rubbish. Decent carbon fibre are the same price as equivalent wooden bows. My spare cello bow was £80 from the local luthier and is secondhand. Perfectly serviceable. Only used when main bow which cost £450 is in for a re-hair.

Hi, welcome.