Episode 3: Fenella O'Sullivan

Welcome to another episode of Brassbannedcast! This episode features passionate trombone player and conductor of Wodonga Brass, Fenella. We discuss current events, reflect on the week past and ask Fenella questions from the now famous BRASSBANDCAST QUESTIONIARE!

Want to know which song we will sing for our outro?? You'll have to listen to the entire show to find out!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome loyal listeners, loyal viewers, whoever you are watching,
listening on the internet, internet people of all descriptions.
It's great to have you here on the Brass Bandcast podcast, a podcast about life,
love, music, band and food. It's great to have your company.
Today we're joined by Fenella and we have Robin here as well.

(00:22):
Hi Robin. Hi Fenella. Yeah, I'm always here. I'm the co-host.
I'm not, so it's nice to be here.
Hi Fenella. It's nice to have you here. Hi, Robyn. Hi.
So for people who might not know you, Fenella, could we get a little bit of
like an abridged biography?
Are you skipping the sections, Tim?
Tim, you forgot the sections, the structure. Oh, you can do a brief introduction.

(00:45):
Fine, we'll break the structure. Okay, hi, I'm Fenella.
I conduct Wodonga Brass. I have been there for the last five years.
Before that, I lived in Melbourne, played in bands, did my thing down there,
loved community banding,
loved it lots as a kid probably didn't love it for about four
or five years in the middle and then once I came back I came back
harder than ever and it's biggest best

(01:08):
thing yeah yeah pretty pumped to be here because I
think I love it as much as you guys and that's a lot so that's a lot what and
what's your instrument Fenella for people who don't know I mean my instrument
is trombone but depending on how you've known me if you have known me in the
brass banding world you might might
see me more as a tubist because I very strongly did both for a long time.

(01:30):
But when I had to make a choice at uni, I did pick the trombone and it tends
to be the one I come back to. But I do love the tuba. It's very hard.
They're both great. It's tough. They're both great, aren't they?
So, Fenella, do you have any reflections on the week just gone by,
any musical reflections?
Well, I mean, musical reflections. Actually, I had a really fun time musically
last week because I was on a cruise ship and you might think,

(01:51):
well, what are you doing on a cruise ship?
Well, I entered the Voice of the Ocean, which is like a singing contest on the boat. Really?
Yeah, so it was like karaoke to start with and the audience votes for like the
top six people, which I got picked in. Are you picking Little Mermaid? Little Mermaid?
No, I sang Beatles, a bit of Let It Be. And so I got through the finale,
which meant I got to sing with the house band on the boat on the main stage.

(02:15):
Main stage? Yeah, judges in the turning chairs and everything.
It was pretty cool, actually. I mean, most people might not consider going to
rehearsals a fun part of their holiday, but I did, to be honest.
It was pretty cool. That's so cool. I came second in a yodeling contest at the Hofbrauhaus.
That was fun. That's very impressive. In the past week. In the past week?

(02:35):
No, no, that was like last year. Sorry. What have you done in the past week, Tim? Yeah.
You're somewhere weird, aren't you? We're all on Zoom.
Yeah, I'm in Batemans Bay because I'm getting ready to stream the Paralympic
qualifiers for an equestrian competition tomorrow, if anyone's interested in questioning stuff.
But musically, in the last week, we had a low-end sectional at the Footscray Avril City Band.

(02:58):
I got picked on for not being able to play my notes right and stuff,
and it was a good time. Brutal. Yeah, it was. Picked on.
Well, we had a storm. Did anyone else have the storm in Victoria?
Yes. It was a big storm, and, yeah, I had no power for 24 hours,
and I had to drive to band rehearsal, and there were no traffic lights on.
That was a bit stressful. Yeah, right.
We were at band when the – yeah, at rehearsal when the storm hit,

(03:21):
and as many of you are probably in band halls, so their structural integrity
can be questionable at times.
I have never really had to think
about as a conductor what do I do if the roof comes off the band tool.
But the other night I really did. There were somehow leaves getting inside the
building and, like, falling down and we were watching the power poles outside

(03:42):
the window just shaking and going, oh, I think we should be right.
Hopefully we'll be right. You put your risk management plan right interaction
and just, like, do it straight away.
Everybody grab a wall and hold on.
That's, you know, that's the rules. Is that to save the band room or the players?
Mainly the band hall, though we are moving, so we only need it for a few more

(04:03):
months and then it can go.
We should have a competition who's got the worst band hall.
Burundi has had to move out of two condemned buildings so far.
I wonder how many condemned buildings.
Footscray, you used to be able to see through the floor, like the floorboards.
Yeah. And see like walls and dirt and stuff. We had a white ant problem.
We had a white ant problem, but it was down in the kitchen, so we just kind

(04:24):
of, I think we got it treated and we just don't go down there much anymore.
More kitchen written off. Stick to the brick end. That's fine.
Well, it's wonderful that the community of Wodongas pulled together to get you all a new band hall.
Yeah. Maybe we should come visit sometime, Robyn.
Yeah. You should. You should definitely. Inspect the new band hall.
Yeah. Yeah. That's super fun. It'll be good.

(04:46):
What else? There's been a lot of band admin. If you're going to nationals,
it's all due this Friday.
It's been all this time. It's a good reminder for the stuff that I've got to
finish before tomorrow.
Thanks, Robyn. doing the plans shout out to secretaries holy moly there's so
much like there's so many forms,
you'd think it'd be one form i'm coming we're just
gonna rock up with a band but no there's like so many little bits and pieces

(05:09):
that to get handed in there's a lot of forms it's my my first nationals as a
musical director and i like to i help my secretary with all the forms because
i figure that if i'm the one that has to find all the information i shouldn't
just make him fill it it all out.
He would for me, but I do help him with that. I must admit, there is a lot of forms.
Oh, you have to write the number? I'm going to take me a second.

(05:29):
There's a lot of things you got to know.
Oh, yeah, we'll get there. I believe it's your first Nationals as a conductor.
It is. It is my first Nationals as the conductor, so there you go. Exciting.
Well, it was Jared. Our last week's guest first Nationals conducting too.
We better have a conductor on that it's not their first Nationals. Has that ever been?

(05:50):
Oh, it's the exclusive little club of, you know, first-time conductors at Nationals.
Oh, we better have a drink. We'll meet up first time. I think so, definitely.
National conducting cherry-popping night.
Yeah, definitely. Yes. Sorry, Tim, you're not invited.
I've never conducted. I wouldn't be any good at it. No one would follow me anyway. So I'll just be creepy.

(06:13):
We follow your leadership in other ways, like leading us into our love of branding
through your amazing streaming and podcasting. Everyone loves fans to start
with, and I just put them on the team. It was like a piece of cake.
Oh, what else has happened? We've got – we told people about our podcast.
Tim put a thing on Facebook and we've had 200 people download.

(06:33):
Well, that's the two episodes combined. So it might have been 100 people.
But, I mean, if they listened to both episodes, that's nice.
I think it could have been 199 people listened to the first episode than just
one person came back. No, it broke it down by the two.
So thank you if you've listened. But you should also give us five stars and also subscribe.
We had 15 people from New Zealand listen. If you're listening from New Zealand,

(06:55):
that's pretty exciting.
Hey, Fenella, have you been to New Zealand with a band before?
No, with a band, I've been to New Zealand. I went there just last year,
actually, for a holiday. But no, I haven't been with a band.
Not to New Zealand. New Zealand Nationals is just one of the most magical,
wonderfully organized, beautiful things.
A big difference between a New Zealand Nationals and an Australian Nationals

(07:16):
is, in New Zealand, there's a person, and that person's name is Helen,
and she's been the boss of Nationals.
For quite a while. All the ones that I've streamed, I've always gone to Helen
if I've got a question. Yeah, right.
So she knows all the tricks and how to make it all happen. I feel like in Australia
sometimes it's the organizing committee last did it like, you know,

(07:37):
seven years ago, the last time nationals came around. Yeah.
Yeah. And it's just a little bit. Well, if anyone, any Australian band heading
to New Zealand, you know, that, you know, need a random trombone player or E-flat
tuba player, give me a call. You know, always. There are.
I've seen that there's a bunch of bands going across to New Zealand nationals
from Australia. So Fenella, she's available. I'm here, I'm here.
I don't get to play enough these days, so pretty much any opportunity I think to be there.

(08:03):
Well, let's get on to that. We've finished our week gone by reflection,
and let's talk about Fenella and Fenella's story and what she does.
Fenella's story. Yeah, the Fenella story.
Fenella's story started many,
many years ago. No, really, I was quite young when I started playing.
I was in grade three and at the time I started on the trombone and when I was

(08:27):
in grade three, I couldn't even reach sixth position on the trombone.
If you're not a trombone player, it's not great.
I was missing two of the seven. It's not a great hit rate, but I had this awesome
little slide extension that meant I could just reach sixth.
And by the time I think I was in grade six, I could reach seventh position,
but who's playing B naturals before then anyway. Anyway, so Tuba, I took up in grade five.

(08:49):
I did both. I played in Box Hill Band and White Horse Brass back when it was a junior band.
Yes, I played with Tim a number of times in Box Hill. Yeah, Box Hill.
So I did White Horse Brass as a junior band back in the day and played in a
lot of the big bands in that organisation as well because at that stage they
had three brass bands and three big bands.
Started music in Melbourne. Then after that I moved to Bright and I now live

(09:14):
in country Victoria, far away
from many things, but I do live in a pretty spectacular part of the world.
I'm lucky that the family I married into also loves brass bands.
When did you find that out? Was that a surprise when you found out?
Like, oh, I like bands too.
No, of course, like many of us, I met my husband through brass bands.

(09:35):
Actually, at the Bright Chalet, I came up here for a youth band camp and we
met through that. So we met through state youth brass bands.
And then the Bright Chalet has a few bands that would have come up here before
and the summer music intensive, the Skunkworks run happens up here. Yes.
The low brass, the tuba one that I had just recently was here as well.
So we do the Alpine Brass Festival, which we hold up here as well.

(09:57):
So we have, you know, we like brass bands.
And I, yeah, I've played in Wodonga a bit, but since becoming the conductor
I tend to go more regularly and really enjoy it.
I've found that I quite love standing up there in front of my awesome bunch of people.
Yeah. It's a bit, how long does that take you to drive from Brighton?
It takes me an hour and 15 minutes to get to rehearsal, which is not so bad,

(10:20):
but it also takes me an hour and 15 minutes to get back.
Which is much later at night and I also
have to pick up my 15 month old from the
babysitter after rehearsal and then get her
home so we tend to get home at about 11 o'clock at night with our child luckily
she then goes to bed which night is rehearsal night Tuesday night we used to

(10:40):
be a Wednesday night band pre-covid then during covid we had fun situations
on the border where we We couldn't legally rehearse in Wodonga,
but we could legally rehearse in Albury.
So for that reason, we then started rehearsing in the Albury City Band, who's a concert band.
We started rehearsing in their
hall, but they rehearsed on a Wednesday as well. So we moved to Tuesdays.

(11:04):
And then what I saw was a couple of members of my band going,
oh, maybe we'll go to Albury Band as well.
So when we kind of came back to our own band room, I voted or put it as a committee
that we kept the night as Tuesday night so that if we've got people in the bands
who want to be able to play in both the concert band and the brass band in our area,
they can because there's not that many, you know, community bands on the border.

(11:26):
And so we moved to Tuesday night so that we can have a better relationship with Albury Band.
Great. How's the demographic in your band? Do you have a lot of youngsters,
more experienced players? What's the vibe?
It's fairly diverse, and I think that's part of being regional.
We don't – there's no choice, and I say that in a very nice way,
but if you want to be in a brass band and you live in the All River Donger area, you're stuck with me.

(11:50):
You know, it's like you don't really have a choice.
So it means that we've got – like we've got a few kids of like high school age,
and then we've got all the way up to, you know, our members who are in their
80s. How's recruiting going for you?
How's recruiting? Well, once again, it can be tough because we don't have a
large pool of people to recruit from.
And a lot of the good musicians who, when they finish school,

(12:12):
they then want to go on to study and you can't do that on the border.
So then they move to Melbourne, which is fantastic because they join bands down in Melbourne.
But it does mean that keeping junior players who are really good players is pretty hard to do.
But we are lucky in the fact that people often retire to the border region.
Or move there maybe later in their jobs. Numbers are great. We've got a full band.

(12:35):
And the other good thing I've seen over the last probably, you know,
two years is getting players back who might have stopped playing,
you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, but since the band started competing again.
Have actually come back because they actually quite like the hard work that
kind of goes in before a competition and having that focus.
So it's brought a couple of those players who did a lot in their youth who maybe

(12:56):
prioritised other things when they've seen the band starting to thrive and enjoy
going to competitions and putting on great performances.
They've come back. They want to be part of it again.
That's surely, that's because of your dedication, I'm sure.
Well, it's all you found. You've got to give yourself some credit for,
you know, that band being so strong.
The way I genuinely see it is that I'm lucky and there's many of us conductors

(13:20):
who are lucky because, you know, brass bands are full of fantastic people that
when you get a room full of people who go, yeah, we're going to come with you, you can make magic.
Anybody can make magic if you've got a room full of great people.
It's that commitment, isn't it? If everyone's got that shared goal,
then it's like magic happens. What are you laughing at, Robyn?
What are you laughing about?
Just band and I love the idea you could like.

(13:40):
I feel like if I moved to a town, you take your music with you and we've had
people come from like interstate or like a girl came from England and she's
like, once she found her band, it's like church.
People say they do this with church. You move to a different place and you join
the church and then you've got your community, you know. Yes.
And that's what the band is. We really see that in places like Aubrey Redonga

(14:04):
because they can't, you know, commute back to their last band.
So they, you know, send their little message or they rock up to rehearsal and
they go, hey, I've just moved to the area. And I go, great, let's find you a chair.
And my rule, especially considering we are the only band on the border,
I don't care if I've got 60 people in that room.
I will keep finding chairs if I have to. If people want to be part of our band,

(14:25):
I want them to be in our band. Start breaking into two bands.
If we had to. You could do a training band and a, you know, a long-term band.
We've definitely got, you know, plans in the work to get some more kind of youth
players and get some of those school kids involved.
So probably I think after nationals, we're hoping to kick into it.
It's the fans first nationals in quite a long time.

(14:45):
Ah, that was my next question. When, when was the last nationals?
So the last nationals Wodonga Brass went to was in 1990.
Oh, wow. He didn't even do the ones in Melbourne. No. So 34 years ago was the
last time Wodonga went to an.
And then you came to States last year. Yeah, so we've done States the last two years.

(15:07):
The last two years, okay. So we've done a couple of years of competing.
The first year we were in D grade because that's what the band had been put
down to a little while ago.
And then as of last year, it was May-ish last year, we were up into C grade.
So we got put up, which is, you know, exciting.
Oh, I was going to mention when you were talking about music in the border region,

(15:29):
I thought of border music. camp. Yes, another fantastic thing we have. Big deal. Yes.
It's a really big thing going on in the area. You can wear a jacket.
It's fine. But no, Border Music Camp is fantastic.
For those who haven't heard of it, it's like a week-long camp in the winter school holidays.
It happens held at Scott School, but it's run by independent group Border Music Camp.
And they have a number of concert bands and orchestras that do a kind of camp for the week.

(15:55):
And it's got options of kind of doing short day or live-in students and boarding on campus.
And it's open to students from everywhere, but it's a great opportunity for
a lot of kids on the border to learn off tutors who are coming from other major cities as well.
And I know I encourage as many of our members to go. We have,
and it's not just for kids either, it's for adults as well.
So we have members of our band who go, who are both, you know,

(16:17):
at school age and also adults who take the week off and go and just see how
much they can learn in a week, which is pretty awesome.
Love it. Love the border region in all the music. Final question.
Yeah. There are a couple of pipe bands around.
Yeah, there are. There is a fantastic one at Scott's. Do you have much to do
with them? We actually did quite a lot with them last year.
Okay. Because the one at Scott's, I've seen them. I've streamed them in a couple

(16:39):
of different competitions. They are fantastic.
I'm like, oh, wow. They are. And, you know, I know those who are maybe not a
fan of pipes, you might go, oh, pipes and band, how are we going to make that work?
Well, for starters, work with a great pipe band because that's what Scott's
are. They are fantastic.
For those of you who aren't aware of. We play Highland Cathedral.
Yeah, we definitely did do Highland Cathedral.
But for those of you who aren't aware, Scott School, they've represented Australia

(17:02):
at international pipe championships, the world pipe championships.
Yep. First Australian school to win a world championship title.
They've gone to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo multiple times.
They are absolutely brilliant. And they actually went and did all this last
year and they got in contact with us and said, hey, we're running a fundraising concert. set.

(17:23):
Is there any chance you guys would be involved to maybe, you know,
do a couple of numbers in the middle of the set? And I said,
yeah, also, you know, and he's like, oh, do you want to do some stuff together?
I said, absolutely, but let's make sure we do it well. So, because I know it
can be very easy to do it badly.
So I actually worked with them, had to learn how pipes work because I had no
idea how they pitch, where they can, you know, what they can play or anything like that beforehand.

(17:45):
So I had to dive into the internet.
And one of my favorite things was I I remember just Googling,
you know, how to arrange for pipe bands.
And no joke, this first thing came up was someone on a message board just saying, don't bother.
And I said, all right, this is going to be fun. So, but we did that.
We did a couple of, you know, your classics, your Harlan Cathedral,
Amazing Grace, and then we also did Sweet Caroline with a singer as well, which was a bit of fun.

(18:11):
Yep. Yeah. So, yeah, it was really cool. And then they came and did some numbers
at our major fundraising concert.
That's a bit of, you know, a thanks for helping them out. So,
yeah, it's really cool working with them as well.
The more you say, the more I just think that Aubrey-Wodonga region is just like
buzzing with music makers. It's actually pretty amazing.
You know, all the schools do a lot of musical theatre. There's,

(18:32):
you know, the brass band, the concert band, the pipe band, there's choirs, there's the Murray Con.
There's a lot going on and people want to enjoy it and be part of it.
So we're really proud to be part of that community on the border.
I think we can finish there. That's fine. No, I have to ask the funny questions. Question time.
Question time. Hit me up. All right, here we go. If you were to take an inventory

(18:55):
of your house, what's the kind of stolen from the band room equipment that you
might be guilty of having?
I mean, right now, I'm sure it would be music that's supposed to be in the library
because as a conductor you kind of just grab stuff and walk out and then forget about it.
But I did in the past have a tuba that didn't belong to me for about, I reckon, 10 to 15 years.

(19:20):
It sat in my parents' houses after I moved to Bright.
Box Hill Band, how are you going? It lived in my parents' house for quite a
while. E-flat or B-flat? E-flat.
Was it one of the little old Imperials with the small bells?
Was it a good? No, it was a Yamaha. Oh, it was a Yamaha.
Oh, it was a good one. It was pretty. It was all right, actually.
But it sat there. Hello, John Kelly. Yeah, it's back. I promise it's back.

(19:42):
It sat there, I think, with my Box Hill jacket in my parents' house after I moved out.
And then when they moved house, my mum said, you need to take this tuba back. And I went, okay.
So I dropped the tuba and the jacket back with a little, sorry,
I kept that for much longer than I should have.
Maybe they were hoping you'd come back. It's like a welcome back.
Welcome back any time. Take the tuba. You never know.

(20:06):
I always, always have a place in my heart for Box Hill Band.
And Box Hill doing so well and off to nationals. Yes.
Maybe win. Yeah. No, it is great.
It's great to see. It's one of the things I love about going to contests is
seeing all those people that, you know, it's like no time has passed even if it's been forever.
So it's really awesome. All right. This one's an odd one.

(20:29):
What do you consider to be a pedal note? What?
I mean, my real answer would be at that point where I stopped practicing because
I'm naughty and I don't practice my pedal notes enough.
But I'd say an octave below where your range normally stops.
So, I thought that as well, but then I had a loyal listener get in touch with me over the past week.

(20:51):
Pedal notes apparently are the pedal notes on the organ.
So, if you're playing a big pipe organ in the olden days, you'd play the low
notes and they'd be like the drones that you'd play with your foot on a pedal.
So the pedal note apparently in classical literature is from there.
Anything, right. That's a pedal note when you play from a pedal.
So, yeah. But I think the pedal note's going to be high as well, I think. Yeah, right.

(21:13):
Because it's like with your foot. So knowledge drop. There you go.
Yeah, right. Thanks, loyal listener.
Thank you, loyal listener and Jared McCartney for supplying that question. What a question, Jared.
Brilliant. But now that we've like absolutely answered that question,
we'll never ask it again.
I like you've stolen from the band room question. That's a good one.
Yeah, that is a good question. We can keep that, yeah. What's the weirdest thing

(21:33):
someone's brought to a rehearsal?
Oh, I don't know. Do people bring weird things to rehearsals?
Yeah, surely. Maybe that's a city thing.
Like a weird dinner. Someone, like, put down their instruments eating,
like, I don't know, dumplings or something. People eat in your rehearsals.
Yeah, and I'm like, what are you doing? I'm like, a dog? Like,

(21:54):
you'll look over and there's a dog under their chair and you're like, why is there a dog there?
We have had a dog in the band room, which was fine. It was adorable.
It was probably distracting for me. But, I mean, there's also the fact that
sometimes I bring my child to the band room.
That can be pretty distracting, mainly because she's just an absolute diva and
likes to be the centre of attention.
Fenella. Yes. What's your opinion on Year of the Dragon? I quite like it.

(22:17):
I think it's a great piece.
Favourite movement? Favourite movement? Oh.
Recently, I would say second, and I have a reason for this. Have you ever played
the trombone solo on the second movement?
No, I haven't. I've only played second trombone for it.
But recently, the reason it became my favorite movement recently is because

(22:37):
when my little girl was smaller last year and I was having to really kind of
rock her to get her down for naps, it would take approximately seven to eight minutes of rocking.
And I went through probably a week or two where I just was listening to Year
of the the dragon from the start as I rocked her and it meant that when I got
to the second movement, I knew we were getting close to her being asleep enough to put her down.

(22:59):
It was pretty, pretty regular timing and a great time to listen to brass band
music for those with young children.
You can rock your child, get your headphones on. To like the da-da-da-da-da. Question.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like if you went too far, like if you got to the
end of the second movement, you have the big bass drum at the start of the third movement.
Well, I have my headphones on. Isn't the third movement like da-da-da-da?

(23:19):
I'm not that idiotic as a parent. Oh, you're not playing that to her.
No, no, no. That's an opportunity to like indoctrinate her.
We had to edit out a lot of our Year of the Dragon discussion from our first
interview. We talked about it for way too long. Oh, really?
Yeah, but the good thing is like at the end of the podcast, like we don't have
any sound effects, but we all, the three of us, we'll have to sing part of Year
of the Dragon. Yeah, right.
What a beautiful sound effect. We will eventually get an outro. I don't know.

(23:46):
Do you practice? Do you practice main instruments? If you asked me that question
this week, the answer is yes.
If you asked me that question two weeks ago, the answer would be no.
But I have recently been asked to play at Nationals, so I will be getting the
trombone out. Who are you playing with?
I'll be playing with Geelong West. Love them. Yeah.

(24:07):
So for that reason, I hope you're listening, Jeff. I have been practising and
will continue to practise, and I'll see you in a few weeks at rehearsal,
and hopefully I'll be nailing my part by then.
What are you doing? You're doing long tones? You're doing, yeah.
Well, I do. As you can't see, but Fenella, she's currently just,
you know, going for it. My trombone is in my hand. Yeah, yeah, sure.
No, I mean, I do do some long tones.

(24:29):
I do lots of lip slurs and, you know, being a trombone player, we live by them.
You know, I do all that stuff because otherwise if I don't do them first,
I then try and play too fast and too high and it sounds like rubbish.
So a good warm-up is always a good place to start.
And it's also one of the things, sometimes you pick up your instrument and you
go, great, everything's feeling brilliant today and 10 minutes and I'll be good to go.

(24:50):
And then there are other days where you pick it up and go, well,
this is going to be a full half an hour of warm-up before I need anybody to hear this.
So I think that's just one of those things.
Robyn, you seemed quite concerned by that, but I swear I'm not the only one
who happens to. You have good days and bad days. No, no, no.
Doing half an hour of practice is the part that concerns me. Oh, God.

(25:11):
That seems excessive. That was half an hour of warm-up. But,
you know, if I'm playing a lot, you generally tend to pick it up and be okay
unless you've had a really big day the day before.
And then if I was playing the tuba, it requires zero warm-up at all and you
just pick it up and it's ready to go and you can play for like 14 hours and

(25:34):
someone's like in the corner section is like, I can't feel my lips anymore.
And you're like, wait, are we done already?
That's how I always felt about the tuba. I reckon Sean Burns practiced the most.
Is it? Or trumpets? Trumpets practice a lot.
Yeah, I think it's just that, I mean, I meant this, you know, the nice way.
I think it attracts a nerdy kind of person and I think they,
you know. I was going to say euphoniums.

(25:54):
I mean, yeah, euphoniums I think attract people who like to listen to themselves.
No offence, euphoniums. It's not a bad thing. I think so. I don't consider that
a bad thing because it's a beautiful instrument to listen to.
I don't want to listen to myself play long notes. I think the other thing is
the slides are hard to move without sounding like a clown.
So you kind of have to do oh really oh I've been doing it wrong all these years

(26:16):
I think it's really easy you know especially in brass bands everyone else is
pressing down their valves you can't you can't do that and then people still
expect you to sound just as crisp as a cordet or you know whatever so that does
take a little bit of practice yeah,
All right. We might do one more question because we added some,
so we'll have to take some away.
I might take the chair question away because that was like a bit of a fizzle one, wasn't it?

(26:39):
That's a really good question. That's my favourite. No, no, no.
Shut the fuck up. Or the one about facial hair, jackets.
Noah likes a jacket. Everyone in my band is listening. They're like,
I heard you talk about jackets, Robin. I know that Tim likes jackets.
Really? Do you like a band jacket?
I like a band jacket, but, I mean, they can be hard to get and very expensive.

(27:00):
So we, I mean, we have a jacket, but it's not a jacket like a traditional band
jacket. We have like a soft shell jacket.
And then on stage, we're a vest band. We do wear our vests and ties on stage.
Oh, I love a vest. That's great. I do like a vest.
I was going to say, do you feel jealous of your pipe bands? Do they have that
like thing on their, on their belly? Yeah, they have some good form in those pipe bands.

(27:22):
They look smart. It's true. What's it called? Desporan.
Desporan, yeah. I was going to call it a scroggin', but it's not a scroggin'.
It's boring. But you know all the words. That's very exciting.
All right, I'll ask this last one. Okay, if someone has come to your rehearsal
and they never came back, what do you think that reason would be?
Jared's was that they hated the Western Brass's jackets. Oh,

(27:44):
how could you hate that mustard yellow?
There's a lot of love for that. I mean, if I'm being silly, I'd just say it's
because of my ridiculous personality during rehearsals.
But, I mean, to be honest, the most common reason I actually see in a serious
answer is that we get a lot of people who come to the area for work for a week
who then just pop into their local brass band, which if you're ever out there in our direction,

(28:09):
always welcome at Wodonga Band Hall, even if it's just to keep your lip in on
your week's holiday or away from work. That's so fun.
Yeah. I've never thought of
that to, like, be travelling in a town and just, like, pop into the band.
We do that. We see it a number of times a year, you know, people who just pop
in, which is always great because you meet someone who's, you know,
come from another band, they talk about their band, they get to see what we're

(28:30):
doing, have a play and, you know, then you wish them well and you're always
kind of welcomed in their areas when you go on holidays as well.
Do they bring an instrument with them? Yeah, sometimes.
And sometimes they'll contact us and go, hey, I've got a mouthpiece.
Do you have a cornet? And we're like, yeah, we'll grab some of your other cupboard.
Come along. Cool. Where are you, Tim? You should be at rehearsal with Bateman's

(28:52):
Bay Band. Well, I was going to say, I should be probably visiting Canberra City Brass. Yeah.
Brass Band Tourism. We could start that as a thing. Why a thing? It's a thing.
I was going to say, Fenella, if you're free in July, and Robin as well,
would you both like to come to the New Zealand Nationals?
I mean, yeah. No, it's cold. I'd say yes.

(29:14):
Come. You should definitely come. It's so wonderful. There's so many nice people.
Yeah, but I only have one, not three.
So it's a little bit easier for me. Let's talk.
Are you bringing your baby to Nationals? Oh, absolutely. I'm also bringing my
mother. I can't watch my baby at Nationals. Oh, yeah.
But I am bringing my baby to Nationals. If you see her, she'll be the one waving

(29:34):
at you and probably dancing in the middle of any space with music in it because
that's what she does. That's great.
We'll try and get an interview in as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She'll probably have some very important things to say.
I assume she has very strong opinions on brass bands, mainly that she loves them, to be honest.
Obviously. Obviously. Amazing. All right. Well, we're up to current events.

(29:55):
What's going on in the next week? I'm going to Indonesia next week.
Oh, that's exciting. I've got to do a...
A conference on broadcasting. All right. There you go.
So, you know, next week's podcast, I'll be on a different time zone. Oh, very exciting. Hey.
How exotic. But I'm going to be at rehearsal on Monday night because I've been
practicing and I brought my mouthpiece with me when I came up here so I can do some buzzing.

(30:16):
That's what all conductors like to hear.
That you take your mouthpiece with you when you go away for those pre-Nationals holidays.
I even bought myself one of those plastic mouthpieces that go in my carry-on
baggage. Because once I tried to take a tube of mouthpiece as carry-on and I
was in, I think I was in like Mildura airport.
I don't know why I was there and they, and there was no one else in the airport

(30:38):
and my backpack went through and they opened up and it was like,
what is this? You cannot take this on. I was like, are you serious?
So I had to go back and put that backpack as checked baggage with just a mouthpiece in it.
I've had mouthpieces. I'm sure I've had mouthpieces go through the scanner on
the x-ray and you can, because you can really see it.
Obviously Mildura is not having a bar of it. dangerous oh no yeah there's a

(31:01):
bit crazy all right what's on for you for the week vanilla,
fun well actually we've got a rehearsal weekend this weekend
uh so we're actually bringing the band to
bright we're kind of you know right yeah i was gonna say opening up
our hotel well i mean you know sometimes we
have a donga but we are having a quiet quiet weekend at
the hotel so we've kind of you know opened it up and so people
can come and stay and have a fun weekend away way so

(31:24):
we're doing that on the weekend and then we're kind
of into two nights a week not really it's only me that
really has to do them because we do rehearsal on the tuesday and
then sectionals on the thursday so for some people they're still only on one
but i i've started my two a week but that's all right we'll uh it'll be fun
i like it too you know band two nights a week who wouldn't want to do it once

(31:44):
upon a time i would have told you i was mad if i wanted to do that but these
These days I go, is two nights enough? Let's do more band.
Oh. Two nights, three nights. My band, if they're listening to this,
we'll be going two nights. There's plenty.
Thank you. We'll see you on the weekend as well. I think that's enough.
All right. Okay. So, Robyn, Robyn, what's on for you? Yeah, Robyn, what are you up to?

(32:05):
What am I doing? Robyn, what are you doing? What are you doing this week,
Robyn? I probably should have done.
I was like, Ben, last year, do you want to do some extra rehearsals on the lead up to nationals?
They're like, nah, we'll just stick with our Tuesdays and we'll just make make
them really efficient rehearsals. I'm like, okay.
So, we only had doing one weekend, it's like the two weeks before.
But one of the things that for my band that they really wanted more of was sectionals,

(32:26):
because it gave them a chance to work with their section leaders and focus on
that stuff that you don't necessarily have time for in a band rehearsal.
So, it's one thing I've made some more time for as we prepare for competitions
now, just so when everyone gets on stage, they can actually feel comfortable
with the performance they're going to get to give.
So, I think that's really important when you've got a band who hasn't competed a lot.
I think it's so important. Because they need to feel good on stage. Absolutely.

(32:49):
And, like, I get really annoyed sometimes. I'm at a competition and people get
grumpy if there's a changeover that takes too long or whatever. I'm like, no, no, no, no.
People have, like, been rehearsing for literally months for this.
Don't rush them. No. Let's give everyone a chance to play their best and enjoy
themselves. Absolutely.
And have a good experience. It's really easy. You don't need to drag things out.
No. But just everyone should have enough time to feel comfortable.

(33:09):
But also, if you've grown up on the competition stage, if you've done this,
you know, 20 times, 50 times, you're going to be a lot more comfortable.
I've got, you know, adult members of my band who played in their first competition two years ago.
So imagine as a 40 year old, you've never been in that situation before.
Like as adults, anytime we're in a new situation, it's more terrifying than it is when we're kids.

(33:31):
As kids, we're a lot braver. So the fact that they're still willing to get up
there and do that for me, I just, and I know for the contest,
you know, supervisors do a great job.
It's just about making sure people are comfortable so that they can really enjoy
the the experience rather than seeing competitions as a scary thing because they don't have to be.
You know, yes, the adjudicator is there to give feedback. Yes,
there are bands who are at the top of their grades who are really working for

(33:53):
those wins and that is brilliant.
But not every band is going to win and not every band is at the top of their
grade at any given point.
And you still need to go and be part of our community because that's what makes
a competition great is having the fact that there is a large grade. Absolutely.
Yeah. Right? And as someone who like listens to way more band competitions then you should.

(34:15):
I just really want to hear good stuff. Yeah. That's all I want to,
like, when, and if there's, you know, 10 test pieces back to back to back to
back to back, I'm sitting there listening to all of them.
I just want to enjoy them. Yes. So if giving, if the band on stage has a bit
of time to prepare and they feel good and they play their best,
that's great. And you can hear it when you listen.
And then you can also, unfortunately, hear it when bands aren't quite at their best.

(34:37):
But you know they could have done better. And that is one of the,
that's disappointing. Yes, yeah. Like, oh, you know, you just want to enjoy
it as someone someone in the audience listening.
A competition is still a performance. I remind my band all the time that,
yes, there's one person in that room or three people, depending on what competition
you're at, that is there to judge you.

(34:57):
But there's another, could be 100 people in that hall, that are just there to
listen to a great performance.
It is a great experience to share music with people, and that doesn't matter
if you're on a competition stage, on a concert stage, walking down the street,
playing in a fair for your local town.
It is still sharing the amazing thing that is music and that we get to do.

(35:19):
How good is band? Yeah, the best. Yes. Brass bands are wicked. So are concert bands.
Concert bands are also. If you're listening to this and you're thinking,
what about the concert bands?
We're going to get some concert band people on soon, aren't we,
Tim? Concert bands. Concert bands are great.
I'm in touch with Unley. Unley Concert Band, we're coming for you I think next week.
I think we've got some. As I said earlier, I've done a bit with Albury City

(35:42):
Band. There's a concert band up there. We're all wicked.
Even those pipe bands. Even the pipe bands. Yes, we get in with them as well. Concert bands.
Exactly. Concert bands, pipe bands, recorder bands. I don't know what other
bands there are. We love all the bands. I don't know if there's many of those up in the northeast.
Oh, there is. There is? Sorry.
There's a recorder. No, it's a flute ensemble, I think, that's up near Albury.

(36:05):
And I was working with a computer programmer who was from Albury,
and he came down to do some work with me. He said, oh, you do music stuff?
Oh, that's cool. he's an adult learner of the flute yeah so there's a definitely
a woodwind flute recorder ensemble on the go somewhere there you go,
Do we have to sing an outro, Robin? No, we don't have to. Don't have to.
Should we sing something different? You may just say yes. You may say yes and

(36:27):
suggest something fun to sing.
Oh, should we do a bagpipes one? No.
Let's go for it. What's the bagpipe song that we all know? I don't know.
You're the ones who know more about bagpipes. This is a true story,
which I don't know if the bagpipes out there might find interesting. interesting.

(36:48):
I was just recently on my tour, my cruise, and I got off and there was a single
piper and a drummer playing outside a tiny little church up north of Queensland.
So of course I stopped, you know, got to put money in for the buskers.
And he said, oh, let me play something you request. What have you got?
And I said, oh, how about Highland Cathedral?
He turned around and said, oh, sorry, I can't play that one. And I went, okay.

(37:09):
So I went, Amazing Grace. How about Amazing Grace? And he's like,
yeah, I got that one. I was like, brilliant. Good job, mate.
I'll take that one. Thanks.
All right. That's my only idea. Or we could just say, all right,
we have to sing Amazing Grace then.
But pretend we're pad pipes in Mixolydian.
Ready? My seven is flat. Ready, set, go.

(37:38):
Music.