Wednesday, February 22, 2012

New Music camp video

Very pleased with our new music camp promo video. worth a watch!

Monday, February 20, 2012

That was close!



AUGHHHHH!!A great day rehearsing in London with the Shrimp band, but then we left the bag with instruments and (hours of) arrangements on the train home!!. The day was saved by a very helpful ticket man who had the whole of the network rail looking for "mouth organs"!, and Mr Shrimp who did a heroic tour of the Birmingham to London line to collect the cargo!. I was so worried about how I was going to find the time for arrangements again. PHEW!!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Spooky!

I have just rediscovered these pictures. The first is me (playing bassoon) and my friend Alison Tumber at music camp in the 70s. The second photo is of our daughters at the same music camp about five years ago (!).





Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Bad, but clever!



C, E-flat, and G go into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, but we don't serve minors." So E-flat leaves, and C and G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished, and G is out flat. F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. D comes in and heads for the bathroom, saying, "Excuse me; I'll just be a second." Then A comes in, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor. Then the bartender notices B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and says, "Get out! You're the seventh minor I've found in this bar tonight." E-flat comes back the next night in a three-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender says, "You're looking sharp tonight. Come on in, this could be a major development." Sure enough, E-flat soon takes off his suit and everything else, and is au natural. Eventually C sobers up and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. C is brought to trial, found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of D.S. without Coda at an upscale correctional facility

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Go Bryony!

Just to say, that I'm rather proud of my ex saxophone pupil Bryony Hannah who is in "Ask the Midwife" on a Sunday evening at the moment. First I would like to say that I am very much enjoying the series, and am getting very emotionally involved, but I would also like to say ( in case you hadn't realised), I KNOW HER!!


Monday, February 6, 2012

Music and the Thames



I am a member of the Royal Society of Musicians of which Handel was a founding member. The society holds many musical archives, including a copy of Handel's Water Music in the earliest extant edition. As part of celebrations for the Queens diamond jubilee, it is being lent to the National Maritime museum for their exhibition "Pageantry and the Thames" which is open from the 27th April to the 9th September. Its exciting to remember that Handel wrote the water music and the Royal fireworks for similar events.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Watch this!

I love this!

I just came across this fantastic retro ad!. I love it, and it reminded me of our trip to the Hohner factory a couple of years ago when we went to the World harmonica fest. I had a melodica for Christmas, and am hooked!!!. The Shrimps have been playing quartets for harmonica, Melodica, Ukulele and bassoon. (awesome!). I have done arrangements of old swing numbers, some cafe house music and some tangos. We have a booking for a friends wedding, to play during afternoon tea. I haven't been so excited about playing in an ensemble for ages!. Harmonicas and melodicas would be such good instruments to put together for wider ops ensembles.