The Advice I Wish I Knew (or Listened To) as a Young Brass Band Musician

They say wisdom comes with age, but I think mine is late, because I don’t seem to have received it yet…

Some may think that twenty-seven is still relatively young, but being able to say I’ve played in brass bands for twenty years makes me feel old!

Having said that, I’m now at a point where I’m seeing the generation below mine making their way through the ranks of the banding world and it got me reminiscing about the times before the grey hair started to sprout and I was a young bander out in the world. The wonderful thing with hindsight is being able to lay out your mistakes, like a scrap book of poor life decisions, and show them to those who are about to walk the path you’ve already trod, in the hope that they don’t repeat them. 

This, in a nutshell, is what this blog is. So, if you’re a young bander, here is what I wish I knew when I was your age…or had listened to when people told me!

You will never have as much free time as you do now. I know you’re rolling your eyes and clearing your throat ready to say, 

“Actually - I’ve got school/college, a week’s worth of homework, revision, four hours of band rehearsals, after school clubs and I’m going out at the weekend.”

My response would have been the same, back in the day.

My intention is not to patronise you or belittle how busy you feel now, but trust me - life is about to get a whole lot busier and you’ll be lucky if you can fit in any personal practice sessions around a full-time job, relationships, family life and other adult tasks that inevitably get thrown your way 

Whenever you can sneak some practice into your spare time - do it. If you have ambitions of mastering your instrument, hammer that technique as much as you possibly can now. Future you will thank you - believe me. If I could go back in time, I would find teenage me and hit her over the head with a cup mute if she was doing anything other than practice, whilst yelling - “It’s your fault, I’m a crap sightreader!!!!”

2. Gather as much experience as you can

Whilst we’re on the topic, if you’re able to do so, do as much playing outside of your practice room as much as you can too! Depping with other bands, not only helps out that band, which is great, but it’s brilliant for building your sightreading abilities and learning to settle into another ensemble. If you can, gather experience playing for a range of ensembles, away from brass bands too. Gathering as much experience as you can will do wonders for your musicality, technical ability and your abilities to work with other people. It’s good for building confidence too. 

Depping, joining youth bands, wind bands, jazz bands, rock bands, brass ensembles - do as much as you can, whilst you can!

3. Believe in yourself

This is a massively hypocritical one from me, as a bit more self-confidence would have made a world of difference in my playing experience and it's something I still struggle with - so start practising believing in yourself now. 

Record yourself, both in performance and in practice - file them away for a rainy day a few months down the line then listen back to them. You will be able to physically hear your progress. 

When others congratulate you on your playing - for god’s sake, believe them! Take the little pieces of praise, noticeable progress and wins - like confidence confetti - and collect them, when the time comes where you’re faced with imposter syndrome or an opportunity that makes you doubt whether you’re good enough - you’ll have a whole confetti cannon to blow those nerves away. 

In my experience those who are actually good at what they do are the ones who question it, because they care, are constantly looking to improve and are always evaluating their skills. Those who aren’t, don’t. You’re better than you  think - trust me. 

4. Mistakes are part of learning

I’ll say it louder for those in the back, whips out megaphone - ahem… MISTAKES ARE PART OF LEARNING!!! 

They’re not something to be ashamed of or to beat yourself up about. In order to be good at something, you’ve got to be bad at it first, so you know what not to do.

Think about when you first picked up an instrument - your first sounds may have been something akin to a cow with a cold, right? Now, look at you! That is a result of you making mistakes, learning what you did wrong and fixing them…and you’ll be doing that for the rest of your playing life. You never stop learning how to play your instrument - even the best of the best make mistakes, because they’re human. Only robots don’t make mistakes, so until Chat GPT can play a cornet, we don’t have to worry about it!

5. Learn your scales - future you will thank you

If I could go back in time, whilst I’m whacking past me with a cup mute and berating her for not doing enough practice, I would also like to shout at her - LEARN 👏YOUR👏 SCALES! 

Yes they’re boring. Yes, working through repertoire is so much more fun. But do you know what makes learning repertoire easier? Knowing your scales. If I’d spent more time mastering my scales and other fundamentals earlier, it would have taken me less time to learn how to sightread, to nail tricky technical passages. 

See it as taking vitamins or supplements for your playing - it’s a faff and doesn’t seem like it will help all that much, but you get older and thank yourself that you did.

6. Advice is important, but be careful who you listen to

You will have probably already found this out, but loads of people will offer you advice as you grow and progress through your playing career. 

I’m doing it right now. 

Most advice is offered with sincerity and a lot of it will be helpful, but I wish someone had told me to think a little more critically when offered advice.

I’m not saying you have to snub all advice that is given to you, like I say a lot of it will be useful, but before you take it to heart ask yourself these questions:

• Why is this person giving me advice?

• Does the advice align with the player I want to be?

• How well does this person know me or my abilities?

I would also say that just because they’re a great player, doesn’t mean they are qualified to give you personal advice on your playing. They will have a lot of great insight and information about improving certain aspects of playing in general, but music is just as much about mentality as it is about ability and the people who offer the best advice to you will understand you as a player. In short, keep your mind open to advice (learning from more experienced players is important) but analyse it before you take it to heart. In short, take what you need, leave what you don’t. 

7. Pressure is for tyres

One of the most insightful times in my performing career was under the baton of Paul Andrews during my time at Wingates, not only from a playing perspective but from a mentality perspective. One key phrase he used to mention when it came to performing particularly in contest scenarios was: “pressure is for tyres”. 

This phrase completely changed how I thought about performing in general. It’s not life or death, it’s music. There’s no point putting pressure on yourself to be perfect on stage - you’ve either done the work or you’ve not - the proof will be in the pudding. Work hard in the practice room and enjoy the stage.

8. Be your own competition

But what about the pressure of impressing those in the audience or in the box?

As a youngster, the pressure I placed upon myself happened more at contests than concerts and largely came from wanting to impress the adjudicator, as well as the plethora of critics sitting in the audience passing comments on various media outlets. At one point, you went through the comment mill of at least three different media outlets, before you had even got to the adjudicator comments. You could walk off stage feeling happy with your performance before that optimism is dashed through online commentary and/or adjudicator remarks. 

When it comes to commentary, I used to put so much pressure on what was said, now I see commentary as something that serves people who can’t attend the contest, but want to know what’s going on - like people checking the football scores when they can’t attend the match. 

When it comes to the opinion of the adjudicator, they are there to pass comment; we put ourselves in the ring for their commentary - that’s the nature of the beast - but it’s still just an opinion. 

Bottom line, if you come off stage happy - that is the opinion that matters. If you come off stage disappointed - don’t cast your mind on what will or won’t be said online or in the adjudicators comments - figure out what you need to do to prevent you being disappointed next time you walk off stage. You are your own competition.

9. Celebrate Your Wins More Than You Dwell On Your Mistakes

When you’re hell bent on progressing as a player, it can be easy to gloss over what went well and focus on what didn’t. I split that note. I didn’t breathe properly in that phrase and my sound suffered. I didn’t practice that technical section enough. I was out of tune. Well done, you’ve earned your self-awareness badge, which is useful for progression, but constant self-criticism is the fire that burns up motivation.

I’m walking proof of this. By the age of 20, I’d spent years constantly pushing myself; convincing myself I wasn’t good enough - ignoring achievements and solely focussing on what I was doing wrong and what other people were doing well.

You know what this achieved? 

Burnout, that resulted in me stopping playing for a while. Not great. Would not recommend to a friend.

Lots of factors contributed to this problem, but the main factor? It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem - it’s me. (Does quoting Taylor Swift mean I’m still young?)

My mindset was all wrong. 

It’s all about finding the balance between acknowledging and taking pride in your achievements, whilst taking note of what can be improved next time. 

Pat 👏 yourself 👏 on the 👏 back. 

10. Create a Practice Routine That Works for You

When I was younger, I thought there was only one way of practising - 1-2 hours a day and if you couldn’t commit to that, well you just weren’t going to be as good as you wanted to be.

WRONG.

Learning comes in all forms. Some people can stand in the practice room for the full 1-2 hours. I know that I will never be able to fully focus for an hour on practice all in one go. My brain drifts, even in a room with no distractions; thinking about what I need to do at work tomorrow, to remembering I need to pay my car tax (welcome to adulthood - it sucks), imagining how the inventor of the first brass instrument, put a long tube to their mouth one day, blew a raspberry into it, thought: “I like the sound of that’ and here we are…

Anyway, I digress. You see? It’s easy done!

Some work better splitting their practice sessions into chunks or (my method) setting a minimum session time of around 15 minutes and if I’m not into it by then I can stop, but more often than not I’ll practice for much longer.

The point is - there’s no wrong way to practice other than not practicing. So figure out what works best for you and really work to create a routine that makes you want to practice rather than make it a chore. 

Read more: Practice Tips for When You Don’t Feel Like Practicing: https://www.itsnotatrumpet.com/post/5-tips-on-motivating-yourself-to-practise

11. (Bonus Advice!) Have FUN and stay with it!

There will be times you will be tempted to leave banding behind. I urge you not to. I’ve always loved banding with every fibre of my being, but I’ve been tempted once or twice when I was younger to give it up. From not feeling like I was ever going to be good enough to being tempted to have a ‘normal’ schedule that didn’t revolve around banding, there have been times where I nearly stopped. I tell you what, I’m so glad I didn’t. I appreciate my banding now more than I ever have. 

Life can be tough and I genuinely do not know how I would have coped if it wasn’t for band, some days. It gives you a support group of friends. It’s a place to blow off steam - smashing out a double forte or two when you’ve had a crap day does wonders believe me. Imagining blasting that double forte into the ear of your damn annoying colleague is even better!

Banding is a rare hobby that you can enjoy, pretty much until the day you die (cheery thought, I know). I have people who are my age or older who say to me that they wish they still had a hobby, when I talk about band and are actually jealous in some cases!

If that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will. Be the person, others are jealous of - be a bander!