Edward attends the National Children’s Band of Great Britain summer course

Dear GBBA,

Thank you so much for my bursary for the National Children’s Band of Great Britain summer course. It was great fun, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The week began with a seating audition which led me to become principal percussionist which although didn’t give a specified instrument, it gave me the responsibility of looking after the other percussionists with me – I think I took on this position well.

Throughout the week we were given many opportunities for recreation, and these allowed a break from the heavy rehearsals and time to make friends with those around, especially for me as it was my first time and I didn’t know anyone. I now have many friends, and I hope to see them on future courses.

In terms of music, we had a range of pieces ranging from Malvern Suite by Philip Sparke to a piece written by Andrea Price especially for us called The Beauty Of Their Dreams. I was only on kit and timps for a few of the pieces and so I was on tuned percussion for most of them and this created an interesting challenge for me. With the help of our percussion tutor, Logan, who plays for Black Dyke, I was able to work out the sticking for these different tuned parts.

Overall, I learnt a lot throughout the week, including information about the Youth Band, and have just in general had a great time, so I look forward to hopefully joining the Youth Band at some point in the future.