“The Band with no Dads” – Recruiting for Baybeat Street Band

Recruiting participants and inspiring young musicians with sousaphones at More Music

Baybeat Street Band is one of, and maybe is, More Music’s longest running projects clocking up a mad 23 years of work in the West End of Morecambe with hundreds of musicians of all ages and abilities and playing to millions of people.

It’s an odd project as it’s completely open access, open to absolutely anyone within the community, from eight year olds in challenging circumstances to pro musicians in their eighties - with anything from 10 to 40 participants in a session every week - but then going out and doing ‘pro’ gigs alongside top street bands.

And after years of failed or semi-successful recruitment drives this year we tried something new, something very simple and very obvious and it worked brilliantly.

Last summer we found a brass bands worth of (slightly beat up) instruments in the back of our garage.

They should be played!

So we devised a very simple plan: I’d go into a school round the corner and give them to some kids. I’d work with them every week and then we’d go play. Most importantly, it would be exciting, performance focussed, we’d trust kids in possibly challenging circumstances with big expensive instruments, we’d encourage them to take risks and to explore with no wrong notes, we’d do it all by ear.

Like Whole Class Instrumental Tuition but with more of a focus – keep it fast paced, exciting, tailored and somehow relevant - it said on my notes.

So we did, I took our discovered valve trombones, sousaphones, trumpets, tenor saxophones down the road into West End Primary School and set up an after school club for anyone who wanted to make noise and play. I got 8 year 4’s and 5’s.

In the first session we explored and had great fun trying to get sounds out of trumpets and sousaphones whilst playing silly name games. We also talked about what we wanted and about what we were aiming for.

In the second we chose our instruments. Importantly - they got to choose, and they could pick anything but they had to stick by it - but if they needed another week to make up their mind that was fine. And we got our first notes – HIGH and llllooooowwww and long and loud. Consistent. And then we made a groove out of it that we then danced around the room to.

In week 3 we leant Gibbous by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. By ear and through showing and telling valve positions.

Week 4 was Bring Me Sunshine and we paraded round the playground in the rain annoying residents across the road.

Sessions were LOUD and fast. There was no getting around that and were very tiring to facilitate. The hardest thing was keeping up. They wanted to play and run around and make loads of noise so we did and I desperately guided it into structures that most of the time happened to be tunes. When we ran out of air and energy after 20 mins we’d sit and talk and laugh, just like the adults do at Baybeat, before summoning energy for maybe solos or individuals wanting to show what they could do before diving back into the chaos.

In Week 5 in one of our group chats, light headed from playing Jingle Bells at a volume that shook the dust from the lights, our trumpeter declared out of the blue (during a conversation about whether you could actually live inside a sousaphone and the pros and cons if you did) that West End Horns was a silly name and that we should be “The Band with No Dads” as no-one had one. Everyone agreed, especially as the other suggestion was “Dat Trumpet Is Well Good Innit” but that drew complaints from our saxophonists.

In Week 6 they all attended full blown Baybeat down the road on Tuesday evening and not just kept up but played with the full band wide eyed in wonder at a full samba drum section.

In Week 7 we attempted to blow down the Christmas tree in the school hall using the “POWER OF MUSIC” and screaming.

In Week 8 they performed at the West End Lantern Festival including an hour long parade through their streets. They decided to stand at the front and owned it! With even our trombonist (who can’t yet reach past 5th position) bossing Tom, experienced Baybeat trombonist of 10 years, into line.

And with that it was Christmas and a worry that no matter how brilliant that all was, with the school only initially signing up for a trial term, whether we’d see them back again.

This Tuesday, 20 minutes early they all arrived at the first Baybeat rehearsal of the year. Now they’ve got instruments at home to practice, a whole new repertoire to learn, a belief in themselves, a trip to ISME in the summer…

After years of semi-successful recruitment strategies, in just 8 weeks we now had a 10 piece horn section and apologies from others that will show up next time. Pro musicians shouting fingerings across the room to young players who after just 10 weeks have mastered “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and are playing with more feel than most musicians I’ve ever heard – it’s their thing and they own it and they can be themselves and can express themselves.

“After being here for 5 years I’ve only just realised… More Music - it’s not really about the music is it?” a participant suddenly exclaimed last year.

Ultimately it’s never really about the music but by using it as a tool it can build communities, friendships and just maybe inspire someone to do something amazing and believe in themselves.

Very occasionally it just starts to happens very obviously in front of you.

Listen hard within 10 square miles of The Hothouse on a Tuesday eve and you’ll hear it.

 

 

For more info on More Music’s work go to www.moremusic.org.uk