STB - Cornets

entertaining devon and beyond since 1862

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I joined the band after being invited to play at the National Finals in

Harrogate in September 2006. I was very honoured to have been

asked to play and grateful for this experience. Subsequently, band

members and the musical director were very welcoming and

encouraged me to join the band on a full time basis. Unable to

resist their charms, I decided to take the plunge and join the competing

world of brass banding.

I am a wife, mother of two children and a dog owner and it can be very challenging to organise family life, work and banding. However, I have enjoyed the many engagements and social events. I continue to learn and improve and strive to get even better.

It is my mission to continue to encourage others to experience the joy of learning to play a musical instrument. I teach a variety of instruments in schools throughout East Devon and encourage all ages to take up the life long learning skill of making music.

My first brass instrument was the trumpet, which I started

learning at school when I was 12. I discovered the Sidmouth

Youth Band by chance a few years later after hearing them when

visiting the beach one Sunday evening. After a bit of persuasion

my parents agreed to bring me to rehearsals once a week and I

was given a cornet to play. I later moved up to the senior band, and onto the soprano cornet.

I continued to play with the band after leaving home to go to Exeter University, where I have just completed a degree in Civil Engineering and am now studying for a PhD.

I was first introduced to the trumpet in primary school when

they were short of a player for the orchestra some 17 years

ago. It wasn’t until the year 2000 an associate of my father’s

introduced me to the brass band scene where I started on 2nd

cornet and spent 10 yrs working my way through the cornet

ranks with Lyme Regis Town Band.

Outside of the music world I have spend many ambitious years re-training and am now running a successful business alongside my father as a mechanic. Not being satisfied with just being a mechanic I am currently studying for a HNC in motor vehicle engineering and business management, where at the end I will take the reins of managing director from my father.

It is this constant need for a challenge that led me to the Sidmouth town band. Over a number of years I got to know the bands chairman Christopher Holland through the local theatres and he invited me to join in a rehearsal and see what I thought. Instantly everyone was very welcoming and friendly and so I joined the back row in rep in December 2008 and have not looked back since.

When I was 7, my mum (see Gail on solo cornet) got me to

make a buzzing noise on her cornet. I was so impressed that

she played cornet for a brass band that I wanted to learn to play

one too.

In 2007 I was asked to play 3rd cornet at the Connaught

Gardens summer concerts. I warned my mum that “I wouldn’t be

very good so don’t ask me to join”. My mind was changed when I got to play some good pieces and meet some nice people. I played in my first contest with the band later that year. I really like playing in band contests against other South West bands, and qualifying for the National Finals was a bonus! I’m glad I belong to the “best band in Sidmouth”, as Adrian would say.

I have been playing a brass instrument for a long time, but have

yet to master the art of counting bars rest. Luckily, Colette does it

for me.

I have been principal cornet with the band for about 7 years now.

Coming in the top 6 at the Nationals for the last two years has

been amazing, although probably my favourite moment was the

relief at getting through the 2011 area test piece with most of the right notes and mostly in the right order! We are certainly seeing some tougher music now as we progress up the sections, and living with the conductor means I have no choice but to practise very regularly. (Oh, I ought to say that getting married to him in the summer has of course been my favourite moment of recent years ...)

I love being a part of STB - the friendliness and fun times make it a real pleasure, and if the team spirit carries on, we should see more successes in the future. As long as I stop putting my lucky lipbalm in the washing machine...

Back to player profiles

My name is Lowell and I have been playing since June 2003

when I was 7. There were a few members of Sidmouth

Town Band that came to my primary school in Tipton and I

volunteered to blow down a tube so it would make a noise -

and it all started off by that, oddly enough. A few days later

I went down to the Band HQ and collected a cornet. I got t

aught by Adrian and Fiona, and so obviously this was a great

honour they are well known. I also got taught by Colette for a while at the beginning. My sisters used to play in the junior band and one of them did play in the senior band for a while, but I’m now the only one still playing in the band.

My grandad plays the cornet and has got a trombone, euphonium, trumpet and cornet, but does not play in the band because he lives too far away. He has encouraged me to play and is enthusiastic about playing.

When we pass a charity shop, my dad normally disappears and we always know where he’s gone (in the shop!), so we go in with him. The first thing I look for are music books for the cornet, and when I see a pile we’re normally in there for a while...but dad probably doesn’t mind. There are usually cornet books there and they are cheap, so I can work through a few at a time. In my free time I like to make lots of different objects and things.

I am quite privileged to be in the Sidmouth Town Band, and it is really fun going to band every Tuesday and Friday. I am looking forward to future years with the band.

I first met the band when they came and visited Branscombe

Primary School, though at the time I didn’t want to learn

another instrument as I had only just started playing piano.

In 2009, I met Christopher Holland’s (see Solo Trombone)

mother, and she convinced me to join. The next week I

had a phone call from Adrian, the Musical Director, and I

was invited along to my first lesson. That same week Adrian

gave me a tenor horn.

Just before joining the training band, I asked Adrian if I could try a cornet out for size. A year later I had progressed to principle cornet in the training band. Me being very ambitious, I decided to ask Adrian if I could go to senior band, and, Adrian being the nice person that he is, he said yes.

In the summer of 2010 I started to play in the senior band on 3rd cornet, and not long after Sally came and joined the band to play 3rd cornet with me. Having seen the piece for my first contest I have learnt to hate semi-quavers and anything quicker, so I always moan when they are on my part…it’s a good thing I have Sally to play them for me.

I am now under the teaching of Gail Denning (See Solo Cornet) and I am working towards my grade 5 after getting a distinction on my grade 3. I look forward to playing in the second section and becoming a better player.

I have been playing with Ottery St Mary Silver band for the

last 6 years. In 2010 I was invited to help Sidmouth band

out on a Sunday evening...it became a hard habit to break!

- seriously enjoyable with a great bunch of friendly people.

My only previous attempt in a contest ended in a dry

breathless effort to play a few notes and a wasted day, so

I wasn’t keen to go to Harrogate. My husband Ivor (see the baritone section) persuaded me otherwise. Now, I don’t always listen to his advice...but step in The Willow Pattern. Wow, it engulfed me on occasions and kept me awake at night... but enough of my drooling about the music.

Most days of the week I travel around schools teaching the violin. It is most rewarding to see the development of young musicians whether blowing or bowing.

I am married to Greg and as he has so eloquently described

I am right behind him in every way! (see his profile above).

My hobbies are dog walking, horse riding, music (and

I’m still a novice cornet player) plus socialising with family

and friends. Our family and friends are hugely important

to us and are the focus to so much we do. I have lived in

Devon all my life , going to school in Buckfastleigh and KEVICS Totnes. I moved to North Devon in my 20s and lived at Clovelly for awhile before moving to West Devon Hatherleigh/Okehampton area.

I have a son called Will who is 27 and a daughter Cath who is 25 - both are now well into their adult lives and so now I have time to explore East Devon. A move to Sidmouth Band is a new and exciting challenge. Thank you STB for making us so welcome.

I joined the band as a learner aged 11 and was taught to play by

the band’s president Maurice Gooding and bass player Harold

Curtis.

Outside of band my hobbies include knitting, crocheting and

going for long walks in the countryside. I have a good sense of

humour, am a non-smoker and love children and animals – oops sorry this is drifting into a lonely hearts ad!

In reality I am the band’s money box monitor and unofficial front row mute monitor (and contest day principal cornet music monitor – isn’t that right Nuh!)

I am married to Claire who sits right behind me, (at band,

of course). We joined the band in September 2011 and

what a friendly and welcoming group they are. I have had

to learn new skills at SidmouthTown Band e.g. humming (!)

and turning the car in the smallest car park in England.

And they say you cant teach old dogs new tricks. Talking of old dogs, our collie cross spaniel Maggie, likes to sing when we practice our cornets at home. She likes hymn tunes but dislikes Arban exercises - something she and I have in common. She prefers exercising over Dartmoor, and occasionally I manage to pursuade Claire to join Maggie and I for a nice walk. And this is always more likely if there is a pub involved. Personally I enjoy a beer, a glass of wine or two, a gin and tonic and a brandy and lovage - but not always in that order.

To fill in the gaps between rehearsals I spend my days working at Bale Group of Honiton, specialists in waste management (never miss an opportunity of a quick commercial)."