Brass Band Club

Yesterday, I played my trumpet for the first time in a long time, but perhaps more significantly, the first time since I've given up smoking. Clearly my lungs have had plenty of time to recover, and I wasn't as breathless as I thought I would be. Perhaps it's time to get back into music. Finding the right outlet could be tricky though. The only one I've discovered thus far is the school Brass Band club.

Of course, five minutes into the club activity, I remembered why I never go. A word now irrevocably linked to my idea of Japanese education is drilling. Yes, all my teachers over the years have told me that it's really useful to spend ages doing long notes, and by thunder, it'll build your stamina, but where's the fun?

A typical brass band club session will commence with the designated leader announcing what particular warm-up exercise will be played. Everyone responds with "Hai!" which although means "yes" is probably closer to "affirmative". This exercise will be done for a minute or two. At this point, I'm usually raring to play some actual music, but there's more to be had. Much more. In the past, I've joined brass band club sessions where the kids have played long notes and scales for an entire hour...five minutes break...another hour of long notes and scales, thankyou very much, time to go home.

This particular brass band did something I've never seen before - at a command from the leader, every child produced a plastic bag, and started breathing into it whilst the percussion section dutifully beat out an increasing number of beats on a row of desks behind us.

The weirdest thing I've experienced thus far in brass band club is the tuning up process. There's nothing wrong with using an electronic tuner, but they seem to be speaking a foreign language (in terms of the music vocabulary I was raised with) when they hold a beeping box in front of my instrument and declare "plus four" as opposed to "sharp" or "flat."

Although music is something I want to get back into, I'm faced with the choice between intense study of Japanese (at a desk and everything) and playing long notes for two hours...what to do...