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BBJ sends band trainer to Surabaya!
On Friday May 17, 2013 BBJ sent the first of a series of band trainers to Surabaya to form a brass band at a Salvation Army corps (church) in the city. Tuba player Fernando Kaloko (Nando) will spend up to two years teaching music to church members in his spare time while working in the East Javanese city.
Nando was accompanied by BBJ deputy bandmaster Erjoin Marbun, who officially handed over second hand musical instruments purchased in Singapore to local leaders. These instruments have been provided on loan. Should the project at Corps 4 be successful, they will then be donated to the church.
Trombone player Sekhi will be joining Nando in Surabaya at the end of June. Like Nando, he will also be working in Surabaya and teaching music in his spare time. Three BBJ cornet players are scheduled to join Nando and Sekhi in October. Erjoin returned to Medan on May 20.
BBJ tuba player Lasnointer Marbun is already in the process of establishing an SA band in Yogyakarta. Read about it here.
Music Exams
Special auditions were held on Feb 1,2 & 3 2013 for members of the beginners band and the senior band. BBJ beginners band members were tested for entry into the junior band, while junior band members were hoping to gain entry into the senior band. Each candidate had to pass a theory and practical test.
Of the 12 beginners band members, all but one was promoted. 14 out of 17 junior band members also made it into the senior band. Supplementary tests held in May for those who did not make the grade resulted in several more being accepted.
Newly promoted junior and senior band members got their membership badges at a special ceremony during the church service on March 3.
In June (2013), BBJ opens registration in Medan for all those interested in joining another beginners band. Large numbers are expected to sign up for the limited places!
BBJ Christmas Carolling 2012
BBJ began Christmas carolling on December 9th with a performance at Medan's Sun Plaza watched by a large crowd of shoppers. There will also be performances at Hermes Place hotel on December 13th and 20th
Successful Concert!
BBJ's concert on July 14 2012 included special performances by the Salvation Army's Adelaide Congress Hall (ACH) Band. After a joint concert at Medan's Emerald Garden Hotel, the two bands travelled to Parapat (Lake Toba) for a second performance on July 16. Other activities involving ACH included separate music exchanges with BBJ's junior and senior bands. You can see pictures of the concert in Medan, as well as the band's trip to Lake Toba with ACH, in the photo gallery.
Click here to read more about the July 14 concert.
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Practicing
- Details
- Category: Practicing
- Published on Thursday, 14 January 2010 19:27
- Written by Bruce Gale
- Hits: 3265
Overview
Delegating the work
Relaxing after Band Practice
Overview
Normally, the band practices twice a week. Thursday evenings is set aside for the senior band, while the junior band and beginners practice on Saturday. However, some senior band members practice more often than that. When I am in Medan, practices are far more frequent and last longer. Sometimes we practice the bands one after another all day, stopping only for meals and finishing as late as midnight. Fortunately, the superintendent at the Home is very supportive and the neighbours have not yet complained. The only thing that can really brings these late night practices to a (temporary) halt are the frequent electricity blackouts. We tried using candles, but it isn't very effective!
All band practices are conducted in Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). Sometimes it can get rather funny when I forget a word or - worse - use the wrong one! There is also the problem of finding the correct Indonesian terms when discussing concepts such as "intonation", "pitch" and so on. My bilingual dictionaries do not seem to be very helpful here. But overall, we manage OK.
Every band practice consists of three distinct parts. They are: (1) technical exercises, (2) intonation studies, and (3) new music.
Delegating the work
Soon after I had trained a small core of players, we established a teaching system in which the older boys taught the younger ones. All I do now is supervise the process, identifying and correcting problems among the younger players that senior band members do not spot. It is even easier now because some of the boys who have left the Home still play in the band, so I have a small number of players in their early 20s who are well versed in my methods and know the sort of problems to look out for.
Here are some photographs showing how we all work together to get the job done. It all started with me, of course, so here I am getting things rolling. This photograph was taken in the early 1990s.
The next two photographs (also from the same period) show how I delegated out the work. Notice the poor quality of the instruments (second picture). All the instruments we use are second hand.
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I even got my father to do some of the work!
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Relaxing after Band Practice
Band practice can be tough, particularly after a five or six hour stint. Here is a shot taken around midnight in June 2004 after one such marathon practice! Those in the foreground are mostly ex-Boys Home members in their early 20s who now form the core of the senior band.
As with many bands which do not have the benefit of hearing live performances by accomplished musical groups (there are very few in Medan), the main musical problem we face is intonation. It is a constant battle to raise awareness, but I am making some progress.
For more pictures of BBJ, go to the BBJ photo gallery.
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