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BBJ Christmas Carolling 2011
BBJ began the Christmas carolling season with a performance at Medan's Sun Plaza on Sunday December 11. The band's final engagement was at a mass Christmas carol service with Medan's Methodist Merak Jingga church on December 24.
BBJ Junior - first performance
BBJ's reconstituted junior band had its first performance on October 16. You can watch the video at the foot of this page. Another learners group has just been formed. Those who pass a test in February will also be admitted as junior band members.
Former BBJ member passes away
Former BBJ member Faigiduho Zagoto passed away in Jakarta at 5am local time on Easter Morning. A sousaphone player, he played in BBJ between 1992 and 1998.
BBJ returns from Nias
BBJ returned from Nias island on July 4 after spending several days performing in remote towns and villages. BBJ members have many relatives on the island, which lies off the west coast of Sumatra.
ABRSM Music Examinations (practical)
Eight band members sat for these exams on August 20, 2010. All passed. Three passed with merit and one was awarded a distinction.
ABRSM Music Examinations (theory)
For the first time in BBJ's history, two members sat for ABRSM theory exams in Medan on February 13 this year. The results were released in May. Erjoin Marbun passed the grade 3 theory exam. Lasnointer Marbun achieved a distinction in the grade 5 theory exam.
Suggested Books, Instruments and Accessories
BBJ Photo Gallery
| Practicing |
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| Medan Band - Practicing |
| Written by Bruce Gale |
Overview Delegating the work Relaxing after Band Practice
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.
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.
I even got my father to do some of the work!
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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