Band Competition - Background

Tomorrow is the Nautical Training Corps Band, Colour and Fanfare Competition, held at the Triangle Centre, Burgess Hill.

As you can imagine, the Band Competition is a major event for us, one of the top three or four events in the year, along with Founders day, St George's Day and Remembrance Sunday (more on that last one in a few weeks). It's the one opportunity in the year that most of the bands in the NTC can receive awards and where perseverance, effort and team work can really be rewarded.

So, the band have been working incredibly hard towards this one performance that matters, we started planning the routine and some tunes back during the latter part of August, including a tune that we haven't played for years (Sky, or more commonly known as Tocatta and Fugue by JS Bach). Graham devised a challenging but really sparkling routine, including envelope manouvres, cross overs and other elements, it certainly wasn't just 'follow my leader'!

One thing I must mention at this point - in previous years we would have had cadets (and some officers!) complaining about practicing too much, which is kind of understandable, as the practices are usually very hard work, and especially when weekend practices kick into gear, it can get very draining. tempers may get frayed, patience can sometimes get stretched to breaking point, that sort of thing.

We didn't have that this year. Every single cadet and officer gave it their all during the sixty or so hours of practice clocked up during the three months leading up to the contest. Every routine was tackled with concentration, energy and enthusiasm. Every single song was played, examined, and enhanced where possible, whether with volume control, harmonies or alternative melodies devised.

It's not just the band that have worked their socks off for this competition either, the Colour Officer and new Colour Escorts were also entered, in order to receive the official assessment which will enable Sturdy to parade their Colours at official public events, such as the upcoming Remembrance Sunday.

So let's see what happens tomorrow. Don't know about anyone else but the butterflies started kicking in a few hours ago!!