Unable to rehearse since the beginning of the third Covid lockdown, the band decided to produce some recordings of our playing made by band members in their own homes. This gave each of us an extra incentive to continue to practise, ready for the time when we can rehearse and perform together again.

For each selected piece, our hardworking librarian issued the parts to each player by email, together with a simple backing track, so that we would all be playing at the correct tempo. It sounds deceptively simple, which of course is not the case! 

Once each band member had practised and recorded their part in time with the backing track, it was the turn of our dedicated musical director to try and fit all the parts together, making sure that all the correct notes were being played in the correct order.

Several band members took the opportunity to play and record several parts, allowing us to provide an even richer musical texture to the recordings.

So far we have completed recordings of “Puttin’ on the Ritz’ and Vaughan Williams’s  English Folk Song Suite.

Listen to them all here:

Puttin’ On the Ritz

English Folk Song Suite  – Vaughan Williams

No. 1 – March  – “Seventeen Next Sunday”

 

No. 2 – Intermezzo – “My Bonny Boy”

 

No. 3 – March – “Folk Songs From Somerset”