Birmingham Citadel Band held an inaugural Open rehearsal, and judging by the response it won’t be long before the initiative is repeated!
When our new Bandmaster took the baton, one of his first ideas was to hold an open Rehearsal, to invite anyone who has been connected with BCB or indeed any Salvation Army Band in the past, and lives locallyto Birmingham.
So, for a number of weeks prior to the rehearsal, a list of former SA Bandsmen and women was compiled and each person invited where we had contact information. This meant over 100 comrades were contacted and we received some fantastic feedback immediately about how pleased they were to be contacted and invited.
Although we had many who said they would come, it was not until the baton dropped at 8pm that we knew how many had kept to their word to come along. The result was fantastic, with about 50 guests coming along to play in the rehearsal. This gave each of them an opportunity to play SA music again, to meet old friends and for some, to come back in to a Salvation Army hall for the first time in many years.
Bandmaster Lamplough chose to warm the band up with a hymn tune and then we spent time on “Praise”, “Kingdom Triumphant”, “Sweetest Name”, “Shine as the Light” and also “The Light of the World”. Before we played Dean Goffin’s classic “The Light of the World” Gavin tried to explain the connection between the Music and the player by explaining you have to feel the emotion and meaning of the music in order to completely do the music justice.
This is why we believe that a Salvation Army band can convey so much through our music because of the faith in God we profess. We are feeling the music and it’s meaning, not just playing the notes.
An invitation was given to all those who were present to come back on Sunday night and join with the band again during the meeting to play some of the music rehearsed and many did sign up to come back on Sunday.
We believe that this first Open Rehearsal was a phenomenal success in many ways, not least persuading so many ex Salvationist bandsmen to come back once again to play inside a Salvation Army hall with other Salvationists. There will be more of these ventures in 2012 and if you want to be a part of it please contact us to be added to the mailing list when the next one is announced. The more the merrier!!!
