Band rehearsals are in full swing

After more than a year of putting music plans on hold and forgetting how to play our instruments, band rehearsals are back and we’re loving it. 

When the government gave the go-ahead in May for bands to gather again, the first challenge for some of us was to find our instruments (close your eyes if you’re reading this, Conductor Simon!). Once we dusted off our instruments we eagerly signed up to a rehearsal to secure our seat, and got ready to play joyous music together again.

We’ve played all sorts of pieces from Disney classics and pop songs to marches and mash-ups. On 25 July we were lucky to be able to perform our first outdoor concert since the pandemic started, and the event raised a whopping £2,400 for Poole Hospital Cancer Care.

Covid-safe band rehearsals

Band members and conductor socially distanced rehearsalDuring the pandemic we’ve closely followed Covid-19 guidance from Making Music and the Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. We put together a thorough risk assessment to make sure band rehearsals are as safe as possible and we’ve decided to continue with Covid-friendly protocols so our members feel safe. For example:

  • We’re limiting seats every Thursday evening, and each seat is spaced apart. We’ve introduced a booking system for band members to sign up.
  • We open all the doors and windows whatever the weather! Band members are getting used to bringing lots of layers with them just in case it gets a bit draughty. Oh, and not to forget the pegs to keep the music in place!
  • We all sanitise our hands when we enter the school hall, and wear a face mask unless we’re in our seats.
  • We set up plastic screens in front of forward-blowing brass instruments and at the end of the evening we clean everything we’ve touched, including chairs and mopping the floor.

Check out the band rehearsal rules we’ve put in place, in more detail.

Want to join a Bournemouth band?

If you’re thinking you’d like to join a local band, get in touch to find out more and we can arrange for you to come along – we’d love to hear from you. We rehearse on Thursday evenings from 7:30pm.

Check out our band’s Facebook page for photos and videos of what we get up to.

By Emma on flute