Remember the good old days lugging around your big sax between home and school? On the bus, in the rain, in the sun, whatever. It was love. It was passion. It was getting together with your friends and colleagues and making music happen even when you had no idea what you were doing.
Those days of youth and musical wonder are now ageless memories, buried under the sands of day-to-day modern life. Or are they?
If you’ve been itching to pick up that trombone off the shelf and do something with it again, then here’s your chance to blow all the dust out of it.
Starting tomorrow (Jan. 14) the Sooke Concert Band (Sooke Winds for short) begins its practice which is set to continue every Thursday in the Journey Middle School band room throughout the year.
And the best part? They are looking for new players with their arms wide open, regardless of musical ability or experience.
Running into its second year, the band is the birth child of Melissa Edwards, who serves as the band’s conductor and musical director.
An avid fan of the saxophone bassoon, she has worked as a professional band director for 29 years and teaches at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.
This community band was specifically created to highlight Sooke’s developing music scene and give everyone a chance to try out the band experience, noted Edwards, adding that when the West Shore Concert Band started up, she figured Sooke should have one as well.
The program itself hovers around an easy to intermediate range because a lot of the people who join haven’t played in a while or a starting new, which is entirely the point.
“We want to make it doable and enjoyable for everybody,” Edwards said.
Last year the band, which was comprised of seven or so players, performed some Celtic folk songs, along with a Scottish ballad.
In the spring, the Winds plan to play alongside Journey’s band, and if the weather is nice, they will be outside the reading room, just so people can experience the band in a live location.
The band will meet on Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Journey Middle School band room.
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