Mind games. Musicians and mental health.

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In my last blog “What’s the point?” I discussed the dilemmas and motivational issues I was negotiating with, regarding maintaining a regular and meaningful practise regime throughout this Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the last few days, I’ve seen other musicians posting on social media that they were putting the instrument back in the case and waiting for things to show signs of returning to normality, before they started thinking about getting “back on the horse” and doing some serious practise once again.

For me that isn’t an option, for a number of reasons. Firstly, my sanity – I need something worthwhile to do! Secondly, I actually enjoy playing, albeit that playing at home is not the same as being alongside other musicians in that team environment. Finally, I need to maintain my core skills and technique. I’m not one of those “natural” players who can let it go for a few weeks and then pick it up as if it was yesterday.

So imagine my frustration, nay panic. Yes, PANIC, when things aren’t going at all well. I’m not talking about clipping a top C a couple of times, or not being able to play that tricky passage in the Allen Vizzutti Etude in that God-awful key that involves the third valve more times in one bar than you’ve played all year! I’m not on about an “off day”, where the chops are a bit bruised and battered from an over-enthusiastic session the previous day on the D/Eb Trumpet and carelessly omitting a proper warm-down afterwards.

No, this is when day after day for the last week or so, I feel my “chops” aren’t responsive at all, the tone is thin and airy, the range is non-existent and pieces that you enjoy playing sound like a proverbial zoo on fire! Yes, I warmed up properly each day. Yes, I played lots of long notes quietly. Yes, I accept it can’t sound perfect every day, but no I can’t accept that it can be consistently this dreadful for so many days on the bounce.

This serious confidence “wobble” all coincides with the recent push within the brass band movement by Tabby Kerwin regarding mental health awareness and at the same time, a friend – a string player – mentioning on social media, that he was dealing with nerves whilst performing.

The Three P’s – Tabby Kerwin

Ask any musician and they will tell you that the demands of any performance are 50% physical i.e. the core skills and mechanics of performing the music and 50% mental, namely dealing with the stress, nerves, anxiety which then however causes physical problems affecting the mechanics, such as breath control, tremors or shakes, sweating etc. Some will disagree on the percentages, but all will agree that the mind has a very strong bearing on the successful (or unsuccessful) outcome of any performance.

To keep things simple, I’ll generalise and call the affliction “nerves”. Whilst nerves (in moderate doses) are a perfectly natural condition prior to and during a performance, in excess these can ruin perfectly good musicians and can reduce the most competent performer to a gibbering wreck in a very short space of time, if not dealt with immediately and correctly. It only takes one “off” performance or a few unguarded comments from another person to sow the seed of doubt in an individual, before those gremlins start their evil voices of self-doubt in your head and you enter a downward spiral of catastrophic proportions.

So for me, when the gremlins do rear their ugly heads every now and again, I revert to Howard Snell’s fabulous book “The Trumpet”, which has a Chapter dedicated to “Anxiety Control”. He prefaces the section as follows “For many players, the control of anxiety seems virtually impossible. As they see it anxiety represents an impenetrable barrier to achieving full realisation of their talent. In most cases the use of straightforward routines will comfortably control anxiety.” He goes on to advocate a number of methods and techniques which can tackle nerves/anxiety head on and shows that with a controlled approach, you can overcome this and you will prevail. The quote below certainly caught my attention!

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The Trumpet – Howard Snell

“When anxiety is an habitual problem for a player, it is futile to say that more effort, discipline and hard work are needed. While these attitudes are essential to building quality playing, anxiety needs to be dissolved rather than confronted. Habitual anxiety points to imbalances within the player’s overall approach. Realism, mental balance, patience, persistence and awareness are the key attitudes.” Howard Snell

Mental health issues are far more at the forefront of peoples’ minds nowadays, including musicians. There are many ways to address any problems that we might have, including Alexander Technique, yoga, hypnosis, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and a whole raft of publications, however talking to other musicians sometimes is just as effective and helps highlight that it’s not just “me” struggling to overcome issues. My friend the string player drew a number of friends and colleagues into the conversation and it was surprising to see how many people were admitting to having their own personal battle with anxiety, in ts many guises.

For me, this period of chaos is a blip. A brief hiatus where things aren’t going well. At least I very much hope so! Thankfully, I don’t suffer from stage anxiety (touches wood!) and my current issues are home-based, however it wouldn’t take long for it to morph into a bigger problem. It’s happened before and perhaps a couple of days off and a few binge-sessions of CSI New York or The Yorkshire Vet will give me some rest and space to clear my head and bounce back, as if nothing was wrong? That usually works. As Mr.Snell says “Realism, mental balance, patience, persistence and awareness are the key attitudes.”

If you have an “issue”, remember #itsgoodtotalk – get things off your chest, you’ll be amazed how much support and resources are available out there to help you with this!

Here are just a few links that may be of some help to you:

Tabby Kerwin: Mode for Publishing

Charlotte Tomlinson Performance Coach

Howard Snell The Trumpet

Excerpts from “The Trumpet” (It’s Practice and Performance, A Guide for Students) by Howard Snell (published Rakeway Music) kindly authorised by the Author.

The Trumpet. My greatest pleasure …. and my greatest enemy!

Thanks for reading the Music for You blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and if so, please feel free to share. Stay safe and stay healthy!

What’s the point?

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It’s sounding a bit of a cliche now, but these are truly unprecedented times. Not only for me, but for millions of people all over the world. The Covid-19 (Corona Virus) pandemic has affected us all in ways that we could never have imagined possible and has made us re-evaluate the things that are truly important in our lives.

A quick trawl through my social media channels has highlighted the very best and also the very worst traits of the human species. These have ranged from kindness, bravery and self-sacrifice to selfishness, arrogance and sheer idiocy. We have suddenly become virtual prisoners in our own homes – that is if we’ve been true to Government guidance about self-isolating and social distancing – with boredom and a lack of freedom to do what we want, when we want to and where we want to being the major focus of our lives. Unless you count stockpiling ridiculous amounts of toilet paper sufficient to deal with a worldwide dysentery a major worry!

Thankfully during this period of virtual lock-down, Mrs. Wife and I have been perfectly safe and secure here at “Trumpet Towers” – with sufficient (but not excessive!) quantities of pasta, tinned tomatoes and loo rolls to keep us away from the shops. She is an avid reader – a book a day is not uncommon – and I have my music to keep me going. Thank God for my music!!!

It’s funny how music always ends up being the “uniting force” or “glue” that brings communities together and puts a smile on peoples’ faces during times of adversity. Footage of residents in Italy (subject to lock-down) standing on their balconies and singing was broadcast all over the world and my friends at the Cory Band featured on national television, when their players recorded remote individual recordings of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”which were was then skilfully combined to make a complete band performance online, which vent viral (no pun intended!) overnight.

For musicians, whilst there is no replacement for performing together in public to an audience, or in a rehearsal, there is great comfort and satisfaction still to be derived from playing or singing at home on one’s own. Granted, it’s not the same, but it does fill the void and those endless monotonous days pass with less pain and angst, than those who don’t have a meaningful and fulfilling pastime to fall back on.

Tools of the trade (Stomvi and Eclipse Trumpets)

So despite having my music – this saving grace, my refuge, my mental and spiritual sanctuary – this week having realised that I’d missed 2 consecutive days of blowing my trumpet, I had a moment of real full-on “what’s the bloody point?” The mind goes into over-drive. “I’ve got plenty of books waiting to be read, the attic needs clearing out and that box of archived memorabilia and “stuff” desperately could do with a sort out. Why bother practising? I don’t have any gigs in the book, there are no rehearsals I can attend, I don’t get paid to practise. Why should I bother?” So I didn’t and binge-watched “Murder 24/7” on Sky Crime or something similar.

The following day, having maxed out on my TV fix and now being thoroughly conversant with Police custody procedures, forensic techniques and how much of a mug’s game crime actually is, I had a large reality check and got that Trumpet out for my daily parp.

Why? Because I realised that life without my music, in whatever form it takes – group, individual, home, abroad, practise, performance – is just a part of me. The period of no gigs and not being paid are (sadly) part of the territory, even when there is no pandemic to worry about. Indeed if musicians charged clients for the work “off camera” and “behind the scenes” in terms of preparation and maintaining standards we’d all be blinking millionaires. Imagine a builder excusing themselves from the family viewing of “Sound of Music” on Christmas Day to go and lay a few rows of bricks because they need to keep their hand in, as they’re building a wall on Boxing Day!

That said and done, it’s what we do, it’s who we are and it’s what makes us tick. Therefore by writing this blog, it’s been a cathartic experience. I’ve answered my own question really! The point is …… because we’re musicians and we love it!

The Phil Dando Big Band Trumpet Section in action.

So the next time you ask a musician how much they charge for performing at a Wedding or to provide music for a Corporate Event, you’ll know that the fee doesn’t just cover the 3 hours the musician will be at the engagement, or the travel time and costs, or even to purchase the music, to arrange that special tune you requested or for buying that very shiny Trumpet. The cost reflects a lifetime devoted to the pursuit of excellence (I’m still chasing it incidentally!) and maintaining those extremely high standards, rightly expected by clients but demanded of the performers themselves.

I hope that all of you stay well and safe during these strange and difficult times and look forward to that first rehearsal or gig, whenever that may be.

Needs must! Martini practise session – “Any time, any place, anywhere”

An Open Letter to the brass band movement in Wales

January 24, 2020 / welshtrumpeter / 4 Comments

The Blaina Band based near Brynmawr was formed in 1817 and it was claimed to be the first band in Britain to become ‘all brass’. In the intervening 203 years, the brass band movement in Wales has successfully produced some of the movement’s best and most successful players, conductors, ensembles, educators and teachers, composers and arrangers, administrators and commentators.

Welsh banding is firmly on the international contesting map

Ebbw Valley Brass – 2013 National Champions (Section 4)

Names such as; David, Nicholas and Robert Childs, the Cyfarthfa Band, the Cory Band led by Philip Harper, T.J. Powell, Bram Gay and Philip Morris, Iwan Fox and 4barsrest are just a handful of names recognised not only within the Principality, but across the world. These are luminaries who have successfully put Wales on the “musical map”, and through their work have ensured that the movement has grown and flourished.

In 2013 no less than 4 Welsh bands were crowned National Champions of Great Britain in all but the Third Section. This was a truly remarkable achievement for such a small nation; however these successes, along with significant contest successes by Tredegar and the No.1 World-ranked Cory Band before and since, have masked the underlying decline of fortunes for Welsh banding at grass-roots level.

Demise of brass banding in Wales

With the demise of music in education due to austerity and the reduction of funding for the Arts in general, and with music services having to introduce charging for instrumental tuition in schools, the number of young player either joining, or being retained in the movement has reached extremely worrying numbers. More than ever, bands are relying on a small group of (mainly unpaid) volunteers, who are struggling to keep some semblance of a production line going in terms of young players. Bands in all sections are struggling to fill seats, with the pool of players ever-diminishing.

The administration and governance of banding in Wales, has to date lain with the respective BB Associations in West Wales, South East Wales and North Wales, with additional tiers added for the Welsh Regional Contest and the National Eisteddfod. These however, (with isolated exceptions) have almost exclusively existed in order to organise and oversee competitive banding in the Principality, with no clear structure or pathway mapped out to develop and nurture new projects and initiatives to benefit the movement in general.

Lack of a single unified voice to benefit from Arts Council Funding

Thus far, funding for any new projects has always been as a result of the diligence and initiative of hard-working individuals who have secured money from a variety of sources, usually benefiting an individual band, or small cluster of bands. Arts Council Wales have not been receptive to approaches for such funding, as the contesting tag has always been inextricably linked with most of the ideas presented and more importantly, the movement does not have a single unified voice to make those representations in the first place.

One representative body for Welsh banding

Surely the time has now come, before it is too late, to introduce a model similar to the Brass Band England organisation and have one representative body, speaking on behalf of the interests of ALL brass bands in Wales. This organisation would oversee ALL Youth and Senior Bands, ALL Competitive and non-competitive Bands and its primary function would be to nurture and encourage some “joined up thinking” across a wide range of stakeholders, including;

All Bands
Conductors
Arts Bodies and Administrators i.e. Arts Council Wales, the 3 Welsh Brass Band Associations, Tŷ Cerdd
Music Services and Hubs
Schools and Colleges (including Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama)
Peripatetic teachers
Educators
Composers & arrangers
Industry suppliers – i.e. instrument manufacturers, repairers, insurance providers, publishers
Arts and Concert venues
Influencers i.e. 4barsrest, Brass Band World, British Bandsman & others
Arts Festivals
Other Arts organisations e.g. Choirs, Folk Music, Theatre, Dance

These stakeholders could all contribute their knowledge and expertise and assist in the following areas:

Administration – help with running a Band on a day-to-day basis, access to template documentation, running a library, contracts for engagements
Governance – e.g. ensuring bands had a proper Constitution, Safeguarding & GDPR policies in place, advice on DBS checks, returns to the Charities Commission, Health & Safety and Risk Assessments
Funding advice – where to access funding, assistance with completing applications
Finances – accessing the best deals for; insurances (such as Public Liability or instruments), utilities, travel and accommodation
Artistic and Creative Development – Encouraging collaborative work amongst bands, new commissions, workshops
Education – developing new conductors and teachers, sharing good practise, collaborative projects

The new organisation would NOT be involved with;

The organising or promoting of any competitions

Many of these suggestions are not new ideas and this concept has been attempted once before, when Brass Band Forum Wales was launched in 2012. Sadly it did not achieve the traction and impact that was hoped for, however nearly 8 years down the line, the banding movement is in a much more precarious position and things needs to be revisited – and fast!

The need to promote Welsh banding interests

This is also not an attempt to reinvent the wheel and for sure, Brass Bands England fulfils many of the above issues, indeed there is no good reason why Welsh bands shouldn’t be encouraged to join BBE, and make use of many of the resources already available. BBE however doesn’t promote Welsh banding interests specifically. We need an organisation to be run by Welsh banding for Welsh banding.

Until the Welsh banding movement has one unified voice to represent the interests and promote the movement for ALL participants, I fear that the very existence and future of our wonderful movement is in grave jeopardy.

I have no mandate from any banding organisation to initiate or promote this venture, just a deep love and passion for a form of music-making which has given me so many opportunities and experiences over the last 40+ years and sincerely wish to see it flourish and bring the same joy to others for many years to come.

If you agree or have thoughts to add to this letter, please feel free to e-mail me at andrew@andrewjonesmusic.com or call 07973 869621 and together, see if we can formulate a plan of action for the good of Welsh banding.

Looking ahead to a new decade

January 4, 2020 / welshtrumpeter / 2 Comments

Happy New Year

Let me start the new year (and decade) by wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2020 and hope that your dreams and aspirations become a reality.

For years on end, like many others at the start of January I had always had the very best of intentions to make the new year a better one than the previous. The list of desired improvements would include the mandatory list of; lose weight, earn more money, spend more time with family etc. etc., but as always, I would falter and my plans would be in ruins within a matter of weeks (if not days!).

“The goal of this human adventure is to see what all we can become with all we have been given” – Jim Rohn

My “eureka” moment however came to me some 8 years ago, when I was introduced to the concept of personal development. I started listening to recordings and read books by leaders in this field such as Jim Rohn, Darren Hardy Robert Kelsey and Brian Tracy. Since then, I can honestly say that I am a different person and have been striving (with reasonable success, even if I say so myself) to improve, both professionally and personally and set myself targets and goals for each new year.

Sure I still fail to do things that I said I’d do, forget to ring my Mum, work in my office way beyond a sensible hour and neglect to go the gym as often as I should, BUT, the positives that I have benefited from by investing some time, effort and a little money in developing my existing skills, learning new ones, changing bad habits for good and allowing myself to dream a little and set some goals for the future – these range from tidying out the cupboard under the stairs, to paying off my mortgage early – cannot be under-estimated. I certainly wouldn’t be the person I am today, without this help!

If you are someone who feels they are underachieving, or could get more out of life, but need some structure and guidance, give it a go and see where it takes you. You’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Music for You only exists, because I engaged in personal development and the ideas and inspiration for pushing the business ahead came from many sources, including the ones shown below. I must stress however, that the improvements and changes I have implemented are not just business related and cover my personal and lifestyle aspirations too, which have also benefited greatly as a result.

I would seriously advocate the following authors and publications:

Lee Duncan – Double Your Business pub. Pearson/FT Publishing

Darren Hardy – Living Your Best Year Ever. This is a journal which is my absolute must-have book each year now. I review my previous year’s achievements and then plan my goals and targets for the new year, with daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews of my progress along the way. I can’t recommend it enough – it also comes with 3 CD’s so you can learn as you go in the car, gym or even in bed! – but don’t be put off by the price. If you can implement the methods in this book, you would pay double and not give it a second thought! And no, before you ask, I’m not on commission for this recommendation.

The Brilliant series of books – can be found in all good bookshops such as Waterstones and WH Smith

Robert Kelsey – Get Things Done pub. Capstone

I hope that these suggestions have inspired you to be more proactive in making things happen for you this year and for those of you that do bite the bullet, that it makes as positive and significant a difference in your lives, as it did mine.

As a parting thought, I’ll finish with the wise words of former US President, Thomas Jefferson:

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude”.

If you’d like some more advice on resources that I’ve found helpful, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at andrew@andrewjonesmusic.com

Returning to your roots and giving something back.

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Going back to your roots, whether it is researching your family tree (as I have recently started doing), visiting your old school or driving past a former home, I always find to be a rather surreal experience. It doesn’t matter whether some or all of the people have long gone, there still remain some sights, sounds and even smells that that can trigger a myriad of deep-seated memories, which have lain dormant for countless number of years, transporting you in an instant back to a bygone age.

My “blast from the past” has been a return to both my spiritual and musical roots. One might argue that they are one and the same, as they are inextricably linked.

I was brought up in the small village of Llangyndeyrn in the Gwendraeth Valley – a very rural part of Carmarthenshire, Wales. So rural in fact, that the last bus into Carmarthen (5 miles away) and any semblance of civilisation, left the village at 5.05pm. Even worse was the last bus back left at 5.45pm, thus curtailing any potential fun and nighttime revelry, before it had even started!

Bearing in mind that the local Primary School only had a total – yes total! of 14 pupils at the time I attended it, one had to be fairly creative as a result, when it came to childhood “recreation” and “entertainment”.

My good luck and salvation was music. Both my parents were extremely musical with my Mum having sung in the London Philharmonic Chorus, under the great maestros such as Beecham, Boult and Barbirolli. Dad meanwhile was a keen singer too, having sung on the Eisteddfod circuit, with a certain degree of success too. In addition to this, he also played in the local brass band – Crwbin Silver Band (The difference between Silver and Brass I hear you ask? Silver was deemed posher, as it was a more valuable commodity than brass, therefore gave the band a tad more credibility).

So at the age of 7 and with a limited number of friends in the village to fulfil any meaningful sporting activities – cricket or rugby played by 3 people has its limitations you know! – and with a suitable number of trees climbed (and fallen out of), one looked to new horizons and took the obvious choice of learning to play an instrument in the local band. I was given a cornet to play. Like Father, like Son.

Lessons commenced, with my first teacher being my Uncle Stan, who also conducted the Band. Although I viewed him more as a grandfather figure, he was certainly no soft-touch and ensured that all who attended behaved and put in some hard work each rehearsal. Hymn tunes were the first melodies attempted once we had “mastered” enough notes and my first public performance was on the hymn “Hursley”, quickly followed by “Whitburn”.

Opening new bandroom

Stan Jones (pictured left) who was my very first brass teacher. He is pictured at the opening ceremony of the new band room in Crwbin.

Much practising and hard work followed over the next couple of years and this was eventually rewarded with “promotion” to the full senior Band. Now things got serious as rehearsals were held 3 times a week – Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons if memory serves me correctly. Hard to imagine a Championship Section Band attempting that sort of commitment nowadays, not to mention a Fourth Section Band, but it certainly beat 1-a-side cricket and falling out of trees, so this was my pathway to a lifelong musical journey. No chance of getting bored now!

Yours truly sat in front of the Bass drum. Stan and my Dad are either side of the Drum, with my Cousin Julian in the back row (6th from right).

So, back to the reason for the blog. Having started my musical journey some cough, splutter, ahem years ago – okay, okay it was 45 years ago, happy? It was a huge privilege, buzz and pleasure to be asked back to the Band as a guest conductor a couple of years ago, with the working relationship getting stronger especially over the last few months, as the previous Musical Director had moved on to pastures new.

The return to the old band room where it had all started did indeed reignite all those memories with a sensory overload to boot. Apart from many friends who are still members in the Band, my cousin Julian (Stan’s son) also still plays, so a stronger link from past to present you couldn’t wish for. Pictures of family and friends (and one or two of me) on the wall, as well as memorabilia from times past, the view of the Gwendraeth Valley down to my home village, not forgetting the “Welshness” of the surroundings, where Welsh is still the main language spoken most of the time. Something I rarely get a chance to do even though I still live in the Principality.

Crwbin Silver Band c. mid 1960’s. (Back row 4th from left is my cousin Julian, centre front row in the bow tie is my Uncle, Stan Jones (Bandmaster) and on the right hand end of the front row is my Father, Morley).

Imagine my delight then last weekend (03.08.19) when the Band were crowned 2nd Champions at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Llanrwst. This was a true return to my roots in every sense, allowing me the opportunity of giving back and thanking the organisation and some of the people who helped nurture me into the person that I am today.

Diolch Seindorf Arian Crwbin.

Thank you Crwbin Silver Band.

Crwbin Silver Band – 2019 National Eisteddfod 2nd Section Champions

For more information about Andrew Jones and Music for You, please visit http://www.andrewjonesmusic.com Contact andrew@andrewjonesmusic.com or 07973 869621.

Music for You – it’s just that!

5 Trumpets and a Flugel Horn

May 31, 2019May 31, 2019 / welshtrumpeter / Leave a comment

Following on from my last post, where I shared a recording I made of Thomas Morley’s “It Was a Lover and His Lasse”, here is another track, but from a totally different era.

This one will be instantly recognisable to many of you (especially of a certain age and generation), however the title may well be unknown and l can almost hear the cogs whirring as you try to remember where you’ve heard it from. To find out the answer, you’ll need to read the programme notes at the bottom of the video.

As for the arrangement, it was done by a colleague and friend of mine, Mike Linskey, who I met when I was a student at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff (way back in 1985-89). Mike ran his own brass quintet and was a real whizz at arranging an assortment of pieces for the quintet and I asked him to arrange this for a Concert I organised at the College with my Trumpet Ensemble. He scored it for 6 Trumpets, but I added a little extra colour with a Flugel Horn on the 6th part, just to give an added bit of tonal contrast.

Flugel Horn

As always, thanks for your continued support and I hope that you enjoy it!

Click here to view the Video

May 7, 2019 / welshtrumpeter / 2 Comments

It’s been a while – to say the least! – since I last posted. Life has been extremely hectic and often things gets in the way of projects that we plan to carry out.

During this period, I’ve been trying to fulfil certain goals and among these goals was a project to record some further music tracks of Trumpet repertoire, both solo and ensembles. If truth be known, it was a bit of a vanity project, however there was a serious aspect to it too, in as much that during the quieter periods of work, one needs to keep playing standards to the highest levels possible and not lose focus on maintaining core skills, such as technique, stamina, range, as well as the ability to swap from one instrument to another.

The track entitled “It Was a Lover and His Lasse” is by English Renaissance Composer Thomas Morley (c.1557-1602), who was Organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and one of the foremost composers of his time, particularly in the writing of Madrigals. It was recorded by James Clarke at Ty Cerdd Recording Studio, at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

I hope you enjoy it!

For more information about Andrew Jones, please visit http://www.andrewjonesmusic.com

Some jobs are more important than others, right?

September 25, 2018 / welshtrumpeter / Leave a comment

It’s always an honour and a privilege to perform the Last Post at a funeral service and today’s, which took place in a beautiful part of the Hampshire countryside, was no exception.

A Norman Church in the Hampshire countryside

When tasked to attend these engagements, it is often the case that you are unaware of the history and background of the deceased person, until you arrive at the Church or Crematorium.

Today’s funeral was for a very interesting individual indeed! The deceased gentleman was not only for a former Brigadier, but he was also a former Commanding Officer of the South Wales Borderers (an antecedent Regiment of The Royal Welsh).

His military career saw him serve in Aden, Malaya and Hong Kong, but he also was one of the troops who landed on Gold Beach in Normandy on June 6th (D-Day) in 1944.

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, add in to the mix that he was also a Knight of The Realm and this made the gentleman’s story complete.

Despite all this and regardless of who the deceased person was, their rank, status in society and type of military service, they deserve the very highest of standards when the Last Post is performed.

I very much hope that this was the case and my efforts today would have met with his approval.

RIP Sir, your duty is done.

#LastPost #bugler #funeral #Military #Army

South Wales Borderers Cap Badge

For further information about the Last Post, please contact Andrew by clicking here.

Is there any point in attending networking events? Assume at your peril!

September 11, 2018 / welshtrumpeter / Leave a comment

Music for You – Networking

My point then? Well, apart from an impassioned, informative and extremely enjoyable speech by Tim, who spoke of his own difficult personal journey (dealing with prejudice and bullying) and his love for the Creative Arts, here are a selection of people who I met that evening:

Person A – I already knew and had done some business with previously, where he had provided my marketing materials

Person B – was an accountant who used to play a flute and was a prospective player for the Royal British Legion of Wales, whom I conduct

Person C – A Chartered Surveyor who previously played a brass instrument and we shared mutual friends and colleagues

Person D – was MD of a Commercial Finance Company, who had financed a fleet vehicle for a band that I have worked with and we shared a number of acquaintances

By the way, Tim, as well as being a singer and conductor also used to play a brass instrument with brass band that I used to conduct!

So, next time you ask yourself whether attending a networking event will be worth it, or whether you will have anything in common with anyone in the room, think hard before answering! Remember the old saying “To assume, is to make an ASS of U and ME”!

Music for You provides quality live music for all types of Corporate Events. For more details, please contact Andrew on 07973 869621 or andrew@andrewjonesmusic.com

Farewell and hwyl fawr to a National icon

September 28, 2017 / welshtrumpeter / Leave a comment

He made the headlines, not only in Wales but all over the United Kingdom and beyond.

He was one of the most well-known and much-loved icons of Wales and his face was recognised by all wherever he went.

His appearances at the Millennium Stadium, (later to become the Principality Stadium) were legendary and caused England Rugby Manager Eddie Jones to name him as one of Welsh team’s added threats. His performances on the field were first class.

He was on first name terms with Royalty, politicians, celebrities and the average man and woman on the street. Children loved him and everyone wanted to have their photograph taken with him.

He was a true figurehead and represented his “Team” with great pride and was the first person you saw leading his Comrades out on public engagements.

He did have a tendency to smell at times and would give you a fair bashing (if he was feeling grumpy) and even though he was only with us for just seven and a half years, he will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.

Rest in Peace Lance Corporal, your duty is done!

Lance Corporal Shenkin III (Regimental Mascot of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Welsh)