By Martin Plant
In this latest edition, taken from a recorded interview by Martin Plant, Ryan Ashley talks about life in one of the area’s very active brass bands – including how it sees him travel Europe and the future of banding.
RYAN Ashley was born in 2001 and lives in Greenfield and attended the village’s Primary School and Saddleworth School before enrolling on a music course at Oldham College. His three older sisters still live locally.
At the age of four, he showed an interest in playing a cornet with Boarshurst Silver Band – established in 1849 and one of the oldest established bands in the country.
Most of his family were already members and at the age of 12 he started seriously to learn how to play a cornet.
Ryan recalled: “I taught myself. I could picture in my head the music and its patterns before I learned to read musical notation, though I found learning the rhythms more difficult than reading the notes.
“In the training band I actually first started with the flugelhorn which resembles a cornet but it has a more hollow sound.
“A cornet sounds a bit brighter!
“A typical brass band of around 25 players includes cornet seats which require nine to make this section full, plus soprano cornet (one), flugelhorn (one), tenor horn (three), baritones (two), euphoniums (two), trombones (three), basses E flat (two) and B flat (two), and percussionists (numbers can vary).
“The shape of the band is such that as principal cornet player I am in the front row at the left of a U-shape while the lower sounding instruments are at the back or on the right, which helps create a wave effect and keeps sections together.
“One of the problems with playing a brass instrument is finding the right mouthpiece. Mine is a Denis Wick S mouthpiece which has quite a shallow shape.
“The embouchure, or position of the mouth, is different for all players according to their facial and lip characteristics.
“The shape of your lips and individual breath control tends to determine what instrument you play. You need a lot of puff to play a bigger instrument.
“On a cornet I can play a phrase of eight bars, about 30 seconds, without breathing. Sometimes I can go to 16 bars but that requires a lot of practice – not just notes and passages but great focus on breath control.
“Another difficulty is that playing a brass instrument can cause lip problems! When you get tired you push, which isn’t the correct technique for long lasting lip stamina.
“This puts more pressure on the mouthpiece which can damage your lips and make them swollen.
“Dry or chapped lips can result and it can make the problem worse when you play again!
“However, over time, you can strengthen your lips by playing and you can protect them with lip balm.
“Being in the band is like being part of one big family. It is my happy place as well as being somewhere where I feel I am continuing to be part of my actual family’s legacy.
“You have to be dedicated though. I practise for about an hour every day and we practise as a band on two nights a week – sometimes more if we have a concert or contest coming up.
“We are a high section band so we have high standards to maintain.”
PLAYING AT HOME AND ABROAD
“There are five levels for bands, a bit like football leagues. There’s the championship section and then four more, first to fourth.
“We’re presently at the top of the first section. We’re close to breaking into the top championship section, where you find the likes of Black Dyke and Grimethorpe bands.
“We take part in regional and national competitions and, of course, in Saddleworth’s annual Whit Friday contests.
“Recently, we returned from the Cheltenham National Championship where we finished ninth in our section. (The Championship section national competition takes place in London at the Royal Albert Hall.)
“I’ve also been on mini tours with the band to Amsterdam and Valkenburg in the Netherlands.
“Fundraising is important. Members, who have access to the club’s facilities, pay £5 a week subscription and we raise money through activities at the club, where my mum is the bar manager, by concerts and competition winnings.
“We’ve even received money by providing the music for an Emirates television advertisement!
“You can watch a brass band performing live every Sunday night on our Facebook page (@BoarshurstSilverBand).
“We live streamed a joint concert early in November with Fountain City band who were here from Kansas in the United States.
“For the Saddleworth Whit Friday band contests, we begin in Uppermill and finish in Greenfield (sometimes after midnight) where we’re the last band to play.
“It’s a great evening but, like everything else, the competition is very dependent on funding and the goodwill of local volunteers.”
PRESENT AND FUTURE
“Jamie Prophet is the current Musical Director of the band and has been a great mentor. He was Principal Trumpet of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
“The band has its own instruments but my cornet was donated to me, as the youngest player in the band at that time, as a memorial to the last club secretary, Janet Payne.
“Brass bands are struggling to recruit players at the moment. Perhaps this is as a result of Covid-19 because people now seem to find it harder to commit to the amount of time needed to practise and rehearse.
“It is not always easy to find replacement members. Sometimes, bands resort to poaching players from other bands! It’s all very competitive!”
*IN MAY 2017, Ryan and his dad were at Manchester Arena for Ariana Grande’s concert when the terrorist attack took place.
As a young lad, shocked and affected by the events of the night and trying to process what had happened, Ryan wrote and recorded a song.
This can be accessed by clicking this YouTube link – www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqPzwS7j0os.
Ryan also has his own YouTube channel for other songs at www.youtube.com/@ryanashley7628
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