The Boomer Times #4

JULY

2021

|

ISSUE

4

THE BOOMER TIMES The newsletter for members and friends of the Golden Kangaroos Hornsby Concert Band

Editorial

Image: The Golden Kangaroos

After a short hiatus, the Boomer Times returns! Since the last issue came out, all of our bands have been incredibly busy bringing music back to the community. But, as

Also in this Issue:

Greater Sydney has gone into lockdown to minimise the spread of the latest outbreak, this bumper edition will cover everything the Golden Kangaroos has been up to over the last few months (which you can navigate around to your hearts content to the

Marching Band Brings Home a Grant - 2

right).

Marching Band at the Show - 2 Anzac Day - 2

From the appointment of our new Marketing Director to the securing of funds for the Marching Band, our members have been just as busy behind the scenes too.

GK's Bring 'Simple Joys' to Epping - 3 New Marketing Director - 4 Senior Band x Engineers - 4

You’ll also find out more about our featured GK for this issue, Dawn Nettheim, who has been one of our longest-serving and most valued members.

Executive News

- 5

Marching Band Musings - 7 Ask a Conductor - 8

With the onset of tougher lockdown measures and the potential for their continuation, I

Meet a Golden Kangaroo -

9

Upcoming Events and News - 10 hope you are all staying safe and that we can continue to play together again soon.

Yours, masked-up and socially distanced, Rachel

Marching Band Flyer - 11

Marching Band Brings Home a Grant Our relaunched band will receive some vital funds

Following the band's application for the Stronger

Image: James McLeay

Communities Programme grants in March, the Marching Band Steering Committee is pleased to announce that our application was successful!

Following their performance, the Marching Band formed up and showed off their marching prowess. The band led the

With the success of the grant, the committee will have

procession to and from the cenotaph, where Caroline and

until the end of the year to use the $7,500 awarded to

Ximena represented the Golden Kangaroos in laying a wreath

purchase new marching band jackets and percussion.

during the outdoor service.

The grant application and expression of interest were

To find out about what else Marching Band has been up to

written up by the committee, with Matt O'Rourke and

lately, check out this month's Marching Band Musings.

Stephen O'Doherty working particularly hard to ensure the best chance of success.

Marching Band Wows Easter Show Crowds The band's debut hit all the right notes

With our new Drum Major at the helm, the Marching Band showed off their musical and marching prowess at the Image: Stephanie Lane / Facebook

The Golden Kangaroos Commemorate ANZAC Day

Sydney Royal Easter Show on Saturday, April 10.

As its first performance for the year and following the relaunch, the band marched through the crowds and showed off its newly-honed drill techniques.

The gig went off without a hitch, and the Royal Agricultural Society has already booked the band in to do it all again next year.

From marches to hymns, the Epping RSL service tested our musical chops

In Senior Band's first performance post-COVID, the band captured the solemnity of Anzac day and brought audience members to tears.

After welcoming attendees with an upbeat program including Invercargill, Africa, and The Eagles on Tour, Senior Band served as the backing for hymns during the Anzac service.

Image: Siobhan Murray / Facebook

GK's Bring 'Simple Joys' to Epping Our first concert of the year came at the perfect time

Following a year of separation and several months of socially-distanced rehearsals, the Golden Kangaroos Discovery, Explorer and Senior bands performed in the organisation's first concert for 2021.

Despite the restrictions brought in mere days before the big day, the concert saw a huge turnout of audience members.

"It was clear the audience really resonated with the simple joys theme, which reinforces just what a significant thing it is in people's lives to be able to enjoy live music," Stephen O'Doherty told The Boomer Times.

"The response was so pleasing. I know we made people cry with Shenandoah - that's always good music!"

The time away from music was also noticeable, with both conductors picking up on the change.

"Matthew and I had a long debrief afterwards," Stephen said. "We both feel all bands played better than prelockdown, and the difference can be felt as much as heard. The musicality of the performances was so

Image: James McLeay

The timing of our concert couldn't have been better either, with Greater Sydney entering lockdown less than a week later.

fulfilling for us, and I could tell players and the audience felt similarly."

"I can't believe how fortunate we were to choose the last possible week before a new lockdown," Stephen added.

With a repertoire covering everything from traditional tunes to medleys of music from Dr Who and Porgy and Bess, there was something everyone could enjoy following our long hiatus.

The raffling of our various prizes and the giveaway of one of our limited edition 50th anniversary bottles of wine also went down a treat with our audience.

The musicality of the performance was so fulfilling for us, and I could tell players and the audience felt similarly.

Image: James McLeay

Image: The Golden Kangaroos / Facebook

A New Marketing Director James Mcleay will captain our Marketing Team Image: JMC Academy / Instagram

After months of advertising for a new Marketing Director and Matt O'Rourke holding down the marketing fort in the meantime, we're excited to announce that James Mcleay has been appointed as our next Marketing Director!

Golden Kangaroos Vice President, Matt O'Rourke, said of the appointment: "We're very happy to have James on board. For some time we have been looking for a

Senior Band Helps Next Generation of Audio Engineers JMC students recorded, Senior Band

Marketing Director with the right skills and experience to really further the band's brand and we believe that we

played

have found that person in James."

While Senior Band might be used to getting miked up for In this role, James will be taking over from Matt and

a performance, it's a whole different experience during a

heading up our efforts across marketing, rebranding, and

rehearsal.

social media. This also means that our Marketing subcommittee will now become our Marketing team.

Students studying sound engineering at JMC Academy are required to record a large ensemble that can blend

Having just started his Honours year of his Bachelor of

their sound together, and Senior Band was all too happy

Industrial Design, James brings a wealth of experience in

to oblige.

marketing, design, leadership and more and has some big ideas for the marketing efforts for the Golden

Instead of regular rehearsals, two groups of students -

Kangaroos.

including Stephen O'Doherty's son Daniel - set up their equipment and recorded Senior Band playing Porgy and

The Marketing team has already had their first meeting

Bess and And Tears No Bitterness in late April.

too, where plans were made to update the website, branding and general look of the Golden Kangaroos.

After multiple takes to get key moments of each piece just right, two recordings of the band members putting

If you have any ideas for our marketing efforts you can

their best notes forward have been produced and are

get in touch with James at:

now available courtesy of Stephen.

j.mcleay@goldenkangaroos.net.

Executive News New term, new decisions

With the term just beginning, the Executive Committee is already working hard to improve different aspects of the band's organisation.

Annual strategy meeting The Executive Committee recently held an annual strategy meeting to discuss and plan the band's direction for the next three years. The committee placed a special focus on defining the band's core values and what the ideal culture of the band should look like.

These key values are:

Growing together as an organisation and as

Image: The Golden Kangaroos / Facebook

musicians Fostering a love of music among members and in the community Inclusion of players of different skill levels and music from different genres and composers

Suggestions for potential names are welcome, and if you have a great idea for one please let one of the Executive Committee members know via email or by catching them at rehearsal.

Providing musical education to any who want it Performing live music post-COVID in styles that most

PayPal

won't usually hear live Following the recent issues with PayPal, the Executive After realising that these strengths are aligned with what the band provides to the community, the committee decided those were the values that should be reinforced and strengthened.

Rebranding The band's rebranding is still in the works, and the committee is excited to share the final results with you!

As the process is being finalised, the result will give the

Committee apologise to members for the inconvenience caused and have since rectified the administrative issues that resulted in the temporary shutdown of the band's payment gateway.

Upcoming AGM As we approach the latter half of the year, our Annual General Meeting draws ever nearer too. Our AGM will be held during a special meeting on Thursday, August 12.

band a more professional look while still recognising our heritage. This has mainly been developed through a redesign of the font and logo, spearheaded by James McLeay, which will provide the basis for new designs for the band's flyers, advertising, and social media.

Interesting in joining the Executive Committee? Keep an eye out for correspondence from our secretary Carreen Botha, who will be sending out information about what to expect and how the nomination process will work this year.

The Executive Committee is also considering a rebranding of the bands themselves through a name change. The committee hopes this will change the perception that Senior Band is the endpoint of our members' musical development and encourage members to get involved across the different bands.

Photo Call-Out We're compiling our history and need your help!

Because we're celebrating 50 years of making music, the Executive Committee is looking back at our history and trying to collect as many memories of the Golden Kangaroos as we can.

This means that we're looking to collect any historical documents, photos, and videos to build a digital archive of our history.

If you have anything that you would like to see in our archives, please send them through to Matt at matthew.o'rourke@goldenkangaroos.net.

Need some inspiration? Head here and take a look at our old school (now archived) website!

Classifieds Submit ads to marketing@goldenkangaroos.org.au

Music Lessons Danny McNeall (Discovery/Explorer Bands, Oboe) is on the lookout for new piano students! Danny welcomes beginner to advanced-intermediate level students of all ages, so if you've always wanted to learn (or know an aspiring pianist), check out his website here, shoot him an email at dannymcneall1@gmail.com, or give him a call on 0419 653 880.

Meme of the Month Submitted by: Amanda Irving

Image: Liz Hamilton

Marching Band Musings

Coming up:

With our new Drum Major Gerald already

shaping us up to be in our best form for many years, the small changes in form-up and responses to the new mace

The latest updates from our Marching Band Manager

signals are visibly making all the difference in our presentation – after all we are on show and we are the GKs! We are keen to get out in the community as much as possible too, so stay tuned for upcoming events. As we

What a wonderful start to a promising year with the relaunch of our dynamic Marching Band now in full swing.

throw our performance calendar open for the year, do let me know of any performance opportunities you may think of.

2021 has been a very busy year already, starting with a full dress rehearsal, two Easter Show performances and the honour of leading the march for the Epping RSL Anzac Service.

Sydney Royal Easter Show performance Saturday, April 10: 10.30am / 2pm What a cracker of a start back into the public eye for the

Recruitment:

Although there will be a little fluctuation in

numbers as members try us out, it’s great to see we have formed a solid core of about 20 members with a good cross section of instruments, including young ones starting to come through. Especially exciting, we even have two volunteers to bring our freshly cleaned and repaired Boomer to life!

Marching Band!

Marching from our base under the Sydney Olympic Park stadium we played four abreast from the moment we stepped off, all the way up the Grand Parade.

Arriving at “the intersection” with a shout of “Tequila!”, attention was already on us. With our precision practised move we unexpectedly turned to face the crowd, where the drum corps donned instruments and our Drum Major picked up the drum sticks! Straight into the full concert

Image: The Royal Agricultural Society

band version of Dr Who, Boomer and our colour guard

Having established our core of willing marchers from the

entertained the crowd with the appearance of Daleks

Concert Band ranks we are now setting our sights on a

and Cybermen (hidden behind the banner) and the Tardis

community recruiting drive. All suggestions of who to

appearing out from the crowd.

contact are more than welcome as we get the word out and start to build our numbers. Anywhere you are able to

A massive hit, we were inundated with people all wanting

send, pin on a noticeboard or include in a newsletter the

photos with Boomer and the girls. Such an incredible

attached flyer please do so, we want to spread the word

piece and great entertainment value – this performance

far and wide.

was totally out of this world! Leaving the audience wanting more we threw in a counter march and played

We are also calling for any videos and photos of our

our way back to the stadium to do it all again three hours

performances we can use for training review and possible

later. Both performances were very popular with

use in a future “show reel” to send to prospective events.

comments like “that was awesome!" being heard from the

Simply upload anything you may have to this link.

crowd. The RAS were very pleased and we are booked again for next year!

After the success of Dr Who we are keen to try some more great music and are very fortunate to have both Stephen

Epping RSL Anzac service - Sunday April 18

and Gerald working together on refreshing our repertoire.

After the indoor service, the GKs marching band had the honour of leading the street march from The Epping Club

Thinking of joining us? It’s never too late to join and you

to the Cenotaph and back.

are always welcome to come try with no obligation – come check us out!

This year our trumpeter Darien Sim continued the honours by stepping out of the marching ranks to be the lone

Next rehearsal: Sunday July 18th from 2-4pm at Pennant

bugler for The Last Post. Our congratulations to Darien on

Hills Park.

a job well done.

- Caroline Deane

Ask a Conductor Senior Band conductor Stephen O'Doherty talks stamina and music theory

A trumpeter of Beecroft asks:

"How can I improve my

stamina as a brass player?"

You know, one of the most incredible, frustrating and yet encouraging things about playing an instrument is that technique is so counter-intuitive. You want more stamina?

You want to go higher, longer? You exercise your lips right? You push harder into the mouthpiece, or pull the

Image: Unsplash

instrument tighter against your face (which is the same)?

Well the best brass teachers would say no. Work smarter, not harder.

Y Zguy of the Upper North Shore asks: "Is

F# the same

as Gb?"

Arnold Jacobs was perhaps the most influential brass

No.

pedagogue of the 20th century. His techniques liberated generations of brass players from the bondage of working too hard and blowing themselves out. From 1944—1988 he was Principal Tubist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, widely regarded even today as having one of the finest

S Peranto of no fixed address asks: "Is global

music truly a

language? Surely different cultures have different

pitch and tuning systems so like it's random?

sounding brass sections around.

Music can be played in random ways but pitch is certainly His genius was to strip things back to simple physiology and psychology. He taught students to think the notes they were playing, in other words sing their parts, but with their lips responding to the brain’s stimulus instead of their vocal folds. He changed people’s thinking about breathing by arguing for a relaxed technique using the diaphragm muscle to open the chest cavity, letting air naturally rush in because of the change in partial pressure. It’s as easy as… well breathing.

not random. It follows physical laws relating to the nature of sound as a vibration. When you change a vibrating object to twice its volume or length it halves the pitch: an octave or ratio of 2:1. A ratio of 4:3 gives a fourth (like CF). 3:2 gives a fifth (like C-G). Say what?

Well let’s say you fill a bottle with 400mls of water, and another with 300mls and you and a friend blow across the top of them like a flute. The one with less water will be lower in pitch. The one with more water will sound higher and together they should make the interval of a fourth.

I well remember when my clarinet teacher John St George

Do try this at home.

used what I now know was the Arnold technique to completely remake my technique (Chris McLeay was also fortunate to have the same teacher).

The point is that while tuning systems (the way pitches are organised) do differ in different cultures, these fundamental physical laws always apply, so you’ll find

There are some very good videos (albeit old and scratchy,

octaves, thirds, fourths and fifths everywhere.

transferred from film) of Jacobs teaching on Youtube, and brass players could spend many productive lockdown

Next time, more on the harmonic series

hours watching and applying his wisdom. I like this one on breathing: https://youtu.be/P2iTKTdVdoU.

[Ed: you promised that last time] [Me: yes but it’s only half written, sorry].

Stamina starts (and perhaps ends) with breathing. A great supportive air column will take the pressure off your embouchure and make all the difference. (that’s the counter-intuitive bit).

Here is another brilliant video on

the same subject from our own Master Brass player James Morrison: https://youtu.be/nkbxa8LcZj4.

Got a question for Stephen? Submit it here and it could be featured next time!

Meet a Golden Kangaroo Introducing: The Golden Kangaroos' in-house arranger and multi-instrumentalist We're a pretty big organisation, so it can be hard to get to know the people outside of our respective sections and ensembles, in fuzzy Brady Bunchesque Zoom calls, and behind the names in emails.

To combat this we've started this segment, Meet a Golden Kangaroo, where we'll sit down with a different member of our community, ask some musical questions and share what they have to say. To start us off, we got to know: Dawn Nettheim.

Dawn has been a member of the Golden Kangaroos since 1989 and has taught music students for 40 years! Dawn also plays a variety of instruments, including piano, pipe organ, percussion, and bassoon. Her passion for music has also seen Dawn get involved with (and become a life member of) several musical groups and organisations, share her knowledge as a lecturer, and be recognised for her passion when she was awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) medal!

Q. When did you join the Golden

Q. How has music in general

Kangaroos?

influenced your life?

D: I moved to Cheltenham in 1982 and

D: I come from “the bush”, and in

used to hear musicians at practice in

1982, aged 40, I packed a suitcase

the old (church) band hall, but did not

and ran away from a truly awful

work up enough courage to go in and

situation there, and came to

ask about joining till two years later.

Sydney to start life all over again.

Merrilee McNaught was giving a drum lesson, and graciously filled me in on

What I did: Gained a Bachelor of

the details and invited me to join. I was

music (S.U.) degree, Post graduate

very poor at the time, so I did all the

diploma of Music (in orchestration),

cleaning (inside and outside) and any

was past Secretary of the

repairs, mending, gardening, etc. in

Fellowship of Australian

lieu of paying fees.

Composers (now disbanded as it Image: The Golden Kangaroos

I have a great need to be a "useful" citizen, and when that can be combined with my great love of music - that's heaven!

Q. What roles have you performed

QUANGO of the government), past

professional and amateur

as a member?

Secretary of the Beecroft

orchestras of Australia (and some

Symphony Orchestra, and a life

overseas ones) until advanced

member, past Secretary of Ryde

computer programs put me out of

Eisteddfod, and a life member.

business in the year 2000.

D: I volunteered for all sorts of jobs as well:

Wardrobe mistress for a few years, Librarian for a few years, relief conductor for a few months when Mr Grieve was away, and the GK’s permanent “in-house” band arranger and copyist. I am a certified member of MAGA (Music Arrangers Guild of Australia) – and also a life member of that organisation.

Q. Alongside your involvement in the Golden Kangaroos, Beecroft

Now retired, after some illness, but

Symphony Orchestra, and Ryde

still lecturing at U3A and still

Eisteddfod, how has music

available for spot jobs, coaching,

factored into your professional

etc.

life?

Q. What has been your philosophy in life?

D: [I was a] lecturer at Parramatta Conservatorium for a few years,

D: I have a great need to be a

private music teacher for 40 years,

"useful" citizen, and when that can

had a registered business as a full-

be combined with my great love of

time as copyist for the various

music - that's heaven!

Upcoming Events From committee meetings to Zoom catchups, there's still plenty happening with the GKs

July 6 - Zoom Get-Together & Trivia! (here's the link) 12 - Discovery & Explorer Band rehearsals* 13 - Senior Band rehearsal* 15 - Executive committee meeting 18 - Marching Band rehearsal* 22 - Stage Band rehearsal*

August

Member News

1 - Marching Band rehearsal* 12 - Annual General Meeting (AGM) 19 - Executive committee meeting

Where we celebrate the achievements of our

22 - Stage Band rehearsal*

members

26 - Stage Band rehearsal* 28 - State Band Championships*

Achievements & News *Subject to COVID-19 restrictions

Rachel Fieldhouse (Senior Band, Tenor Sax) started a new job as a Junior Content Producer at OverSixty!

Contributors Rachel Fieldhouse - Words and design

Have you had some exciting news recently? We'd love to

Caroline Deane - Marching Band Musings

hear about it!

Stephen O'Doherty - Ask a Conductor columnist

Whether it's a music-related or something exciting has

Stay Connected

happened in your personal or professional life, please

Keep the conversation going in our Facebook

send through any details to

group Read and submit to the newsletter Come along to Zoom catch-ups

marketing@goldenkangaroos.org.au, or submit this handy form, so that we can share and celebrate it together in the next issue!

Got some news, ideas, or photos you'd like to see in for issue 4? We'd love to hear from you!

Send any questions, queries, or ideas for future editions to: marketing@goldenkangaroos.org.au or submit them here!