Are you a buddy musician or hobby musician who wants to develop your musical skills whilst having fun playing in a band with other like-minded people, guided by an expert tutor? If the answer is yes but you are unsure how to get started, Project Band can provide you with the answer.
Founded by Simon Currie, saxophonist with The Manfreds since 2001, Project Band welcomes players of saxophones, flute, clarinet, brass plus piano, guitar and rhythm section. Members must be 16 plus, and you will get involved in playing modern pop, soul, funk, and jazz in an enjoyable and nurturing band setting.
As all the musical arrangements and backing tracks used are available on the Project Band website (projectband.co.uk/oxford-branch), sight-reading is not necessary. Confident players have plenty of scope to develop improvisation skills during the sessions too. Tunes like Happy (Pharrell Williams), Uptown Funk (Bruno Mars), Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers) and I Shot the Sheriff (Eric Clapton) join many more in the Project Band repertoire. Each set of sessions feature a different mix of new tracks as well as old favourites. Tutors Simon and Les Bruce both have a wealth of experience between them, having play with many band greats and pop icons over the years as well as teaching and running their own groups.
Project Band runs termly over ten weeks of two-hour sessions, finishing with a concert. Rehearsals are at Larkmead School in Faringdon Road, Abingdon on Monday nights; the venue opens at 7pm to set up, playing starts at 7.20 pm to 8.40 pm to clear and leave by 9pm. Members also have an online members area with rehearsal videos to practice too. Session dates for the coming months are:
- March – 4th, 11th and 18th
- April – 15th, 22nd and 29th
- May – 13th and 20th
- June – 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th
July – 1st and 8th July when there will be a concert, as there is at the end of every term, at The Kings Head and Bell in Abingdon. There will also be a formal concert at Evenly Wood in July but date yet to be confirmed.
If you are interested in finding out more, free trial sessions are available. Each session costs £18 but if you pay by block for 10 sessions, i.e. £150, the price drops to £15 per session. The first one is free for new students if they do not continue. The session cost also includes extra concerts. Fifty pieces of music and play along videos come with membership of the band. To book simply email ukprojectband@gmail.com
