A passionate Marlborough musician is helping a new generation of young players find their beat.
Linda Holdaway is overseeing up and coming players who she hopes will one day join Marlborough District Brass Band.
The idea is to get youngsters interested so there is always new talent coming up through the ranks, she says.
“The idea of teaching these students came about because traditionally Blenheim loses a lot of players when they have finished college and go off to university and we want to keep them coming on through the ranks in the hope that they will graduate to First Class Brass, the official junior band.”
Linda says her vision was to get the kids together so they could see who else was learning and at a similar level.
There are four mentors involved with the group and they are Jack Banks, Logan Ready, Ariel Rolfe and Scarlet Delve.
Eight-year-old Meabh Anderson says when you get to play music, it’s ‘pretty fun’.
The Riverlands School student is part of a group of predominantly primary aged children taking part in the initiative.
Meabh has been playing cornet for about six months and liked the idea of joining the group after being taught drums and ukulele by her teacher at school.
For nine-year-old Taylah Ruffell, a student at Redwoodtown School, playing trombone runs in the family.
Her mum was in the brass band and inspired Taylah to take up trombone.
Taylah says the hardest part of learning the brass instrument is learning the notes and the different finger positions.
She says having Linda’s help is very nice.
Linda says the mentor group were the primary schools brass band members who were taught during school hours at various schools in Blenheim
Jack Banks, 17, is a Year 12 student at Marlborough College and sees his role as a support person for the younger tamariki on their own musical pathway.
He had his own mentor and credits former Marlborough District Brass Band alumni Kevin Mosely for his own musical development.
He says watching the kids learn is a real buzz.
“If you hear them play a sound and they struggle, you encourage them to just try again. When they get it, they kind of go ‘BOP’ and pick it up, it’s pretty cool.”