Hi Folks,

David Moore here on third cornet.

At Greendale school in 1958, I knew that one day I would play the cornet when our teacher, Mr. Martin, played ‘A Frog Went Walking on a Summer’s Day’ on his silver cornet. The dream came true eight years later at Cashmere High band when I played soprano cornet and even had time as band prefect.

The 1st Christchurch Boys Brigade had a strong company where I learnt to play bugle and at age 14, to my utter shock I won the first silver bugle Competition for the Battalion.

After training as an NZPO Radio tech and then in medical Electronics I worked overseas for three years then returned to my old job, got married, changed career, and had 10 years selling Aluminium joinery which I loved doing, but my passion for electronics and business eventually took me back to science and University study.

My wife of 40years is Beth, and she and our two daughters are excellent singers. I missed out here! One daughter teaches music and preschool. We have 4 grandchildren.

About 30 years after school I bought a trumpet and Kim Blackmore heard this and asked me to play 2nd cornet for Steadfast. I enjoyed this for 3 years but we moved house and I stopped playing until Peter Croft coerced me (thankyou Peter) to join Sumner by offering me Flugel. Long story short, I changed to 2nd cornet for 3 years until earthquake and work issues arose. 18 months ago, I came back to band on 3rd cornet.

My advice to young people is to make as much progress on a musical instrument as you can before stopping. Don’t give up too soon! Keep playing for fun to maintain your skill as one day you just may well rejoin a band.