This month Foden's trombone ace, John Barber, presents 'And another thing' providing an insight to life as a music teacher, with considerable wit.

Teaching music in a boy’s school to young men full of 11-18-year-old ideas, quirks and hormones can sometimes present challenges, unexpected points of view and, on occasion, raise a smile.

With this column airing in the month for lovers - February, I was reminded of the actions of Tom, a former pupil and member of the school big band, who whilst not the biggest in stature, made up for it with his wit, unique take on life and thoughts as to the best motivational techniques for younger boys at the school. The last part mostly revolved around a small tree branch that Tom found on the playing field one lunchtime, which he dragged rather unceremoniously into our rehearsal room. Asked why he had brought the branch with him, Tom replied that it was his 'motivation stick' and proceeded to demonstrate its effectiveness by swinging it at one of the younger saxophonists, who had rather unfortunately missed his entry in a run through of Count Basie's One O' Clock Jump.

I'm delighted to say that the 'motivation stick' didn't become a permanent feature of big band rehearsals, although despite the attempted assault of an 11-year-old boy, Tom did!

As a member of the big band, one particular passion that Tom took a considerable amount of time and effort with was the renaming of selected titles from the music pad. This was an activity that was usually completed under the radar of a rehearsal. So as not to draw attention, Tom would wait until pupils were instructed to mark dynamics, phrasing and articulation on their music, then taking a pencil and playing the part of a model student, would lean forward and let his creativity flow. It wouldn't be until weeks later, when the music was collected in after a concert, that the fullness of his efforts could be appreciated. Being a 16-year-old boy, one particular Sinatra night produced a range of adapted titles that Tom conjured up including Fly me to Your Mum, I Only Have Eyes for Your Mum and Almost Like being in Love (with your Mum). There were others of course, but for this publication a line should be drawn!