My first ensemble experience was in a tiny darkened room in the tram depot, sitting on a bench with about six other clarinet-blowing members of the DLI First Cadet Battalion Military Band - boys of all ages from nine to seventeen, of all sizes and shapes: a wonderful experience, and not only from the musical point of view. To the younger ones among us, with knees accustomed to exposure to sea-born gales, the touch of rough khaki was sheer torture, but at the same time thrilling and with the promise of manly things to come. There was also the testing of musical muscles in the inevitable comparison with the technical superiority of others; and this was without doubt the most important factor of any.