They did it

Despite quite considerable odds, the school band managed to learn and perform the British national anthem.


They did it in spite of:


1) Having four days to learn the whole thing
2) Not being able to read music
3) Never being able to practice as a whole band, only ever being able to practice in classes, where only two or three of them are there
4) Not being given instumental lessons, only "band" practices, which forms a subset of problems:
a) See number 2
b) Not knowing things like how to be counted in properly
c) Having terrible technique
6) The band room being about 2 sq. ft. big
5) Being taught to blast as loud as they can, so they weren't able to play anything quietly
6) The kids who weren't in the band being allowed to muck around in the band room with the instuments so you couldn't hear a thing
7) Different instruments being in different keys, but no one knowing what keys they were in, and being adamant that it didn't matter.
8) The band master not speaking a single word of English, so not being able to help.
9) Having some sort of aversion to playing the last line properly

But the final result actually came out alright, so I'm really pleased with them.