ON YOUR marks, get set – go learn the double bass!

An Oxford charity is looking for 120 city musicians to learn a new musical instrument in just nine weeks.

Home Start Oxford is challenging performers who are already Grade 8 on one instrument to get to Grade 1 on a completely new one this summer.

The charity will provide one free teaching day, or competitors are allowed to pay for one half-hour lesson on the new instrument: otherwise they must be self-taught.

To make the whole thing more interesting, the charity is running the exact same challenge in Oxford's rival Cambridge.

At the end of the nine weeks, the musicians from both cities will come together and the two awkward orchestras will have to prove their prowess by performing at a competitive concert to determine which city has the mightiest musicians.

The charity is also asking all the musicians to get sponsored and will be dishing out prizes to the team which raises the most musical money.

In a nod to the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race and its spin-off the Oxford Cambridge Goat Race, Home Start has dubbed its challenge the Oxford Cambridge Note Race.

One woman who has already signed up to the challenge is Oxford music teacher Steph Pirrie.

The Jericho resident, whose mum Lynn Tait used to be a Home Start volunteer, already plays the trumpet and sings to a Grade 8 level, but she said she had always wanted to learn the double bass.

Now with a good excuse to finally pick it up, she has borrowed a double bass from her friend and is ready to get plucking.

She said: "I'm excited about the whole thing.

"There are so many brilliant reasons to do it – the chance to learn a second musical instrument, raising money for charity and meeting all those other musicians.

"I know from my mum that Home Start helps people who really need it."

Home Start, which has a base at Blackbird Leys Community Centre, recruits volunteers to help people with difficult home lives.

Clients include people with mental health problems, postnatal illness, disabilities, the bereaved and people recovering from domestic abuse.

The charity is officially launching the Oxford Cambridge Note Race at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building off Iffley Road at 3pm this Sunday.

Find out more and register online at gradeoneathon.org