"YOU know how to whistle, don't you Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow."

So goes Lauren Bacall's immortal line to Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not.

Sadly for these Oxfordshire musicians, learning to play the bassoon or saxophone in two months might not be quite so simple.

In a fundraising mission for charity, 90 local singers, blowers and strummers have volunteered to learn a new instrument in just nine weeks.

Each one is collecting sponsorship for Home Start Oxford, a volunteer group which offers support and advice to struggling parents.

And as if that challenge wasn't daunting enough, the entire city squad is competing against 120 musicians doing the exact same thing in Cambridge.

On September 10 the two awkward orchestras will come together for a play-off at Oxford Town Hall to see which group – if either – has managed to learn its instruments.

One of those taking part in the inaugural Oxford Cambridge Note Race is Jericho pianist Deborah Gewirtz, who is attempting to learn the bassoon.

This weekend, she joined all the other local hopefuls for their first and only group training day at St Edward's School in Summertown.

She said: "I've always wanted to play the bassoon: it is ungainly and comical and I love its quirkiness, yet it has this beautiful sonority.

"My aim is to be able to play the Rite of Spring [Igor Stravinsky's famously challenging 1913 ballet]."

Speaking about the weekend workshop she added: "I was delighted with how warm-hearted the whole atmosphere was.

"Our teacher Glyn Williams was amazing – it was whistle-stop bassoon starting from nothing and he took us above and beyond what we needed to learn."

Also joining Sunday's sonorous sessions were a sextet of saxophonists, a team of trumpet players and a sea of singers.

All of them have the same goal – to reach Grade I on their chosen instrument by September.

Prizes will be awarded to the team that raises the highest average sponsorship, and the musicians who get the highest mark in their Grade 1 exam.

Speaking about her own exam, Ms Gewirtz said: "I think I will pass, although it will be hard.

"At the moment my children laugh at me but I think I will pass, it's just a matter of how well I do."

Aside from Sunday's free training day, competitors are allowed to pay for just one half-hour lesson on their new instrument: otherwise they must be self-taught.

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.

Find out more at gradeoneathon.org