22/12/09

Dying with the cold/flu (it is as yet undecided). At school for 2pm to run over carols with the entire school for their end of term Christmas service. The carols chosen are: The First Noel, Calypso Carol and Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Some of the words/lyrics are quite complicated, especially for the P1’s-P3’s in terms of pronunciation of words and phrasing. In my memory it was ALWAYS a bit of a struggle to fit in all those ‘heavenly’s’. A lot of the older ones are familiar with the 1st verses of these songs but (like the rest of us, I suspect) are approaching subsequent verses from an ‘eh?!?!’ point of view. Luckily the schools educational arts teacher, Mrs Young was on hand to coax everyone through tricky words and points of phrasing. Also much of the music for these carols is written in a high register and although the melodies usually span no more than an octave , when that octave starts on the E or F above middle C it quickly turns into a screech fest. Luckily, I discover that I’m not actually too bad at all at transposing on the hoof and it makes it much easier for everyone to tackle, (Keeping in mind that the church is usually packed to the rafters with mums and dads, all of whom are also not very keen on attempting to hit that top E either.

Even with coaching, the younger ones struggle with the complicated and unfamiliar wording, so I figure as long as we get a rousing chorus it will make up for us all fumbling through the verses. Employing age old panto technique I spilt the school in half - the little ones trying to beat the older ones in volume. Kids love a good fight.

Afterwards I speak to Mrs Young and ask if she’ll be working on anything with children after Christmas that I might be able to become involved in. She explained that her remit is to take each class for 50 minutes to provide classroom release for their teacher and therefore her days are “extremely varied” having to jump between adifferent age groups and abilities and all the challenges that can pose, such as how to best to motivate the different age groups and tailoring activities to suit ability.

I am constantly disappointed that music is not given more importance in the primary school curriculum by local authorities and indeed wider government. Although there should be an emphasis on promoting all the arts in our education system, primary teachers who are responsible for teaching a broad range of subjects (and this might be controversial but….) are more than capable of teaching art. At primary level it doesn’t require a specific level of ability or training to teach and encourage it and anyone can pick up a paintbrush. However music even at the most basic level requires some knowledge of theory and musicality. It is not possible to just pick up a musical instrument and play it, it requires training in technique etc. I was lucky enough to have been taught the recorder from Primary One (not sure whether this was standard policy in England or just a musically minded teacher) but at the age of 5 I had my first introduction to reading and playing music. After moving to Scotland, when we finally picked up the recorder again in Primary 4 I was leaps and bounds beyond the rest of the pupils in my class. As someone who hopes to become an instrumental instructor and also as a parent I am VERY frustrated by a curriculm that leaves room for musical study at an early age which is when I feel it is MOST important. OK. Rant over.

The upshot is that I hope to spend sometime shadowing Mrs Young next term and hopefully I’ll be able to learn more about working with children in a classroom environment. Sigh……

Still Dying of cold and Flu ……. Tis the day of the Beatles Gigs. Don’t get to sound check although we are told to be in early. Typical. Rehearse for an hour and a half and it is the best rehearsal I’ve had all year, chiefly I think because this time we rehearsed in a large room and finally I could hear myself! Don’t know is this is due to space but am usually drowned out by guitar/drums etc. (and not to miss an opportunity to compare myself to Beethoven - I rekon that this must have been how it felt to him, being deaf and playing the piano - although lacking even a smidgeon of Ludwig’s genius it is often the case of hitting a chord and hoping it’s right - it doesn’t allow any room for improv or flair!) It’s made me realise how much I rely on ’hearing’ what I am playing as a guide to making sure I’m doing it right. This is not such an issue when we have music or chord charts but there’s not much use in ’playing by ear’ when you are rendered deaf by every one else. Regardless, the getting drowned out/ not hearing thing is something I’m going to have to sort out for the next band, I.e. avoidance of the tiny practive rooms at all costs.

Bumped into Elaine who is now taking NQ second study keys and asked whether I could sit in on some of her classes in order to get a different perspective on instrumental instruction for older students as opposed to younger as I am used to.

I helped a few of my classmates through second study last year so it will also be interesting to see if and if so, how Elaine approaches this differently to myself.

The gig itself went well I feel. I think it’s the first college gig where I’ve not felt particularly nervous. Whether that’s down to being so familiar with the material having played it since September or being more used to playing in front of classmates (of whom the majority of the audience was comprised) or having my daughter there (never show fear when parenting - children are like Big Brother - show them what bothers you and you’ll end up spending the next 20 years in your own private Room 101). Anyway, it is now just a case of getting the presentation out of the way and I shall hopefully never have to think about listen to or play The Beatles ever again. Ever. Please.

Still reeling from the panto success at the beginning of the month! Everything went really well. Even when the keyboard stand collapsed at the end of the first night, which unfortunately got more laughs than anything when I reassembled it and then it collapsed again 2 minutes later. I had to play the rest of the set on the floor. This is the story of my life.