Friday, May 27, 2011

Orchestra of two hundred?



I had a lovely day yesterday conducting an orchestra of about 200 children all playing from "Band in a book" in the Sandwich guildhall. The surroundings were inspiring, and it was thrilling to see the rows of instrumentalists who have only been playing a short while, but had achieved so much.



The day was organised by Beryl Sampson who is lead music teacher for Deal and Sandwich cluster. Her enthusiasm and dedication shone through the event, and made this a really wonderful experience for all... especially me.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sarah Stays with Rupert!







Some people may know what a huge Rupert bear fan I am. I am especially keen on the Rupert artwork done by Alfred Bestall, but thats another story...





I arrived at Canterbury travel lodge last night after a long journey ( I was in Kent doing a workshop day today).





Imagine my excitement when I arrived and found that the travel lodge building was the home of Mary Tourtell the creator of Rupert. Woo hoo!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

182nd Anniversary



Its the 182nd anniversary of the accordion!. How I love that instrument. Its a shame there are so many accordion jokes!



Having said that, I couldn't find one! . the accordion does feature in these banjo jokes though.



(I actually quite like the banjo too.... is it me?)






Banjo Jokes
1) Q. What's the difference between a banjo and a cattle grid?
A You drive slowly over the cattle grid...

2) You're driving down the street- there's an accordion on one side and a banjo on the other ... which do you go for first?...... the accordion , because it' s business before pleasure.
3) How do you know when you have a banjo player at your door? He keeps getting louder and louder and doesn't know when to come in.
4) What is a definition of perfect pitch?
When you toss an accordion into the dumpster and it lands right on top of a banjo.






Mmmmm!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Watch this.



I tried to upload this video of Martha and her friend Sarah doing their "Tin can song" but couldn't. Have a watch, it may give inspiration for how to be creative with baked bean tins!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEgvsq48dik



Tuesday, May 17, 2011




Martha is in a six woman show in the garden season at the Stables theatre. A wonderful opportunity for her to be acting alongside Cleo laine, Jacqui Dankworth and Fenella Fielding.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Make yourself at home


This is a neighbourhood cat that wanders into our house from time to time.
Talk about make yourself at home !

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Music cuts.



I had a lovely afternoon yesterday leading a teachers workshop. We had a great time sharing ideas and making music. These were the "Lead music teachers" for this large county, about thirty of them who head up smaller clusters of teachers. They are a creative and inspirational bunch who feel passionately about the importance of music in the curriculum. They have provided excellent opportunities for all children in their areas to benefit from the life enhancing experience that music making gives, and over several years under the leadership of their excellent music advisor have worked hard to provide a music programme that has been the envy of many in other counties.



I felt so sorry for them yesterday. Not only has their inspirational advisor been made redundant, but all the work they have done to build something really good seems as if its all coming crashing down because of huge cuts and changes to their structure implemented by people who possibly don't know what they do, or what value it has. aughhhhh!



Why?

Friday, May 6, 2011

German Red Hot Recorder!



Very excited at the arrival of the latest version of the Red Hot Recorder tutor!!



Didn't know I was fluent in German did you!

Sunday, May 1, 2011



I have a whole new series of teachers workshops coming up which have been kindly sponsored by Kevin Mayhew ltd. They seemed a long time off, but are looming now now with the first one on Wednesday. Most of the sessions are aimed at those delivering whole class instrumental lessons, but I am also doing some for specialist and non specialist key stage one and two teachers.



The workshops are going to be very practical, and I hope a lot of fun. I think we all need a few new ideas sometimes to get us thinking and enthusiastic again. Sometimes its just nice to be reminded of old ideas and creative thoughts we may have forgotten.



Some of the material I am going to use will come from the Red Hot song library, I am particularly excited about introducing some of the new ostinato songs. I think these will be useful for general class and instrumental teaching.