Sadly, an able pupil is moving away to another part of the UK. I was asked for a reference in order that, once there, full musical entitlement might continue. Happy to oblige, I wrote a short history of achievement and was keen to point out that a detailed musical portrait of the pupil already existed in the form of mp3 recordings of:
• solo performing
• participation in the school Guitar Group
• participation in the East Lothian Guitar Ensemble
I contacted the school concerned and arranged to send the reference electronically. The hyperlinks have been passed onto the Music Department.
I hadn’t really considered this aspect of evidence before. The benefits of such a learning space for the stationary pupil, parents and staff seem obvious. For a pupil changing schools, a portrait seems better a better way to convey information than a descritpion - and a self-portrait better still.
Despite having been a pupil at Knox for 5 years and having taught there at least one day-per-week for 25.5 years, the first time I sat through an entire concert in the school hall was last Friday. Normally, I’m on stage or backstage with pupils or en route between the two.
So it was a real pleasure to sit, free of duties, through a Lamp of Lothian concert featuring the O Duo. The duo comprises former Knox lad, Oliver Cox and musical partner, Owen Gunnell, on percussion – yes, it’s a percussion duo.
The presentation and the patter of duo was very inviting and the playing both entertaining and virtuosic. With the boys’ blessing, I recorded the concert as an aide memoir to writing a review which the Lamp of Lothian will submit to The East Lothian Courier.
It then occurred to me that posting a couple of samples here might benefit:
- The O Duo – encouraging people to check out the concert dates & CD on their website
- The Lamp of Lothian – an example of one of the many concerts they put on throughout the year – entry to which is free for pupils
- Knox Academy – perhaps an under-rated and over-looked venue – these mp3 samples were recorded on a Zoom H2 at the back of the hall
Hopefully these short samples will prove that there’s more to a percussion duo than hitting things with sticks.
Bongo Fury (composed by O Duo); Bongo Fury Alborada del Gracioso (Ravel); Alborada Courante Courante & Gigue Gigue from French Suite No. 5 in G BWV 816 (Bach); Etude in C# minor, Op. 10 No. 4; Chopin Sonata No. 90 (Soler); Soler Flight of the Bumblebee; (Rimsky-Korsakov); Flight of BB
A combination of Activities Week, Study Leave and several trips allowed me time to get wired in about reports for one of two primary schools. The format of these is more like free prose than your online Filemaker/Freemis set-up. As they were to be emailed to the school for proof-reading (by the fastest proof-reader I’ve ever met) I merged 22 of them into one attached document. This allowed me to have an idea of the total word count. Allowing for headings, sub-headings etc. it weighed in at 5,040.
When I was a student, that would have been considered a dissertation and would have been the work of a term - or longer. Writing, merging, formatting and emailing was more a matter of hours. It’s funny how technology, combined with the simple fact of getting older can raise your game.
What’s also interesting is how problematic situations can help to hone your prose style. Praise can be quick and compact. It seems to me that highlighting a problem requires you to describe: problem; consequence; solution – in less than three times the space.
Stravinsky put it much better. (you may need to opt for full screen if you are using a feed reader)
In December’s eduBuzz Open Meeting I mentioned that I intended to prepare a handout, to be issued at forthcoming Instrumental Parents’ Evenings. Rather than spend 6 of the alloted 5 minutes describing what I do instead of what the pupil under discussion does, a written summary of the intended benefits seemed like a good idea. I passed around copies at today’s meeting and it was suggested that I post a copy online - for one thing, it’ll be more easily found than paper copies.
You can view it here: Blogging - what’s in it for pupils, parents & me
The technical saga seems finally to be at an end. Looking back at the dates of previous posts, the last one I can clearly remember sending from home was 20th May. In that time, I have tried to prepare text on the laptop and post from school – although connection speed occasionally frustrated this. More importantly, this period severely curtailed my reading of others’ blogs and the necessary speed reading at playtime and lunchtime didn’t really do justice to their contributions.
It’s good to be back.
Last session I wrote a fairly substantial piece on reporting. This was principally concerned with primary reports as the Filemaker format for secondary reporting is more concerned with pull down menus and short comments than the Proustian free prose of primary reports (the shortest of this session’s weigh in around 190 words and the longest at 290).
The thrust of last session’s post was about opening up the report from the preceding session and overwriting it. This allows me to resurrect points made then and to report, for example, whether the recommendations for improvement have been followed and the desired improvements made.
However, I did not mention one other factor which has only come to my attention through the luxury of completing this session’s reports well before the deadline and that is to do with checking. By that, I don’t mean spelling, grammar etc. but simply whether every element of the report is really true. For this to take place, at least one lesson has to take place between writing the report and submitting it. Positive characteristics may appear in the lesson which are not in the report. Exasperating tendencies may appear to take up more time due to prose lacking streamlining than really is the case in lessons. I can’t help feeling that the real truth of any element is affected by the proportion of the report devoted to it compared to all the possible things that could have been said.
“Eventually Everything Connects” Charles Eames (1907-78)
Since becoming convinced by Robert Jones’ post to subscribe to a feed-reader (Google Reader, in this particular case) I’m pleased to have come across many articles, blogs, sites etc. that I might otherwise have missed. Here are a few of the interesting ones, some of which may be of interest to others:
Music related - Music & Personality which includes a link to a description of The Five Big Personality Traits - Seven Ways Music Influneces Mood - Discover The Perfect Musical Performance
One for the “reporting season” - Writing Down Affectionate Thoughts Reduces Cholestorol
One for Guidance? Spotting Lies or test yourself at this skill here
Language - White Brain Matter & Fast Language Learners
Study Skills? Gesture, Meaning & Memory
Social Ed? A Quirky Look At Our Quirky Species
Transition? Cognitive Ability Mostly Developed Before Adolesence
All of us? Attention Span - Feeling valued in the workplace - Decision Making
And if it all gets too much - Putting Things In Perspective, whose links include one to featuring a fantastic film called Powers of Ten by Charles Eames depicting the size of the universe from the macroscopic to the microscopic.
At a recent in service there were requests from many of my colleagues for instructors to be issued with laptops (pre-loaded with Sibelius score writing software). Our co-ordinator, Peter Antonelli, asked that anyone who already uses their own laptop in lessons email him a description of use. It was agreed that I would post details here and send Peter a link.
Admin
- Calendar (including reminder function) for noting report deadlines, quality assurance, exams, concerts, East Lothian rehearsals
- Reporting (preparing txt to paste into Filemaker) – we need to save time as access to intranet via school computer (the only route) can be extremely limited
- Auxiliary record of work - speed of typing and the impossibility of running out of space means that more detail can be included – abbreviations, whose meaning are lost to PTs (and sometimes after the event even to me) can be avoided. Copy/paste as relevant here as it is elsewhere.
- Compiling SQA programmes including timings, negotiating order of pieces with pupil etc.
Solo repertoire
- Having own edition of music with preferred fingering, written technical advice/reminders, personal layout choices for ease of reading – e.g. section numbers for ease of finding place – new phrases beginning at the left of the page
- highlighting or excluding any passage e.g. a paraphrase of the great Scottish folk song “O you play the blue notes and I’ll play the black ones, And I’ll reach bar sixteen before you….”
- highlighting top or bass notes
- moving all notes to single pitch to concentrate solely on rhythm
- having and altering a metronome (click track) for play-along
- extracting midi file for pupils (usually several at a variety of speeds)
- extracting passages to create exercises for specific technical points which arise
- ties – one version with only played notes visible – another with played and held notes visible (sorry for the jargon – no way round this one)
Ensemble repertoire
- using a file as virtual ensemble in lessons
- being able to add to or subtract from pupils individual part with their agreement (resaving under their name before extracting to print)
- preparation of midi files for pupils to take home and also for posting on Exc-el
Other
- playing pupils an extract of a professional recording of a piece on which they are working e.g. in iTunes
- playing interesting while tidying up – things which may have come up in conversation in the lesson
- preparation of supplementary theory handouts
- preventing pupils from excluding an unpractised piece from the lesson by “forgetting it”
- Countdown spelling game for concepts and musical terms i.e. spell out the word letter by letter in the hope that someone will recognise it before you get too far into the word
This final use often leads to short discussion about the component parts of the word where separating them out with the spacebar is a great help. I feel that those with an interest in language are more likely to retain the word thereafter. Were we connected to the internet in our rooms, I should love to access my favourite etymological website so that pupils might see from where some the names of concepts arise. Here are a few examples for your delectation:
syncopation anacrusis harmony melody rhythm cadence counterpoint
(I can see a new idea for an additional page on the blog emerging)
Last night saw the inaugural Instrumental Parents’ Evening in NBHS. Held in the school’s attractive Library, the atmosphere was congenial and I had the impression that most people were happy with the way things turned out. With five minutes per appointment, time was at a premium and, in the case of older pupils, it was important to bear in mind that a few undescribed years had passed. This is particularly true when a previously hard working pupil’s uncharacteristic loss of focus just happened to coincide not only with approaching exams but also with this event.
As I write, a programme on BBC1 about Scotland’s only Young Offenders Institute in Polmont is playing its part in keeping the big picture in mind.
“The earth is like a spaceship that didn’t come with an operating manual.“ Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983)
Amidst the rush of events which converge at this time of year – rehearsals, concerts, updating timetables, fun activities etc. - it is possible that some seemingly smaller matters might go unreported. With this in mind, I’d like to say how pleased I was to receive the East Lothian Council Instrumental Music Service Handbook, which arrived through the door recently.
Following the stated aims of the service, there appear definitions of: (more…)
