Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

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SteveHopwood
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I got a full afternoon back in school yesterday (Wednesday 10th March 2021). :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!:

Not teaching - that restarts next week.

Istead, accompanying Joey, a little dab of 12 making a recording for her G2 music theatre exam. This is one offered by the stuffiest of exam boards, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. The title really does give a flavour of this board.

Hehe. Being faced by the alternative of developing their product or going bankrupt, the good old AB chose to develop their product. Suddenly, all the bollocks that was previously deemed invaluable to their exams has been dropped and online submissions now contain actual performances instead. Music teachers reading this might not agree with me but will know what I mean.

The Stuffy Old AB have introduced Music Theatre exams - something I never thought they would ever do. Wonderful what the prospect of going bankrupt will do.

By 'music theatre' we mean the musicals composed since about 1970. Grand Opera (Puccini et al) is indeed a form of music theatre but not what we usually mean when we use the term these days. Grand Opera is catered for in the AB/Trinity/etc graded singing exams.

Joey had continued her singing lessons with Miss over the lockdown via Zoom. One thingy about the stuffy ole AB is their inflexible approach to submission entry dates. Deadline for Joey was yesterday, Weds 10th March. Next available date is late in June.

School has adopted a phased reentry, with kids taken into school, tested and then sent home until their tests are negative a few minutes later, then readmitted.

Which left Little Dab taking her test on the morning of the recording, so no chance of an earlier rehearsal with her. We met for the first time an hour before we were due to start recording. I was not worried about this; Miss is a genius teacher so I had no doubt that LD would be well prepared. She was and any problems were down to me - more of that later.

A brief digression here to describe something I hate with a passion. Seconds after we met, a clearly highly embarrassed LD pointed to a large white rectangle of white paper with print, stuck to her blazer lapel. Printed on this in large letters was, "I was late to school today," along with some other stuff in smaller type. Not sure why LD made such a point of showing it to me but assumed she wanted to get the pain over with.

"I don't care if you were late darling and do not approve of what you are being forced to wear. I do not have the authority to allow you to remove it but I can allow you to do this; remove your jacket and hang it on the back of a chair. I will tell anyone who enters and questions your lack of jacket wearing that you cannot sing whilst wearing a jacket (true, mostly) and deflect any wrath from you."

A highly relieved LD had her jacket off in an instant. Discussing this at the end of the afternoon, Miss and I agreed that this would be cruel to some children. The rebels would wear the rectangle as a thingy of pride. Sensitive, gentle and cooperative kids would spend a day being humiliated by it. Miss and I are not fans of humiliating kids.

Back to the exam prep and recording. The AB music theatre digital exams have adopted the format I have wanted since I started teaching - four songs. That is it. No 'supporting tests' bollocks, just show what you can do when you perform. I have demanded this and been shouted down by the exam boards for more than 40 years - perform a Baroque, Classical, Romantic and accessible 20th century piece and forget the bollocks.

Here is where you all get to have another laugh at my expense. There is a limit to what we can expect from a 12 year old singer; that is fair and logical. Thingy is, musicals are accompanied by some sort of instrumental ensemble - usually a fair sized orchestra.

Composers write their scores with these ensembles in mind. The have been transcribed for the piano by the time they reach me as the piano accompanist for the likes of LD. Some transcriptions are better than others.

The worst are unplayable, so us piano accompanists quickly adopt this principle; when something is unplayable, then edit it until it becomes playable.

One of LD's four songs was, "Would You Like To Build a Snowman?" from the musical,"Frozen" Never mind the whys and wherefores, but the piano parts had only reached me on Monday. No problem. Snowman was marked, "Moderate - rhythmic but expressive." This and the look of the accompaniment suggested a gentle rolling pattern that would create no problems.

I had the good sense to YouTube the songs later on Tuesday to check, and discovered that Snowman's 'Moderate' actually meant warp speed. Think, "Little Brown Bug" of recent fame, but spread out over 5 pages of score. :arrrg:

Now, in a past life I performed the most ridiculously difficult of piano concertos but I do not read easily. It can take me a while to learn a difficult score. Or these days, a tricky score performed at warp speed. Snowman has these two bars.....................

I comforted myself with this thought, "How fast can a little girl sing these words?"

Very fast, as it turned out.

Very, very fast.

Very, very, very fast. Those two bars were merely a mishmash of nothing in particular.

We did a couple of recordings so Miss could chose the best to submit to the exam board. We did the second past the end of the school day, so when LD donned her blazer I removed the late slip and threw it away. "I had a lovely afternoon Joey. Thank you darling," I called to her retreating back.

Miss annojnced, "Thank you Steve. We are paying you for this afternoon. You have earned it."

I did not need paying, but will not turn it down. :lol:

:lol: :rocket:
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I was back teaching in school today. :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!: :!!:

The place was full of life and noise just as it should be. Year bubbles still in place and everyone wearing those blasted masks, but at least we were all back.

Typical of first day back, not everyone turned up. Gwenyth did, along with Gabby and LSS, so I used the missing slots with those that did pitch up. It was sheer joy to be back.

It was clear that the kids were overjoyed to be back. OK, so school ain't perfect but everyone has learned just how grim is the alternative.

I last taught a child at school on Dec 15th 2020. Today is exactly three months later. Not as long as the first lockdown but still a long time. It would have been unfair of me to expect the kids to keep going with what we were working on back then, for three months. Granted, I spent about 9 months apiece all those years ago, learning Brahms and Rachmaninov piano concertos but these were 45 - 60 minutes worth of high octane virtuoso stuff, not a five line piece called, "Wise Guy" or some such.

The gels exceeded my expectation. Gwenyth was a particular star. I explained that I did not expect that she had steadfastly carried on with what we were doing and was not expecting miracles. She gave me that look, the one that kids reserve for adults clearly in the final stages of mental disintegration and played like a diva.

That cemented for me an idea I had been toying with before Christmas. This little lady has c. 26 months to get to the point where here GCSE music performance will attract top marks and she has a loooooonnnnnnngggg way to go to get there. She will only get there if I help her, and 20 minutes a week does not even come close to doing this. I arranged an extra lesson with her on Thursday - I will go in early to fit her in.

We have also arranged extra time after school on Mondays. Any music teachers reading this understands that the G's of this world are few and far between. Whilst she keeps on displaying this level of tenacity, Gwenyth can have all the time that I can find to devote to her. It is not going to change her life hugely - she is never going to become an international concert pianist. I will at least be helping her into the next stage of her special and precious young life.

So no tales of teen lunacy yet but another really happy event. Miss and her partner are going to tie the knot this coming summer. In passing she said, "Can I catch up with you after school?" I never rush away even if I am not booked in for extra time because it is impossible to get off the car park for 15 minutes after the final bell, so hanging on was not a dire imposition.

What Miss wanted was to ask me to play at her wedding - the processions in and out, and three hymns during the ceremony.

I warned her that I blub at weddings - can't help it. Miss said the same and proclaimed that she would blub through here own ceremony. Her dad bursts into floods at the mere mention of the wedding. :lol: Mum makes up for the rest of us by never blubbing at anything. She covers her feelings by throwing a tidal wave of cash at the problem - quite handy when planning a wedding. :lol:

Miss wants a low key affair. Her attitude is, "Why invite umpteen people I do not even know?" I agree. People can easily spend more than this fledgling teacher will earn in a year on these do's. "Mind, " she added, "I have been saving for my wedding since I was 6." I can believe it of this insane young nutter.

Of course I agreed to play. It is a privilege to have this demented creature in my life and I am the better for it. So is anyone else who comes into contact with her.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Happy stuff from yesterday.

I arrived just towards the end of Ruth's 'A' level lesson. Miss was at her desk and Ruth was seated opposite to her. They were looking over fresh developments in Ruth's composition - rather good it was sounding to me.

Miss was explaining something to me when she noticed Ruth tapping on her phone. "Are you still composing?" demanded Miss. Ruth clearly hit the 'send' button, put down the phone, assumed an innocent expression and replied, "Yes."

Time for some entertainment. I said, "Yep. Ruth was composing. Granted, she was composing a text message but you did not ask her what she was composing."

"Quite," came from Ruth.

I continued, "After all, she answered the question you asked. You should have been more specific had you wanted to know what she was composing."

Ruth giggled. Miss sighed heavily and told Ruth to carry on composing, then ignored me. Ruth and I exchanged glances that asked, "Shall we continue this?" We both decided that Miss is too scary and kept our heads down.

I am 69.Miss is 24. Wonderful to be in the thrall of someone young enough to be my granddaughter. And like I care about as though she is my granddaughter.:lol:

Miss has bought into my habit of referring to my pupils as, "My victims". Gwenyth entered the room and Miss announced, "Your first victim is here."

We had reached all but a few bars from the end when we started a new piece on Monday. Yesterday was Thursday, so I had done my usual Monday thingy and reassured G that I did not expect fluency in three days. I need not have bothered; she had achieved fluence and indeed played the piece with a highly attractive lilt that I had not thought of adding before.

I decided to introduce G to the concept of playing expressively rather than merely hitting the correct keys in the correct time. I realised after a while that we were 5 minutes into the lesson time of my next victim, who was presumably cowering terrified in a dark corner somewhere in the deepest bowels of the building. I asked G, "Darling, we have run 5 minutes over so I guess Julia is not coming. Do you think you should go back to your class now, or would you prefer to stay on here?"

The response came without hesitation. "Stay."

My next victim was Jasmine. She wandered in and the girls exchanged cheery waves. "We are cousins," explained G. Having not seen J for three months and she had only received a handful of lessons last term, I reassured her that I did not expect her to remember anything and that I was perfectly happy to start again.

She gave me that look and played impeccably.

Louis did not turn up so I wandered up to 149 where Miss was preparing lessons for the following day. She phoned around all the places he should be but nobody answered. She had to go downstairs to reception and so would look in on his class and drag him out.

She returned a few minutes later, giggling. She had looked in on his class, which was food technology (cookery, to those of us not so fond of title inflation). The class were learning to bake scones and most of them were covered head to foot in flour. The only reason that Miss could spot that Louis was in the room was from his size - he is the tallest Y8 boy in the school. It would have taken him the rest of the afternoon to get cleaned up, so there was no point in removing him.

Besides, we could argue logically that the sacrifice of one piano lesson to learn the skill of baking scones is a pretty good exchange.

Talking of title inflation, should I start calling myself, "Chief Executive i.c. Keyboard Music Pedagogy"?

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Here is the thingy. I needed to work with Gabby on her use of the sustaining pedal in prep for yet another recording of her performance piece. Miss is going to do another recording of the Y11 performances so she can pick the best of the recordings on which to base her assessment of their grade.

I teach in 146 where the sustaining pedal works. It does not work in 149 because a lead has come loose, the prongs are bent and the technician never gets around to fixing it. I need to start whining more consistently about this,

I was given two minutes notice to vacate 146 and go to 149. Never mind why; this is not important. Fact is, I was teaching Gwenyth at the time and Charlie was due afterwards, followed by Gabby, all in 149.

Charlie annoyed me greatly last week. He did not turn up on the Monday giving as his reason that, "I did not know I had a lesson."

Of course he did not know. His paid for lesson is on Thursday but I have given him free extra lessons on Monday for ages, so obviously he could not possibly imagine he had one last week? Then when he turned up on Thursday it was clear that he had done nothing since his last lesson, just before Christmas.

One of the two thingies that drives me to incandescent rage is: students ignoring my best efforts on their behalf when I have put myself out for them. The real problem for said student is this: I do not fly into an immediate rage but instead, go into a slow burn. I am a bit of a brooder. So I got crosser and crosser over the weekend.

G was due a second lesson later in the afternoon. Knowing that I needed 146 with Gabby and that her lesson was now scheduled for 149, I decided to keep Gwenyth for a double and fit Gabby into her later spot in 146. Sorry if this all sounds rather complicated.

I could have rescheduled Charlie but was not in the mood to do so. He breezed in and I growled, "I am not giving you a lesson today. Go away."

He hesitated, so I bellowed, "GO AWAY NOW. You do not deserve a lesson." He fled, rapidly. I wonder if he will work out where he went wrong? If not, I will explain on Thursday in great detail, and possibly quite loudly. :lol: I addressed a slightly alarmed looking Gwenyth with, "Don't worry darling. I will never speak to you like that. The boy is a waste of space." Highly unprofessional I know, but I do not ever want Gwenyth approaching me in a sense of fear. She is well versed in teen boy space wasters and merely giggled.

In came Julia, who missed the final week just before Christmas and who missed last week as well. Again, never mind why; last week is perfectly understandable. Fact is, it means I had not seen her for another three months on to of the previous six months out of an entire year.

She sat down and announced, "I am a little crusty." "Been baked on too high a heat?" I inquired. She looked at me blankly. I realised and said, "You mean a little rusty from lack or practise?" Bless the little sweetie, she came out with the usual range of excuses: been too busy with homework; had too many exams; home schooling was too hard.

J knew she was safe when I replied, "So what you actually mean is that you are a pathetic, third rate wimp who is far to wet to be allowed to continue to live." She relaxed instantly. I explained how I do not expect kids to continue with the same four lines of music for nearly four months (and skirting over the fact that two of them had) and we continued from there. In fact, she had not totally forgotten everything.

Her RH fingers collapsed at one point. J announced, "I have wobbly fingers syndrome." It happened a few more times and she announced, "I have severe wobbly fingers syndrome."

Gwenyth came for her after school lesson and I opened the packet of Cadburys Mini eggs. "These are not sweeties," I intoned severely. "They are Therapeutic Brain Foods, OK? I do not feed sweeties to children." (Yeah, right. Of course I don't. :lol: ) G nodded seriously and then giggled every time I pointed to the bag and demanded that she take a, "Therapeutic brain food".

Here comes the highlight of this post because EVERYONE loves a laugh at my expense. G and I finished and I sent her off with the remainder of the bag of Therapeutic Brain Foods with the stern instruction to, "Eat all of them or you will not recover from over an hour of time with me today." Her, "Thank you Sir" was really sweet but she wandered off giggling. I like Giggling Gwenyths; they are rather cute.

I exited the building and went to where I had left the car. It was not there. This is not an unusual experience for me. I have to make a conscious effort to make a mental note of where I leave the car when I arrive - it is a large car park. So I was not alarmed, and set off to look for it. I can find myself in this position when I have started to think about the kids the instant I arrive and so forget where I left the car.

I wandered off to find the car. Trouble was, I had a clear vision in my mind of where I had left it and my path to the building. Car was nowhere along this path, so I extended my search. No car.

I extended my search to the furthest extent of the car park on all sides and lengths. No car. Along with my burgeoning sense of disbelief that my car had gone were these facts: cars do not get pinched from school car parks; the school is not in an affluent area but neither is it in inner city gangland; it is on the edge of the town - next comes open countryside; there are always many more attractive cars than my 16 year old Vauxhall Astra on the car park; there is CCTV coverage.

In my defence I will say this: 16 years old it may be but it remains the best car I have ever owned - and I have owned a few new ones. It was 9 years old when I bought it for £1,000 7 years ago; it must have been top of the range when new.

So along with the normal distress at having a car pinched was the grief of losing such a great vehicle. I walked back to reception and announced, "My car has been stolen. Can you call me a taxi, please?"

Schools are caring places - they have to be. The Troops sprung into action. The lady on reception went for the head teacher, who took down details of the car and went to find someone to look at the CCTV. Reception lady offered to phone the police but I said I would do so as soon as I got home. She did call for a taxi, which could come in about 45 minutes. I was surrounded by sympathetic and shocked people; nothing like this had ever happened before.

I settled in to wait for the taxi and then decided to take one last tour of the car park on the grounds of, "You never know". You folks already know how this story is to finish. I went in the opposite direction to where I was certain I had parked the car, and found it immediately.

I have experienced before the tricks that memory can play but this was a corker. The instant I saw the car, the route I had actually taken to the building came flooding back to me. What had happened to me was this: I had pulled into a parking space already thinking about the kids I was to teach that afternoon; I had taken no notice of my surroundings and wandered into school in a dream. The 'solid memory' of my route into the building was actually from last week. :arrrg: :arrrg: :arrrg:

Which left me with a problem. I had to go back into the school that I had turned into turmoil and explain....

They were very kind. Maybe some of them remember Amy's Ukulele incident? Mind, I do expect the occasional, "Lost your car recently, Steve?" teases. :lol:

Hey ho.

:xm: :rocket:


Later edit
I just realised it could have been worse. The school employes overnight security. I could have taken the taxi home and reported the 'theft' to the police. OK, so they would not have done much but there would have been some admin.

Then later on I would have received a call from the school security agent saying, "Hey Steve. You know your stolen car? It and mine are the only cars on the car park right now. Shall I hang onto it for you?"

:oops:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

So I pitched up at school and made a serious mental note of where I had parked the car - far top left of the car park.

I stood outside of the opening to the building and reinforced my mental note - far top left of the car park.

Reception Lady asked, "Do you know where you left your car."

"Yes," I replied, "far top left of the car park."

"Are you sure?"

"Leave me alone."

"Here is your Teacher's Lanyard.' Explanation follows.

All staff members wear a lanyard with a photo of themselves and a description of their function - 'Peripatetic music teacher' in my case. Different coloured lanyard's denote different status' for the wearer- grey for teachers at the academy. Green denotes a 'visitor' who has to have made an appointment to visit before being allowed entry.

It just so happens that when the method of gaining entry to the school and identification of people within it changed a couple of years ago, the place had run out of grey lanyards, so we peris were given the imperial green of a visitor. It was never a problem. Nobody cares what the colour of a lanyard is, or even looks.

It just so happened that my car incident led to me making ingress and egress to the school several times - all of which need Reception Lady to press the relevant button.

One attempt to ingress led to me being questioned by a member of the full-time teaching staff questioning my reason for being there as a 'visitor' without a logged appointment - covid security. She took some convincing that I am the school's piano teacher as she had not heard of such an august (miniscule?) body. Clearly never heard of the Chief Executive i.c. Piano Keyboard Pedagogy. :lol:

Excuse the language that is about to follow but it reflects what I was thinking at the time. Inwardly I screamed, "Listen up you fucking moron. I have been the piano teacher at this benighted bloody academy for seven years. I have donated hundreds of hours of unpaid teaching/rehearsing/performing time to it. I think my fucking car has been stolen off your bloody car park and I am not in the best of all possible moods. Capiche?"

The, "Capiche" arose from her speaking with an Italian accent. I ignored the inward screams and answered her questions amicably. We parted on friendly terms. She was doing her job of protecting members of the school and I am never going to criticise someone for doing that. She learned subsequently what I had gone through and was highly sympathetic.

As a by-story, I asked the peri organiser for a grey teachers' lanyard, which I now possess. :lol:

The point of this tale is this: I bumped into said teacher today. She asked, "Do you know where you left your car?" Sympathetically, not sarcastically. I think. :lol:

I described the car's location.

She came back with, "I spent several minutes flashing my key ring looking for my car, a few weeks ago. Then I remembered I had cycled to school."

Cleaners and pupils do indeed cycle to school, but a teacher armed with loads of books and stuff prepared for lessons? Dream on. Kind of her, though. Like I say, schools are caring places.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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SteveHopwood
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Gwenyth goes from strength to strength. Aged 14 and with a handful of lessons behind her, she is a loooonnnngggg way from being the best 14 year old I have taught in terms of advanced playing.

In terms of aptitude, dedication and determination to learn, she is light years ahead of most of the kids I have ever taught and all of the kids I have taught at the school.

I set her a challenge in our last lesson before the Easter break. I gave her a piece to learn without any help from me. I told her to see what she could do with it. I assured her that no criticism would come from me should she be unable to meet the challenge.

This piece represents a step up in terms of difficulty from where a child would be when tackling it. There is rhythmic syncopation and entry into a high part of the keyboard not encountered before. I would have been entirely unsurprised had she reluctantly admitted to having made no sense of it at all.

Gwenyth is wonderful when it comes to spotting patterns - which is what music notation consists of. I only have to 'teach' her a line of music a couple of times and she has it in her head. The advantage of this is that she can attempt increasingly technically difficult music because 'learning the notes' does not take long. I assumed that this would leave her heavily dependant on my helping her to learn said notes, hence the challenge. I was curious to see if I was wrong.

Oh boy, but I was wrong. She played her challenge impeccably. I asked how she had learned it. She had: found a recording on YouTube; worked out the score phrase by phrase; worked at each phrase until she could play it.

Any instrumental teacher reading this, and quite a few teachers of other disciplines, are drooling over this description. The Gwenyths of this world do not wander into our remit often.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Happy stuff from today.

I pitched up at 146 to find Miss and Ruth finishing their usual 'A' level music lesson, along with Gabby sat at the piano and playing with a set of headphones to blank the sound from the rest of the room.

"I am skipping Dance," announced Gabby to me.

Some general banter and chit chat followed until I became aware of Gwenyth standing beside me. "Sorry darling, I did not realise you had been here for a while."

"Just a couple of minutes and enjoying the fun," pronounced Miss.

I said, "Miss, you will be soooooo proud of Gwenyth ."

Mis is very quick on the uptake and announced, "I always am." I described The Challenge and how G had responded. Miss was suitably wildly enthusiastic in her praise.

---------------------------------

There was a touching moment. I never found out how Alice and Nikki did in their GCSE music exams in 2019, so I thought to ask Miss if she had access to their records. She did and brought them up. They were middle of the road results - nothing great but nothing disastrous either. About what I expected from students of limited performing ability. It is no surprise that the greater the performing ability, the higher the exam result can be expected.

Ruth, Alice and Nikki are in the same year group. The others moved on to different subjects but Ruth wants to be a musician and so had felt the benefit of Miss' expertise and enthusiasm. Ruth talked about how kind her predecessors were but how much she sees the difference that Miss makes to teaching. I pointed to Miss and said to Ruth, "The likes of this lady do not come around very often. You will be lucky to meet another at university. Enjoy her whilst you can."

It is true that Mr P, Mr E (percussion) and I 'hunted as a pack', and those of us left behind by Mr P still do. Mr G has done his best to replace Mr P and is doing a brilliant job of doing so. I provide accompaniments. Mr G helps guitarists and guitar groups. Mr E works wonders with recording equipment for all sorts of stuff. None of us get paid extra for doing so. We don't care. Kids come first.

So here is the touching moment. Ruth said, "We had caring and friendly teachers during Y10/11 but they were not much good. Without you <pointing to me>, Mr P and Mr E, we would have got nowhere."

Sweet, or what?

-----------------------------------------

So, Miss prepared to go to 149 and leave me to teach G. Gabby asked of me plaintively, "Can I stay until my lunch break, please?"

"Of course you can, sweetheart."

Miss intervened with, "Come to 149 Gabby. Anyone questions and we can say you are working on your composition."

Now, I know we should be sending kids back to their classes but come to Gabby's time in life here is the position: under normal circumstances she would be weeks only away from leaving school on 'study leave' to prepare for exams; the die is cast - she has either done enough over the last three years to gain a decent result or she has not; Miss and I can remember skipping hated classes at the same stage; we would rather have her somewhere safe where we can keep an eye on her - remember Amy?

-------------------------------------------------

Julia was supposed to have an extra lesson last Monday. She did not turn up. She pitched up for her regular lesson today and I demanded sternly, "Where were you on Monday for your extra lesson?"

"Oops. Sorry Sir. I forgot."

Fact is, cute though the kids are at the school and searingly bright that most of them that come to me are, good at dealing with reorganised timetables they are not. I was entirely unsurprised when J failed to turn up and in fact was able to use her time with a different child who you will meet soon, no doubt.

I snarled, "Come to me and be viciously tortured."

Beaming hugely, J trotted up, sat on the piano stool and announced. "I can play this stuff."

And did, magnificently. :clap: :clap: :clap:

I booked her in for another lesson this coming Monday. What I am trying to do is make up to the kids some of the time they have lost during the lockdowns. Even when 'in school' whole year groups have been sent home. There is not a teacher in the world desperate to make up for what their charges have lost this last year.

I cannot make it up to the J's of this world unless they turn up, so I snarled, "Forget this one and you will be in detention for the rest of your life."

"Won't forget Sir," she trilled as she trotted off.

I really do need to work on this Trembling and Awe thingy. :lol:

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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SteveHopwood
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

A few more happy bits from yesterday (Thursday).

I had suggested before the Easter break to Gwenyth, that given her ability to recognise patterns that she try for a grade 2 piano exam, something she had accepted with alacrity. To put this into context for those of you unaware of all this, G had made the sort of progress in about 10 weeks that your 'average' kiddy takes two years plus to make.

Come last Monday, G and I selected the three most likely pieces to learn out of the list of 12 available. I 'taught' her the first two lines. She had perfected them by yesterday, so I was able to finish teaching her the last two - pieces at this level are not long. Quite an achievement though, for someone with so few lessons behind her.

-------------------------

Bailey had her lesson and managed to avoid swearing. :lol: I have her booked in for another on Monday.

-------------------------

Jasmine is unbelievably cute. 12 years old; petite; warm and loving nature; searingly bright. She loves working out stuff for herself; I love watching her working stuff out for herself. Miss and I adore her. The only thingies that stop us scooping her up and taking her home with us are: we live in diametrically different locations; Miss' partner would probably have something to say; we would go to jail for child abduction. :lol:

In the spirit of trying to make up for lost time I asked Jasmine, "Darling, would you like an extra lesson on Monday?"

Her Official Reply was, "Yes please."

Most of us are familiar with the triumphant response to success with the clenched fist and cry of, "Yesssssssssss".

I wandered from my seat to the desk housing my timetable to work out when I could fit her in. I noticed as I did so, a subtle clenched fist and very quiet, "Yessssssssss," from J. I am guessing that Jasmine is enjoying her piano lessons; this makes me very happy.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Having booked the extra lesson for Jasmine at the start of Monday afternoon, I looked at the wrong column on the timetable when checking when I needed to arrive at school and so missed her extra lesson. I felt guilty about that because I guess J had worked her socks off over the weekend to prepare for the lesson and was disappointed.

I told Miss to tell Jasmine that I would give her two slots on Thursday afternoon and book her in for another extra this coming Monday. Miss told me on Thursday that J was thrilled. She had both slots and did very well.

-------------------------------

Thursday:

Miss has adopted my description of pupils as, "Victims". I needed to confirm the starting time for recordings on Friday and so meandered up to 149, where she was giving singing lessons. She told me, "My victim has wandered off to the loo. No idea when she will be back." In fact, I heard vocal warm ups only a few minutes later.

Bailey managed another lesson without swearing. I remarked on this and praised her for it.

B looked slightly uncomfortable for a few seconds and then replied, "You remember warning me about this and what would happen if I swore in front of most other teachers?"

I knew what was coming. "Yes."

"I got a detention and the school sent a letter home to mum. I was in big trouble that day."

Little Sweetie Sarah is not so little these days, in terms of height. The top of her head comes up to the level of my nose. Granted, this is no great height achievement but she is growing. I will continue to call her LSS even if she does an Amy and ends up looking down at me. She pitched up for her timetabled lesson at 2.30.

Julia did not turn up and I did not notice the time, so I sent her off for a bit of a break when the bell went for the end of the day before doing our after school session. She had clearly been uncomfortable about something and why became clear when we resumed.

LSS gulped, took a deep breath and announced, "I might not be able to come after school every week. We are starting football again." Matches happen on Thursdays.

I replied, "I have always said that any time you cannot/don't want to do the extra time you only have to tell me. I win either way. You have the time means I get to spend joyful time with a wonderful child. You not having the time means I get to go home early and save the cost of a packet of Maltesers."

LSS looked hugely relieved. She cannot have been afraid of my wrath; scared of disappointing me, I suppose. She is not to know that my mind does not work that way.

I wandered up to 149 to chat to Miss during LSS's break, to find her there with Brooke. I got to know Brooke when she was one of the cutest group of hoodlums ever, during rehearsals and performances of Blood Brothers last year.

She announced happily, "I have just had an hour of singing." My reply was "Miss and I are both the same. Come to us for a lesson and we will keep you for as long as we can."

B was dressed in her netball kit. Miss said, "Go to your match Brooke. Don't forget your inhaler." There was a little more banter then B had to go. On her way to the door I called out, "Have a great time angel. Don't forget your inhaler." Miss chimed in with, "Yes, remember your inhaler."

"Bullies" called out Brooke and fled.

--------

Friday:

The final GCSE music performance recording day. The kids did one last term and from that they learned what they needed to do to improve their mark. I was involved with three singers; two absolutely superb and one who need not have bothered turning up.

I love occasions like this as I get to see Miss and the kids interacting. The kids worship her and clearly have 100% trust that everything Miss does and says is entirely in their best interest.

The recording studio has been hacked out of 149, so there are leads through to the microphones and the recording technician controls the mixer desk, out of sight. Miss leaves me and the performer to rehearse for 20 minutes or so, whilst we get used to each other.

First in was Molly, singing, "How Far I'll Go" from, "Moana". Molly was good and had amazing breath control. Miss has a neat trick to overcome fear of the microphone. She comes in and says, "Sing it through please, whilst we check the sound levels."

In fact, she is recording the 'sound level check'. Miss comes back into the room at the end and announces, "We recorded that and it was wonderful." Kid gasps in amazement then surprise turns to delight. Next Miss announces, "Here is how you can make it even better," and talks kiddy through the suggested improvements which are always about highlighting the emotional content and elements of vocal colouring.

The second recording was amazing. Molly took everything Miss had told her on board. It was as near to perfection as a 16 year old can get. Fantastic. Miss had tears in her eyes, so emotional the performance had been.

Sasha was even better. She started where Molly had finished, in terms of quality. She sang, "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables". Singers talk about 'head voice' and 'chest voice'. They spend most of their lives using their 'head voice' and the 'chest voice' comes into play only when going very low.

Sasha has high quality, private singing lessons and it shows. She understood when Miss talked about the two voices. There is a passage in the song that uses the chest voice and Miss showed Sasha how to project the sound and then went on to other improvements.

Wow. Sasha blew us away. "Fantastic" does not come anywhere close to describing the performance; it was magical. We all know how exciting it is when a child does something brilliantly - exciting and immensely moving, especially so after the year the kids have just endured.

I said to Sasha at one point in all this, when Miss had left the room, "Make the most of Miss, darling. Her likes do not come around very often." S replied, "I know Sir. She is the best teacher I ever had."

Humour highlights of the morning. I bumped into Billy on arrival at 9.50, on his way to the practise room. I mentioned this to Miss and she said, "He is not due until later this afternoon. He will be skiving PE."

Charlie did a superb recording, one that could not be used because he had a teensy fluff on the final note. That would not have mattered except that he slapped his hands on the keyboard and yelled, "Bugger".

The best moment though, was when the recording technician came through and announced that there was, "An issue" with Molly's recording. Miss stood in the corridor during the performance and became vocally emotional at time, The microphones picked up her blubbering. :lol:

We all agreed there was no need to recall Molly as the only people who will hear the performances this year are Me, Miss and the Head of Performing Arts.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

So I pitched up at school in time for Jasmine at 1.10.

No Jasmine.

Come 1.15 and still no J so I thought to myself, "Thanks darling. I love coming to school early and unpaid, just to find that the victim I was supposed to be torturing could not be arsed to turn up."

In reality, I was not cross. J might have been off school through illness. She might have forgotten the extra lesson. She might have been exacting revenge for the previous week - and who could blame her for that? Whatever, stuff happens.

A clearly flustered J turned up at 1.20, apologising profusely. I said, "I assumed you had forgotten angel." Kids forget stuff. J was grateful for my forgiveness. We had 10 minutes to go. It occurred to me to try to set her mind at rest during the remaining time.

I asked of her, "Sweetheart, were you nervous about coming for your lesson late?"

"Yes."

"Any particular reason why you were late?"

"I had a row with my best friend and was upset and forgot the time."

Phew. Major crisis avoided. J and bestie will be back to being besties tomorrow. :clap:

I told J, "Never, ever be nervous about approaching me. You might be late. You might have missed. You never have reason to be afraid of me."

J gave me the sort of smile that I would work hard to receive.

Gwenyth goes from strength to strength. Aged 69 and with over 40 years teaching behind me, I thought I had experienced everything that piano teaching could throw at me.

Wrong.

Gwenyth is a new experience. Yes, she can read music even though having read it she does not need to read it again. Then she hears the music and learns the sound of it quickly and easily. Then she can follow my finger patterns and copy them.

Put that little lot together and we have a child that learns material at breakneck speed. G 'learned' one of her G2 pieces in 45 minutes after school this afternoon. For those of you in the now it is Trinity G2 21-23, "Canzonet", first piece in the book.

OK, so no great shakes in terms of technical difficulty, but G had it memorised within our session. I said to her, "We will sort out any problems on Thursday." They will not exist as G will have listened to oe YouTube recording and sorted stuff out for herself.

Problems on the horizon? G is a shy girl. Getting her to show some of herself in her playing - i.e. play expressively is not going to be easy.

That is my problem and every instrumental music teacher in the land reading this is nodding in acknowledgment.
-----------------------------

J's lesson was timetabled during the end of a lesson with Miss in 147 where I normally teach. Miss was teaching kiddies using the computers in 147. Here are some of the exchanges I heard.

No context. Miss calling out, "No, I never shout. When have I ever shouted at you?"

Little boy replied, "When I irritated you."

Little boy was being helped by Miss, who demanded, "So don't irritate me again."

"No Miss."

Then a girl called out, "You shouted at me a few weeks ago."

I interrupted the flow of conversation because I needed to know when 146 would be free. Turned out in 10 minutes time. My intervention probably did Miss a favour.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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