Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Locked
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

A sweet story from last week.

Miss teaches the basics of reading music to the year 7 kiddies (rising 12) by teaching them to play, "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star," on the keyboard. They play the melody with their right hand from standard musical notation.

The more with-it kiddies can add a basic left hand, provided by letters written above the RH notes where they should be played. For those of you who understand, this is C for 'Twinkle Twinkle' then F for 'Little' and C again for 'Star' etc.

All good and well until it hit hard up on Jasmine. Sweet, cute, bright, talented Jasmine. Overwhelmingly underconfident and prone to panic Jasmine.

Also largely ignored during the class music lesson by Miss, on the perfectly understandable basis that J is receiving high quality private lessons from me and so is well in advance of the rest of the group - many of whom would need help sucking their thumbs, let alone playing a melody from the lunacy that is music notation. They dominated Miss' attention.

It was only just towards the end of the class that Miss noticed Jasmine in a state of high agitation. She breezed over and asked, "What's up, Jas?"

J burst into floods of tears and cried, "I can't DO it. It sounds all wrong." An aghast Miss assured J that she would ask me to sort thingies out with her. She emailed to ask me, and obviously I replied positively, booking J in for a double lesson.

Learning from our mistakes is one of the ways in which we advance as human beings and Miss will have learned from this. What she forgot in making up the work sheet is this: whilst the rest of the class is a 'blank canvass' who know nothing about music notation, J has had piano lessons with me. For Jasmine, notes played by the left hand are written below those in the right, not above. J was thinking that the notes Miss had written above were the names of the notes she should be playing with her right hand.

And knew what she was doing sounded wrong, concluded she is an idiot and panicked.

It took about two minutes to sort her out as it was instantly obvious to me where the misunderstanding lay.

Awwwwweeeeee.

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Another, now that I remember.

Remember what a teensy tot was Julia? Kids like her continue to be teensy tots in our memory.

Thingy is, kids grow. Must be a total bugger for TV series promoters whose chief stars are cute kids. :lol:

Come Julia's most recent lesson, I realised that she had suddenly shot upwards. OK, so still teensy in every other direction, but not upwards.

I remarked on this to Julia. I said, "Darling, you are nearly as tall as me now. I always thought of you as tiny, but not any more. You will soon be taller than me. MInd, that is no great achievement given that I am not a tall bloke."

Julia merely smiled. I suspect she will soon do an Amy. I will fill her in on the details when it happens. It ain't easy to be the shortest person in the class.

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I was teaching Julia last week. Searingly bright though she is, Julia is as capable of being gormless as the rest of us and she was being spectacularly so. I said, "I tell you what poppet. Every time you make a daft mistake, I will stab you with the recently sharpened sharp end of the pencil. Fair enough?"

J tentatively felt the sharp end, thought for a few seconds and then replied primly, "Not today thank you. Another time, perhaps."

----

The way to a teen girl's heart is usually through chocolate. The way to persuade her to do something she needs to do but is reluctant or finds difficult, is always through chocolate. Gwenyth continues to make wonderful progress and will be taking a grade 2 exam soon, having reached this level in the time it takes most kids to finish the beginners' book.

G is shy and quiet - very quiet. Ditto her piano playing but top marks in any sort of instrumental assessment are gained by those with a wide dynamic range. Nothing I could do would persuade G to play anything other than softly, so I decided to resort to the chocolate option. I ascertained last week that her favourites are Cadburys Heroes, so I took a box in with me on Monday.

We met up for our usual after school session; these always include Maltesers. I said to her, "Today I have brought in a box of Heroes. You get one every time you match the dynamic I will demonstrate. We will start with a scale and you have to match my dynamic three times. We will move on to one of the pieces once you have done this. Then you have to play the piece with the loud passages sufficiently defined three times. Do this and you go home with the rest of the box in your pocket."

Time to turn the screw. "But, fail in this and you get nothing."

I played the scale of D major that she has learned for the exam. She imitated perfectly.

"Now play it softly, so you hear and feel the difference." No problem.

"Now loudly again." Straight in, true as a guided missile.

Then I turned to the piece where a good forte is an issue and said, "You know where you should be playing more loudly in this piece. You do make some difference but not enough. Make a big enough sound three times on the trot and the Heroes are yours."

The Heroes were indeed hers a very few minutes later. The whole process had taken about five minutes.

I told this story to a friend yesterday who remarked, "A really clever and confident girl would go back to playing softly again to try to win another box." Hard to see shy G pulling that stunt, but I would be proud of her if she did. :lol:

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

I became aware of some random sounding chords coming from the piano next door, as I was packing up after finishing with Gwenyth. I walked into the corridor and heard much girly giggling at the same time, so I wandered up to see who it was. It was a long time ago that I had last heard girly giggling along that corridor; it was a wonderful sound.

Miss' Y8 music class have an assessment coming up. Most of the kids can only play something very basic on the small keyboards. Amongst the rest are Julia and a child taking violin lessons so Miss decided to get them to team up.

She found the girls a song with a repetitive chord structure. The violinist plays the vocal melody whilst J plays the chords. The pair had stayed behind after school to practise. They had finished and had time to pass before being picked up. Julia was trying to teach her friend how to play the chords.

Friend was not learning them very well- hence all the giggling.

I walked over and whispered to J, "She is not very good, is she?" "Hopeless," J whispered back. Look of round mouthed mock shock from friend. "Only kidding angel," I said to her. "I know," friend replied complacently.

I wandered back up the corridor, followed by more girly giggling. It was a beautiful sound.

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Tuesday 6th June 2021:

First day back after the half-term break. Let's get the sad stuff out of the way first.

Gabby and Amy have moved on, having finished their GCSE's. Miss and I both wanted Gabby to stay but she is determined to attend a 6th form college. I am a huge supporter of 6th form colleges having taught at one myself for several years. They are not right for all kids and Gabby is the sort of underconfident and sensitive kid who would benefit from staying on at school for a couple more years. Let's hope I am wrong and that the experience brings out a greater level of confidence in her own ability.

Trouble is, her ability far outstrips her belief in it. Plus, her private piano teacher is clearly bollocks - I know that from the amount of stuff he had not taught her when she came to me. Hey ho. Nothing I can do unless she changes her mind.

Amy is a different story. It rapidly became obvious that she moved from piano to drums because she thought it would be an easy option. It ain't. Her teacher did his best for her as I would have done had she continued with me, but he was wasting his efforts. She made no effort throughout the rest of the course. The exam board provided sample questions for staff to set on the syllabus they had been able to cover, to help said staff come up with accurate gradings.

Amy went to sleep during her exam. She has failed the course. She is going to a college to pursue a course in 'music production'. She has some shocks coming if she thinks that is an easy option.

Her recent performance does nothing to stop Miss and Me adoring her. I hope Miss does not feel guilty. I have been around for long enough to know that some kids will not let me help them however hard I try; Miss might not have this sense of perspective yet, although I do my best to help her acquire it. Miss is 25 next birthday. I am 70 next birthday. I would be proud to have her as my granddaughter. I never stop trying to do my best for her.

Here comes the saddest bit, although it came as no surprise given her recent performance in lessons. Another victim of this bloody virus, I suppose.

Little Sweetie Sarah had not come to a lesson prepared to play anything I had 'taught' her since the third UK lockdown eased (or is that the second, or fourth - not sure). So she came to her final lesson before the half-term break and announced, "I might be giving piano lessons a break whilst I catch up on my academic work."

No kid announces that she, "Might be.............." unless she is actually going to.................... Give LSS her due, she said it to my face and I was kind

Yes, she is off my timetable and off the list of pupils to take GCSE music. So sad. She loved it sooooo much for soooooo long.

Nothing I can do, so on to the happy stuff, although it does not start well. :lol:

---------

Today was a bit of an abortion in school. Cute and loving though the kids are, they are pathetic at coping with change. The school decided to abandon this school year and start the next one after this half term.
So, Y7 are embarking on their Y8 course, Y8 on their Y9 etc.

So the two kids that had a lesson this afternoon were the ones that came to ask about their lesson time today. Never mind the damn great notice board they just walked past with all the timetables pinned up, on their way to ask me for their lesson times. At least they came to ask.

I have experience of the first day of timetable changes, so I grabbed them when they appeared and gave them a lesson. One of them was Gwenyth.

G goes from strength to strength. She is not the most advanced student I have taught at the school, but she is the best in terms of determination to succeed and dedication to learning what I have taught her. To give you an idea, the only other one I have taught with the same qualities is an international concert pianist and a staff member at my old alma mater, the Royal Northern College of Music. He could teach me these days - and I can teach everyone else.

G is not going down that route, but we are talking a similar standard of student here. She played me her G2 pieces wonderfully well. I knew that Miss was on her own in 149 so I announced, "Gwenyth, I want Miss to hear you play" and wandered down to drag her up to listen to G.

Y8 pupils chose their GCSE subjects for Y9. Come the end of Y9, there is a further refinement to carry forward to their final two years of GCSE study.

Sadly for Miss and me, Music and Textiles clash and textiles are G's passion, so music is losing out. Fact is though, that G is an exceptional music student and Miss and I are both determined to keep her within the department. So, I continue to give G all the extra time I have previously described. She can have this for as long she can benefit from it. She will cancel it, not Miss or Me.

G is a very shy and quiet child but is starting to buy into the Mr Softie Steve thingy. At one point in our subsequent exchange, MIss asked plaintively, "Why are you not continuing with GCSE music?"

I nudged G and muttered, "Say that it is because I am an idiot."

Once upon a time, a shy and fearful G would have obeyed. Today she merely looked disdainfully at me and replied, "No. I won't". :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Not sure if she will ever get to the stage when, under similar circumstances, she would reply by pointing to me disdainfully and replying, "Because he is an idiot." We can hope she does. Imagine how proud that would make me.

The second child to turn up was Lilly, for only her third piano lesson. The first two were before the break and she had got most of what we had prepared wrong. Hardly a surprise given the speed with which the book I use with her age group (13+) moves but she was clearly apprehensive. I gave her my usual mantra. "Darling, getting this stuff wrong is not a crime. Eating babies is a crime. Playing the piano badly at this stage is not."

Then I always ask, "You don't eat babies, do you?" The to the obvious answer I come back with, "Then you are not a criminal." Life is usually straightforward after that and it was as I gently pointed Lilly in the right direction. I arranged a second lesson for her on Thursday.

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

Thursday 10th June 2021:

Lilly pitched up for her second lesson and was clearly much happier. Not quite ready to move on but I was able to confirm that she was on the right track. She left happily.

Then came Jasmine who had changed her hair style completely. Luckily for me, Miss had forewarned me or I would not have recognised her. "Jas," I yelled, "I love your hair." She looked thrilled that a man had actually noticed." Don't expect us fellers to be good at this stuff ladies; it ain't going to happen.

One of the thingies that I did notice was a long blue pen line on her left hand, stretching from her thumb right up underneath her jacket sleeve. I could not resist and so eventually asked, "Sorry to ask such an irrelevant question angel, but I am desperate to know. What is that long blue line on your left arm."

You folks already know how much Miss and I adore this sweet child. We adore all sweet children but also enjoy it when they start to 'come out of themselves' and show some individual character. J is starting to do this.

She pulled up her sleeve to expose a highly decorated left forearm and explained with an expression of guilt, "I was bored and so decided to draw pictures on myself." I reassured her that it is normal for a child trapped in a dull lesson to decorate herself. She looked highly relieved. Message to all of us teachers. You don't want kids to get bored and start expressing their boredom in various ways? Don't bore them.

----

My favourite threat is, "Get it right or I stab you with the sharp end of this pencil." Happily, no child has yet run screaming in terror from the room. Unhappily, still no trembling and awe in my presence. Hey ho.

It is becoming clear to all and sundry that the Performing Arts department is staffed by certifiable nutters. Even so, the hysterical screams emanating from the far end of the corridor elicited the occasional nervous response from The Victim sat next to me. I was able to reassure Said Victim that it was merely the drama group torturing someone slowly to death. Since this is a regular alternative threat of mine, Said Victims relaxed instantly.

In came Bailey. I am not sure how much you are going to hear of Bailey as she never does anything insane in my lessons. Let us hope I can corrupt her sufficiently to enable this to change. She is one of the most thoughtful kids I have taught in a long time and it is a joy to sit and watch her work something out for herself. She uses the same tactics I used at the same age. Imagine the speech, "So this note was here and it was a G, so this note is G. Looking back, the note above this one was B, so this note is A." That sort of thingy. Teachers all over the internet reading this are nodding with approval - we love watching kids work stuff out for themselves.

Came another ear piercing shriek of agony from the far end of the corridor. Baily said complacently, "Sounds like Miss is stabbing kids with the sharp end of her pencil."

"Yes poppet," I replied.

"I am sure they deserve it."

------

Gwenyth came for her customary extra Thursday lesson. I looked down my timetable and saw a spot booked for Charlie. Charlie is now officially a Y12 (i.e. 'A' level) student and is not due back until next week.

Gwenyth is well on top of her G2 exam stuff so I had brought in some new pieces for her to chose from and she chose one. We started on it. It is several orders of magnitude harder than her G2 exam stuff so I offered her Charlie's spot. I said, "Come to me if you want to take up the spot. Stay in your lesson if you think you should. Your choice and no criticism of you if you elect to stay in class."

Of course she came for the extra time. The child is unstoppable. We peris are required to write a (very) brief report about our pupils at the end of the academic year. Here is mine of G:
Gwenyth is the best student I have
taught at the school.
Fantastic progress by a wonderful student.
She is not just the best student I have taught at the school. Not the most advanced obviously as I coach Diploma candidates, but one of my best students ever in terms of dedication and determination to succeed.

-----

Come the end of the day and I wandered up to say 'hi' to Miss. She was in the company of Brooke. "Ehup Brooke," I offered.

Miss said, "This isn't Brooke. This is Georgia." Actually, when I looked closer I saw that although there was a resemblance there was also a clear difference. But, how is a guy supposed to resist?

I replied, "No she isn't. I cannot help it if neither you, Brooke nor Brooke's mum know her real name."

Georgia has met me before but not spent a lot of time with me and so was slightly unsure how to react, so Miss chimed in with, "Don't worry Georgia. Sir loves to confuse His Victims and try to convince them that they do not know their own names."

I replied, "Yep. You know the boy who thinks he is Charlie?" "Yes." "He is Sam really." Georgia started to settle down. We were joined by the head of performing arts and a misc teacher wanting to join the senior choir that Miss is starting to recreate now the lockdown is easing.

It is good for kids to see that we teachers are actual human beings as well - especially in a school like this one where discipline is so strict and inflexible. At least, kids like G who will not take advantage. I described my Victims reaction to the screams from along the corridor. HOPA described what the kids had been doing and the fun they had been having.

I said to G at one point, "She is lying you know. Actually she was stabbing them with the sharp end of a pencil," which led to various explanations of the pencil and how Miss has adopted my description of my pupils as, "Victims".

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Quote of the week, so far at least, came from Jasmine.

Teensy, quiet, shy little Jasmine.

I had gone in early so I could give her an extra lesson, to finish in time for her lunch break. This is only 30 minutes in length, a desperately short time in which to feed over 200 kids. I packed her up two minutes before the start of lunch, so she could start at the head of the queue.

She complained, "We only get half an hour."

"I know. That is why I am sending you off early."

"It is not long enough," came back the whinge.

"I know darling. That is why I am sending you off early."

Then she thought for a few seconds and came out with, "Mind, a lot of it being too short is my fault. I talk a lot." :lol:

Good for her. She says little in class so she has to talk sometime.

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

I had arranged an extra lesson with Layla as well. Beginners can find it difficult to stop their hands and fingers tensing when attempting the unusual, even ludicrous, activity of playing a keyboard. This has to corrected instantly.

I explained why and showed he what to do and the difference it makes to tone quality. One quality that is emerging from Layla is that she tries her socks off.

Thingy is, not having fingers tensing is all down to relaxation - the finger muscles have to relax. Trying to relax muscles when playing the piano is a bit like trying to go to sleep. A bit of an oxymoron, in fact.

She tried. Mostly she succeeded but not always, so I explained the chocolate tactic. Layla has another lesson on Thursday. I will take in a box of Maltesers. She gets one every time she manages a passage without tense fingers. She pockets the rest of the box if she manages often enough for long enough.

And if she manages in between Monday and Thursday? She pockets the box anyway. Obviously.

Layla had already agreed that the way to a teen girl's heart is through chocolate to her tummy. She will succeed and it will only cost me £1.25.

Mind, that is only the start of the job. The fingers can only fully relax if the arms, shoulders and jaws are relaxed, and Layla's are pretty tight. So why not start with them? You start with what a kid can understand. Wish me luck.

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I am celebrating tonight, so sorry if I occasionally fail to make sense. I will do my best to edit out nonsense in during the coming days. :party:

Reason I am celebrating is: I had my second Covid jab today. It took until March 31st March 2021 before I got my first. To be honest, I was apprehensive about going into school up until then. Not terrified, because I still had faith in my unbelievably good immune system, but only so much faith. We are not talking the common cold here. I was always nervous.

Prior to the first UK lock down back in March 2020 I chickened out a week before everything closed down and stayed at home. I would have had my usual close contact with Mr P that week, I could well have contracted the disease from him. Aged 69 then, it could have killed me.

So tonight I am celebrating: my second dose; the fantastic work done by scientists all over the world; the amazing organisation at the vaccination centre in Lincoln that I attended. The Lincoln centre is a wonderful example of what can be done when local organisation is taken out of the hands of the buffoons that run our so-called 'government' these days. I am deeply grateful to the people running the centre.

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

Back to Thursday and second quote of the week, also by Jasmine.

From J, "I am losing my voice."

"Bad luck, "I replied sympathetically. "Too much talking at lunch?"

"Yes. I never shut up."

I wonder how she avoids starvation?

---

The Maltesers tactic worked wonders with Layla and her tense fingers. She had tried really hard, and succeeded, to relax her fingers. She triumphantly took away her box of Maltesers.

----

Charlie is on the Y12 timetable now that everyone has moved up a year. I have reinstated his free, extra Monday lesson. He missed that - understandably now that it was his first day back.

He pithed up 20 minutes late on Thursday, whilst I was teaching Bailey. Y12 and 13 have 'free' periods when they are supposed to study independently. Sometimes this happens, sometimes not. Horses, water and drinking come to mind here. 6th form is the transition to university which is the transition to adulthood. Support for the dimwitted gradually diminishes throughout the progression.

Charlie is far from being a dimwit, but he can be a clot. I asked him, "Have you come here to doss?" ("Doss" means camp). Came the reply, "No. I have come for a piano lesson."

"Canst thee read a timetable?" I asked.

"Eh?"

"Canst thee read a timetable?" I repeated.

"Yes."

"Clearly not. Go and try again." Off he trotted.

He came back with the information that he had got Monday and Thursday the wrong way around.

I let him off without further teasing. After all, he could easily have reminded me how many times in years 9/10 that the only way he could turn up on time was if he ignored the times I had given him and read the timetable on the board. The damn thingy confuses me to this day.

Besides, there was a time when Charlie's stated ambition was to join the army on finishing GCSE's. Now, here is the thingy and call me a hypocrite if you want; I will accept the description. We need our armed forces. Our nation cannot negotiate from a position of weakness with nations that would otherwise do us harm. We need young people prepared to go out and kill and risk being killed, for our own safety.

I just didn't want one of them to be Charlie, OK? I am happy that he is still where he can be a lunatic without being hurt.

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Two more from last week that I forgot to tell you. Go to this post viewtopic.php?p=171549#p171549

The last paragraph I wrote was this:
Fantastic news broke today. There is a vaccine. OK, so it is a while away from wide distribution, but it exists. There is hope that this bloody virus will piss off and leave us alone. For sure there is now hope that sometime in the spring, the corridors will again fill up with children and the Motley Crews of Musical Reprobates will again be in place when I arrive to teach at school. I cannot wait for this wonderful day to arrive.
Still no Motley Crews yet, but after school clubs are restarting, so Miss has started up her junior and senior choirs. Senior choir happens after school on Thursday. LSS is no longer having lessons and I have nothing to rush home for, so I offered to help, an offer accepted with alacrity.

So we had a joyous hour with keen singing children doing their stuff. Miss and I both welled up a couple of times. It was wonderful to see kids doing the sort of thingy that kids are supposed to do.

-----

Earlier was Gwenyth. Teen kids, especially girls, learning to play the piano tend to be on the ridiculous side of cute. Think about it. Gum-chewing, pot-smoking, gun-toting kids are unlikely to be learning to play a musical instrument.

Gwenyth makes Jasmine look like a horror - that is how cute G is.

So, come Thursday and she came for her extra lesson. There was no sign of my next victim, so I asked, "What do you want to do darling? Stay, or go back to your class."

G's reply of, "Go back to class please," was the first time she had ever replied thus. I replied, "Of course poppet. Pack up and off you go."

Then I thought about this extra Thursday lesson, which was at a fixed time of 1.20 and thought, "What if...." and asked, "What lesson are you going back to?"

"Textiles."

The light dawned. G loves playing the piano but Textiles are here passion. Imagine the dichotomy of a sensitive child, between not wanting to offend me/miss extra piano teaching and not wanting to miss part of her favourite lesson - every week.

We already know how short the kids' lunch breaks are. Almost all of the kids I teach have theirs from 12.50 to 1.20. which is why G's extra lesson was timetabled for 1.20. The only way to rearrange is for me to arrive early, slip her in at 12.30, then face a blank 30 minutes in a seriously overheated and uncomfortable environment, wishing I did not love the kids quite so much. Hey ho. I can at least take in a sandwich for lunch.

So I said, "We cannot have you missing the first part of Textiles angel," and explained that we would do 12.30 instead.

Oh folks, you should have seen her face. I do not have an image of her and would not post it even if I did, but I wish I could. Remember the lunch-seeking tiger that various kids have softened over the years? This one would have rolled over and demanded endless tummy tickles for itself and its cubs.

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Two from last Thursday.

First came Jasmine, whose timetabled lesson is on Thursday. I said to her, "Let's arrange an extra on this coming Monday," and did so.

Announced J, "Monday is my birthday." Then she grumbled, "Whilst I was in primary school, my birthday always coincided with a teacher training day. Suddenly I have to be in school on my birthday." I sympathised. Remember how rarely our birthdays coincided with days off school?

J is in Miss' tutor group but I do not know how much info about a child flashes up on the screen when a teacher checks her charges attendance, so I emailed Miss with J's impending birthday over the weekend.

-----

Coming up to J's lesson today (Monday), I heard yells from the corridor. From Miss, "Jasmine, Happy Birthday." From the passing head of performing arts came the same, at equally high volume and with equal love in her voice. A clearly slightly embarrassed but equally pleased little J appeared in the doorway and took my yell of, "Happy birthday poppet," in her stride.

Folks, I do not often get to teach a child on his/her birthday. I like to mark the occasion when I do, so I had with me a box of Maltesers. I handed it to her and said, "Break into that poppet."

I find these damn packages impossible to break into without the aid of a buzz saw but like all kids, J was in within about 3 seconds - and holding out the detritus to me to dispose of. It is what kids do with detritus, after all. :lol:

At regular intervals throughout the lesson I would point at the box and intern sternly, "Malteser." A very happy J complied immediately. I sent her away with the rest of the box at the end of the lesson. She skipped off happily.

....

Julia payed me such a wonderful complement today. To backtrack slightly, you have already met her 'wobbly fingers'. Time to introduce you to her 'wobbly eyes'.

It became obvious to me at one time recently that Julia was having difficulty focussing. Concerned that this might be undiagnosed dyslexia, I investigated. J explained that, "I wear glasses at home but never bring them to school."

<Just to explain my layman's understanding, dyslexic kids do not see patterns easily and music reading is all about recognising patterns, so I was not overly concerned.>

I sighed patiently and left matters at that. Most kids are bonkers, after all, and J has the same right to be bonkers as the rest of them. My instruction is, "When you have a wobbly eye incident,close them and take a few seconds to focus again. I will wait for you."

She had one today. She followed the usual procedure and we had a good laugh. She came out with this classic: "I can be having a horrible day. Then I come for a piano lesson and the rest of the day is great."

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I love her right back.

: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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I just reread my previous post and realised that I did not fully explain the wonderful compliment that Julia paid me.

She came in at the start of the lesson and played like a drain. Utterly clueless. Hopeless.

She held up her hand with a huge plaster on her little finger and said, "Sorry Sir. I cut my finger this morning and it hurts."

There is not a parent in this world under similar circumstances that would not sweep up a child into their arms to offer comfort. Here in the UK, teachers risk the sack at best, and imprisonment at worst, should we do the same.

Instead I cried out, "Sweetheart" and gave J the nearest I am allowed to a cuddle.

I said, "Darling. I do not come here to torture cute children like you. Are you sure you are able to continue? We can rearrange if not." (No idea how to arrange given my packed timetable at the mo, but I would have found a way).

Julia assured me that she was ok to continue. By a happy chance, the piece I was teaching here did not include the use of the offending digit. Phew.

Here comes the wonderful compliment. Later on and jokingly I said to J, "Angel, I know I said that I do not come to this school to torture cute children like you, but that is the fact of what happens. No child should be subjected to piano lessons from me. It is child abuse of the worst kind."

Came the reply that I will never forget. " "I can be having a horrible day. Then I come for a piano lesson and the rest of the day is great," and beamed at me.

This child has a friend for life.

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

School teachers do not have a lot of 'free' periods i.e. periods when they are not in contact with kids in class. These periods are for marking and lesson preparation. Said teachers do not get enough of them and so work long into the evening to make up for this lack of prep time.

So when Miss asked me to accompany Brooke's G3 Music Theatre exam and we arranged for the whole of the final period of today to be given over to a supervised rehearsal, I agreed with alacrity. Brooke is a wonderful child that I met last year. Miss is a wonderful Miss. What is to say 'No' to?

Brooke is no future star. She sings the stuff ok but nothing more. Yet there were two highly trained/qualified yet only moderately well paid professionals (and my time was for free) spending an entire hour with her.

Why?

Because it is what teachers the world over do for kids. It is what we live to do.

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

Another from Thursday that I forgot to tell you.

All music performers understand this; we can add to our repertoire but there comes a point when the piece we are learning can only progress so far. What 'cements' the piece in our mind is performing it to an audience. Now imagine performing the piece umpteen times? There are good and cogent reasons why international concert pianists make performing stupidly difficult pieces of music look so easy.

So I arranged for Miss to come and listen to Gwenyth's upcoming exam performance during our after school lesson yesterday. G knew this was coming.

And proceeded to go to the dogs. She was bad in her regular lesson that day. She was dreadful at the start of her after school lesson. I was unworried and kept on telling her so. I knew what would happen.

Yep. In breezed The Genius Miss. Her brand of manic positivity rubbed off on G instantly. G's playing improved 200% immediately.

These exams are recorded digitually these days and submitted to the exam boards for marking, so G is now confident of doing her best on Friday, when she dos the recording.

Miss will not be teaching at the school for ever. I am 70 in a few weeks time, and so will not be teaching for ever. For now, I continue to do the best for the kids that come across my radar in the time I have left.

And I hope that Miss takes me with her when she moves on. :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.
User avatar
SteveHopwood
Owner
Posts: 9754
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:43 am
Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Miss is proving wonderful at encouraging kids to take up learning an instrument/singing from us peris. She came up with a great idea.

All kids take a whole-year assembly once a week. Her idea was to get all of us peris together to display our skills during one of these assemblies. The first and most relevant was to those at the end of their first year at the school.

There is a fatuous statement that does the rounds regularly and it is this, "Those that can, do whilst those that cannot, teach." In other words, if you cannot perform at something or other, then teach others how not to do it. Think about it for a few seconds and the lunacy of this will become apparent.

All of us in the music department are performers.

Mr G showed his guitar virtuosity. The kids were entranced.

Mr R showed his drumming virtuosity. The kids were entranced.

Mrs D explained the various woodwind instruments then showed her saxophone virtuosity. The kids were entranced.

Come my turn, Plan A was to play the first page and a half of one of the most famous pieces of music ever composed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfF0zHeU3Zs if you have lived on Mars and are unfamiliar with the piece. Plan B was to play a couple of the pieces the kids would be learning after a few lessons - bright, bouncy pieces composed especially for kids by the fantastic Pam Wedgwood.

So I called out, "Put your hands up if you know this bit," and played the first few notes. Hands shot up all over the place. Phew. I played the first 90 seconds or so of the piece and finished to storms of applause. I was reassured afterwards that the kids were entranced.

Then I accompanied Miss in a performance of, "Someday" from the Disney musical, "The Hunchback of Notra Dame". The kids were entranced. Unsurprisingly. Miss has this effect on kids.

Miss tells me that the exercise worked well and that she has already had kids signing up for next term. :clap: :clap: :clap:

Later on in the day, I was holding a door open on the corridor for one of Miss' groups. A little girl beamed up at me and said, "Your piano playing was beautiful today." Another child with a friend for life. :lol:

I am writing about the previous Thursday on Sunday night. Come Friday, it was time to do Gwenyth's G2 piano exam recording. We had all arranged for this to happen at 12.50. G and I were present.

There was no sign of Miss or Recording Technician.

G did a practice run through - 5 minutes worth.

Then another.

Still no sign of Miss or RT. I moved on to teaching the next bit of the piece she had been learning as something different to the exam material - and considerably harder.

Eventually I decided to go in search of either Miss or RC. I found Miss in the recording studio with Georgina. I think you are going to become as fond of this young lady as are Miss and I, but more of that later. We established that RT was supposed to have pitched up a fair while earlier, so Miss gave him a call.

He appeared with requisite equipment in tow and G was superb. She played beautifully.

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

Back a day to Thursday. I moved in to my usual teaching. Jasmine appeared with her arm fabulously decorated. "Bored again" I asked? "Yes".

Bailey did her usual highly thoughtful thingy.

Not sure if I have mentioned Ethan before. My birthday is in July, so imagine how much smaller I was that those whose birthday was in September. Ditto Ethan. The Ethan's and Steve's of the world have to find our own way through the mass of much bigger humanity that occupies a school year. It took Ethan a while to find his way, but it looks as though playing the piano might be it.

Then we come to Georgina. She is the leading member of the senior choir. Miss and I did the rehearsal after school. Georgina took a leading roll.

Come the end of the practise, I needed to talk to Miss about the music for her wedding. She is proceeding up the isle to the strains of "Zadok the Priest" from the orchestral introduction until the first triumphant entry of the choir - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiXgOQ9_-RI if you are unfamiliar with this.

Now, fabulous pianist that I am (and I really am :lol: ) I am no orchestra. I have to decide how to play something rearranged for piano that was originally composed for an orchestra.

Georgina quite likes Miss and me. We quite like Georgina. OK, so after one recent interlude involving G I intoned to Miss, "I adore that child." To which Miss replied, "So do I." "Quite like" is probably understating.

One of the members of the choir is a staff member. Come the end of the rehearsal, we sent the choir home.

G remained, clearly in no hurry to depart.

So we were left with Miss, member of staff and G.

Then we were joined by one of the cleaners. OK, so she started by cleaning tables but rapidly became involve with what happened subsequently.

Played on the piano, I see four ways of playing the long lead up to the choral entrance to Zadok the Priest. I played them all. The group reactions were:
  • No 1: hmmm.
    No 2: better but not much enthusiasm.
    No 3: lots of enthusiam.
    No 4: yes. Nailed it. G and cleaner dancing around the room and intoning, "Yes. That is the one."
For the few of you who know what I am writing about, No 4 is: play it like a piano piece i.e. with pedal; keep the repetitive bass line;add basic harmonies in the left hand.

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

I hope you enjoyed all this folks. For sure, I did.

: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.
Locked

Return to “Lounge”