Music

Dear St Mary’s Community,

I am delighted to introduce myself as the new music teacher for specialist day (Tuesday). I am eager to join the talented team of educators here at St Mary’s and have an extra reason to come into our warm and supportive community. I have been a parent at our school for 6 years now and I’ve taught piano here for 3 of those.

Growing up I was never in any doubt as to my career path. I am a country girl who moved to the city to study at Melbourne Uni back when double degrees were still available. My passion for music education has been a driving force throughout my career, but my years in general classroom teaching showed me that it’s really all about the kids.

This term we will be learning about and exploring pitch. Music is a language, just like any of our spoken languages- we want to be able to hear it (ear training), speak it (play it), read it and write it (notation). Our senior grades will initially engage with this from a scientific point of view and our younger grades are going to be experimenting and improvising on the great school instruments.

I know we will have a lot of fun together and I can’t wait to help our students along their journeys with music: I hope it can be a language they will be able to use for life. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss our musical program for the term.

Rachel Cheesman

Music Teacher