Performing Arts

Hi all,

My name is Jonathan Parkins, BPPS’s new Performing Arts Teacher for Term 4!

Here's a little bit of info about me... With a background in the fitness industry, I have ample experience teaching individuals and groups from all walks of life how to move their bodies with greater ease and efficiency and pursuing a variety of health and fitness related objectives. Musically, during my own schooling I spent over ten years learning to play the violin, a skill of which I am still capable of today. In later years I taught myself how to twang, strum and pick on the guitar. Across many years of schooling I was a member of school choirs and vocal ensembles. These learned skills have enabled me to contribute to a number of different orchestras, choirs, school drama productions and more recently, musical bands.

This term at BPPS, students will be experimenting with timing and rhythm. These are very important elements of musical practice and performance, perhaps even more so than pitch and timbre, as the organisation of such elements is still at the mercy of a steady beat! In Foundation, students have commenced learning and discussing farm animal sounds, using these in sequence and have begun rehearsing the well-known jingle Old McDonald. In Years 1 and 2, students have begun collaboratively unpacking and performing fun soundscapes with different elements in common time (4:4). The Years 3 and 4 students have similarly unpacked these elements and in pairs, have begun composing their own arrangements with their own choice of elements. In Years 5 and 6, students have been creating their own arrangements and some have begun teaching their peers their creations. With the concepts of Duration and Structure, students across all year levels will develop proficiency in playing, organising sound and listening.

I am excited about what the students can achieve through their collaborative minds!

See you next fortnight!

Mr Parkins