MUSIC 

Our dedicated staff of peripatetic music teachers have delivered over 90 lessons per week via Google Meet. As Meet supervisor, it has been a wonderful experience for me to see these teachers in action. Their dedication, creativity and flexibility in the online environment is admirable. It has also been really inspiring to see our students so happily playing their instruments and engaging in music activities during this unusual period. Nothing makes me smile like seeing children enjoying music at any time, but in these difficult times, it has been a ray of sunshine!

Ensembles online

Faced with continuing online learning,  we made the decision to commence online ensemble rehearsals this week. What a concept! You can imagine how much we can’t actually play together when faced with multiple layers of digital latency. However, inspired by our teaching methods for online Year 3/4 String Class and online Year 5/6 Band, we started online Band, Sinfonia and Stage Band. These rehearsals are taking place for 30 minutes only, from 3.30pm - 4.00pm on our usual rehearsal days. Using Google Meet, with our cameras on and microphones off, ensemble members play along to a backing track for each piece, played through an audio tab on my computer. It’s working so well! And it’s great to see each other and play “together” again. I really encourage all ensemble members to participate this week. You have to supply your own lollipops though…

Encore 2022

Our Stage 4 Gifted and Talented Music Program (Encore) will be calling for 2022 enrolments in the next few weeks. Year 7 students already enrolled in the program will be invited to reapply for Year 8 2022, and invitations to apply for Year 7 2022 will be sent out to Year 6 students enrolling in the College next year. 

We will also offer a Strand B for Year 8 students in 2022, targeted at those Year 7 students who have enrolled in the Beginner Instrumental Program in 2021.

AMEB results

Congratulations to the following students who have completed AMEB exams in recent weeks:

Banruo Zhu (Year 7): AMEB Grade 7 Piano received an A (Honours)

Michael Bacon (Year 8): AMEB Grade 4 Saxophone received an A (Honours)

Ella Menzies (Year 9): AMEB Grade 4 Voice received an A (Honours)

We would love to hear from more students who completed AMEB exams. 

Please fill out this form to tell me your results so that we can recognise you in the next College newsletter: AMEB exams 2021.

Music Week concerts

I have been enjoying watching our collection of videos from Music Week. These will be shared with performing students and their families in coming weeks. We hope to share some of these with the wider community via the College Facebook page too. Permission from performers and their families will be sought before publishing.

RU OK -  Music and Wellbeing

Not just good for our cognitive development, music is also a powerful tool for wellbeing. Listening to music, singing, playing an instrument, keeping a beat, moving to music, are all accessible music activities which can have a positive effect on our cortisol levels, boosting our mood and our immunity. Here’s a list of music activities for people of all ages, to assist in your wellbeing:

1. Play an instrument - if you have one, play it. If you don’t, think about getting one
2. Sing along to a song you like - You can use karaoke channel on Spotify, SingStar on PS4,or SingKing on YouTube if you want to be a soloist
3. Use your body to keep a beat to any music you like
4. Dance (don’t worry, no-ones watching!)
5. Create a happy music playlist with a friend or household member. Make it a “happy” music playlist, or a “calm” music playlist, or try an exercise playlist (every track 120bpm)
6. Create music using a DAW: try GarageBand (Mac only), MixPad (all platforms), Soundation (all platforms)

In the words of Maria from Sesame Street: “Don’t worry if it’s not good enough, for anyone else to hear, just sing, sing a song!”.

Clare Brassil | Director of Music Performance