MUSIC

“It’s an ill wind that brings nobody any good”. This Tudor era proverb was published in John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection, and reminds us to look for the good in tough times. It’s also used as a teasing pun in music circles, where it summarises playing the notoriously difficult double-reed instrument, the oboe. In these unusual times, there has been an abundance of proverbial silver linings in the teaching and learning of instrumental music in our department, and I have been privileged to bear witness to them.

Our teachers

I have felt so fortunate to see our team of peripatetic instrumental teachers embrace the challenges of the online environment, taking to remote instrumental teaching like ducks to water. Musicians are well-reputed to be adept at technology and spend many years developing flexibility and adaptability in ensembles. Our staff brought these qualities of flexibility, adaptability and technological prowess to our online environment with enthusiasm, creating vibrant online studios within days. It has been a wonderful privilege for me to act as a third party in our online music lessons. I have had the opportunity to witness the very high levels of effective teacher practice in these visiting staff. Thankyou to Jackie, Tim, Meredith and Sean.

Our students

I have also been so inspired and enthused by the resilience, good humour, patience and courtesy of our music students in the online environment, and impressed with the high levels of musicianship and musical commitment I have witnessed. This week I have spent hour after hour watching and listening to students try, listen to feedback, apply feedback, try again and improve in a constant cycle of feedback and performance. Few things bring me greater satisfaction than hearing students’ musical development in action. It has been an honour to be part of this great learning and I thank all of our music students for their effort and talent.

Every day

I’m calling for practice every day: 30 minutes for juniors and 60 minutes for seniors. But if you already do more than that, keep doing what you are doing. This regular commitment to practice is the home learning goal for performance music during this period of social distancing and self-isolation. Imagine how amazing our ensembles will sound when we all come back to school after practising for a minimum of 30 minutes per day!

I encourage everyone to learn their ensemble music as best as you can. I encourage everyone to play anything they love to play every day to build their sound and confidence. I encourage everyone to play long strong notes and scales, studies or warm-ups everyday to build big warm strong tone to bring back to the College when we meet in person again. But mostly, I encourage all of our students and families to understand the power of practice as a wellbeing tool. Playing an instrument gives space and time for the mind and is an outlet for emotion. It’s a great way to fill time and stay positive!

Our online performance - House competition

Today we launch our online performance project: Isoloation. All of our musicians are encouraged to record a video of themselves playing a phrase, section, piece, snippet, or whatever, of something they are practising at the moment. Upload your video to the Drive or to YouTube as an unlisted video and submit it to our Isoloation Project via this Google Form. I will put all the videos together to see how many minutes of performance we can create as a team while in isolation. We’ll also collect House points for the most number of participants. Don’t worry, we won’t make the video public or share it in the College community unless all of our performers are happy to! Anyone student or teacher in the College can participate. It’s not just for music students. I’m starting today with a little bit of cello playing. Get creative and send in a performance!

Clare Brassil | Director of Music Performance