Co-curricular Music Update

“Music stimulates incomparable pathways in a child’s brain and leads to improved concentration and memory abilities. Physical changes to the brain and cognitive improvements through music are measurable in many ways. Most notably, MRI shows that musical tasks can activate all 4 lobes of the brain as well as parts of the cerebellum. Music quite literally gets the whole brain working” 

Music Australia Fact Sheet (Published August 2017) 

We are blessed to have wonderful opportunities for engagement with co-curricular music at NCS.

Primary Instrumental Program

Our new Primary beginners have had their first group tutorials and are all blowing noises that are beginning to sound like notes! It is great to see their enthusiasm and excitement as they explore their new instruments, learning the very first steps in becoming musicians.

Primary Concert Band

Our continuing Primary instrumentalists are back working in groups and progressing well.  We are thrilled to be playing as a Primary Concert Band again, and working on a repertoire of about 5 pieces at the moment. Mr Hodge has been conducting this term.  

We have measured out 1.5 meter gaps and placed markers on the floor for the stands and chairs so that we could run compliant socially distanced concert band rehearsals. As COVID restrictions around instruments playing together start to ease now, our rehearsals can increasingly become larger and less spaced apart. Students are enjoying playing together as a band again.

Secondary Concert Band

Our Secondary Concert Band is in rebuild mode after a necessary COVID required break last year.  We have between 12-15 players and are running two groups concurrently: Concert Band and Advanced Ensemble. This allows us to provide more challenging repertoire for our more experienced players. It is such a privilege to work with these students.

Last week in Secondary Assembly we interviewed Micah E who has won a scholarship and travels to the Wollongong Conservatorium each week for lessons and rehearsals. Micah is a talented trombonist and we are blessed by his input into ensemble music in our Secondary School.

New space

This year we are super excited to be running our Concert Band and peripatetic music programs out of room 14. This has allowed us to store all our percussion and music in the one place that is accessible to rehearsals. This also provides a space for secondary students to safely store their instruments during the day. Room 14 has also allowed our peripatetic program (which was bursting at the seams) to spread out a bit more! We also have peripatetic teachers using this space during the day time. Thanks to Mr Drury and Mr Hefferan for their help in setting up this new space.

New teachers

We are privileged to welcome Maree McGrath to our peripatetic teaching team this year. She is an incredibly skilled, qualified and experienced music teacher. She is currently teaching guitar but also has the capacity to teach wind instruments. We are also looking to bring a drum teacher on site in the near future so that students have the opportunity to learn percussion at school.

For more information about the private music tutors or to enroll your child in private music lessons at NCS, please follow the link below:

https://www.ncs.nsw.edu.au/peripatetic-teachers

Instrumental hire

There are a number of instruments available for hire for students wishing to pursue music lessons. We currently have a tenor saxophone, a euphonium and a trombone available, as well as a few other more common concert band instruments. Instrument hire is $120 per term.  If you would like to hire an instrument and start your child in music lessons, please also use the form which can be accessed at the above web address.

Thank you to all those musical NCS students who are working hard with their practice each week, and thank you parents for your support and encouragement. It is great to engage with music at NCS.

Mrs Amanda Lawrence