Stringbabies

I had a lovely lunch with an adjudicating colleague today. She is a string specialist and primarily a cellist. She also teaches my granddaughter the cello, and a fine teacher she is too. Actually she has developed a teaching system for 3 to 5 year olds which is called Stringbabies, and is clearly very very successful. It has a most innovative way of teaching notes as well as finger positions starting with less lines on the stave than the usual 5, and gradually adds in the whole stave as the child progresses.

I have seen it work fantastically well with C and the whole system is now being embraced across the country in many school music authorities as far apart as Cornwall, Surrey and Ayrshire!

If only there were some way of generalising voice teaching, beyond the earliest of vowel shapes, but each person is totally unique, with an entirely different set of vocal folds, muscles and genetic predispositions ! Although the scales and exercises are much the same for all my students, how they 'scrub up' in the lesson is so different, I can never predict what sounds will need tweaking, or how the tricky subject of breathing will pan out.

It does make for an interesting day however, no two voices resemble each other, and everyone's take on the song is just their's and their's alone. As a singer myself, I am probably genetically modified to view each pupil as another challenge, I may get bored if the sounds were too similar! No disrespect whatsoever to my instrumental colleagues! Especially those about to become richer from the proceeds of a brilliant teaching system - and who paid for my delicious lunch !


Have a google and see what a fantastic teaching system Stringbabies is.

http://www.violinbabies.com/index.php/main/#content

'Oh my Darling Clementine'

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and did not indulge too much !

I have had a great few days so far with my daughter and grandchildren, we have shopped and played games galore! My 5 year old grandson was given the timeless game called Pick Up Sticks, which I played in the school playground as a child. I had forgotten just how hard it is, or I have developed an age related shake, or even that my eyesight is now too far gone to see the tips of each coloured stick, and where is lies ! Anyhow, they beat me into oblivion, experience did not save the day sadly!

My 8 year old granddaughter received some lovely gifts, as did my daughter, we were all very blessed with presents from far and near. My daughter's partner however, his present was an acoustic guitar! Now not many of you may know that as a very young teenaged singer I was a dab hand at the old 'geetar', and sang folk songs accompanying myself on the 6 strings !

From Scarborough Fair, to The Cuckoo, I entertained at old folks homes and hospitals with both school and singing teacher, with much under developed gusto !

I spent a by happy hour or so teaching him 3 simple chords and after a short practise he was playing a basic accompaniment to such classics as 'Oh my Darling Clementine' 'On top of old Smokey' and finally 'Cockles and Mussels'.

He was suitably delighted with himself and I was transported back to those days when with long Nana Mouskouri hair and black rimmed glasses I thought I ruled the musical world! Having said all of that, learning the guitar and strumming all sorts of songs and chord sequences made me a pianistic busker par excellence ! It was the best foundation for playing everything from Gilbert and Sullivan piano reductions to to Strauss Lieder, both of which are made possible for the enthusiastic yet slightly inadequate accompanist if one can find the chord sequence.

Good old Clementine, she did the trick !

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my readers! Have a peaceful one, and see you after Boxing Day !

The Professional Amateur

I went to the church today to have a play through the carols and work out which stops and manuals give the most satisfyingly rousing sound for the final verses of the really well known ones. It is a great feeling of power, sitting at something the size of a small truck, and being able to summon up a heavenly row, fit to raise the roof. As a professional musician who is not an organist, I am guilty as charged of always assuming that the vast majority of organists have a peculiar love of solitude, and can be rather self sufficient and occasionally odd !

If one had to spend many hours practising in an empty parish church, full of darkness and echo, I guess you need a certain ability which allows one to shut off and work in a vacuum. Many musicians are solitary folk, able to be emotionally self supporting, the many hours of practise mean that is almost a requirement, but organists are somehow different!

Anyhow, I am not of that ilk, but now and again it is great to have all that power to rev up like a celestial engine, and fill the church with Hark the Herald.............thank the Lord it was on the list!

I am not a member of the chuch, but I could not leave them without suitable backing for the midnight service, and I do actually enjoy it, and it is a lovely beginning to Christmas Day. Thankfully this year I don't think the weather will be as Arctic as it was last Dec 24th, so hopefully we won't see the familiar and loved words of said carols in our freezing breath !

I then will have a happily busy, and Vicar of Dibley Christmas Day, having two Christmas feasts, one at lunchtime and another in the evening.

Hopefully there won't be a sprout eating contest.....

For my international readers see info below! A well loved British sitcom about a small traditional English village who, much to their horror are sent a lady vicar! Lots of trouble for awhile but gradually they thaw and she is so popular she has 3 invitations for Christmas Dinner, NONE of which she can refuse! Brave woman !

The Marriage of Figaro x 2

Susanna and Figaro a la 1945


Two of my past students have tackled producing The Marriage of Figaro, my daughter is one, and the young woman in Durham who, like S, is proving such a wonderful voice teacher. These two young women, along with another who danced as well as sung are taking the mantle of truly dedicated and highly talented voice technicians, as well as sensitive and empathetic in their teaching philosophy.

The two Figaro productions were wonderful, and I like to think that the root inspiration came from their own youthful performances as the Countess and Cherubino, when I produced the said opera some 23 years ago ! They loved the music, the story and the whole business of stagecraft, and how pleasing it is to see the full circle they have navigated in returning to the timeless, and ageless Mozart opera that is The Marriage of Figaro.

I am moved to write this as I just watched the DVD of one the productions, which was in July this year. The company had something of a drama, (What self respecting staged show would be without a drama!)and funds which had been raised for the show had to be directed towards paying the fee and travel expenses of a late entry Count ! Their home grown Count badly let them down and dropped out 3 weeks before the opening night, Bad Boy indeed. So it was the costume budget which suddenly slid into sub prime mode!

M had a brainwave borne of the dilemma and decided to set the whole thing in the 1940's, so costumes came from friends, elderly relatives and charity shops. Actually it worked beautifully in their favour. Young folk, largely under 21, and with bright young voices, made the nippy wartime idea prove lively and funny, without the heaviness of the 18th century paraphernalia. One obviously loses some of the stature of the piece, but, again the youthful enthusiasm and delicious buffoonery worked like a charm.

The other version which S produced and indeed brought up to Paradise, was set in period, and proved just as exciting, just as wonderfully full of pep and passion.

I feel it may be time for me to sink into unstressed oblivion, let them get on with it, and become a kindly observer, occasional advice giver, and deliverer of adulation and flattery at their 2nd generation brilliance!

What do you reckon?

Art Thou Troubled Mr Spock?

Mr Handel and Mr Spock

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Well, finally my term is over! I needed to record a couple of songs for young R , and as she is a high soprano, the recording of repertoire for those whose are in the vocal upper echelons, becomes more tricky year on year! I had a very usable top B flat as a professional mezzo, but as age creeps up, so my range trickles down! Trying to warble a half decent V'adoro Pupille from Handel's Julius Caeser, becomes a game of octave swapping! Often I can manage the first section of the aria, but when the decorated return comes I surrender, so as not to offend the ears of the pupil by trying to dot around at the upper edges of the vocal cosmos, and failing dismally. Even the dog hates it! (I think) ?!

Anyhow, she had her half recording, and a link to the superb all singing all dancing performance by Danielle de Niese in the 2005 Glyndebourne production. So it worries me not that she will be struggling with a half sung, half played version, because she will hear a 'cool' opera singer perform it beautifully.

My very first song in my by first singing lesson was 'Art Thou Troubled' by Handel, and I fell instantly in love with glorious Handelian melodies. Few composers can write a cracking tune like Mr Handel, few knew the human voice as well as he, and few composers stand the test of time and come up shiny and newly scrubbed with each new performance. From the Messiah to Julius Caeser he 'has been and always will be the singer's friend', to misquote a well known character in Star Trek.

Live Long and Prosper!

Hark the Herald Angels Sing - after a long break

Well, it has been a long time since I have blogged, and I apologise to my readers who may have thought I had fallen off the edge of Paradise. Actually there have been a number of big reasons for my tardiness, including, I am sad to say the death of my mother. She went down hill very rapidly from July, and gave up her fight against confusion and dementia on November 18th. My father is now in the same Nursing Home where she was, and they spent about 3 months there together, although she did not really know us anymore. Alzheimers is a cruel disease. On the bright side however, she and Dad had 61 years of marriage ! Now that is something!

Other things conspired to make my Summer and Autumn very difficult, so all in all after my sanity, my blog was the biggest loser.

I have managed a little teaching in the last 2 weeks, and feel as though I am slowly returning to 'normal' whatever that is! Inbetween all of this and just before the funeral, I had a day of singing exams, which was wonderfully distracting in one sense, and something to be 'got through' in another. On the whole I am glad I just dug in and did it, and the results were fantastic! So many distinctions, and high distinctions at that, and everyone passed well, doing the best they cold possibly do, and you can't ask for more than that.

Some of the youngsters have been seriously motivated by their brilliant results, and I love it when one sees clearly the overnight turnround. Four of my youngsters excelled themselves, gaining 4 high distinctions and lots of new born self confidence. Since that day their growth has been like a rampant weed, unstoppable and all consuming.

Other news is that we are starting rehearsals for another Gilbert and Sullivan show next summer. We are going to tackle 'Patience', the storyline based around much of the absurdities surrounding the 'aesthetic' movement and Oscar Wilde. It is a great show, and I love the music, but it is new to absolutely everyone, which means they can't be lazy and rely on past memories or being joined at the hip with someone who has done it 13 times before!

Two of the exam flyers are taking on their first biggish roles, and our dancer L is playing Patience, after our long standing leading lady moved on to the Royal Welsh College in September, other singers have burst out from under bushels all over the place! It always happens, and less steely folk than myself find it hard to believe that 'so and so', our wonderful soloist will EVER be replaced........well in all my experience it has never failed to happen.

Christmas is just around the corner now, and after eating heartily at a friend's family lunch, I am flying South to spend a week with my daughter and grandchildren.
I am playing the organ at the midnight service at the local Paradise church on Christmas Eve, so I will get my injection of carols, of which Hark the Herald and O Little Town of Bethlehem, are my favourites. I hope they are on the hymn list, or I may go on strike!

I hope to get back to blogging regularly once again, so watch this space, and thank you for your patience!