How I Changed This Week

Every school day this week I did something new.

Tuesday: A few weeks ago, I was wearing a pair of bling-y love-heart earrings.  One of my most entertaining girls at school - I've taught her for nearly 6 years - thought they were gorgeous, and said I should take a photo of them (which I did for this blog anyway) and then use it as the wallpaper on my phone.  Somehow we got onto that topic on Tuesday, and I went to show her the picture - suddenly she had my phone (!) and was telling me I had too many photos and ooh Instagram and then she set the earring photo as the unlock screen -

and picked another -

for the wallpaper.  It took me about a day to stop doing a double take every time I checked my phone for the time.

Wednesday: On Tuesday I had coughing fits to and from work.  I hate these, and they stopped me feeling like I was getting over this cold.  On the way home I realised it was most likely due to the air on the train, and all I was wanting was a cup of hot tea.  So for Wednesday and Thursday, I took a travel mug with tea in it for all trips.  It worked.  The lid of this mug is really well-sealed so I wasn't worried about any spills.

Thursday: If you follow my other blog you'll know about this.  My grade 6 quartet had their first performance last week, and I would normally give the Freddo Frogs as a reward.  But I always do that.  I recently got into cupcakes (baking them, not really eating them), so I made them some mini cupcakes, and decorated them with appropriate musical things.

They were a big hit.  (I do apologise for the not-straight lines in this photo.  Taken in a hurry before leaving for school on Thursday morning.  Meanwhile, how cool is the board underneath?!  It reads: George Frideric Handel - Too Hot to Handel)

The Phone Case

I know there are some people out there who change their phone cases as often as they change their shirts.  I, however, have had the same phone case since May 2011.  A hot pink Speck case, it did the job.  My phone felt safe encased in it. 

Recently, the little rubbery bits started to give way in a big way.  The bottom part would detach readily, and I started playing with it the way some people click pens.  Guess that might have been annoying...  Anyway, I decided a new case was in order.  I'd seen some pretty cases in Mombasa so headed in there.  This was the only one that appealed to me though. 

Removing the old case, I felt justified in this new purchase - the whole lower section is only just hanging on.  After nearly 2 years of the hot pink safety of Speck, this new one feels rather insubstantial.  I am yet to drop the phone though to really test its protective properties.  In the meantime, I'm getting used to this new yellow thing hanging around.  I do like the spots!

The Embrace of Technology

I often have parents say to me, "I have no idea if she's getting it right or not.  I'm hopeless with music".  I've found that a lot of parents feel out of their depth when it comes to helping their children.  For some of them, this is partly by design, as they realise when they don't do it for their kids, the kids are forced to learn it all fully, themselves.  One of them even said that to me yesterday - and this is from a parent who is able to occasionally sit in on the lessons.  But a lot of my students I teach during school, and their parents don't really have the option to come in and listen.  Plus, I see most of my students for a half hour lesson.  Minus the time it takes to collect and return the little ones.  Minus the time it takes the older ones to remember they have a lesson, ask their teacher to leave, and make the trip to my teaching room.  And then they are back in school, absorbing a whole lot of other information.  Not to mention, the multitude of extra-curricular activities undertaken by young people these days.

It would be great if I could send my kids away and they remembered how to work out how to do something, even if they didn't actually remember how to do it straight off.  But...  In recent years a few parents have asked for Youtube recommendations.  I resisted a little (I much prefer students to work it out themselves), but it really minimises conflict at home if the parents can show a Youtube video to their child and say, See it really doesn't sound like what you just played.  Last year, I upgraded to an iPhone, and near the end of the year I discovered the sound quality of string playing on the Voice Memo function is really not bad.  This year, I have started recording what the student needs to practice that week, or the new thing, or something that still isn't right.  Then on Thursdays I email it through to the parents or, sometimes, direct to the student.  Some students have now started bringing their ipod to their lesson and I can record straight onto that.

I started noticing benefits straight away.  As soon as I did the first recording for one child, that student looked up at me with big eyes and said "Wow.  You're really good".  Well, yes.  I'm a professional.  This way the student hears, right from the beginning, what the goal is.  Tuning, rhythm, and musicality have a benchmark, and the student can aim for my way immediately.  Moreover, the parents can hear that benchmark as well, and even if they are, in fact, "hopeless with music", they can compare notes (ooh, sorry for the terrible pun!).  And as the weeks progress, they accumulate a collection of recordings of everything they need to be playing.  One parent even emailed me yesterday to let me know that her child practices playing along to my recordings, and if they don't match, she has to start again.  Gold.