by Frances Philpot
The prospect of teaching the Home Ed group is guaranteed to put a smile on my face every Monday morning! We always have so much fun with our music-making, and I can see this leading to a really deep understanding, which is then applied in instrumental work, both at Vivace Music School and wider musical endeavours.
Whether it's creating a human piano, with each child holding out a whiteboard 'note' to sing when their note is played, or holding coloured floor spots to represent the notes in solfa, or bouncing a ball around the circle as we sing a new song, there is usually a certain amount of physical movement and potential mayhem involved! We then balance that with more cerebral challenges as we learn to play songs and pieces on recorders, often transposing into different keys or playing in canon.
It is not uncommon for me to be accused of exploding their brains, so we tend to lighten the load with a game to reinforce musical understanding, but the skills definitely build week by week, layer by layer, with theoretical concepts gradually becoming second nature.
The added delight of teaching this group is that we can allow the lessons to evolve organically, following the children's interests and skills. We are currently using NYCoS Go for Silver material to underpin what we do, with a view to gradually tackling gold level. This will in turn set up individuals to have a great foundation to make rapid progress on any instruments they may take up and/ or study GCSE music in the future. But if there is an aspect which particularly sparks interest, we can happily go off on a tangent. A recent example would be our collective attempt to master the paradiddle drumming pattern to go with our welcome song.
Whatever their future, these individuals will always be able to look back on their time with Vivace Music School, feeling proud of their nurturing group dynamic as much as their musical prowess.
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