Monthly Archives: September 2011

Issue 6: Welcome to The Music Jungle

Posted on September 24, 2011 by

Issue Six – and term is now well under way.  I have really enjoyed travelling around all the schools by day, through brilliant sunshine (and sudden torrential rainstorms!), and catching up with the piano pupils in the evenings.  Just in case I had forgotten … Continue reading →

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Issue 6: The Name Game

Posted on September 24, 2011 by

This game is a real oldie, and we all tend to do it at the start of every year in a vain effort to learn classfuls and classfuls of names in the first week of term.  This week I watched it … Continue reading →

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Issue 6: YouTube as a teaching resource

Posted on September 24, 2011 by

I use YouTube a lot as a teaching resource for school and private teaching.  I suspect I am only scratching the surface of what is possible.  If you have RealPlayer installed on your computer, then you should be able to easily download YouTube … Continue reading →

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Issue 6: Playing Bach

Posted on September 24, 2011 by

My parents listened to a lot of records when I was young, and three particular recordings of Bach have stayed with me over the years.  They are: George Malcolm playing the Italian concerto on the harpsichord, the Swingle Singers, and the Jacques Loussier Trio. … Continue reading →

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Welcome to Issue 5 of The Music Jungle

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

Hello again!  Issue 5 of The Music Jungle magazine has arrived.  This week, there are articles on how to hand out musical instruments to a class (and what can happen when it goes wrong!), using silence as an effective teaching method, and … Continue reading →

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Issue 5: Dishing Out The Instruments

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

I reckon this is about the most complicated part of your average music lesson.  I learned how to manage this “the hard way”.  Actually, I am still learning how to do this – but it is getting easier as the … Continue reading →

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Issue 5: Silence is Golden

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

I never knew about how effective Silent Practise was until I started teaching beginner recorders.  I hit upon the idea of fingering the notes while singing the words, and the letter names, and the fingering numbers, over and over again, … Continue reading →

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Issue 5: Hi Low Chickalow

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

This is a little playground clapping game which I learned from my daughter when she was a junior school.  Some children know it as part of a longer clapping rhyme. Arrange the children in pairs, and get them to shake … Continue reading →

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