Monthly Archives: February 2012

Issue 25: Welcome to The Music Jungle

Sorry – I’m a bit late this week! The last week before the half term break suddenly filled up with extra events, culminating in helping with cooking a supper for forty people on Friday night. Here we go; Here is a simple … Continue reading

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Issue 25: Drumkit Samba

This is a simple rhythm to teach, and surprisingly effective. If you don’t have a set of samba instruments, try it anyway; just substitute other percussion. The rhythm patterns repeat over 8 counts; Surdo (bass drums) plays on beats 1, 5 … Continue reading

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Issue 25: Mardi Gras – 21st February

In many countries “Pancake Day” is known as Mardi Gras; literally “Fat Tuesday”. It is the day before the period of fasting before Easter, called Lent. The idea is to use up all your meat, fat and eggs, which are … Continue reading

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Issue 25: Pancake Day – 21st February

The supermarket shelves have been filling up with Easter Eggs since the beginning of the year; so far I have managed to avoid eating any yet. I’m in no hurry to get started on Easter as the Christmas season has only … Continue reading

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Issue 24: Welcome to The Music Jungle

For a person who spends their working lives teaching people to maintain steady a pulse and play accurate rhythms, bashing away at a computer keyboard is a highly unsatisfactory aural experience. The words get hammered out with little attention to phrasing, … Continue reading

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Issue 24: Journey into Space – Composition

Several schools that I work in as a class music teacher are doing “space” as their Keystage 2 topic for the term. This is a great topic for linking all sorts of different subject areas together. Linking into Literacy: I found that … Continue reading

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Issue 24: Quotations in Praise of Silence

There have been a number of quotations come my way recently concerning silence, or being silent;   “The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent.” ~ pianist Aflred Brendel, KBE   (I never realised that before…. I don’t do … Continue reading

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Issue 24: Recording and Playback and Piano Lessons

Having a quick and easy method of instantly recording and replaying music is a valuable teaching tool which I sometimes use during piano lessons, to illuminate specific points. Sometimes, hearing particular issues, rather than discussing them, is a much more effective … Continue reading

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