Music- Not a Choice but a Passion

As one of our guitar students was absent today, our guitar teacher had some free time to sit and play freely until his next student came. In this time, I listened to his private ‘jam’ session, and wondered what it took to get to that stage. The most obvious factor would inevitably be loads of practice day and night, and motivation and pure determination to not give up at any stage.

Continual support from family, friends and teachers would definitely be a plus, as well as confidence in their musical knowledge and talent. Their yearning to pass their invaluable musical knowledge on to the next generation might have also have made them take the initiative to walk down the teaching path.

But first and foremost, the strongest driving factor for musicians like our talented teachers would have to be pure love and passion for music and everything about it, because without this, learning music and its theories would be a lost cause.

Exam Period

Hanging over your head, waiting patiently in the dark to catch you unprepared and nervous, is one type or another of end of year exams. Being a uni student, I have finished my semester and am preparing to sit my end of semester exams. I know that many of our students are preparing for their November AMEB exams which are coming up in a few weeks time.

Remembering the days when I had to go in for my upcoming AMEB piano exams, I shudder at the thought of sitting in the stuffy corridor of the exam location, anxiously awaiting the examiner to call out my name. For some reason, the walls of the corridor seemed to be closing in, and it seemed to be getting harder and harder to take in breaths of air as the time drew near for my exam.

And maybe it was just my paranoia hitting me, but for some odd reason, the examiner always seemed to be an old, grumpy man or woman who never wanted to pass anyone, but just exerted their dominance and authority over you to see if you would crack under the pressure.

Now I’m sure these days, all examiners are friendly and warm, and do not mark you harshly for one error or fail you for not sitting up straight, but in the unfortunate event that you do get a grumpy old mean examiner, here are a few tips to help you pass:

1. Know your pieces back to front! This means practicing every day until the day of your exam.
2. Revise your theory well before the exam day. Cramming the night before will not get you far!
3. Eat a good breakfast and take a bottle of water with you. Drinking plenty of water will ensure that the walls will stop closing in on you.
4. Listen carefully to your examiner’s instructions. They might only say something once.
   
5. Be confident! You are a good musician, have come very far, and you are only sitting the exam because your teacher knows you can pass with flying colours.

So good luck to all our students undertaking their exams!

Changes within a Brief Time …

After several weeks even months maybe I finally find myself working on a Wednesday. As students come in, I look up and some are faces of new students that I’m not familiar with. While, others are faces I know but I find hard to recognise because of how much they’ve grown.

The growth however is not just in physical changes; it is also evident through playing their instrument. Most of them have mastered skills and techniques that they have once in the past have complained/ stressed over. Also, some interests have changed the once pre-loved song of “Green sleeves” has now developed to the main interest of the Metallica Album “Death Magnetic”.

Whilst, it does seem like a long time, the memory still remains and it’s not too long until a new student comes along with a similar experience which triggers that feeling of déjà vu.

Second Date

It’s the time of year when our students are busy preparing and perfecting their pieces for our Annual Charity Concert to raise money for the kids at Westmead Children’s Hospital. For most of them, this is not their first time performing at our concerts, so for those lucky students, they have a +1 on their ‘Performance Experience’  count.

Having related performances to dating a few days back, for a lot of our students, this year’s concert would be like their second date. Having been on their first, they already have a feel for what to expect, how to prepare, and generally would have a few tips and tricks up their sleeves in cases of emergency.

So for the students who are going on their second date at this year’s concert: have fun, relax, and help the students who are going on their exciting first date with some handy hints and words of encouragement!

Rush

At the start of every term or semester, and especially at the start of the year, there is a heap of things to do; questions to ask, people to talk to, invoices to pay…this list alone is quite hectic! The rush of all of these things, although quite dizzying, allows you to be efficient and relax later on in the term or year. Today was the first day back for all of the Thursday students. Students arriving after 2 weeks have either practised away during the holidays, returning with improvements, whilst other students have spent the holidays relaxing and engaging their minds with other, less straining, things. These are the students who are rushing to finish their homework just before class, rushing to the lesson late, as they almost forgot that they had a lesson today! It’s quite interesting observing these students, the ones who are in a rush. They are the ones who are  encouarged into practising harder from now on, until the end of the year, where they’re efforts will be rewarded at the annual concert.

Another First Date

Being a science geek, I thoroughly enjoy coming up with my own theories about anything and everything, and have come up with a hypothesis about performances. I have found that performing has a lot of parallels with going on a first date.

Some of us have been lucky enough to have experienced the thrill of a first date. Whether it be someone you have known for a long time or someone you have just met, nobody can escape the rush of emotions that come flooding in, filling you from head to toe. This rush is the same with performing.

Before you go on, you are filled with nervousness and butterflies in your stomach, hoping that this performance will lead on to a second, and possibly more, performances.

When you get on stage and start to play, you might hit a point where you have made a mistake and don’t know what to play, what to do, or how to recover from the awkward silence that may follow.

At the end of the performance, you may get an applause, or if you played very well, a request for an encore. It is then that you know that you have given a good first impression, and another date will soon come.

And depending on the outcome, you will either go home happy and excited, or go home and cry with a tub of chocolate ice-cream being your best friend.

But whatever the outcome of your performance, you smile when you look back at it, knowing that it’s over and that you have gained invaluable insight (possibly even a drop of wisdom) from it.

New Start, New Goals

A new start to the term and already alot of students are getting into it.  So many happy faces walking into the school filled with exciting stories about their holidays. Some however are nervous about coming back, admitting that they haven’t put as much as effort as they wanted to due to trips and outings with friends and family. But, instead they go into their lesson and try their best only to suprise their efforts and even makes them question about what could have been achieved if more practise was put in. So as they leave their lesson, an expression of relief appears on their faces and a new goal becomes determined.

Go the Eels!

*Rachel walks into work and sees the school decorated in blue and yellow*

Rachel: “Uuhhh… is there something special on today?”
Jessie: *shocked* “… Don’t you watch the news?”
William: *laughing* “The football grand finals! Parramatta Eels!”
Rachel: *totally uninterested* “Oh.”

As I walked into the school today, there was an unfamiliar look about the school. Balloons and streamers of blue and yellow covered the school from wall to wall, and a poster of a so called “Parramatta Eels” football team was stuck 2 feet from my desk. Having next to no interest in this “football” sport, I had no idea what all this commotion was about until William said something about a game (which went way over my head).

As the Parramatta Eels have made it to the grand finals, the council had distributed decorational supplies to businesses in Parramatta in proud support of the football team. Although I don’t know anything about football, I do know that Jarryd Hayne (who I may have a tiny crush on) plays for Parramatta Eels, so GO THE EELS!

Oh, and keep practicing your music during the holidays and have a safe one! See you all here in one piece next term!

*** Towards the end of the day***

Rachel: “So… is the game on tonight?”
William: “…No, Sunday”
Rachel: *hangs head in shame* “oh.”

Music Teachers

From personal experience, it is truly important to find the perfect music teacher, in order to have yourself or your child learn an instrument efficiently. I still remember my 7 year-long experience of learning the violin. For me, it is more of a painful memory. I wanted to learn the guitar, but my mother forced me to learn the violin. Each week, I dreaded going to my lessons because of my teacher. To me he was the terrorist in the movie ‘Speed’ with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves (he really looked like him!). Each week, I tried to think up excuses to not go, to the extent of which I had even considered breaking a finger!

Compare me to a student here, who bubbles on about how much he loves his teacher to his parents each week. The mother told me how much her child goes on about his teacher, and that’s why he wants to come each week.

The teacher greatly effects how a student approaches music. When I see the students here, excited and enthusiastic about learning, as well as the teachers, who put in so much effort and knowledge into teaching – I wish I had found the perfect teacher as well.

Til the End

It’s already the last week of school for the term, and everybody is preparing themselves for the exciting spring holidays. I know from experience that I always submerged into holiday mode on the last week of school, and so can relate to the students who did not put in 100% of their effort today during class.

However, one of our students came in today, ready for another exhilirating piano lesson. As I heard him play (and sing at the same time!) it was very moving and inspirational to see him put so much effort in til the very end ( I know that if it was me, I would probably have called in sick- I hear swine flu is a good excuse these days- not that I encourage anyone to do this).

So to all who are reading this, I challenge you to put in 100% of your effort until the very end, and particularly to our students, please come in ready to have another awesome lesson and blow everybody away with your talent!