#creative pact

[roorecordsmusic]

#creativepact Day 9/10/11

It’s been really nice to actually just take a bit of time out and do... nothing.

The weekend was a time for just... nothing. Me and family time. Just a bit of pottering, bit of getting rained on, bit of getting sunburnt.

It’s really difficult balancing everything a musician needs to do - teach, practise (!), admin, home life = but throw in a teething toddler and suddenly it’s an even bigger headache (literally at times).

With the run up to term starting the admin was out of control - it got done but it was long hours spent staring at the computer.

So - no creative pacting for me as such.

There was lots of sorting out new pieces ready for Monday, but the rest was walking, knitting, playing and baking.

Great for me and everyone - bit less interesting to read through for you I guess...

So - handy teaching tip ....

Every now and then give students something you know they’ll finish crazily fast. Even those that progress well need to be able to see how far they’ve come. It’ll be a nice confidence boost!

[roorecordsmusic]

#creativepact Day 5. Today's creativity was a bit different. Good time with the cello and a great session working on the next #ABC edition.

[roorecordsmusic]

#creativepact Day 4 - Scales!

Well - after crashing no less then 3 times - lets see if this blog post will go up this time!

Scales, scales, scales. The bane of many students lives.

Personally I quite like scales - you just whiz up and down and boom - job done. But I know a lot of students find it difficult to remember what each scale has in it, but a lot of the time they don't remember just because they don't practise them.

If you don't try then you won’t succeed!

Here’s some top tips for #scale #success:

1. Try our alto sax book with backing CD - you can buy a copy here and hear a sample of one of the tracks here  Other instruments will be coming soon!

2. Play some piano chords under their long held notes as they go up the scale to make a smooth and floaty sounding piece.

3. Get them to improvise a new funky rhythm on each note of the scale - you could turn it into a call and response game

4. Put the scales they’re working on into a hat and let them pick out the scales

5. Add different articulation

6. If remembering the sharps and flats - you could add a rhyme or saying for each scale - So F is - Fat Birds (F major, B flat) or G major - Good Fish (G major, F sharp)

I hope some of these help! #teachertip

Other composing / creative work has been working again on the school ensemble piece. The tortoise is proving slow to finish - but I guess there should be no surprise there!

[roorecordsmusic]

#creativepact Day 2

Today has been one for working on our next #ABC edition. Its a fun tango and as always all of the parts have something interesting to play. Teaching has been saxophone lessons and already we're looking at getting ready for Grade 1 in November. It does get me thinking how quick these things come around again and how important early preparation is. Scales, sightreading and aural tests should be part of every lesson if not every practise session where you can. I know the pieces are the main chunk but the supporting tests are easy marks and important ones too. Your pieces are built from scales so learn the scales and you will be able to hear the sound of your pieces clearer. I think tomorrow will be a day of planning scale games for students. I'll share my favourite ones in the next post. Happy September

[rachaelforsyth]

Creative Pact - Day 30

Another year and another creative pact month over. (I know technically there’s another day but tomorrow will be crazy busy again so I doubt I’ll get anything done to post).

It’s been an interesting pact this year - it was used as an excuse to get back into writing and it started really well, but with a lot of things teaching, home and everything else started to encroach in on it by the end.

I really enjoyed just giving myself the freedom to write what I feel like - but actually this pact month has shown me that I really do work better with goals and targets and deadlines.

Don’t get me wrong - it was lovely to have the freedom to do whatever but I think I had too much freedom and that that clear space was too easily taken up by ‘other things’.

Most of the pieces I wrote this month were educational ones - very easy to get a few moments at school between lessons to scribble and didn’t take too much concentration. But I’ve only got 8 bars left on the wind band piece to finish and there’s been good progress on some solo sax pieces I’ll be performing in Novemeber too.

So - all in all mixed feelings about this creative pact. Not sure I’ll call it a success but then I’m not sure it was a failure

Need to prioratise writing I think...

[roorecordsmusic]

Creative Pact - Day 30

Wow - the end of yet another years creative pact! That went so fast!

It’s been a reasonable success this year - tho with lots of new students, groups and a half term things did get a bit sidelined at the end of this month which was a shame.

This month I’ve written:

1. Five new easy piano pieces

2. Three easy piano duets

3. Lots of rhythm patterns and games for the new samba group

4. Loads of beginner ukulele pieces

5. Some more advanced saxophone pieces

6. Brushed up a couple of choral pieces - one of which is going to be performed in New Zealand (woop!)

So all in all - not a bad month. Could do better, but happy knowing the work /life balance at the moment is sort of keeping an even keel.

[roorecordsmusic]

Creative Pact - Day 22

Another manic week - and the end of term is in sight!

Happy half term holidays everybody :)

In between teaching we’ve been writing more piano duets for beginners and working on a lot of new beginner piano pieces too! As well as this there’s been lots of new saxophone pieces being scribbled.

Very soon we’ll have to start organising some Christmas pieces and get something festive arranged!

Where is the time going?

[rachaelforsyth]

Creative Pact - Day 21 & 22

Hooray - I found the #sax melody that I was humming on day 20 *woop*

So - last couple of days in between balancing end of term crazyness and small person has been writing some new solo sax melodies. I’m not sure if they all belong together in one long piece or whether I’ve written a couple of small pieces and mashed them together... Will need to let them marinate for a bit to see if I can find what’s missing.

Task for this afternoon is to do a bit of work on the grade 8 composition exam - one step closer to diploma and then Masters :)