My very talented daughter Cami is in her first year of teaching music at a charter school. She teaches orchestra, band, choir and guitar. I went to the first concert of the year, to support her and was delighted by the events of the evening. This school caters to many students who have not had their needs met by traditional junior high schools in the area.
That, said, I was surprised at how well the students did their jobs helping set up for the concert (chairs, instruments, stands, mics, etc.) and also taking roll, handing out programs, and managing themselves and their Halloween costumes. All was not according to intent, though. The microphones were not working. Instead of panic, Cami came up with Plan B. She noticed that the two body mics w/ packs she had for the acoustic guitar players were working. So, she simply used one of them to make announcements and allow her soloists to sing amplified. The choir did very well.
Then, she went over to the band. This is a small school and the band was not made up of the typical ensemble. She had 6 or 7 percussion players, 4-5 guitars and bass players, 4 clarinets, and one each of trumpet, baritone, flute, oboe, and piano players. Somehow Cami made it all work. They played movie score pieces that the kids really liked. Though not as good as they are abound to get by the end of the year, they pulled off an enjoyable concert.
And then they systematically joined together to put everything away. I was so proud! Good work all!
That, said, I was surprised at how well the students did their jobs helping set up for the concert (chairs, instruments, stands, mics, etc.) and also taking roll, handing out programs, and managing themselves and their Halloween costumes. All was not according to intent, though. The microphones were not working. Instead of panic, Cami came up with Plan B. She noticed that the two body mics w/ packs she had for the acoustic guitar players were working. So, she simply used one of them to make announcements and allow her soloists to sing amplified. The choir did very well.
Then, she went over to the band. This is a small school and the band was not made up of the typical ensemble. She had 6 or 7 percussion players, 4-5 guitars and bass players, 4 clarinets, and one each of trumpet, baritone, flute, oboe, and piano players. Somehow Cami made it all work. They played movie score pieces that the kids really liked. Though not as good as they are abound to get by the end of the year, they pulled off an enjoyable concert.
And then they systematically joined together to put everything away. I was so proud! Good work all!
But then, Cami surprised us by coming to visit for the weekend . She then proceeded to take apart a small violin. (She wanted access to her dad's tools.) For her birthday, she got luthier tools and clamps for repairing violins, and by golly, she intended to use them!
This little violin had a crack on the front. Cami disassembled the parts and pieces, glued on some "band-aid" strips of thin wood along the underside of the crack, then glued the top back onto violin body.
Amazing!
Who knew that my "Tubateer" girl would grow up to also be a luthier (the fancy name for a violin maker and repairer)? She says that she is expert at breaking instruments, so she thought she had better get some skills at fixing them.
Amazing!
Who knew that my "Tubateer" girl would grow up to also be a luthier (the fancy name for a violin maker and repairer)? She says that she is expert at breaking instruments, so she thought she had better get some skills at fixing them.
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