Teaching the guitar

Every Wednesday this year I have been teaching the guitar to a group of children at school. Most of them came to me with no previous experience of playing a musical instrument. They have found it quite challenging but rewarding. We have had a lot of fun playing together and I'm really impressed with the progress they've made. So much so that our group will be performing at our school assembly next week.

One of the girls will be singing a solo to one of my original songs Fruits of Labour.  Here you can listen to my performance of Fruits of Labour.

Other songs we will be playing are El Condor Pasa [Simon and Garfunkel] and Love Vigilantes by New Order. I am extremely proud of this group because they have worked hard. I have admired their stickability as anyone who has tried to learn a musical instrument will know how difficult it is.

Would love to hear from you about your experiences learning a musical instrument!

Here is a photo of Lea's daughter Bianca having a lesson on rhythm and changing chords.

Being True to Yourself

I had to make a career decision today. Do I take the easy option or go with my heart?
   I have taught mainly 7 - 10 year olds during my time of teaching. I have had many successes and the very occasional disappointment. All the ages have had their positives and challenges. It has been a matter of adapting to their at times quite different needs and fine tuning my teaching approach. The older children are great to teach as they have more independence. However for myself I have discovered that the younger children really respond to me and I love their energy and enthusiasm.
   This year I have had great fun with my year 3 class. I have thoroughly enjoyed my daily singing with the children. We’ve sung songs from Postman Pat to a bunch of New Order and Elliott Smith songs which I suspect are foreign to many and not in a typical classroom selection. They are songs I have loved to sing and play. It’s wonderful to see the children in full voice and at times jumping around as I play the guitar and sing with them.
   I’ve also loved the way they have got excited by words and how animated they get when they discover them in their reading and use them in their writing and learn to spell words like ‘circumstantialities’.  
   So in whether to go old or young my heart told me that I should teach the younger children as it felt the right decision.
   Have you had recent difficult decisions to make and how did you decide what was the right one?