I have always been interested in encouraging crossovers in artistic fields, since I was a young girl doing every artistic and creative class I could. I strongly believe that this gives so much enjoyment and richness to the learning process, and endeavour to create opportunities for my students whenever I can.
I started as head of strings at a new school in 2019, and given the task of teaching students who had missed lessons over covid lockdowns. It was at first a very big effort to create the program, build musical foundations and practice habits. I knew that I needed to bring a lot to the table, and I found the solution to the student’s shyness and to help them remember how to play their instruments was to play improvisation games and create our own music so that everyone was able to play together, regardless of experience or age.
In 2020 they had passed this hurdle, however they still didn’t want to play any of the ‘normal’ pieces that I gave them. We had a disrupted week of term 2 and so instead of their usual lessons I had everyone in small groups, and we did an activity based on their favourite foods. We turned this into short musical ideas. Then over the course of numerous weeks I collated all the music and created their own piece, a 3 movement work called “Joey’s Feast - Entree, Main and Dessert”. Every week before rehearsal I would add another ‘piece’ of the ‘feast’ and we would discuss and play the composition in rehearsal. For the students, this lead to much discussion, practice, individual responsibility being taken, and pride in our work. At the end of the term, after working on this project over 9 weeks, we gave two outstanding performances, one for the school gala and one for the student assembly. The growth of these students and the program overall grew so much from this experience. For myself, I had so much joy working with the students, and I was thrilled by their enthusiasm and musical progress. It is a reminder as a teacher to bring the unique skills one has and to encourage young people to engage with their creativity and curiosity for learning.