Congratulations!!

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Pravin Cert of Perf

Pravin Chanmugam – High Credit in Flute Certificate of Performance

Pravin, his Mum and Dad and I are very proud of his success in his recent Certificate of Performance Flute exam.  The Certificate of Performance comes after Grade Eight and requires the performance of a 30 minute program of four contrasting pieces.  Pravin prepared all this in just six months after completing Grade Eight, as well as coping with his Year 10 school work, performing in a school musical and play, and hosting an international exchange student.  He certainly is a high achiever!  Well done Pravin!   

 

The Sight Reading Challenge!

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One of my lovely students, Caitlin, sent this to me, to remind me that what looks simple to teachers and examiners when we put up a piece of sight reading looks totally different to the poor student standing in front of it!  But I can assure you from my own personal experience that sight reading, like everything else in life, only gets easier with regular practice.  The challenge is to overcome the panic, tackle the music in manageable chunks and look for the patterns in the music. 

Sight Reading Cartoon

Hear Prokofiev’s Wonderful Flute Sonata Played Live!

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Flyer 10JUL16I hope you will be able to join me and my fellow chamber music enthusiasts for a wonderful afternoon of music for voice and a variety of instrumental combinations.  I will be playing the Prokofiev Flute Sonata, a work written in Russia during the darkest days of World War II, yet one which is full of rhythmic vitality, lyrical expression, optimism and just great tunes!  

Full details can be found here.

 

Congratulations!

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Great news this week!  Eight year old Joyce has been promoted from Beginner’s Training Band into Intermediate Band at Cherrybrook Public School after only oJoyceChen2016editedne and a half terms!  Her family and I are all very excited about Joyce’s quick progress.  Joyce and her parents made some very wise decisions which have helped her make a really good start on flute.  Joyce had two months of individual flute lessons at the end of Year 2 prior to starting in the Band in Year 3.  Joyce’s parents invested in a good quality flute for her, and Joyce has been encouraged to use a curved headjoint, as she is physically quite small.  This makes the flute a lot more comfortable for her to play and helps her develop good posture and hand positions.  We are all looking forward to seeing how Joyce will thrive in this more challenging environment.  Well done Joyce!   

Holiday News

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Children at preschoolI had this lovely piece of news from the mother of one of my students over the holidays, and thought it was worth sharing.  It is so nice to hear of a young person being confident and keen to use their talents to give others pleasure.  Musicians have a very special gift to share with others – just another reason for learning music!  

“I also wanted to let you know that Charlotte performed at her sister’s preschool on Tuesday and did a great job. The children really enjoyed listening and even danced along when Charlotte played ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’. There is an autistic boy in the group and he was particularly excited and kept saying ‘play more’ every time Charlotte stopped playing.” 

Student of the Week – Term One Week Ten

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Week Ten is the final week of Term One and so this is the last Student of the Week post.  I am very happy to award Student of the Week to 10 year old, Charlotte, who started lessons at Top Notes Music Studio  in November last year,  after completing her Grade Two exam with another teacher.  Charlotte had two major achievements in this last week of term.  Firstly, she succeeded in playing her chromatic scale perfectly first go in her lesson, not once, but twice, and with two different articulations!  Charlotte has been working hard on this difficult scale all term.  And then she surprised me again!

I had asked Charlotte to pick a new piece to learn from her Grade Three exam book.  Not only had she learnt the entire piece perfectly, but she had researched it on the interTequila Sunrisenet, listened to a piano version of the same piece (which helped her learn the difficult samba rhythm) and was able to talk very confidently about what the title, Tequila Sunrise, meant and the imagery she could associate with people drinking Tequila Sunrises and dancing the samba!  In learning music we learn so much more than just the dots on the page, or what to do with our fingers on the instrument!  Unfortunately Charlotte is too young to enjoy a Tequila Sunrise yet, so she will have to make do with the musical version which we are going to have some fun with together.  Well done Charlotte!  Great work!      

Student of the Week – Term One Week Nine

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CoAlyssa Collinsngratulations to Week Nine Student of the Week – Alyssa Collins.  11 year old Alyssa has worked hard over the last few weeks to improve her scales in preparation for her Grade Two exam at the end of the year.  Alyssa has also been working this term on a quite difficult piece – one that she thought she would never have a chance of being able to play.  This is Vivaldi’s Spring from The Four Seasons which Alyssa really loves.  With consistent work and attention to all the details, it is well on the way to sounding like the real thing.  There are some fast high note runs that turned out to be just the top octave of F Major scale, although they looked much scarier on the page!  Suddenly practising scales seemed to have a purpose!  Alyssa has even practised these runs using harmonics, an advanced technique.  Alyssa seems to like Baroque music as she has now chosen some more Vivaldi pieces to learn for her exam.  I’m impressed by Alyssa’s perseverance and the way she is able to articulate to me what she likes about the music she chooses to learn.  I’m looking forward to an interesting musical journey with you over the next few years, Alyssa!  Well done!            

Student of the Week – Term One Week Eight

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Student of the Week Award fAdhav ManoJ Pillaior Week Eight goes to 9 year old Adhav Manoj Pillai.  Adhav impressed me this week by showing how much a student can improve their playing in the space of one week!  Adhav has been learning flute and playing in the school band for one year, but over the Christmas holidays forgot a lot of the fingerings he had learned last year, and has been struggling trying to remember them again this term.  This week Adhav took my advice and checked fingerings he was not sure about in his tutor book when practising, resulting in much better playing in his lesson.  Adhav is also working hard to take better care of his flute so that it does not get so many knocks and dents, and to make sure that he washes his hands before playing, so that his flute does not get so sticky.  Well done Adhav!