Day 3/4

Good Evening Everyone!!

Thank God tomorrow is Friday. The past couple of days have been a blur of me freaking out and being all alone. I realized just how different music here is than it is in the states. For the past fifteen years I have been calling note values a specific term.

For example: (for the music geeks out there) If I am in 4/4 time and a note takes up the entire measure it is a......? Nope. Not a whole note, now it is a semibreve. Next question, if I am in 4/4 time and a note takes up two beats, is it a half note? NO! It is a minim. Let's keep going, shall we? If I am in 4/4 time and a note takes up one beat it is a...crotchet (Yep, that's right...a crotchet...I didn't misspell it). So since you are tired of this game...an eighth note is a quaver, sixteenth note is a semiquaver, a 32nd note (I just did theory homework with 32 notes in it..who even really uses those?) as a demisemiquaver, a 64th note is a hemidemisemiquaver (this one might be my favorite!), and finally a 128th note (for some reason they learn these here...) is a quasihemidemisemiquaver. (Did that just blow your mind? I know it blew mine).

They also use a rhythmic counting method that I have never heard before...it's not Gordon, Takadimi, number system, or Kodaly, even though it is awfully close to Kodaly. Lots of ta's and ti's...I have also taken a dive head first into the world of arranging as it is SO HARD to find good arrangements of TTBB music (all male music). Therefore I am arranging The Final Countdown, I'm Yours/Somewhere over the Rainbow (yes the Straight no Chaser version) and The Lion Sleeps Tonight (also the Straight no Chaser version). Please don't judge me for this, the boys wanted to do acapella music in which "their voices sounded like instruments". Boy should I be getting paid for this job.

That being said, I am teaching my first full lesson tomorrow to 5th and 6th years (if you are wondering what ages these boys are, please see post dated for August 28th). I will be doing a number of challenging things with the boys so I hope they are prepared to work. I am nervous because it is a different environment with different students and VERY different teaching styles. I will be teaching the Imperial March from Star Wars as well as Prayer of the Children (I included a link below to this beautiful song in case you have never heard it before).

Please wish me luck as I venture into a totally new world full of teenage boys in uniforms and accents that reuquire me to say "come again" and "I'm sorry?" about fifty times a day. It will be grand, brilliant, or perhaps even good "craic".......

My love,
J