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Hey Dave!

Where have you been? Hope you haven't been fraternising with that lots from the AB forum!

Can't say I've noticed much about the price of cauliflower as I have been obsessed the price of being a teacher - I never can get used to how busy September is.

You want to go to the farm shop, boy, Cauli's are cheaper there...
Howzit going then? We've missed you!

Excellent. 100 miles in a straight line down the M40 and we'll take you both out for lunch!

I've got a Bluthner upright (needs tuning - know anyone?), a Narpsichord and a silent practice piano if it all gets a bit much!
You ARE still playing a bit though, aren't you? What about that thingy you found on tinternet? Was it no good?

Or a piano lesson.
Nothing like a little terror and adrenaline to focus the mind...

You can borrow my sign from my kitchen: IF YOU MUST SMOKE, DO NOT EXHALE.

Must be the diet of fags and sugary PG Tips!

Hi Dave, no, it wasn't her party, it was her friend's bash. They went to a "Build a Bear" workshop leaving me and my husband at home alone, which was the perfect recipe for talking the dog for a walk and going to the pub - and wondering why everything was so quiet

She had a great time. Much choccie cake was consumed.

I had a fun day yesterday, repainting the bands on a wooden cider barrel with hammerite. Funny you should mention cauli, that's what we have for dinner tonight. Ours are finished, so this one's from another farm. They're also organic like us, but seem to manage to breed less bugs in theirs than we do!

J

What's a 'Build a Bear' workshop????

Gill, that's a question I had to ask too! The children get to choose the colour and design of the bear they want from some cut-out fabric. It's then stuffed for them, though they get to put in a heart of two first and then finished.

Hannah told me that she put in some wishes with her heart and I asked what they were. She said they wouldn't come true if she told me and, anyway, she couldn't remember what they were

...but she'll still know if they come true, right? Strangely enough, I saw a carrier bag in a customer's house today with 'Build A Bear ' on it!

ppp, quiet around here, isn't it? Where is everyone?

I've been practicing one of Bach's minuets over the next couple of days, clever chap, wasn't he? Plus Grieg's Morning Wotsit. Very nice - or at least they were before I started on them! The dog started crying when I opened the lid on the piano yesterday

On the plus side, we've filled the old barrel with water to help get the wood ready and leak-proof for the apple juice to go in at the weekend

Like the bit about the dog; evidently no taste!
My husband once accused me of not having restored my harmonium properly; 'There's a dreadful clatter when you start pedalling', he said. 'That's the catflap,' I said. Our cat had no musical taste either. Or perhaps she did...

I need to do Christmas carol practice too, but now the small one is learning the recorder, she wants to play too. All well and good except her ancient recorder plays sharp and can't be played with anything that happens to be in tune. We've bought her a new one for Christmas, but she can't have it else she'd know she had it.... good grief, did that make any sense?? I'd let her borrow mine, except I'm very possessive about my lovely new recorder, snob that I am

There's always Christmas next year for me to be ready for.

Love the bit about the catflap, Gill!

So much for practice, I'm changed into my scruffies and ready to spend the rest of today painting the tractor. The dog can sleep easy until later.

Does opening up the head joint make any difference to the pitch? You should be able to lower the pitch by a fair amount that way and you always have a small amount of extra in the bottom joint as well. If you want a temporary recorder to tide you over until Christmas, give me a shout and I'll post one down to you - I'm a recorder teacher and have an assortment of ancient, but playable plastic recorders I've picked up over the years for those 'little darlings' who 'forget' to bring theirs to lessons.

Fiona

Hello Fiona, that's really sweet of you! I'm sure we'll get by though, but many thanks for the offer.

I must admit, I hadn't thought of opening up that joint a bit I'll definitely give that a try and see what I can get out of it.

I brought a broken recorder back from school hoping to repair it, I hate to see unplayed instruments. They somehow managed to get the "tongue" bit under the beak wedged inside the beak itself, it's well and truly jammed. That must have taken a great deal of effort!

Which books do you like to teach from? I'm taking the beginners and we're starting with the John Pitts books, they seem to be very good but I'm always up for other ideas.

J
xx

Hello Dave, we posted at the same time, a good evening to you!

I'm really rusty too, it's amazing how quickly it goes. It's not just the flexibility in my fingers, but also my note recognition, so it seems I never really learnt it properly in the first place

I use the John Pitts books as a starting point but don't find them very inspiring. I have devised my own way of teaching and only use some of the pieces in BK1 and not in the order they are written. I much prefer to write my own exercises tailored to the class I'm teaching that year. If you follow the book slavishly, you will lose their attention quite quickly because it concentrates too much on one note at the beginning and children love to learn new notes

dave brum wrote:We used a bright red book called 'The School Recorder Book 1'. It was meant to be used in conjunction with in-school teaching rather than as a teach yourself book. Anyone who got to the green book 2 was considered a swot. I didn't.

I've got a copy of the red book, somewhat faded now I'm afraid, and the green book They teach notes in a far better order, but the pieces of music they provide as examples are considered to be very old-fashioned now.

Our recorder book was black. Can't remember what it was called (Descant recorder Book, perhaps?) but it started off with 'London's Burning' through to 'Go and Tell Aunt Nancy'!
I got Grade 5 recorder in 2000 for a bet - five quid!! Being v. asthmatic I had to sit down to take the exam, but the examiner was nice and let me do aural tests between the pieces so I coul get my wind back!