Twinkle

Yesterday I took my year 5/6 choir to sing at the Royal Albert Hall. They were brilliant and we had a fantastic day. It was a concert organised by and in aid of Barnardo's. I hope that it was more than just a fantastic experience for my choir and that it has also raised shed-loads of money to help other children who aren't quite so lucky.

I was so proud of all the children in the choir who had worked so hard to learn the songs (and even told me off when I got the verses of Hey Jude muddled) who stood up and sat down when they were told, who watched the conductor, who were happy and cheerful even when they were tired. I was especially proud of the boy who sang a solo. Sometimes I have to pinch myself just to remember how lucky I am to be working with such wonderful kids. 

We had also learnt how to play the Ocarina for the concert. We played a tune called Ode to a Joyful Star, which was a 6 minute combination of Twinke Twinkle, Ode to Joy and the New World Symphony. Ocarina Workshop and the Schools Music Association had decided to use the Barnardo's concert to attempt to break the Guiness  World Record. I admit that I was skeptical about how good it would sound. My choir had worked very hard to learn how to play, and being recorder players it was quite an easy transition but I know how long it can take to blow gently enough and in the right way, cover holes with fingers, have the coordination to move fingers in time and follow the music. They had said that they were going to teach the audience and have them join in as well. Some of my choir were worried about this and assigned themselves the personal challenge of teaching their families. They probably weren't the only ones because it didn't sound too bad. There were loads of squeaks but the tunes were recognisable. 

The conductor, Sir Douglas Coombes deserves another knighthood. He was lovely all day: he smiled even when telling children not to blow the ocarinas, or trying to fix a mis-learnt song. I learnt a lot just by watching him. He was very clever in getting us over the 4pm hump by making us dance like Old People to Trevor (I think I'm a little bit in love with Trevor) playing the organ (it's rare to find a man who can really handle his organ). I did feel very sorry for him though during the concert. He had 1300 children in the palm of his hands but there were lots of audience members who were so badly behaved it was untrue and I could see that this upset him a bit. When a conductor has silence from his choir and is just about to start the song he doesn't expect people to shout out their child's name. At first I thought it was an unfortunate person with Tourette's who couldn't help themselves but if it was then Tourette's is catching. I don't understand what they thought they were adding to the evening and if their children are anything like those in my choir they would have been mortified.

At one point I thought I might not be able to take part in the ocarina world record attempt. When some children were told not to blow their ocarinas it was suggested they tuck them in their T- shirt. Unfortunately, my ocarina became firmly wedged in my cleavage. On the plus side, though, it was nice and warm when I got it out. 

We smashed the current world record. The Chinese had managed to get 808 people playing together for 6 minuites and we managed to get 3400 people playing. Some people had to be disqualified for acts such as laughing, getting lost, running out of puff (totally understandable) and stopping to take pictures or shout out their child's name to distract them (not understandable)

Because I knew my choir were going to be stars I made some end of concert cakes, as a sugar rush when on a post concert high always makes for an interesting coach journey.

Back to normality today, I had to teach year 5/6 their normal music lessons. I showed them the painting of Bacchus and Ariadne and told them that we would be using the picture as a stimulus for composition. I told them that there was a tune that they had to use in their composition and asked them to try and guess that it was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star that I wanted them to use from the story of Ariadne. I said that Ariadne had been made into a constellation. 

"Who can tell me what a constellation is?" I asked

"It's the stuff you have in the loft."

"Mmm. That's insulation."

"It's when you can't squeeze a poop out!"

"No, Twinkle, that's constipation," I laughed until I cried.