This week the team at Priestley Smith are reunited with an ex-studentÂ
Dated: 7 July 2021
This week we had Chris on cello, Tim on percussion, Ellie on harp and Louise on recorder. Louise had groups of students focusing on playing the latter in one space, Chris and his burgeoning cellists in another, while Tim and Ellie stayed in the music room.
Â
Vinnie, an ex-Priestley Smith student, now studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, was also with the last group, helping to inspire all students there to achieve their potential.Â
Â
The music teacher, Mr McGonagle, moved between all groups to ensure everyone was making progress.
Â
The students practiced 3 tunes: The Red House, The Cajun Crawl and a new composition by Vinnie that he’d composed specifically for inclusion on this project. The tunes were all catchy and the students were eager to add drums, keyboard, bells, shakers or to play the harp, cello or recorder along in time with the beat. The cellos and recorders are helping to build the harmony as well as keeping the beat, adding colour and depth to the ensemble. A few lyrics were added to The Red House too, to make it more personal to the school.Â
"Vinnie, an ex-Priestley Smith student, now studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, was also with the last group, helping to inspire all students there to achieve their potential."
The ALG group at the School joined us for the final session of the morning to play the 3 tunes and it was impossible not to clap along and move in time to the music.Â
We were all having a wonderful time enjoying the music. Teaching staff, assistants, musicians and students had an exhilarating time playing and singing along. Everyone joined in, there were no students left out. The atmosphere was friendly, happy and relaxed.
Next Issue: Excite before the penultimate week before the concert.
Read the last issue here
