Hello Musifamilies!

Welcome to Term 4 and welcome all new Musikids families who have enrolled. Musinews is a newsletter that will be emailed to you mostly on a fortnightly Friday. It will keep you up to date with all that happens here and around our community as well as sharing a positive
thought or two from the music teacher.

My, oh my. We were treated to a patriotic rendition of our national anthem on Wednesday morning after the toddler class. Bill Smith (3 in a month) stood on the red chair closest to the office partition, and said “Hey Kaffren!” As his mum, Gemma knelt down to assist his twin sister with her shoes (I think that is what you were doing Gem), Bill sang in front of his class without a blink of an eye, our Australian National Anthem. Word for word, pitch for pitch, it was fabulous! What is in the water that the children of this class drink? There have been amazing developments in the children of this class and many other classes. I have been very lucky to observe other children
patriotically singing the national anthems of their parents’ homelands as well. Thank you for sharing them.

This was not the only treat this week.

Luckily the rain stayed away for the bulk of the day on Sunday at the Wodonga Children’s Fair. It was a very proud music teacher that
bowed with the 12 glockenspiel students on stage in the morning, and the Musichoir in the afternoon. These children are all between the ages of 4 and 9 who performed so confidently and musically. I sincerely thank the parents for their time and help on Sunday. I know that you are all very proud of what we have achieved together. Tim and I had a great day talking non-stop to future Musifamilies and friends that stopped for a chat.

The Musichoir is also performing this coming Wednesday at 4pm for the Senior Citizens here at Gateway Village. You are more than welcome to come along and be a part of the audience cheering them on.

The third treat this week was the Adult/Parent Choir that began on Tuesday night. Sigh….this was the icing on the cake for the music teacher. To have the voices of many who do not yet know each other, blend so well the first time was heavenly. I look forward to working with this group over the coming weeks, in preparation for the Christmas Concert on December 10^th at 10:00 am. 

* note the change in time of the Christmas Party to 10:00 am.

Week 4 is “Bring the Family Week”. This is also Melbourne Cup week, and Musikids history has shown that attendance during this week is very low out of any other week in the year. “Bring the Family Week” is an additional week to normal classes, so for those who would still like to come along to a class during this week, I have developed a 2-hour long program that will include activities inside and outside of the Musikids hut. The program will be suited for children of all ages, babies included.

Friends are welcome to attend with their children at the same cost.

Please note that there will be no afternoon classes during “Bring the Family Week” and Saturday classes will run as per normal.

Bookings are essential

Time: 9:30 am – 11:30 am

Days: Mon | Tues | Thurs | Fri |      Choose one session

Cost: $15 + $5 per child

What to bring: Refreshments for your family for morning tea (picnic in the grassy amphitheatre area)

Week 1 11

Adult Choir Starts 12 13 14 15 16 17

Week 2 18 19 Seniors
Week

Musichoir 4pm

performance 20 21 22 23 24

Week 3 25 26

  27 28 29 30 31 Week 4

*Bring the Family Classes 1 Nov

*Bring the Family Classes

*No parent choir 2

No classes 3

*Bring the Family Classes 4

*Bring the Family Classes 5

Normal Classes 6 7

Week 5 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Week 6 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Week 7 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Week 8 29 30 1Dec 2 3 4 5

Week 9

Normal
Classes &

Concert
Week

Glock Concert

4:30pm

  6

Glock Concert

11:30am

Encore Yr 1 Concert

4pm

Encore Yr 2 Concert

5pm 7 

  8

Glock Concert

2pm

  9

Piano & Choir Concert

Time TBA 10

Encore Yr 1 Concert

9am

CHRISTMAS PARTY 10:00AM

  11 ]]> http://www.musikids.com.au/news/?feed=rss2&p=98 0 http://www.musikids.com.au/news/?p=88 http://www.musikids.com.au/news/?p=88#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 03:53:54 +0000 Kathryn http://www.musikids.com.au/news/?p=88 Just a few reminders:

*Glockenspiel (9am)and Choir (10am)rehearsals on the 6^th October at Musikids

* Please note: the position of the Musikids stall has changed.  You will receive a map upon entry into the Fair. The Musikids stall is not far from the entry gate and we are stall No. 50.

* Meet at the Musikids stand 30 minutes prior to going on stage.

*Glockenspiels on stage :11:30am Meet at Musikids stall at 11am.

*Musichoir on stage : 1:50pm Meet at Musikids stall at 1:20pm.

For this fabulous fun, I ask that you:

 Donate $2 per family member who wears something red.

AND

For each person who wears red, I will donate $1 to the cause!

Let’s come together and raise funds for those affected by flooding all around this fabulous country of ours!

but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.”

Sir James M. Barrie

Being very proud of the children who played their glockenspiels and sang at the Children’s Fair is an understatement. This has been an emotional past couple of weeks (yes I’m a big sook), noticing how well and with such enjoyment, the children in the glockenspiel classes are playing their instrument.

When I was 17 years old (I think), I used to play the organ (yes organ!) in the Chinese Restaurant on the top floor of the Finley RSL Club. It was a big room with lots of dining tables and chairs (of course); needless to say the food was good there. I remember feeling very special at being asked to play by the old fellow who managed the place. He was always dressed in black pants, crisp white shirt and black bow-tie. So a couple of nights a week I would play a repertoire of classics from the ‘50’s, 60’s and ‘70’s (‘80’s weren’t classics in the ‘80’s) for $5 an hour. I remember feeling a little nervous at the start of the night, but by the end of it, the feet were pumping at the bass pedals with joy! I had never learnt to play the organ in my life, but the more I played, the more confident I felt. Patrons would thank me for the melodies.

The children who have taken the opportunity to perform at the Open Day and the Children’s Fair have blossomed. Absolutely! It is because of the physical and emotional connection they have with the activity. If children or anyone is encouraged to perform in a non-judgemental situation, then it is inevitable that they will come away from it with a great feeling hence a positive memory. Future performances will be sought after voluntarily by the person and these performances will be measured by these first positive experiences. I look forward to showing the glockenspiel players, the keyboardists and the Musichoir off at the concerts and Christmas Parties.

Now, let’s get back to the Chinese Restaurant. I didn’t have much of an audience. Maybe it was me who drove the patrons away! Seriously….would you be able to digest your Dim Sims or Peking duck delectably whilst listening to a 17 year old playing Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” on an old organ? Yeah….thought so, but it was the ‘80’s!