Hayes Music blog

 

We now have 2 more weeks before half term. Yay! However music assemblies are in the week straight after half term!

Choir will be the main event. We will be doing Adiemus and My Shot. That means we’ve got THREE rehearsals to get My Shot perfect! You had better start really learning it now!

 

Exams are coming!

We are now getting really close to exams for Year 11 and Year 13. Remember that you have got LOADS of revision material on OneNote!

Wider listening for this week

If you are in Year 11, 12 or 13, you need to practise your aural analysis. Listen to this track and write out a quick description of what’s happening using musical terminology. Remember to make it chronological (say at what point in the piece something happens), name instruments/sections (say which part plays something), and also exactly what is being played. 

If you are in KS3, practising this now will stand you in good stead for your future exams!

Music tour 2019

Next year’s tour will be from 7th to 13th April (the first week of the Easter holidays) and we will be going to Budapest in Hungary. More details coming very soon, but we will want to get deposits in straight after half term so we can get our early booking discount!

Well done today on putting together our first flashmob in ages! Unfortunately the filming of it didn’t go entirely to plan – owing entirely to Miss W’s failure to press ‘go’ on the audio recording! So it will just have to live in everyone’s memories… we will be planning more flashmobs, so if you have any ideas, please tell us!

We still need some people to sign up for Friday B breaktime busking. See last week’s blog for details!

Rehearsals continue as usual next week. Looking forward to some more Hamilton action in Choir on Monday!

Great podcasts on BBC Radio

Find the podcast on iPlayer here. In case you haven’t come across Jess Gillam before, she is an incredible young saxophonist. Here she is showing her general awesomeness…

Everything starts on Monday. All rehearsals are at the usual times and in the usual places. The only exception to this is 5-note Orchestra, which we are giving a rest this term.

Friday B breaktime busking!

We are going to start having a regular busking slot in The Street on a Friday Week B breaktime. This is open to anyone who wants to perform. The buskers will locate themselves near the piano at the top end of the street – obviously the piano can be used, but if you want to do anything else you will need to set it up there very quickly at the start of break. Singers – would recommend that you use a mic and run that through an amp.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a solo performer or a small group – you just need to have enough music to play from as soon as possible after 10.35 until the whistle goes at 10.50.

Please sign up for a slot here! The dates available are:

• Friday 4th May
• Friday 18th May
• Friday 8th June
• Friday 22nd June
• Friday 6th July
• Friday 20th July

Flashmob revival

It’s been a while since we’ve done a flashmob at school. Find out in Choir on Monday what our next flashmob is going to be!

Perhaps our best ever flashmob (so far) was Ravel’s Bolero. This was way back in 2012! The video doesn’t do it justice (we’ll get a better sound recording for our next one)!

PS to find out what songs we’re doing in Choir this term, visit the Choir page!

It’s been a busy term, we’re just back from our fab tour of Saxony… so here are some videos to remind you of our highlights! Huge thanks to Ben for shooting and editing the Easter concert footage.

This sums up our week in Saxony pretty well – as you can see we had a brilliant time!

Thanks to Mr Foster for drawing our memories for us!

One of the highlights of tour was our impromptu performance of Steal Away at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, destroyed by bombing during WW2 and recently rebuilt as a symbol of peace and hope.

Start of term arrangements

We need to unpack from tour on the first day of term (Monday 16th April). Come along at lunchtime to help out.

Rehearsals will start in the second week (beginning 23rd April).

The coffin is packed.

We are ready to go!

See you on Monday!

Non tour-goers – we will be posting on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with news of all happenings on tour!

All rehearsals are in the hall unless otherwise stated. The concert will be in the hall too – quality questions only now please!

You will notice that we have not put down setting up during p1 on the schedule. This is because there is an assembly in the hall, and after that Miss Werry’s class are going to do the setting up.

You are only permitted to miss lessons when you actually have a rehearsal – no taking the mickey on this! ALL teachers will be aware of when you are supposed to be out of lessons – and when you are not.

Things you need to know for the evening:

• the concert starts at 6.30pm
• you need to wear all black 
• tickets are £5 on the door for adults – under-18s and senior citizens FREE
• you can leave instrument cases etc. in CGD but do not hang about in the music rooms during the concert  – you should be in the hall supporting everyone else and being a brilliant audience (i.e. supportive, attentive, quiet, and appreciative)
• The concert will finish at about 8.45pm

Parents’ evening for tour

This is on Monday at 6pm in the Hall. You need to remember to bring your passport and EHIC card. It will really help if you can sellotape your EHIC card to the back of your passport (then we know where your card is, and also don’t have to look inside the passports to see whose is whose).

Although it is a parents’ evening, students are of course very welcome to be there too!

Packing for tour

We will be doing this on Thursday lunchtime. Come to the music department to help, be organised, and make sure nothing gets left behind!

Amazing overtone singing

Watch to the end!

So the concert is coming up fast! Here are some things you need to know:

• There will be some changes to rehearsals this week. There is an extra Concert Band rehearsal on Tuesday after school 3-4pm
• Jamsesh #2 will be on Thursday not Friday owing to Concert Band doing the Hazelwood concert on Friday
• On Friday, there will be no 5-note Orchestra, Simply Strings or Techsesh because lots of people will be out doing the Concert Band concert at Hazelwood
• The rehearsal schedule for concert day will be on next week’s blog (out on Friday), and will also be posted on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
• Parents evening for tour is on Monday 26th March at 6pm in the Hall. We will be collecting passports and EHIC cards at this time. Please speed things up by sellotaping your EHIC card to the back of your passport. 
• Remember you will need to wear all-black outfits for the concert. You can use CGD to put cases etc. in, but remember you need to be in the audience unless you are actually performing or just about to perform.
• Please remember that (as stated in last week’s blog) the concert is in school, not at St Mark’s. 
• Because the PTA is so low on numbers at the moment, we will be running our own refreshments for the Easter concert. Therefore, we will need all Music Leaders to be ready to help with manning the refreshments table and getting things organised beforehand.
• Packing for tour will happen on Thursday 29th March, at lunchtime. Any tour-going Music Leaders, plus any other tour-goers who want to help, should come along and be prepared to move lots of things around!

Concert Band: Hazelwood concert

Remember, we will be meeting at the beginning of lunch in the blue circle. Please be there promptly – we want to be on the coach at 1pm! You just need to be in your usual uniform/6th form uniform.

You will need to bring your instrument. If you play percussion, be aware that we will be using Hazelwood’s drumkit, timps, and marimba – we will just need to take any small percussion that is needed.

We will be back at about 4.30pm.

Please note that the Easter concert is at school, not at St Mark’s this year – this is because the church is not available on this date. (If you have been super-organised and put all the details into your diary from the dates list on the ‘about’ page, you will need to change this now – apologies. The ‘about’ page now has the correct info on it!).

Because we are running out of weeks to rehearse in, it is vital that we have everybody at all rehearsals from now on!

Please note that because of the Concert Band concert at Hazelwood on 23rd March, Jamsesh#2 will not be able to rehearse after school that day. Jamsesh#2 will therefore rehearse on Thursday that week, 22nd March. 

Tour meeting

Letters have now gone out about the tour meeting, which is at 6pm on Monday 26th March. 

Rehearsals will be back in full swing.

Chamber Choir, remember that we’ll have a rehearsal for Bridge Over Troubled Water on Monday at 2.40pm in CGD.

We are gearing up for the Easter concert now – it’s only a few weeks away!

If you like chords…

OK, if you are a chord geek, or if you like Hamilton, or musical theatre, or songwriting, or just understanding how music works, then this video is brilliant. It explains how the music creates characterisation and plot continuity in the show. If you liked that one, you’ll like this one too! My Shot will be coming to choir next term…

Huge thanks to Ben Fr for shooting and editing the video!

Congratulations to Chamber Choir for their performance of Tundra and ¡Cantar! at the Bromley Schools’ Festival of Music at the Churchill Theatre on Wednesday. It was nice to be the only secondary school taking part, and to hear all the great items from the primary schools. You sounded great!

Meeting for music tour

A letter will go out about this in due course, but the meeting for everyone going on tour (plus their parents) will be on Monday 26th March at 6pm in the Hall. This is when we will be giving you final tour details and your t-shirt, and collecting in your passports and EHIC cards.

This is the best made-up lyrics video since O Fortuna…