Monday, January 16, 2012

Please don't stop the music...

Greetings!

This post marks a few milestones:

1. It is my first post of the new year!  Happy 2012 everyone!

2. It is my first post in a long time, which is a milestone insofar as I have been able to sit down and get time to write the post.

3. It is the first post where I believe I have figured out how to auto email people that it has been posted.  I don't know if it will work, and if it does work, I don't know if it will take more than ten, but I am excited to see. :-)

4. It is the first post where I think that I have a firm idea of what my job description is, or at least one that will make sense to other people.

So, here's what I have been up to:

Music, music, music.

It's funny, I remember saying at the beginning of the year that I would get up only once for 8 am mass, the time that we were presented as volunteers to the parish.  I have eaten my words; every Sunday I get up at about 6 am, and head over to the church by 7:30 to rehearse the choir.  I am profoundly grateful for my role in working with them; I just wish it was later in the day!

Monday nights, however, are by far my favorite night of the week.  It is then that I have rehearsal with Betsy and Isidro, 14 and 11, respectively.  They are sister and brother, and the cornerstones of the musical accompaniment to the 12:10 mass.  Betsy plays guitar primarily, but she also plays clarinet and alto saxophone.  Isidro plays the clarinet primarily, as well as the piano, and the alto saxophone.  They played all four Christmas masses in my absence, and have contributed immensely to the music.  Their skill and their commitment both amaze and humble me.

 (I should say that, as of right now, the 8 am mass is done completely a capella.  It's not by choice, but we are doing pretty well, all things considered.)

In addition to Sunday mass, I have been helping with the school children's choir, which sings every Friday morning at 8:30 mass (I think God was getting me extra good with that whole 'I don't want to get up early bit.'  He always gets the last laugh.)  It is primarily made up of the third grade, because Mrs. Martins, the third grade teacher, is in charge, but we are growing the number of students in other grades little by little. :-)  The kids have a hard time focusing.  I have a hard time handling that, especially this past month with Mrs. Martins out of town, visiting her family and friends in India.  Luckily, my housemate, Alex, stepped right in to help me keep them under control, or as under control as one can get the children.  I was VERY excited to see Mrs. Martins this past Friday, her first day back.

My proudest moment this year, in my own estimation, however, was last Wednesday.  Here's the background.  Jose is a fourth grader at St. Anthony's, and in December, he asked me to teach him to play "Seek Ye First" on the piano.  Well, I had to oblige, and then somehow got sucked into also agreeing to give him piano lessons.  It evolved further as soon as Jose told his friend, Jakob, about his lessons, and Jakob wanted lessons, too.

Here's the caveat.  I don't know how to play the piano, not well enough to teach someone else to play.  Jakob and Jose didn't care.  So, in my continued efforts to do the most sustainable thing, I decided to teach them together and start with music theory first.  I know plenty about that, and they need to learn to read music anyway if they want to play the piano.

Next caveat: Jakob is a big ball of energy.  Almost uncontrollable.  And so I thought, how can I make this exciting for them?  In a stroke of brilliance, I decided to do music theory on the pavement in the parking lot.  And that's what we did.  We drew our staff and began learning notes.  FACE rhymes with SPACE, and Every Good Boy Deserves Fun.  And fun did they have.  Hopefully this week, some of it will have stuck.

More to come, but for now, please don't stop the music... ;-)

Peace and all good,
Rachel

1 comment:

  1. <3 <3 <3 Such an awesome way to teach the lines and spaces on a staff!!!

    ReplyDelete