sticking vinyl polkadots on the Taj Mahal...

thought I'd do something deeply profound and expand this blog from a monologue into a dialogue...
by actually responding to Rachel's comment - hence the thread-title; hommage to a strangely adverse reaction to the picture at the other end of the link to a beeeaaauuuuuuuuuutiful saxophone.

heh.

anyway, sponsorship, erm no link as there's no online way to sponsor me (or, presumably, any other grade-1-a-thletes) but if you know my email address you can email me and declare your intention to part with vast wodges of pictures of Betty Windsor. I'll send you a nice thingumijiggle you can fill in & either fax back, scan & email back, or even send back by snail-mail.
If you're likely to see me fear not; I will be chasing you, brandishing a bit of paper and wheedling, begging, bribing, cajoling & generally asking you to sign your life[savings] away in a sponsoring frenzy.

For your information
('coz I know you can't wait to see them)
the little sponsorship options / opportunities are;

• to sponsor someone to pass
• to commit to giving extras for merit or distinction
• to sign a Gift Aid declaration so the lovely Chancellor of the Exchequer can sponsor us too

...now, to the demanded positive "what if".
ready?



sure?




right, here goes...

What if I'm brilliant at it?

.

.

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.

.

.
.
.
.
.
:
:
:
:
:
:
bwaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHAAAAAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAHAAHaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaaheeheeheehehehehoooooo
{pauses, wiping tears of mirth from eyes crunkled with laughter}
well slap my thigh and call me Bungle
haaaheeeeheeehee hoo hoooooo hoo haha ha ha hur hur
hee
hmm



chuckle



did that sound sincere?

feeding-back-time at the zoo

well, Kayleigh and Frances were amused by the idea of their teacher taking Grade 1 - albeit on a different instrument. Kayleigh's due to do her piano Grade 1 in summer, and Frances'll probably do her violin Grade 2 then too. Don't know if they really believed me!
My pupils probably all think I'm positively sectionable anyway -
might be the dalmation violin,
or the zebra viola,
maybe the turquoise & purple bow,
or the fact that many of them now have music-books that look like an explosion in the art-materials section of Woolies...
...who knows?

I've been experimenting with the picture-posting-picassa thingy - so you can see the resplendant glory of the Grade-1-a-thon logo (well, you could if it had come out even a leeeeetttle bit bigger, but I'm sure you get the idea). None of the instruments popping out jauntily from behind the oversized numeral were recoloured by DTP and no instruments have been harmed in the making of this picture.

Evidence of this Blog's actually being read has rushed to a solid trickle now - with the lovely Rachel Nunson (nee Collinson, [ I love doing the "nee" thing, don't you? so pythonesque, with a lovely bouquet of superfluity & warming notes of pedantry infused with precision ] ) actually having posted a comment!
How excited was I by that?
Nearly as excited as I am by the prospect of going to a sax-shop [read carefully children] tomorrow.

It's coming to the end of another day at the office... but I'm sure I'll blob another log in the blog before midnight strikes & my laptop turns into a pumpkin.



Grade-1-a-thon 

ooo! look! a book!

got to trundle off to school in 10 minutes or so for this lunchtime's crop of pupils. I kick off with my only violist, Kayleigh, who's coming along very nicely, and I end up with Frances - who thinks she's terrible but isn't at all! My usual middle pupil's 'on a break' from violin, so I've only got 2 of them today - nice girls both though, so that'll be lovely :)

anyway, I can't contain the oooooooooo factor of my "The Complete Saxophone Player" (omnibus) book arriving from musicroom.com. It looks like an excellent book - Mr. Ravenscroft has a nice style.
It tells you how to get it out of the case, put it together, exercise your diaphragm, everything really!
I'd forgotten how cool it is when you get your tutor book for an instrument you've never learned - all those notes and asides and things. You sort of alternate between "I can learn that" and "what if I can't"...
this beginner-in-waiting thing's a curiously nice animal, isn't it?!

be afraid, west end music shops, I'll be hitting you tomorrow!