Pete Honeymoon - Guest speaker

So as i walked through into the salon at the brahan building, i wandered what this weeks leason in graded unit would hold in store. We found out to much of my liking it was pete honeymoon, a music leaturer at the college. Pete was talkin about his experance as a session player and an instrumental instructor. Firstly he spoke about his experiance as a session player. He began by sayin that he was a bass player and lead on to speak about his part as a session player in the 80's doing mainly scottish tunes. He spoke about the requirements of a session player, some of which are: versitility of music, knowlege of your 1st instrument and also being able to stay calm and focus at all times. These are just some of the requirements and i feel that his knowlege of his session playing has made me want to practice more to gain better knowledge on my 1st instrument.

Pete then went on to talk about his experiances in intrumental teacher, which i fould highly inspiring and useful toward my graded unit. He bagan by saying that "no matter how good you are on your instrument there is always someone in a school who could be better than you, but the trick is to remain a teacher and give your experienced opinion on there peice of music. I.E that was good but this bit could be better". It is in some ways this has inspired me to become even more of a teacher because i feel that i could use my better judgement in difficult situations. Pete then went on to describe the requirements of a instrumental instructor, some of whicg are: patience, using your better judgement, high knowlege of other families in your instrument and also being flexiable with the schools. With this information in mind i believe that my graded unit will be helped somewhat. Such i have a higher knowledge of what is required and i feel that i understand what i have to do for my graded unit meaning i can make it alot better in the long run.

So that was our draded unit lesson for this week, with the homework of coming home and typing up on our blogspots.

I would like to also add that i have begun to take piano lessons. I choose to begin this because i know that i need to be able to sight read and play at a grade 5 standard to achive my goal. I stronly believe that my lessons will help me with my draded unit of becoming an intrumental instructor because you need to be able to sight read at a high standard in the job. I also feel that my lessons will help because i will have a better knowlege of music theory and help me with my grade 5 theory book.

I strongly feel that my grade 5 theory book will help with my graded unit because i need to have a firm understanding of theory to become and instrumental insrtuctor in the beggining.

Stay tunned for next weeks graded unit class when i shall tell you more about what i have learned and how it will help my graded unit portfolio, interview and also myself.

Guest speaker Fiona Mckenzie

Our last graded unit class had a guest speaker called Fiona Mckenzie. Fiona runs a theatre in kilmarnock and has had alot of experience in the jobs related to our graded unit critera. She was invited to speak to us about her life and experience in the jobs. Fiona has taught me alot about how to think about the job in which i am applying for in my graded unit.(instrumental instructor) Such ideas are about planning, being fimaliar with other instruments in the families, the ability to travel and be able to teach one to one. As i am aiming to be a musical teacher in a classroom or an intrumental instructor i found Fiona's information important not only in the aspect of my graded unit but also in my carrer choice. Fiona has help me with my reasearch and planning for my graded unit in such a way of looking for the requirements to be a teacher. I feel i have learned alot about fiona and also about becoming a teacher which will help me in the future and with my graded unit.

Graded unit 2

In the first lesson the group disscused the critera needed to pass graded unit 2. Following this we were divided into groups and told to disscus each job we could use to develo our portfolio's with. At the end of each job we came together as a whole and shared our idea's. I have choosen to develop my portfolio in the prospective of apply for a job as a instrumental insructor. With today's lesson in mind i belive that the disscusion has help me understand the aspects of the unit and has made me begin to prepare my action plan for my graded unit. This helps in the long run as i belive if you work a little each week you can progress through the unit stress free. I feel this lesson has also help me to gain knowlege about becoming a instrumental teacher and will eveidently help me with this unit.