Assistant and all of the associated tasks.
Last week the “Bring a Buddy” event took over all music centres Nathan (Area Senior Leader of Reading) and other members of staff from the Reading Music Centre held a BBQ at the weekend, to help entice the parents and buddies to stay and learn a little more about the organisation, as well as the wide variety of music groups
available. All music centres encouraged numerous “buddies” to turn up and have a taste of what Maestros has to offer. In preparation for the ‘B-a-B’ week, Emma found herself creating the stickers, posters and goody bags that were all needed for the event. She was also able to get involved in the publicity via Maestros Facebook page and Twitter feed!
With “Bring a Buddy” week running smoothly, Emma, myself (Lauren) and Maddy (our third gap year) were able to take some time to experience being musical guinea pigs without the squeak which meant having the opportunity to participate in first lessons on different instruments.
Emma and I helped out with the Violin interviews pretending to be students who had never even held a violin before - let alone play one. For me this was the complete truth, being a woodwind player, I had never picked up a violin with the intention of playing it. Emma however, has played in the past and everything came back to her very quickly!
The whole experience was interesting, however; it was quite obvious that my musical skills do not lie with the violin at present! Judging by the expression on Jonathan's face (Head of Strings), he definitely agreed with me.
Unexpectedly on Thursday, Emma, Maddy and I were called in again, this time to help with the guitar interviews on the same basis as the violin experience. This time the scenario was 100% true - none of us had ever picked up a guitar or had lessons. After jokes of “what way do we hold the guitar” we were soon playing chords and laughing. I secretly think we were all as nervous as the interviewee who was teaching us.
Another thing to add to my list of experiences this week was being able to be a clarinet Guinea-Pig. In the past
“Guinea” experiences, I had never played the instruments before, but this time I was more at home with my first instrument. Although I can play the clarinet, it did not make standing in front of the deputy head and the head of woodwind any easier - especially while trying to play one of my favourite pieces and taking on the suggestions and techniques from the potential new member of staff.
We are definitely looking forward to more “dummy” lessons, our aim is to cover all the instrumental families! So far I’m in the lead with a score of 3, Emma is hot my heels with 2!