Musical News – January 2023

13th January 2023Heather Morgan

Welcome back!

January is a time for remembering our routines and looking forward. It is the start of a term full of exams for many and much more music making for all.
Do please look at the What's On page. Fill those calendars with the dates, so check what your young musician is involved in. We are working hard to be meaningful with our communication, putting most of it on the website. Our new year's resolution to you is to support you ensuring musicians put in time for practice. Practice makes progress and happier learning. Even older musicians need reminding and support!
December was full of concerts and performances, as well as snow. It was brilliant how everyone adapted for the Carol Services, and how hard musicians worked in every performance. Well done to everyone.
Here's to another brilliant term of music making.

Mark Taylor, Director of Music

The Carol Services

Despite the snow, our Larch and Secondary Carol Services ploughed ahead. Although all of the original plans had to be adapted, our musicians and staff adapted too, and because of this, we were able to enjoy two evenings of amazing Carol Services! The week really embodied the term 'Team Music'.

Meet the Music Ambassador!

We re getting to know our Music Ambassadors in Y6 and Y13 this year, please see our most recent posts!

Jacob & Patrick, Y13, have been ambassadors for over a year...

Save the Dates 2023!

We have lots planned for 2023 including Big Band Evening and Saffron Hall!
Please check our What's On Page for more information by clicking the page below!

What’s On

Musical News – December 2022

3rd December 2022Mark Taylor

We say we are a musical school. The past few weeks have certainly shown how musical we are. Every day, we are proud of each and every musician for the progress they make. It is difficult for me to say 'well done' to everyone all the time, but if I could, I would.

I have spent much time recently in meetings and discussions, finding out about music education and how it is developing, nationally. Every time, I am reminded how utterly amazing our musicians are, and how Team Music is a unique team. We have had so much going on in recent weeks, including guitar and piano recitals, concerts, performance and more. Alumni have been popping in to say hello or have been keeping us updated with their progress, including with their music. Team Music extends far beyond the walls of the music centre. Hundreds of performers from throughout our all-through school and our community, with many more in the audience.

This update is a celebration of every musician and everyone who has come to support our musicians. The quality produced by our musicians is amazing. The support by our staff team is beyond what we should expect. They are so brilliant and deserve so much thanks.

Well done to each individual for the progress being made in music. If we don't catch up with you to say well done, please remember what you achieve and how good it is. We are all proud of you.

Mark Taylor, Director of Music.

A Larch musical celebration

In November, 130 musicians from Years 2 - 6 performed in this unbelievable concert, with an energy in the hall that was an inspiration. The breadth of music, the smiling faces, the standard of performance. Our Larch musicians are so brilliant for their age. Well done to everyone.

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A Wind and Brass Celebration

A week later, it was the turn of our secondary musicians. An outstanding showcase of Wind, Brass and Percussion with music that challenged, where musicians rose to the challenge. Once again there was a brilliant sense of community, celebration and awe at what our musicians achieved.

Big Band at the Hertford Lights

We were proud to be part of the community celebrations to switch on the Hertford Christmas lights. Families past and present were there watching and singing along. It was amazing to once again return to this annual event.

Rock School Live!

This was an amazing occasion at the Southern Maltings, with 12 bands performing to a capacity crowd. Again, the standard of musicianship and performance was superb and each musician and band should be so proud of themselves. This short video shows how good everyone was! (twitter link, no login required).

All things piano

November is traditionally piano month, when we have a concert and celebrate our pianists. This year we had performances in the Library, an evening recital and our annual celebration video. Do take a moment to watch this wonderful creation, featuring 70 pianists in total performing 'Just Can't Get Enough'. What a huge project this was!!

We also present this amazing piano duet -  a fugue based on Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' performed by Ciara (Yr 12) and Gabriel (Yr13). Enjoy!

Adult community choir

Take Note is our adult community choir. They performed a wonderful concert at St Andrew's Church last weekend, an occasion that was uplifting and brought together our wider musical family - friends, former students (and so many of them), former parents and more. Well done to everyone in the choir for such a superb evening.

 

A Celebration of Christmas

Do come and join us for our traditional carol services at All Saint's Church. These are always wonderful occasions for our school community.

Piano Day – Thursday 25th November

13th November 2021Mark Taylor

Our annual piano day returned!

In the morning we welcomed renowned pianist Anna Markland, who delivered a Masterclass.  Anna listened to and encourage five of our most talented players, whilst our other players will had the chance to watch and learn from one of the country’s leading musicians.

At 1.20pm, a selection of all-age players performed in an informal concert in the Library.

Then at 6.00pm, pianists from Years 10-13 performed in a Teatime Concert featuring duet and ensemble items, as well as many special solo performances.

Here are some other highlights from our piano team.

Mr Lovell's view from the piano stool

In this blog, Mr Lovell discusses the art of performance.

The view from the piano stool can be very comfy, especially in the familiar surroundings of your own home! I grew up with a piano in the house and one day I was given the option of having lessons, or the piano would have to go. I used to sit and splash around at the keys a bit, pretending that I knew what I was doing, but I knew enough to know that I didn’t want to lose this awesome instrument. I took up the offer of lessons and never looked back. Simple stuff at first of course, I was never going to be Young Musician Of The Year and I used to get frustrated when I couldn’t get the hang of things quicker. The piano stool was a place where I felt happy. I enjoyed myself and had the satisfaction of feeling that this was something that I was improving at, even if it wasn’t always at as fast a pace as I wanted. And I loved that whilst my teacher introduced me to the wondrous music of Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy, it was also a pathway into playing the music that I was already listening to at home, like Elton John, Genesis and Kate Bush.

The view from the stool can get a bit less cosy once the stool is elsewhere other than home: the school hall or especially the exam room! Nerves can be off-putting and make you feel like all the enjoyment has been sucked out of you. But without them, you can never focus to the point of showing yourself at your absolute best. And whilst there’s not much to beat the immersion into the joy of music to escape all the pressures of life, the one thing that’s even better is the buzz you get when you play something well and someone else is there to tell you how good it is. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a standing ovation for a prestigious recital, or whether it’s just your Mum saying, “well done, it’s getting better”, you get a glow that makes you feel good and it spurs you on to want to achieve more. I’ve been playing for over 40 years now and, I assure you, that buzz is as strong now as it’s ever been!

So if you, like me, play the piano, why do you do it? Why did you start and what is it about this incredible instrument that keeps you going? Here are some of the responses we’ve had from our students here at Simon Balle:

I enjoy making people happy when I play

Playing piano puts me in a wonderland of music

I enjoy playing the piano because it makes me forget about stressful things happening in my life

I really enjoy playing keyboard at Simon Balle as I learn so much and have fun

I really enjoy playing the piano, we are always having some sort of fun event or activity!!

The opportunity to perform, to share your skills and revel in the praise that comes your way, is vital to keep us all pushing on and improving ourselves. So, let’s keep up the practice, strive to be the best we can be, but, most of all, enjoy making music and enjoy what it looks, feels and sounds like from your piano stool!

Mr Lovell

From Gabriel, Year 12

The piano masterclass with Anna Markland was a huge success. This is for a plentiful number of reasons. It was very beneficial for developing our performance skills and confidence (an important aspect of musicianship) as we were given some useful tips for performing by Anna and we were playing in front of all the other pianists – a big crowd! Also, for many, it was very informative on practice methods: Anna zoomed in on specific areas of struggle and emphasised the significance of ‘slow’ practice. For me, we focused more on style and musical awareness. Anna suggested an alternative approach for using the sustaining pedal to make the texture of the music less heavy. Finally, I would like to say an immense thank you to Anna Markland for imparting her expertise and additionally to Mr Lovell for diligently organising the whole event.

From Toby, Year 13

I found Anna Markland’s advice and support very insightful throughout the masterclass. What was particularly useful was how it felt as though Anna was giving tips and ways to improve playing to everybody in the room, not just the player sitting at the piano. In addition, what was particularly helpful was that the advice was relevant for all of the students of varying ages and experience with the piano. Personally for me I thought that Anna was not only extremely supportive of what I was playing, but also offered some really good, constructive feedback such as how to improve my sitting position when playing, how to practice the piece more effectively at home and how to position my arms in order to play the more challenging sections of the piece with greater ease.

Our music goes on – an online celebration of our musicians

14th March 2021Mark Taylor

Dear all musicians!

Next week we are holding an online music festival, celebrating you, our amazing musicians. It will consist of videos you submit, put together in several short online concerts towards the end of the week before the holidays.

What I need from you please is a video of you performing a solo with accompaniment, recorded and uploaded by next Monday. You can record at home.

Details on how to record are here (you will need to be logged in to google):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dzf4BpMazDOcAVxVGQROP1_ixROJauYqe9Bun8GYqU8/edit?usp=sharing

Please record in landscape and check the recording before you submit, so we can hear what you perform and the accompaniment!

mayikde

That is the class code for google classroom to join and upload your video please. Put a private comment saying what the piece is called and who wrote it please.

It would be amazing to have as many videos as possible please. So, think about what piece you could perform and do record it! You could record in your instrumental or singing lesson this week. By uploading a recording, you are happy for us to use it in the festival. We already have the videos from pianists recorded earlier in the year and some singers earlier this term. 500 miles that many of you joined in with will also be part of it.

myMusic hub

Don’t forget this page as well (you need to be logged in to the school website) for timetables and more.

I look forward to seeing your video!

Mr Taylor

Music news for our musicians – March 8th

6th March 2021Mark Taylor

It has been a long time since we were able to make music together. Here are a few things about our music as we start to come back to school.

This week (from 8th March), your lessons will be in school if you are in school. Otherwise, they will be online as they have been via Google Meet. Year 13 – you are able to come into school if you want to during your exam weeks – just contact your teacher and arrange it with them. If you have to stay at home when your year group is in school, please email music@simonballe.herts.sch.uk before 8.30am on the day of your lesson and you will have it via Google Meet. Your lesson does not need to be missed just because you are at home. Some lesson times will have changed, so keep checking the timetables via this link.

https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/music/timetables/

We are working to get our ensembles back rehearsing as soon as we are allowed to. At the moment we cannot rehearse in doors at the moment where we have students from more than one year group, so we are planning for hopefully after Easter. The 4 stages out of restrictions hopefully mean we can have plenty of concerts later next term and we are planning hard for this – I know everyone wants to get back playing together!

Some bands in Rock School have been able to rehearse and record during lockdown online and we are working to get more students involved next term. Do contact Mrs Pearson if you want to be part of this. Big Band 2 will also restart as soon as we can, and if you are interested in taking part, please let us know next week – this involves musicians from Year 9 onwards. If you do not play an instrument that is usually part of a Big Band, still let us know and we can help you quickly learn on (a Big Band line up is piano, bass, drums, electric guitar, saxophones, brass, singers). You have to be able to read music to take part as there is a lot of sight reading involved!

Your instrumental teachers are also busy working with you to prepare you for music exams. I know most have not been able to take them, so you will soon be ready. Some will be in April, others in June / July. Do keep practising and talking to your teachers about your progress. Practice is also very important. Keep going as now we are coming back to school, you will be back working with your teachers face to face.

If you have any ideas of things you want to do in music, let us know. If you have completed a great recording, do share it with us. We are going to get everyone performing as soon as we can and there will be lots of solo and ensemble concerts next term. Keep working hard and keep talking to us about your music. We need your ideas to be able to support you as much as we can.

Mr Taylor