Pupils have been making phenomenal progress in instrumental lessons! All guitarists have been learning a little piece called Dynamite Dance, mixing learning by ear and reading the guitar tab.

I'm very impressed with the progress of not only the longer-term guitarists, who have taken to reading tab very quickly, but also the beginner guitarists who are sounding really confident already.

The violinists have really gelled as a group, helping each other and taking turns to lead. Rhian deserves a special mention as, having learned violin for a year longer, she is patient, always willing to help the others and has challenged herself to play more complicated music over the top. They are picking up on reading music very quickly and have really good bow hold positions. Very soon we'll be moving on from playing open strings only to placing fingers on the fingerboards!

The singers have also become a tight-knit group, ensuring everyone has a chance to lead boom-chica-boom and chewing gum stories. We've worked on reading music, solo performance and call-and-response harmonies. The songwriting club has taken on a life of its own. Songwriters have incorporated dance and some pop tunes with brand new music written exclusively by themselves on a range of instruments from metallophones to cellos, tambourines to piano.

All musicians have been delightful to teach and I'm really pleased to see how they have progressed every week!                       

Ella Jarman-Pinto