Tuesday 3 September 2013

Goodbye Areeparambu!


Hi everyone,

Apologies for not being update for the past 4 weeks; we had no access to wifi so have been saving our news for now!

Unfortunately the tv broadcast we mentioned in our last blog didn't happen, which was a shame, but we've had lots of other things to fill our time with.

Over the past 9 weeks we got to know our students really well and it was really sad saying goodbye. We covered huge amounts of material in class, starting from the very beginning for most of them, and it was so rewarding knowing that so much of their theoretical musical knowledge came from us. We even got onto Bach Chorales with the 2nd years, and I began to introduce them to ideas about musical aesthetics. We wrote some exams for them along the way and saw a huge improvement. At the end of our time there we put on a concert and asked each student to perform a piece of their choice. They were really excited as they don't often get a chance to perform and two of them, Steve and Priyanka, performed two pieces that they had written themselves. A lot of them are really enthused by songwriting and Rebecca has given regular songwriting workshops to help improve the technical side of their composition. We even heard a rap performance from the new student who came one week before we left, James. He's been a really quick and keen learner, and went from no theoretical knowledge to a secure understanding of how to read music in a week. We said goodbye to our students when they took us out for lunch on the last day which was a really nice surprise, and we really enjoyed getting to know them outside the classroom.

Outside of ACCM, we've been doing more and more work with PCH (precious children's home), and have taught the children lots and lots of english children's hymns. We've organised lots of programmes for them including an elaborate treasure hunt through the grounds and games afternoons (we discovered musical chairs and limbo were a hit!). We had to say a really emotional goodbye to 143 children on Thursday.

All in all we've really enjoyed our time in Areeparambu.

Bye!

Rosie and Rebecca

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