End of A day

.... That had lots of fabulousness.

Today started with Katie's first music lesson back after the break. And what a lesson it was. Until now, most of her lessons have been a long lesson, shared between time on the clarinet & piano, with some theory and recorder. She was needing more on each than time allowed so the decision was made together that after India, we would split clarinet and piano lessons and have twice-weekly lessons. Today was her first dedicated clarinet lesson. And she worked sooo hard. She concentrated well, let her teacher lead, tried new things.... She did fantastically. Her teacher gave her some tricky technique exercises which Katie attacked them with skill & enthusiasm. They worked on a couple of new pieces for her. She was great. We realised watching her play that she's becoming much stronger as a player and has clearly had a growth spurt. After a hurried chat with me whilst Katie popped to the toilet, B decided it was time to try Katie for size on her Bb clarinet. We were rather surprised when she managed to get all the way down the notes. It's not time to move her yet, she needs to be more secure with her technique particularly in the upper register but the day is much nearer than we anticipated! She was so proud of herself and absolutely loved the beautiful rich sound that the gorgeous wooden clarinet made compared to hers. For me, I have no rush to get her off the Eb, apart from the fact that she's playing a broken instrument so isn't learning such as daily dismantling & isn't allowed to change her own reeds because of where the repair is. She can't take beyond grade 3 on it, which isn't that far off, so it may be she doesn't do any grades at all on her Eb as she's probably going to skip that. For her, she wants to switch because once she's G3 and also securely on the Bb, she will be allowed to join the junior orchestra at Music Centre. And she's very keen for that!

We made it to school before the doors closed, slightly surprisingly. She had a good day doing lots of work on finishing off their Arts Awards. I chuckle looking through the syllabus- if they'd included individualised experiences, Katie would have had an incredible portfolio! That said, I love it because even without the huge variety of arts experience Katie has, the school has this year given the entire year a very rich introduction to the arts. They've done flamenco and English country dancing, they've watched different styles of theatre (from a school pantomime to a professional play in a theatre). They've studied a variety of artists including Picasso and Van Gogh and been visited by a local artist who they've studied and they've worked in the style of them all. They've done portraits and self portraits, including visiting an old peoples home to draw the residents. They have had a great time!

It was my piano lesson this afternoon. It invariably involves time talking round Katie's progress etc. Today B and I made a plan of action about the piano. We made a decision about the piano that I'm going to buy in due course (I am desperately excited to get this saved for, it's lovely!!). She stopped by our house and played ours, she is happy that we continue with it whilst I save up- if we try a different tuner. We made a plan for the next clarinet, which I am now on the look out for. And she told me that she wants to introduce Katie to a lady she knows who is the director of the Yorkshire Young Musicians about the best long term "taking Katie forward" plan. Very exciting but also slightly scary!

The blip is on the way home from ballet, after school. Riding in the evening sun from my office, where I'd had to stop to collect a parcel. She did some piano when we got in, really quickly picking up on some new scales B had given me to set her, and picking up this week's new pieces very well.

All in all, one incredibly "artsy" day for my little artsy poppet!