Saturday 9 May 2009

>>> Competition! <<<

The boys attended the Northfield Diamond Jubilee Music competition today. They didn't win, not surprising as they were up against fierce competition, some of whom are excellent violinists. However, they gain invaluable experience (whether or not they do it again next year is another matter!) They were also given constructive criticism which I think is valuable to them so that they know what they need to improve. I'm pleased with what they did today and any exposure to solo playing will definitely improve their self-esteem. Ollie was a little disappointed at not winning but I told him that winning is not the reason why he's playing. The point of taking part is to gain experience and to learn from it. It's his first time and he has a longgggg way to go if he wants to win. Now that he has seen the winning performance, hopefully it will spur him to work hard on his practice!

They did play against their age groups but most of these players were privately trained, and probably started when they were 3, as opposed to my boys being trained in school (which is a different thing altogether). They progressed much slower when trained in school as they are taught together with other pupils, some of whom don't bother to practice and as a result, hold back the class or in the boys' cases, they are far more advance than the other player and therefore, they are sometimes held back in terms of progression. I've started private lessons for them with their music teacher and hopefully, this will help them progress faster. Their music teacher has asked me permission if they could have extra 20 mins lesson on top of their normal time for the next school year and of course I said ok! The more the merrier although I don't think they will thank me for that! LOL! Managed to grab a couple of photos from the competition before finding out I wasn't allowed to... oops!

Came home and I worked on my DT LOs. Yup, my kit came on Thursday. They are due soon and I can feel a flu coming on as well....All I can think of is sleep! TTFN!

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