We love music at LJS and curriculum music and instrumental lessons all began last week for children from Reception up to Year 6. A brand new, and rather exciting, addition to the Music Room is a class set of bright and colourful ukuleles, displayed for all to see on the wall. They look stunning and we can’t wait to get started. Miss Haynes, our new Director of Music, has thoroughly enjoyed hearing the incredible music that drifts around the school and getting to know our staff and children during her first fortnight.
This week, our ensembles and choirs have resumed, this time unrestricted by bubbles. Children who engage with individual instrument lessons are invited to join ensembles relating to their instrument and we also have various singing groups on offer to any enthusiastic singers. As well as the choirs, the Glee Club, which was set up last year at the request of one of our Year 6 pupils, is starting its second year. The lyrics to Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ have been distributed at today’s session and auditions are being set up to decide who will perform the rap section. We hope to be able to share a sneak preview very soon.
Our Junior Strings ensemble enabled Year 3 and 4 strings players to collaborate, as they begin to learn new pieces to perform in the future. The Year 5 and 6 String Orchestra, made up of violins, violas, cellos, double bass and a harp, have also begun work on their first pieces and they are already sounding wonderful.
As the Year 5 and Year 6 Brass groups and Horn group gathered to learn their new pieces, the Year 4 Brass players have just a few more weeks to wait before their first session. Every year, a number of Year 4 pupils embark on their Brass instrument journeys and they are quickly getting to grips with the basics after their first 2 lessons. They have enthusiastically headed home, armed with their instruments and instructions to get into the habit of daily practice on their tubas, baritones, tenor horns, French horns, cornets and trombones.
The Intermediate and Senior Percussion groups have also got underway, using a range of instruments including djembes, cajons, marimba, glockenspiels, xylophones, kit and timpani to create their rhythmic masterpieces.
Year group Woodwind groups are also up and running for Years 4 to 6. Our new Woodwind players in Year 3 will also be able to experience playing together in due course – their flutes, saxophones, oboes and clarinets are poised and ready for action!
