A little musical excursion.

I've been making a list of all the things they don't teach you in school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what is going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing. Neil Gaiman.


Here is where we were today. Wynnum is one of the older suburbs: quarter acre blocks; old high~set houses; tree~lined streets; old gardens. I like Wynnum. It has character, rather like the school.

Founded in 1901 the school sits on 50 acreas. In other words it's huge! It has its own road winding through it & what amounts to a small township on the grounds. Most of our schools don't come close to being this big ~ which meant we not only got lost getting there we got lost on the grounds themselves!

We've just done Creative Generation ~ state school oriented; the comparison was obvious & glaring. I was on my very best behaviour. So was Moreton Bay. The girls were very well drilled but it must have made it so much easier for Alison to work with them because they remained quiet for the duration of the rehearsal & the rehearsal, as most rehearsals do, contained long periods of boredom. What's more both bands were the beginners bands. I don't think there's anything quite so excruciating as beginner violins ~ en mass! Truly awful. Awful of me because they were all really young & learners but I thought Ditz was going to have a corony about the bowing, which was all over the place, let alone the wind band which was having serious problems with their counting. If both Ditz & I noticed it, it was major. It was such a relief to listen to VM. Not that the MBC choir wasn't good. It was excellent but the girls voices had the thin reedy sound so many young choirs have & lacked the beautiful harmonic mastery VM has, the fuller, rounded sound, the subtlety. I am so spoilt. *sigh*

MBC was extremely hospitable. The modern music centre was a wonder to behold & very comfortable though I thought the acoustics could do with improvement.

Brisbane Girls Grammar[1875] & St Margaret's [1895] are both older but right in Brisbane proper so I'm pretty sure this is the oldest girls school round here. Most of the elitist schools are single sex schools holding to the belief girls & boys do better academically if they are separated. I tend to agree & have no problems with segregation per se. However all the schools provide a pretty standard education ~ for a price. They sprook about individuality & different learning styles but the truth is they can't possibly cater to that in an institutionalised setting though I must admit today was the closest I've ever seen to *helicopter teaching*. You know, like helicopter parenting & with one music teacher to every 7 or so students they were doing plenty of hovering. My jaw nearly dropped watching 4 other music teachers conduct with Alison, push, poke & prode students & otherwise meddle to the point if I'd been a student they'd have worn the violin or trumpet as a neck~tie. I thought they were making it very difficult for their girls but of course the school was on show & they did want to impress. They didn't impress me musically but I was certainly more than impressed with the girls manners & self~discipline, which really were excellent.

I was also made very aware of how blessed Ditz has been with her music teachers & training because I know next to nothing & God has made sure every opportunity to come Ditz's way has been of the highest calibre. So weird because when we started we couldn't possibly have known how musical Ditz was. We had other tags for her: drama queen extraordinaire; theatrical muse; ADD; Wild Child...Ditz! Yeah, there's a reason for that nickname.