Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Choir

So some of you may have noticed that I tweeted yesterday about watching The Choir on BBC America. I know for you British viewers, this show is old news, but it's just making its premiere in the US. I have to say, I don't expect it to be a raving success, but among the crowd of people who watch BBC, I suppose it will do well.

Anyway, this show is just absolutely wonderful for me. As a classical music student training to be a music teacher, I can relate a lot to what Gareth Malone does on the show. In fact, I see a lot of what I want to do in what Gareth does. He's kind of like a straight-haired me who sings instead of playing clarinet. But I can relate a great deal to his struggle--trying to bring classical music out of the bourgeoisie and into the public. He struggles to sell Vivaldi to R&B-loving secondary school students. Similarly, I have a series (which I've been meaning to pick back up) in which I teach the basics of listening to classical music to people who are not familiar with it.

I've been having philosophical struggles with studying classical music myself, and I've been planning on blogging about it, but it's one of those things that I want to do really well and only once, so it will take planning, and sometimes I'm just too lazy to do so. In any case, I do find it inspiring to know that teaching classical music is not a lost cause; you just need the right person and the right kind of personality. Watching Gareth teach, of course, and with how much I relate to him both in teaching style and in musical philosophy, I feel much more comfortable delving into the world of music education.

It's nice to know that watching television can be so inspiring.

Sleep: X
German: X (danke Anabelle!)
Clarinet: X
Exercise: O
Reading: O
Blogging: X

3 comments:

  1. I saw the previews and wasn't going to watch it but I think I will now. I know how that feels too, I love classical piano (I play) and I just don't know people my age who like that sort of thing.

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  2. I watched it when it was first on (and the two series' he's done since) so I can understand what you see in it. From what I've observed of you from my small internet window I can see the correlation. Glad you got the chance to watch it!

    :)

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  3. I've watched quite a bit of the various series he's done and it's really great to see so many people getting involved in music. Just thought I'd say, he does even more than sing! He did this workshop for some teacher conference in Birmingham, UK, and composed the music to go with the song the teachers had written. He did this overnight for the Jazz Orchestra I am part of and, sure, it was fairly simple as it was written and learnt pretty much in the space of 48 hours but it was great working with him, even for that short space of time. He's so enthusiastic about what he does and seemed genuinely nice!
    I guess I can see the correlation you're on about and I can certainly see why you'd relate to him.
    Ok, this is a long comment and ages after you posted this as I've only just discovered you have a blog! Keep on being awesome.

    Oh, and here's a link to my blog about meeting Gareth Malone. You totally don't have to read it at all and I feel like I'm just trying to sell myself but you might find it interesting.
    http://hannahlikessheepbaa.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-wanted-to-be-writer-but-i-was-given.html [part 1]
    http://hannahlikessheepbaa.blogspot.com/2009/12/this-is-my-dream-birmingham-part-2.html [part 2]

    DFTBA :)

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