Jamaica Blog No.3 - Coaching and some Sightseeing
This weekend I had the opportunity to do a bit of sight-seeing in and around Kingston. As you can see from the pictures above I was blessed with unbelievable weather and had the chance to see an old English naval fort, an island just off of the coast of the Main Island, and my personal favourite, the Bob Marley Museum. These sightseeing ventures are well documented on my Instagram and Facebook pages so feel free to check them out if you wish. @tubafraze is my Instagram handle.
I must say a big thank you to my fellow GLP cohort member Darren Young for driving me around and showing me all of these incredible places. He is generally around when these pictures are taken but really doesn't want to be in them, very camera shy! So THANKS DARREN!!
One thing which really stuck with me from the Bob Marley Museum was the first thing the tour guide said in the house...
"Please feel free to ask questions, as the person who speaks the most in a room learns the least..."
I have certainly taken note of this phrase and already applied it to one of the masterclasses the other evening. It is a great teaching tool and for sure something which I will not forget in a hurry!
The masterclass on Friday night was kind of an experiment which I have been wanting to do for a while. The opportunity arose to have a string and brass group play in the 2 hour session and work with each other and their colleagues in the orchestra to assess their rehearsal techniques, suggest new ones, and find some which one group may use more than the other. It was nice to facilitate the session and the improvement over the two hours was really noticeable.
On Saturday the brass quintet wanted a little more time and we ended up spending over 4 hours working together to try and fine tune their performance, discuss how to run the group more effectively, work on individual and group rehearsal techniques and talk a little about programming too. It was a lot of information and the group really worked hard for the session. It is something which I would like to do much more of in the future!
Today I worked with some of the teachers to put together a small group for an informal concert on Thursday at one of the centres. I also had a chance to sit and practise a bit more of Richard's piece before heading out to dance for two hours with everyone, training for Carnival which is coming up in the next few weeks.
One last thing is the article in the Jamaican Gleamer from this Sunday, which featured me and my visit!
A link to the article can be found here:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20180311/strong-classical-band-tradition-lacking-ja-mission-place-improve#.WqUUM4NO8w8.facebook
It was really full on and now I am completely kaput!
More updates soon!
Fraser x
