Music Workshop - Holy Trinity NS

The Music Workshop

Yesterday, Mary Curran, who plays the French horn, visited the school. Everybody enjoyed listening to Mary playing music from "Mission Impossible" & various other famous theme tunes. We also got the chance to play some percussion instruments.
Mary went on to tell of the history of brass instruments, & even showed us how long a French horn would be if the pipes were unraveled, which was equal to about 21 tin whistles. She named all of the instruments that were in the brass family, & also all of the percussion instruments. My favorites were the triangles, which make a satisfying "tinkle" when tapped.
It was interesting to see how instruments make other sounds when you hold them differently. The triangles, for instance, sound more restrained when you hold them tightly in your hand. When you open your hand & just let the triangle hang off it, it makes a much sweeter sound, which also holds for a longer amount of time.
We did some coordination challenges, which were fun but sometimes hard. Then we demonstrated the words "crescendo" & "decrescendo", which mean "getting louder" &   "getting quieter" in Italian. We did this by sitting in a semi circle & saying our names a little louder each time.
Then Mary split us into 3 groups & got each group to say a sentence with a unique rhythm. Slowly we changed to drums & shakers, still carrying on the same rhythm. It was loads of fun.
Finally, Mary ended the session by letting everybody have a go blowing into a tuba. Many of the noises it made were very strange sounding & soon we were all laughing. We thanked Mary for the great workshop & hope she comes back again someday.

By Hazel, 5th Class.