The magical sound of spring
09 Mar 21
I don't know about you but there is definitely an optimistic feel in the air. I always feel this in Spring time, when the trees become alive with birds competing to sing the most beautiful song. It inspires me to think about my own song and what I will sing about this year. It also reassures me, and fills me with tranquility.
Often we think about music as an exclusively human activity, but this is not so, birds are the masters of song. If you actively listen- and music is all about listening- you start to make sense of the incredible array of vocalisations, pitch and rhythm...a dizzying repetoire. One of my favourites is the song thrush, it is truely mesmerising and exotic.
2020 was a troubling year, and now exactly one year on from the first lockdown, Spring 2021 offers hope because it is the season of rebirth and new beginnings. My teaching room is also beginning to open up again, and I hope to take on new students.
For the best part of a year, I have taken my piano teaching and my Georgian choir sessions online, it's been demanding altering how I teach to fit with the technology available. It has been demanding for the student altering how they learn, and having to be more independant- taking practice notes themselves, writing in fingering on sheet music. These are the positive aspects. However music is about active listening, feeling, and engaging your senses as much as intellectual thought. The thing about being in a room together is that these things become more alive. I have described zoom as the equivalent of squinting, not with your eyes but with your ears.
I like so many others are missing live performance, not just on the stage, but my piano students performing their pieces and tunes to me. I miss the performance of working live with my Zarebi choir members. I miss performing on stage myself- it feels like another world, I have no idea when I might next stand on a stage in front of an audience.
Hearing the birdsong is like having a concert in your own backyard. It is simple and clear and perfect, it is the perfect antidote to technology. Therefore I recommend that this Spring you take advantage of the concert from your windows! Happy listening everyone x