A spot of music

It's been a while since I shared some music on here so let's put that right.

 

Calum, now thoroughly settled in at high school, started trumpet lessons two weeks ago. With James still playing the trombone and one of my nephews learning a baritone horn I've been telling them that I'm going to get them together as a mini brass band to go out and play Christmas carols in December. I'm only half joking too!

 

Anyway, don't worry, tonight's clip isn't of Calum's trumpet playing after only two weeks of lessons. It is, rather, his old favourite the accordion. He hasn't been playing it much over the summer and since he's never had lessons for it there isn't the same incentive to practise. He loves to learn new tunes on it though and so when he decides he wants to learn a new one, out it comes.

 

Last night he asked if I would teach him the Skye Boat Song, and here he is playing it 24 hours later, accompanied by yours truly.

 

Now before you watch it I should apologise for the strange camera angle! Dad was out, James was busy keeping Fraser quiet and David & Alasdair were playing in another room so we didn't have anyone to hold it! I just placed my phone on the piano and hoped for the best! It's the music you are listening to anyway!

 

 

 

 

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Little Music Maker

Every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon I have a few piano pupils come to the house. While they play through their lessons, Fraser sits quietly on my knee.

 

He seems to enjoy listening to them, his brothers or myself playing.

 

But what he really enjoys is the chance to play the piano himself, as you can see from this clip of him and James. Just look out for his grand finale!

 

 

I'm pretty sure you couldn't watch the end of that without a smile on your face!

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It's beginning to look a lot like.... - part 2

Last week was another of those blink and you miss it sort of weeks.

 

There were various Christmas things on for the boys and my mum and dad were down for a few days too. My mum was down for a week when Fraser was 3 weeks old but this was the first time my dad was able to meet him. They have 8 grandchildren - all of them boys!

 

I was going to share a few photos of bits and pieces from last week tonight but Calum (11) wanted me to share this instead. He learned how to play his favourite Christmas song in one evening last week. We don't have the music for it so I just taught him how to play a section at a time and he's remembered it since then.

 

I would like to point out that our house is always this calm and tranquil.

 

Really.

 

Ok, well, sometimes!

 

Listen out for Fraser chatting/singing along too. Very cute.

 

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Mid-week entertainment

I was hoping to share James' prize winning animation tonight but its taking forever to upload, so instead it's over to Calum again for a little entertainment.

 

This is his solo from the local Mòd last weekend.

 

His tunes are - Ye banks & braes, Auld Lang Syne and Mairi's Wedding.

 

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Weekend fun.

On Saturday afternoon the Gaelic school choir were singing at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh as part of an event called Scotland Sings. The choir was part of a larger choir made up of another three local adult Gaelic choirs.

While we waited for the choir to finish their final rehearsal we had time to have a very quick look at the animal hall of the museum.

 

 

 

 

After our quick look at the animals we had time for a quick cup of tea in the cafe before going back to the main auditorium to listen to the choir. The school choir is made up of pupils from primary 5 to primary 7 so Calum is our only boy in it (4th from the left, front row)

They sang beautifully and weren't distracted by the fact that a lot of the museum life was continuing around them, so there was a fair amount of background noise.

Before heading home we visited another part of the ground floor, with exhibits ranging from the 1600s...

 

....to slightly more recently!

 

And on our way to the train home we passed a very cool shop where my husband bought himself a great new mug!

 

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Another musical interlude

I'll hand over to Calum to entertain you all with his accordion playing tonight.

He isn't getting lessons for it formally, just getting a bit of help from his piano teacher mum with the keyboard side of the instrument for now. I've worked out what chords the buttons do and so I'm getting him to start trying to put both hands together too (although not in this clip). 

He seems to have a natural gift for it and will sit down and work out a tune from ear. The first tune in this clip, Mairi's Wedding, was one he had worked out just 5 minutes earlier after a discussion on Pentatonic Scales. 

I told him that if you used the black notes only it was an easy way of playing a Pentatonic Scale (that is, a 5 note scale. Western music mostly uses an 8 note scale but if you take out the 4th and 7th notes of that scale you get a Pentatonic Scale). I then said that a lot of Scottish music was Pentatonic and when he had a wee shot on the black keys he realised it sounded like the start of Mairi's Wedding. Then off he went, working out the rest of it.

He's working on some traditional tunes just now for Hogmanay celebrations, and Christmas gatherings of course, as well as looking towards Auntie Anna's annual Burns' Supper in January. There is always a good singsong of traditional songs at that and an accordion accompaniment will set the tone perfectly!

Anyway, without any further ado, here he is. In dressing gown and jammies, but pretend you didn't notice that. Oh, and just ignore the train noises in the background too!

Another educational post from the housefulofboys!

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A Tune for Tuesday

I was going to have a wee Christmas tune for you tonight but then when I was trying to play the piano, little man insisted on having a go, and since he was doing such a good job I decided to let him entertain you all instead.

Enjoy!

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James' Mod Song

As you know, last week we were at the National Mod. If you didn't know, then see this post here.

The solo singing competition took place on a really stormy day. By the time we got back home at lunchtime the wind was so strong you could hardly stand up.

Needless to say, my granny didn't venture out to hear James sing!

Instead, we took the song to her, and I took this video of James there, since there is no filming or photography allowed in the competitions.

He doesn't sing the full song here, and sings it at a lower pitch than he would normally do if he had been given the starting note, plus he has the added distraction of his 2 year old brother playing with his lorries at the fireside, but other than that you get a good representation of the song!!

The song is called Eilean Beag Donn a Chuain (el-an bek down a choo-an) - Little Brown Island in the Sea, a lament about the Island of Lewis.

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The Local Mòd

It seems like I have been talking about this for weeks, but the local Mòd  took place here on Saturday. 

The Mòd is a Gaelic music/arts festival, well competition really. Our local one has competitions for children only, but the National Mòd has competitions for adults as well. The National Mòd takes place in October, in a different place each year. This year it will be in the Western Isles, where I am from. You can read more about the local Mòd here and the National Mòd here if you want.

Our local Mòd competition categories include; solo singing, poetry recitation, story-telling, unseen Bible reading, conversation, solo fiddle playing, solo clarsach playing, solo chanter and pipe playing, choral singing, group instrument playing. There are also written competitions such as poetry and short story and a short film category which are all submitted in advance. Each category is split into age groups to make things fairer.

James and David both entered the solo singing competition. James also entered the chanter, unseen Bible reading and conversation competitions. He had entered a poem, short story and short film in advance.

Calum entered unseen Bible reading, conversation, poem and short story competitions.

The results:

James came 3rd for Bible reading and conversation. He came 2nd for his short story. He was so excited to find out the result of the short film competition (his entry is here for those who haven't seen it yet) but there was some problem with the judge returning from holiday and so we are still waiting for the results of that one!

Calum came 2nd in Bible reading and conversation. He was 1st in his written poem and short story.

Here are the boys wearing their medals when we got home.

A close up of Calum...

........and a close up of James.

Just to add to all the links I already have in this post, if anyone missed an earlier post about our different tartans (and is remotely interested!) it can be found here.

There were a few craft stalls in the cafe area, one of which I had to sell my Gaelic cards. I was really pleased with how many sold as I don't really go to many craft fairs. Just the Mòd and a couple of Christmas fairs really. This was definitely my most successful sale so far.

A good day had by all!

Gaelic word of the day:

seinn (shu-een) - to sing

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Something else to watch and listen to....

Another video today, but not one of ours.

One of my friends posted this link on her Facebook page a while book and I've been meaning to share it ever since.

Back in the days when I was a music teacher, before little boys took over my life, I used to do the rainstorm effect with groups of children, but not to this level and the song that follows is just - amazing!!

Enjoy.

And if you enjoyed that, then watch them sing Mas Que Nada.

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A houseful of music

For some time now Calum has been interested in learning to play the violin and I've been on the lookout for a reasonably cheap 1/4 size violin. I wanted one with a decent enough sound, as early violin playing is pretty screechy sounding at the best of times, but I didn't want to spend too much money on it in case he soon lost interest in it. (I think he'll stick at it though, given his personality)

I finally found one on eBay for £20, including the case and a few books, and it arrived today. Calum was so excited.

To begin with I'm going to teach him myself, with some help from some on-line resources.

I studied music at University, my main instruments were piano and oboe (and I also chose to major in composition). I also played a little flute and trumpet. Then when I did my postgraduate teacher training we had to learn to be a sort of Jack-of-all-trades and play some guitar, bass guitar, recorder and drums.

So, although I know I won't get him up to Conservetoire standard on my own, I'm fairly confident we can get things started. I'm hoping to learn a bit myself too, so will need to start saving up for a full size fiddle!

James has been learning both trombone and chanter at school for about a year now, and is still really enjoying both. Tonight when he was practising his trombone he suddenly worked out how to play the tune below by himself. I'm impressed to see him trying out tunes by ear.

I won't tell you what it is, see if you can guess, but I will give you the clue that it is from something that is very popular in this house!

And to finish, Calum wanted to show off the first tune that he had learned today.

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Little Drummer Boy

Continuing with yesterday's subject of Christmas presents, though not chocolate alas.

My youngest nephew got a little drum kit as one of his presents. He loves it and so do our David and Alasdair.

Firstly I took a photo of Alasdair having a shot of it.

But then I saw that he was playing them so well that I took this little video clip of him too.

I have grand plans of getting the boys to make up a Ceilidh band when they are a little older. It looks like Alasdair is already a star performer (and I'm only half joking about the Ceilidh band!)

Gaelic word of the day:

ceol (cyol) - music

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O come, o come Emmanuel

So I mentioned yesterday that this was my favourite carol. 

When I was looking for it on youtube I came across the arrangement below.

I don't think I can even begin to explain how much I loved it.

The piano part, the way the music changes key (twice!), the haunting violin melody (which is actually the Israeli national anthem, I believe!).....

It's not in the least bit 'Christmassy' but.......wow!

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