Poet’s Corner

27.04.20 – Reader Contribution

Hi!. Recently I suggested that some of you send in your thoughts to us, to share here in our regular Coronovirus Resistance Group! One of my older students, Brenda, has submitted poetry, no less, prompted by her near amazement that she has cracked using the software for online music lessons. Go, Brenda! I always knew you could do it!

Not Giving In!

by Brenda Nettleship

Darrell successfully added me to his list of successes, After my sad history of many online misses, Hey presto we suddenly had vision and sound, This new skill I suddenly had found, Due to Darrell’s determination and grit, I suddenly shouted oh I’ve GOT IT!!! At last we completed a successful lesson, A fully completed session, Pray please let me succeed connection next week, If not I fear we may both sadly weep, But I am determined to look forward and not be despondent, When he tunes in next week I WILL BE RESPONDENT !!!

Oh the mysteries of life we have to still discover, This Corona Virus has found me another, My ageing mind still struggles on with more Apps on my screen, Some I thought would never be seen, We have social sites, google, shopping, maps and DATING if you DARE!!! But of scams we need to be aware, We have to keep up with the fast moving times, So we don’t start losing our minds. Bring it on, We are not giving in without a fight, We will struggle and find the light.

Finally we will come through these strange and difficult days, Look at life in different ways, Freedom to go out and play and spend our days as we wish, Do the the things that we most miss, Sadly online lessons will no longer be a part of or lives, Arriving on time I will have to STRIVE, That secret belongs to myself and my academy friends, My wayward ways I must AMMEND.!!!

Many thanks to Brenda for making us laugh, and we look forward to other students and their families having their say. Send your contributions to the usual email address.

Of Family, and Fondest Things…

26.04.20 – Darrell Priestley

Some days you feel it more than others. This morning, I just really want to spend the day with my daughter Jessica and her family. We message, we have several phone chats per day, plus having Teams meetings (the same as we use for all our online lessons) has been brilliant, but of course there is nothing quite like being together. So, you pick yourself up and get on with your day.

Jessica has supplied today’s blog post. In addition to her musical life , she is an early years education specialist, and so as well as an upbeat focus on coping with life during lockdown, (it seems to be a family trait!), she takes the perspective of home educating younger children so they can come through this well, with bright and curious minds.

Coming soon: Watch out for contributions from your fellow readers, too. My recent request for your thoughts is yielding fruit, and amongst other things our readers have been inspired to poetry!

Learning on the Land

26.04.20 – Jessica Laughton

This past week we’ve seen some wonderful weather. The combination of the sun on my face and watching the sun beams dance across the garden has been quite exhilarating to say the least. As for many of you I’m sure, these past few weeks has seen more of us venture out into our gardens and this past week with the beautiful sun and warm weather has been just the perfect invitation to get outside and enjoy our surroundings.

In recent weeks many of us have began home schooling and our house is no exception. However, this week we have taken our learning outside into the garden. I have two children, my eldest (Freddie) is three and my youngest (Eliodie) is eight months. Our garden isn’t especially big by any means but we are still able to go out and enjoy most of the day playing and learning at the same time.

Each day in the garden has been different and filled with adventure.  Earlier on in the week, as per usual, Freddie chose a book to read before bed.  This particular evening he had chosen one of his favourite books, ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’.   Often very inspired by the books he has read, the following morning I observed Freddie re-enacting the story for his sister Elodie.  He ran into his playroom in search of his basket of animals and took out a toy butterfly along with other creature such as frogs, bees and spiders.  Later that morning during our time outside Freddie decided to go on a bug hunt in search of the creatures that lived in our garden.  He was fascinated to see the ants at work and observed them for several minutes climbing over the buds on the peonies.  I explained that the ants were collecting the sweet sap from the flower buds and that this was a sign the flowers will open soon.  Freddie was very excited by this and each day he goes to say hello and check on the ants as they work.  

Driven by a keen interest in animals, Freddie decided to create a home for his toy Frogs.  We used a spare clear plastic tub to create a pond.  Freddie added stones for them to sit on and flowers and leaves before adding the water. From this activity we learnt about the life cycle of a frog.

However, this week hasn’t just been about animals. Each day there has been a new adventure to embark on in the garden. We have taken our rocking and hobby horses along with our swords and shields into the garden to be knights for the day (Elodie included on her own rocking horse). Another day we dressed up as pirates and went fishing for the day in the water tray.

We’ve truly enjoyed immersing ourselves in the surroundings of our garden.  We’ve made artwork using the stones we’ve found to make the picture and created new and exciting games to play using what ever we have to hand. 

You may recall from an earlier blog (‘Digging for Victory’) I mentioned how we boldly dug up parts of our patio to create vegetable beds. Well I am very happy to report that we now have rocket growing and the potatoes are starting to surface. Freddie has taken on the roll of checking on the progress of the runner beans at the start of each day. So far he has counted twenty three shoots in total and there are signs of more to come.

So whilst there are many aspects of the outside world we are missing, we are taking more notice of our garden and the life (be it plant or wildlife) that lives within it. In fact I would say we are developing a new appreciation for our own back garden.

Here’s to Looking Ahead

25.04.20 – Darrell Priestley

You may be wondering how in the present circumstances my blog posts always manage to be so relentlessly upbeat. Good point. Truth is, you don’t know the half of it. If I get fired up about things, I start to write, to work it out of my system, as it were. But as long as Eileen is my editor, you just get the upbeat stuff, and the rest goes in the bin. Which is as it should be.

Continuing the upbeat theme, then, and contrary to some news items you may see, and more than a little online chatter, there have been some brilliant examples of social distancing, but with a friendly flavour. My son, an NHS manager, had a day off from work today, and spent part of it on a countryside walk. While out and about in the Spring sunshine, he observed several instances of groups of friends enjoying their daily exercise together while observing social distancing rules. It is so encouraging to see how people are making the effort to contain the virus and stop transmission, while maintaing the warmth and friendship that they are accustomed to.

To close, a few of the things we are looking forward to when allowed out. In no particular order, they include:

i) Going to a garden centre – I am getting withdrawal symptoms, and chomping at the bit.

ii) Enjoying lunch at King’s Croft with our friends Brenda and Bill.

iii) Calling in at our local, friendly coffee shop, Jolly’s, to catch up with Darren and Alison. I would like to say that everyone is invited, in fact we should probably have a party to celebrate a) their reopening, and b) being allowed to have a party.

iv) Seeing everyone at the Northern Music Academy and teaching in person for the first time in ages.

v) A big, big bike ride. Note: When you go on a big, big bike ride, you need to plan for two key things – a) coffee stops, and b) toilets. Fortunately, you can generally combine the two, but for either one you need cafe’s to be open of course.

vi) Going on a picnic. Quite frankly, I’m not too fussed where, but in the meantime it’s picnics in the back garden or, on rainy days, picnics in the living room.

vii) Going to the museums in York.

These next three are big ones:

viii) Hugs with the family.

ix) Grandchildren coming to sleep.

x) Getting the whole family round our table for dinner

Why not let everyone know what you are most looking forward to? Send your thoughts to us at the usual email address.

Surrounded by Angels

24.04.20 – Darrell Priestley

I’ve been very lucky in my working life, for several reasons. My partner, Eileen, on whom I totally rely, is a rock solid ace; she is also the love of my life. I am further fortunate in that I love what I do, always have. And the cherry on the top is that this work has endlessly enriched my life by bringing me into the orbit of so many wonderful people, people like you. Now, amid the biggest change to our working and social lives that any of us have known, I find myself humbled, because here you still are. Almost to a man, the many students who were studying music with me in early March do so still, getting their music lessons online and continuing to light my day.

I have a lot of students, and it’s amazing really, but when teaching music it feels like every time I learn something new. Working together and thinking up new solutions to help students overcome their latest challenges, of course, as they learn to leap the weekly hurdles that have stood in their way, but learning also about people. People can be wonderful, and not even know it. Just yesterday one of my students, an NHS gem, was telling me how she is also helping out three of her self isolating neighbours. From what she tells me, she doesn’t enjoy going shopping for food right now any more than I do, but nevertheless she is doing this for others, as well as her own household. Plus of course her day job, working full time in healthcare. We are surrounded by angels.

In late 1987, shortly after the advent in our lives of our beautiful daughter, Jessica, my wife Eileen and I took the decision to expand my music teaching business, which frankly had outgrown our home. But the scale was something altogether different, with a lot of investment and associated risk, and it seemed like a gamble. We were safe, secure and happy. But we imagined more; a musical community, and yes, ultimately a legacy, something we could achieve in our lives of which we could feel justly proud.

It took a lot of planning, and not a little faith, but in January 1989 we opened our Yamaha Music School, as it then was. We had calculated and we had planned, running the numbers over and over. To succeed we would need a huge recruitment drive, as having taken on substantial overhead anything less would have left us in a slightly precarious financial position.

Finally, came the arrival of our big launch weekend, and we were nervous and excited. Would it work? In truth, we could not afford for it to fail, because by now I had burned my bridges, selling all of the cool instruments and equipment I had built up in ten years of working as a professional musician to raise the money to buy all the Yamaha pianos, organs and keyboards that now filled the studios.

Happily, our efforts were not in vain, and the hunch that we could make this grand idea work was rewarded as hundreds of people descended on us, deciding that yes, they did want music lessons. At the end of a mammoth three day weekend, tired but content, we had experienced the biggest recruitment event that Yamaha Music Schools UK had ever recorded.

So much has changed since then. We have considerably widened the range of instruments taught, becoming the Northern Music Academy in 1998 as the business expanded and developed beyond the original core instruments. By now, thousands of musicians can say they trained with us. Quite a number of them have gone on to success in the music industry, while many others have pursued quite different dreams, but together, all of our lives have been enriched not only by music, but also by each other. We are proud of all that has been achieved, happy to have had the opportunity to contribute to so many lives, and grateful for the quite wonderful friendships it has brought us. Thanks to the Northern Music Academy, we have the richest social life. To find that that richness continues now, as most of us hunker down in our homes, is amazing beyond measure. We are most humbled.

It’s good to see you all each week. I still look forward to giving music lessons. As I said before, and will say again, I have been lucky in my working life. Very, very lucky indeed. So much so, sometimes I wonder, did I choose it or did it choose me?