Diary HS05

Hastings Diary Day 12 May 2016 TEMPLATE

Sharing our stories and making connections…

Write whatever comes to mind, hour by hour, a reflection or something that stands out. It’s up to you. Photos and drawings welcome.

Worked in Eastbourne yesterday, Thursday 12 the May, doing drop in creative stuff.

Worked mostly on music.

In the morning 2 year 4 girls worked on a song. They had both hurt their feet. One of them talked about how she liked making up songs all the time. She said some things about life at home not being much fun at all the moment. She made up a little song with me called 'Alone in Space'. I liked a line she made up about how she was boss when she's alone in space. I guess she meant when she's alone and away from everyone else she's the boss of herself...perhaps. She came up with some lovely images of looking down at the world in the distance below her feet.

We tried to sing it but she couldn't get through the first line without giggling nervously. Her friend worked on a picture about the song...she drew all the planets in the solar system in tidy rows around the edge of the picture with a space in the middle for the words to the song to go.

Eventually got them singing very delicately. It's a really gentle and subtle song. I played guitar...some very dreamy chords I found in G tuning.

We recorded it on my ipad. Recording them focussed them on singing and they stopped giggling and sang beautifully. We performed it to their class at the end of the day. I think they really enjoyed it and sang out proudly!

Before that, at lunch, we did Room 13 'choir'. Choir is no longer really choir. No one sings anymore- it's basically morphed into a freestyle improvisation group of the core kids who are really interested. There's about 10 kids now. They have progressed so much with their musical sensitivity... from doing just half an hour each week for about a year. We made a democratic choice to stop learning songs but to go improvisational pieces each time. At the moment we follow a pattern where one child starts a simple repeated phrase on glockenspiel of four notes maximum. Everyone listens really carefully and comes in one by one on different instruments. It worked beautifully today. The bit I loved most was Madison answering Heather's phrase on the big mellow glockenspiel with a tinkly high phrase on the high cheapo glockenspiel. We made this really mellow, gentle piece of music...I think we all went into a bit of a dream. I did some noodly solo stuff in G tuning over the top.

After lunch I was so tired I could barely do it. I sat in one place all afternoon while the children created their things...there were 8 kids in the afternoon. I felt like if I closed my eyes for 5 seconds I'd fall asleep. Luckily they all got on really well. They did lots of making with collage and drawing until we drifted into doing some music. I was so tired I bypassed the felt side of my mind completely, I reckon. Went into this dischordant noise that made perfect sense in my tired state.

 On the way home I stopped for 5 mins to avoid falling asleep at the wheel. Had a prawn sandwich and perked up. Listened to 'See You On The other Side' by Mercury Rev all the way home. This is the best album in the world- an atmosphere of some silvery otherplace with wonky brass all over it and massive waves of inspirational sound I get lost in.

In the back of my mind I had been looking forward to doing some plastering on our house all day long. I loved working out how best to get this messed up bit of wall in our house looking good again. Used that special plasterers tape for the first time and attached one of those metal corner things before plastering until 11:30.

Sadly not much of a family day- saw them briefly before S and R went to the theatre. I guess I didn't say much to F 'cus I was so involved in my lovely plastering. Enjoyed having a 'play' fight with him though. When I say 'play'- he tries really hard to do some damage. Proper hard punching and biting. A violent 9 year old beast of pure aggression and power.

Had an exhausted chat with S at bed time...completely in fantasy world. S's face lit up with laughter about something Bobby and Lola said...I can't think what now. Something about their honeymoon I think.