Gurgaon: the home of call centres and buzzing music schools

Hey fellow WAMers and blog readers!

Routine was beginning to kick in here in Gurgaon until I decided to slip and fall over this morning. After a CT scan and five hours on a drip I am finally home and housebound for two days, and thought "hey the perfect time to kick start my blog entries'. So here goes . . .

My musical experiences here so far are just the tip of the iceberg so before I dive into that I thought I'd mention some of the other experiences I have had.
Firstly - the fantastic group of musicians I have met through WAM - we are a really united bunch, working together, socialising together, teaching each other, and feeding off each other's enthusiasm.
Secondly - the rain (although not that often) is amazing, and quite liberating, as Ed and I discovered whilst deciding to go for a walk in the monsoon (pictures to come). The heat, however, is quite unbearable.
Thirdly - a mix of all the following: stray animals everywhere, crazy road traffic, noisy horns, conning rickshaw drivers, endless bombardment of people wanting to take our photograph, amazing curry, having someone to do everything for you and so on . . . .

So on to the music side of things . . .

I'm working alongside Helen and Ffion at the Music Studio which has two different buildings. the children range from age 4 to approximately 15, grades 0 - 5 although the majority are young and beginners.
The children are great fun and very enthusiastic but suffer from similar problems: bad posture and hand position, lack of phrasing and use of correct articulation and a general lack of understanding about the pieces they are playing. Sight reading is poor; when aural skills are mentioned they look at me like I have three heads, and technique has not been addressed.
I have begun focusing on all of the above, giving each child new and challenging repertoire from the pile of books I brought with me. Ensemble work is yet to be developed as there is so much for each child to focus on individually I think these problems should be addressed before I try to introduce duets.
A concert has been arranged for August 21st and so each child is working towards this, although not everyone will have the opportunity to perform.
I would very much like to work with the teachers, but this has not been a possibility as of yet. This is vital for the continuation of our work so I hope it can be arranged ASAP.

The children spend a lot of time singing and having general musical appreciation classes with Ffion, as I am sure she will mention in her blog.

As for workshops with the British Council, plans are underway. They do not however quite address our aims of working with totally underprivaleged children with no musical background and so we are thinking of other ways to access these children. ..

Timetables and plans are finally falling into place and once everything fully settles I will have more exciting tales to tell.

Right now, even though I am NOT appreciating the slippery ceramic floors I am appreciating this fantastic experience and hope the next 6 weeks are as good as the last 3!

Until the next time!

Lucie