School Spirit

I was working this afternoon with the kid I wrote a reference for earlier in the week. This afternoon was the first band rehearsal we had for the term and we were belting out a new little blues number I taught the kids this afternoon. It was just a 12 bar blues progression and I told the two brothers on drums to just belt out something that fit, and taught the two flute and trumpet kids their little riff. It was all of two notes arranged over four bars each time, so it’s not too tricky, but with the bass guitar holding it together from below it all fits together nice and easy and the kids were ready to take on the world. They actually asked if, when we all go to music camp later in the year, we could just make our own band and ignore the rest and play this at the concert.

Just quietly I reckon that’d be pretty sweet once they get a few more weeks to work out how to improvise solos themselves and put it all together into a three minute or so jam session. It should sound fantastic after a few more weeks.

Anyway, he mentioned the reference during the rehearsal (’that thing you wrote for me, you know, for that school?’) and then claimed that I should therefore be an author because it was written so well. So much for the comic strip I publish three times a week on the internet, or the two school musicals I’ve written for the school, one of which is based on said webcomic, and the other of which this kid actually played lead guitar for. No… he’s basing his decision of my authoring skills on a three paragraph reference!

Either way, I was a little chuffed all the same!

So I just casually said, ‘okay, you can start by paying me for the reference. Author’s get paid, eh?’

‘Yeah, but I’m not publishing it, eh?’

Little sneak had an answer ready for me!

Related posts: The kid needs a reference…

Technorati Tags: teaching, references, kids, music