abroblog

I just realised today that when you practice music you’ve got all the time in the world, haven’t you?

You must have.  Because you can’t hurry it.

It must be practiced at the right speed.  So you can’t be in a hurry.  You have to calm down to that speed.  You have to be ‘in’ or ‘at’ that speed.

That’s how you’ve got to be going.  That’s how you’ve got to be thinking about things, about your current state, about the time available….

Sort of a first step into escaping into your world of music is simply that:  escaping into the time of your music.

So there’s no such thing as a ‘quick practice’.  I’ve only got a few minutes, I’ll just have a quick practice, race through a couple of numbers…

I mean, even if you did ‘race through’ a couple of numbers that’s simply setting the time faster and you still have to adhere to it.

You wouldn’t think of yourself as short of time when playing a number that required great speed, would you?

Similarly you’re not short of time when playing a number at a speed greater than its normal speed.

Or to put it the other way round:  hurried practice is not practice.  It is some kind of an abortion, an aborted,  crippled practice.

 

They’re hysterical about Putin again.

Some people were murdered in England with a nerve agent and it is all supposed to be Putin’s doing.

The same as the Syrian stuff:  no proof and an absence of apparent benefit of any kind to Putin – together with demonstrable harm to him.

Why this hysterical hatred of Russia and Putin?  Why?  I just don’t understand it.

He has 150 million people.  And he’s stuck up there at the top of the globe, effectively an island and surrounded, isolated, alone.

In fact he is militarily surrounded by NATO apparently.  Contrary to promises and agreements I think.

What does anyone think he is going to do?  Invade the world?  Take over the world?

China is going to take over the world.  And/or India. They are doing it now.

And the ‘barbarians’, i.e. the untutored, poor – the Africans, they’ve invaded Europe.

What is the point of demonising and hating Russia?

It couldn’t be that International Affairs and Politics are so fundamentally rubbish that it is all in the interests of distracting the public, giving them something to worry about and by inference needing politicians?

Not something as poor, limited, senseless, base as that, surely?

 

 

 

One year since my last post.

That’s how fast time flies by, how much I keep myself busy doing – what?  Damned if I know.

None of the  things I’m always swearing I want to do, must do, will do, etc…

Just had a fine time getting in here. It wouldn’t accept my log in.

Then I wanted to go to WordPress and ask them why and I couldn’t get in there, either….

Then I wanted to go to my host and look at the files and I couldn’t get  in there, either….

You get days like that.

I do.

I’ve been thinking about children’s education again.  I mean young children – primary school.

I discovered this week that some children just walk out of the class whenever they feel  like it.

That some children never do any work in the class at all.

There seems to be a lot of freedom given children these days.  I don’t remember things being like that.

My memory is that we worked all the time and would never have dreamt of walking out of a class.

But maybe my memory is at fault.

The spell checker didn’t like ‘dreamt’.  I think I’m right and it’s wrong.

I talk to the teachers and I notice that I usually can’t get a word in edgeways.

I have to really try.  There’s no way they’re clever psychologists drawing you out and discovering your deepest thoughts.

No.  They are just delivering themselves of theirs.

This may be all to the good.

Perhaps we have – I have – nothing to contribute of any value.

Could well be.

But that’s not quite the whole point, is it?

 

 

I’ve been thinking tradition maths questions are not couched the right way.

What is the volume of a stack of bricks 3m x 2m x 1m  might be a sample question.

I’m thinking the question would be better if it were:  What is the volume of a stack of bricks?

And the child then has to elicit the information they need in order to answer it.  Which is important. Very important.  To be able to identify what you need to know to answer a question.

So the child will ask how long?  how wide? how deep?

Why not have the child ask these questions rather than give the answers?

Or even have the child permitted to put up his own sample question/answer, make his own assumption?

How about if we asked how heavy?  Volume and weight?

Then the child has to inquire about S.G.

and so on.

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