Announcements

Reasons to be cheerful

This is Ewan McCauley from Aldrington School. Aldrington was the first school Harp Academy ever worked with and Ewan was one of our first students. Here he is to tell you about his journey.

It doesn’t matter whether you are in KS1, KS2 or KS3, if you would like to try the harmonica for yourself we can help. Just click the Gold Harmonica at the side of the screen and let us know. Alternatively, send us a message through the Contact page in our main menu and we’ll be more than happy to lend hand.

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For all paid-up Harp Academy harmonauts and parents, we provide a subscriber log-in for access to our protected pages. These support our classroom learning and provide an effective resource for home study and practise. The log-in code is provided in our Music Packs and white Music Diaries.

If you lose the code, or have only just joined Harp Academy, send us an email with your child’s name and school, and we will forward it to you. To access our protected pages, just click Subscriber Log In in the corner of the screen, enter the code words in the pop-up, and enjoy your VIP backstage pass!

SPECIAL NOTE: NO NEED TO USE OUR SUBSCRIBER LOG IN FOR ON LINE LESSON PAYMENTS OR SHOPPING

Harmonica Lesson Outtakes
Today in class we were working on Tingalayo, an infectious calypso song from Trinidad. You can check out our First Steps in Calypso page here.  Anyone who knows the song Under The Sea from Disney’s Little Mermaid animation, will know how much fun a calypso can be. ‘So what do we call this kind of music form the Caribbean?’ asked the teacher. No reply. ‘We learnt the name last week, it starts with C and ends with O and it’s sunshine music‘ the teacher prompted. ‘I know, I know‘, said Chester, ‘it’s a Calippo‘.

Harmonica Lesson Outtakes
We were learning our first study piece with a new group at school today. Hugh asked if he could play it through by himself. Our teacher asked him to stand in front of the group and show everyone what he’d been practising. Hugh not only played the piece faultlessly, but he even ended with a flourish of ascending blow notes. The teacher asked what we call a flourish like this. The question was met by blank faces. ‘OK’, said the teacher, ‘I’ll give you a clue. It begins with G.’ More blank faces. ‘Gliss..?’ he prompted. Still blank faces. ‘Glissand..?’ he prompted again. ‘Ooh I know’, said Theo, ‘Glissandals’. Trust Theo to put his foot in it. ‘That’s very close Theo, but there’s no holiday footwear involved here. It’s called Glissando!’

You can find out more about playing glissandos here. If you don’t have our subscriber log in, check inside the front cover of your Music Diary, or your Music Pack, or email us a request with your harmonaut’s name.