Abbotsholme - what we did

It is always interesting on a Flutewise course that we attract players from beginners to post Grade 8 standard and I try very, very hard to make sure the work is appropriate for everyone. Each morning we started with a flute warm up, led by David Nicholson in the chapel. David had lots of good, sensible exercises to share to improve our flute playing. after warm ups we went into flute choir. At the end of each course we always play 2 or 3 pieces altogether to let the parents hear how brilliant we all are. This year we worked on: Brahm’s Hungarian Dance No 5 arr by Colin Fleming Big Day by Mike Mower - we didn't play this for the parents, it's extremely good but a bit hard and needed more time Little Red Monkey by Jordan (sadly it had lots of errors in it) and Gareth McLearnon arranged a piece especially for us - Belfast Hornpipe for flute choir and penny whistle After flute choir we always have a break for 30 minutes, until 11.00 am. For the rest of the morning we divided up into small groups: The advanced players had a masterclass with David Nicholson One group did flute testing with Abbie One group did 'funny noises' and other things with Gareth One group played their own pieces with Dave and Sandy or Stephen. The groups rotated - apart from the masterclass. On Thursday everyone experienced what a masterclass was all about - David worked on Mozart's Andante in C with 3 older course members and everyone watched. I gave everyone a copy of our Project Book 2 which has the Mozart in. I was really staggered at how many people didn't keep their copies! Lunch is always 1-2 pm. After lunch we normally have a bit of fresh air and play a game - rounders and 'What's the time, Mr Wolf?' were on the agenda this time. King Stephen is really very good at such games! After a tea break we went into team ensembles. There were 7 ensembles - I'll find the titles of the pieces everyone played soon - this is our 'competitive' bit and on Friday morning we had the play off. Just before dinner everyone was divided into small groups for 'Liz's challenges' - and they kept us entertained on Thursday after we had had a fabulous concert by some of the staff. I think the only things I've missed out are playing Abbie's great new 'scale game' - it's very good but we reckon it would be better played with fewer people and how lovely it was to hear lots of solos from our course members. Let me know if you were there and I missed something!