As promised June 13th saw Longford’s first Pitch & Pulse Pop-up Choir meet up – to Just Sing! St John’s Hall, at the town end of the Battery Road, rang with the sounds of “I can see clearly now” as all sorts of people came together to just sing. We had vocal warm-ups and simple […]
18 July – 22 July 10:00-3:00pm Age 7 upwards Full week €85 or €20 daily rate. Siblings rates available Drama Campers will explore improvisation games, techniques, and concepts in a fun, supportive environment. The focus being on spontaneity, creativity, playfulness, and imagination, whilst developing valuable confidence and interpersonal skills. Throughout the week we will develop […]
11 July – 15 July 10:00 – 2:30pm Age 7 -13 years Full week €80 or €20 daily rate Siblings rates available Spend the week joining in fun musical activities: Ukulele – have a go at playing the ukulele and learn a tune or two! Boomwhackers – collaborate with the rest of the campers to play well known […]
A short course completed on making a Music & Drama school more accessible to Neurodivergent pupils. The focus was on support any school to be a more inclusive place, that this school is a safe haven, a place where they can be themselves and meet similar peers as we know that ND people are drawn […]
Supervised Practice is a free service provided to Pitch & Pulse Piano Students. Head Piano Tutor, Joanna, is online in a Zoom meeting and students can join the meeting to practice. Currently running from Monday to Friday, 8:30-9:00, Supervised Practice was a service that started in March 2020 – the very beginning of the Covid lockdown. […]
Again, despite Covid, omicron, chicken pox, winter vomiting Ardagh Music Room students managed to work through Christmas carols and songs, own choice pieces, exam pieces and plenty of surprises in between and put together a Christmas Concert for 2021 – link to the concert HERE We had a mixture of online and live performances and […]
In April 2022 I completed an online Diploma in Teaching Speech and Drama with the Irish Music & Drama College accredited through the Victoria College of Music & Drama, London. This is a new course for the IMDC and a new area of learning for me. Over the past few years Pitch & Pulse has […]
As the RIAM Winter Exam sitting comes to a close Ardagh Music Room has not only finished uploading exam recordings but, for the first time since Winter 2019 we had in person exam entrants! We had a small number of students opt to remain submitting online entries but the majority chose to sit the in […]
February through to May 2021 and a lockdown which saw 6 dedicated students come together for an hour twice a week with the goal of achieving their Grade I piano. Music Network invited the Nation to take up the Grade-1-a-thon Challenge, in aid of the Music Network Instruments for Older People project. Starting in January […]
During the glorious sunshine of July a group of budding musician came together for a week of fun and music-making. The weather made for a perfect outdoor week of ukulele, guitar, keyboard, boomwhackers, percussion and plenty of singing… Working through the week the ensemble chose instruments and prepared songs for an end of camp mini-festival. […]
KCCreations Today I called into Barry Stores to visit Kelly, ask her to sew a seam up for me and to collect a lovely Summery mask for a garden event I’m heading to celebrating the completion of the Grade-1-a-thon. Kelly is busy making memory quilts, bunting & bears, and the must-have facemask with a clothes […]
Here we are, another St Patrick’s Day in lockdown… Will it be a 3-day celebration next year to make up for the two we’ve missed? Meanwhile, Ardagh Music Room students have been working away over the year, taking exams, learning new pieces and progressing hugely. We’ve tried to make the most of the time, working […]
Three Adult experiences with Ardagh Music Room – Returning to Learning Mary Fallon Mary started with me in September 2015, a retired National School teacher she had lots of creative plans to keep her days full. Although Mary had done music as a subject in her own schooling and taught Primary school music, in her […]
That concludes week 1 of our Grade-1-a-thon Piano Challenge! Six students completed two x 1-hour Zoom session during which time they were ambushed with information, theory, scales and pieces! Next week we’ll continue our musical journey with more scales, more pieces and hopefully develop a gradual understanding of all the information received this week. Our […]
Since starting online lessons one of the recurring issues is holding the phone/camera at the correct angle so I can see fingers on the piano keyboard. Over time people have resolved this situation with laptops and stands, however there are one or two using phones and finding them top heavy when trying to stand them […]
The end of the Winter term would normally see Ardagh Music Room Christmas Concert, and students performing a selection of Christmas tunes and pieces they’ve been working on throughout the year. The events of 2020 were not going to stop this annual occasion taking place in some format and so on the evening of 20th […]
I would just like to give huge musical CONGRATULATIONS to Ardagh Music Room piano student Anna who was successful in her audition for a place in RTÉ Cór na nÓg!Anna started learning the piano with me 5 years ago, aged 7 using the Dogs and Birds method which focusses on singing as an integral part of learning. She gave […]
As online lessons become the norm, I commandered tripods and tablets to ensure my students had an all round experience of the piano lesson. Initially I had no web-cam as every person in the world had ordered one on the same day, luckily we had the technology and Ardagh Music Room has welcomed the transition. […]
As the country and the world settled for an unknown period of time many of us entered into the unchartered territory of online teaching. An internet service that has been available for many years but by most deemed unnecessary. Luckily I had two very computer literate students, CoderDojo Longford Ninjas no less, who were ready […]
With the support of Creative Longford and St Patrick’s Church, Ardagh, we had our Christmas Piano Concert on 23rd December. A lovely evening where everyone got to perform their own choice of pieces with a good selection of Christmas songs and carols thrown in for good measure! We heard exam pieces including Holiday Ragtime and […]