Montagues and Capulets

16-yr-old boy, and we're working on - yep, you guessed it - Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets.  It had been a little while since I'd heard it.  The first part was okay (needed more attack, and he needs to practice his octave scales).  Then we got to the middle section, which is major, sweet, and triple time (as opposed to minor, violent, and duple).  Instead of a lovely sweet tone, he did a fabulous attack on the first note, which was really what I needed for the first part, but not here.

Me: Whoa!  What is happening in the music here?
Boy: Um... It's... [hand gestures - I wish I could have taped this and uploaded the video]
Me: Well, what's the piece about?
Boy: The... er.. Montagues and Capulets...?
Me: And... who are they?
Boy: Well, it's from Romeo and Juliet.
Me: ...And...?  Tell me about Romeo and Juliet. [this is sometimes a very disturbing eye-opener, when I discover my students know very little of Shakespeare].
Boy: Okay, so there are these two families, the Montagues and the Capulets.  And... the daughter and son... of the families... they fall in love with each other.  While the families are still, you know, feuding.  [With a 'weird' tone of voice] And the families continue to hate each other even while the kids are, you know, in love. [Hands rolling, yadda yadda yadda]  Oh, then it looks like Juliet has died, so Romeo ... umm... kills himself... And then Juliet finds out Romeo is actually dead, so she... ... dies.
Me: Good synopsis.  Back to the Montagues and Capulets.  What are they doing when they're feuding?
Boy [like, duh]: They're... fighting...
Me: Put yourself in 15th century Verona [not sure if that's the right century - sorry].  How are you going to fight?  Are you going to confront the other lot and go, hey, um, we're fighting?  [boy shakes head] Are you going to use a cannonball?  A shotgun?  A hand grenade?
Boy: No, you'd do some sword fighting.
Me [breathing sigh of relief]: Great. 

There was more - like what Juliet is actually doing in the slow part...  But I'll leave it there for now.

Music Critic

16-yr-old girl, who has season tickets to QSO, and takes scores along with her of the relevant works.

Girl: Oh, the QSO concert was terrible!  The conductor didn't have a clear beat at all, he was just [waves arms in a circular, egg-beater pattern]...
Me: Like a choral conductor?
Girl: There was just... no beat!  And he didn't bring in the strings, and because he had no beat they had no idea, only the cellos managed to come in in time.  [pause - then, a little apologetically]  I feel like such a hypocrite sometimes, being so critical of others when I can't play that well.
Me: But they're professionals, they're meant to get it right.
Girl [brightening]: Well, yeah.
Me: Have you thought about being a music critic?
Girl [gasping, wide-eyed with delight]: That's an actual job?!?!  That would be awesome!!! And perfect for me!

Why Because

16-yr-old girl, who last week dealt with C# major and its key signature of all sharps. 

Me: Why does C# major have all sharps?
Girl: Because it's C# major.
Me: But why?
Girl: Because it has all sharps.
Me: You've just told me that C# major has all sharps because it's C# major. 
Girl [slightly apologetically]: I know...  That's what I usually do in exams if I don't know the answer, I just rewrite the question in a slightly different way so it sounds like I know what I'm talking about.

Honest.  She then tried to tell me this is the scale you learn first on violin, even though last week she was scared just looking at the key signature.

Maths Brain

Doing theory with a 16-yr-old girl (the same one mentioned here).  She hasn't done much for a while, so we backed up a bit to grade 5.  We got to a question which asked for the C# major scale, with the key signature.  Then things got interesting.

Me: Read the question.  We need the key signature of C# major. 
Girl: So, C sharp, right?
Me: Yep.  [pause] What sharps are you going to need?
Girl: ... C... sharp...
Me [thinking this could take a while]: Okay, think back years and years, to when you did grade 1 theory...
Girl: I'll try...
Me: ...and you did C major scale first. 
Girl: Uh huh.
Me: Why did they make you do C major first?
Girl: Um... because it's only one octave? [nope] because it's only got one sharp?
Me: Does is really?
Girl: Oh - does it have 2 sharps?
Me: Ah, no.  [skip a few similar, incorrect, statements] C major has no sharps or flats.  It's all natural.
Girl [light bulb, I thought]: Ohhh...
Me: So, switch on your maths brain -
Girl [eyebrow raised]: But I don't have a maths brain, haven't you realised that yet?
Me: Oh yeah... If C major was all natural, you have to make every note sharper.  C sharp, and D sharp, and E sharp [etc]
Girl: No wonder they didn't make us do that in grade 1 - that's scary even now!