Ninja Moves

This morning, the junior quartet performed for the first time in junior schooling assembly.  We had a rehearsal beforehand.  Originally, I was told we could practice in the assembly hall, but yesterday one of the girls saw me and ran up, very serious and wide-eyed: dance club would be in the hall - and they have loud music.  I thought I might be able to use the music room by the hall, but this morning there was another group was rehearsing in there.  So, having found the cellist, I went to the music room by the front driveway and next to the music office.  Thankfully, the other girls saw us as they arrived.  Before I saw the viola arrive, I walked out to the drive to check something with the first violinist's mum.  Turning back, I saw a flash of white-socked leg run into the classroom.  I walked in...

Viola [jumping up from just under a desk]: AGH!!!!! [best approximation of a yell]
Me: Yep.  Hi.  I saw you run in here.
Viola: I'm practising ninja moves.
Cello: ... why...?
Viola: This morning, my mum, at breakfast, she was just standing there, and then [does a fast squat with arms crossed out the front] hai-YA!  I got, like, such a shock.  I was, like, mum?  What are you doing?  And she said, I'm practising my stealth ninja moves.  So then I did it, like this [pauses, looks focused, then just the arm movement] hai-YA!  But then, mum said she was about to have a shower, so I got to the bathroom before her, and I put on a shower cap, like this [mimes] and made it really tight around my head, and then I hid in the shower, so when she came in - [squat, arms,] hai-YA! and- OH!  OH!  I just had the best idea!  We could be, like, the ninja moves quartet!

As it turned out, there were far more ninja stealth moves in rehearsal than anybody wanted, as there were several flies just flying around and landing on their bows and fingers and music.  How to keep the adrenaline pumping.  And I am pleased to report they spoke their parts and played their music beautifully.  One very proud teacher here.

It's Really Famous

Continuing Quartet.  First, we played Funiculi Funicula.  Quite slowly, but the whole piece, with only one stop near the beginning.

Cello: Man, we are going to have to get so much faster.
Viola: I swear, I have never heard this piece before.
Cello [dramatically]: Are you kidding me?  It is so famous!  Like, really famous!  [then, more subdued] Well... In Italy, anyway.
Viola: Oh great, in Italy.
Cello: Totally!  If we played this in Italy, they'd all be, like, we totally know this piece.  Everyone in Italy knows this piece, they're, like [sings a bit of the opening melody]... Yeah...  Famous.

Appropriate Chapel Attire

Continuing Quartet this morning. 

Cello: Okay, so, this is so annoying.  I've got PE, like, first.  As in, right now.  So I have to change into my PE uniform.  And then I have [inter-school] cross country afterwards.  So I have to... yeah...  But! Later, we've got chapel.  And I can't go into the chapel... [withering tone of voice] un... [rolled eyes and a sigh for extra emphasis] ... formal... 

Violins in Cellos

9-yr-old boy, uses a school violin.  The string department at school (including the instrument storage space) is housed in an area called the chalet (I'm not quite sure why).  This was while he was packing up.

Boy: I'm going to Sydney for the whole holidays.
Me: And are you taking your whole violin?
Boy: Nnnnoooo... Unless I have a smaller case.  Can I get a smaller case?
Me: You'd only be able to get a smaller case if you detached bits of your violin.  [Unfortunately, he looked enthusiastic with this prospect].  Which is the same as breaking your violin.  So, don't...
Boy [all packed up]: Oh... I'm going to put my violin in the cello now.
Me: In the ... chalet?
Boy: Yep. 
Me: Yeah, don't try to put it in the cello.  They... wouldn't like that.

[Cue giggles as he leaves the room, encountering a mate who had just finished his cello lesson].

Random Comment #2 - The Nutcracker

Later in rehearsal for the Continuing Quartet, we were working on Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker.  I was sorting out a passage in the violins for a bit, and could hear the cello and viola talking quietly about something.  As soon as I had finished with the violins, I heard this:

Cello [quite loudly and dramatically]: Well, I crack nuts!
Me [turning back to her, raised eyebrow]: Um...?
Cello [floundering]: Oh - well, I - um - oh, you know, I -
Viola [imitating me from earlier]: Random comment number two for today.
Cello: I don't mean I crack nuts... You know... Like... not like ... Oh.  I meant the - yeah, the nuts you can eat.  As in, the nutcracker - like where this music is from.  You know.  The ballet, and the nutcracker, and the little soldier thing.
Me: Yeah, that's what I thought you meant...

All this was accompanied by giggles from at least one of the other girls.  I feel I should point out here that they all get on as friends, and they do work really hard when not coming out with random comments and misunderstandings.

YouTube

Continuing Quartet.  We're working on a couple of pieces, one of which is Carnival of Venice. 

Cello: Oh, my goodness!  I was listening to this on YouTube, because my mum was, like [in a very serious 'tell it like it is' voice] Um, you suck... [back to normal] and -
Me [a bit indignant]: Oh!
Cello [dejected]: Well, yeah.  She's kinda right.  [perkier] So, I was listening to it, and it sounds awesome!!  All [she sings in a carnival-like manner] doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo [etc]

I wonder how this generation would go without YouTube...

Not A Doctor

Junior Quartet this morning.  Visited by one of the cellists who is also in grade 5 this year (and was in my ensemble last year - the chatterbox).  This happened as we were heading down the stairs at the end of rehearsal.

Cello: No way!  Miss M, C just moved up to a three-quarter size cello!
C [obviously very pleased with this]: Yep!  It's cos my hands are bigger.
Me: Let's see.  [She holds up her hands].  Wow, your fingers are really long.  My hands are really small...
C:  How big are yours, let me see! [She tries to match up her right hand with my right, then I convince her to hold up her left].  No way!  Yours are tiny!
Me: Ah... yes. [Viola tries out as well, same result]
Cello: Well, Ms T said, my arm has grown... but...well... she's not a doctor...  So she wants to wait until my hand has grown as well, otherwise I might go flop [with accompanying arm-falling-down-the-cello action] and end up at the wrong end.

Hypothetical Odd Couples

Continuing Quartet (10-yr-old girls) this morning. 

Cello [in the middle of working out a fingering pattern]: Oh!  Hey.  Wouldn't it be, like, so weird, if there was, like, a couple, and he played violin and she played cello?
Viola: Oh, yeah...
Me: Er - why is that?
Cello: Because, well, a violin is, like, a small instrument... and a cello is so much bigger... and so it would be, just, so weird for the guy to be playing the small one like [high pitched imitation of violin playing, similar to Psycho] and she's all [deep gruff cello imitation].
Violin 1: Even weirder - if the girl plays double bass!
Girls: Whoa!!  That would be ridiculous!!

Chatterbox

At the start of ensemble rehearsal, one of the cellists (who sits inside 2nd desk) came up to me.

Girl [smiling nervously]: Um... Can I ask you a question? 
Me: Sure, what is it?
Girl: Well... and I'm pretty sure you're going to say no...
Me [suspicious]: Uh huh...
Girl: But I want to ask you anyway.
Me: Okay. [wait]
Girl: Is there any chance I can sit next to G today?
Me: Umm...
Girl: It's just that, um, you might have noticed, I sit next to... um [tries to find a polite way to say this] well, um, she's a bit of a chatterbox. [No kidding.  Chattiest child in the room, ever].
Me [trying not to smile too much]: Ah, yes... I had noticed that.  G would have to sit in the back row with you though - have you asked her if it's okay?
G [jumping into view at hearing her name]: What do I have to do?
Girl: Sit next to me, so... the chatterbox... can be not next to me.
Me: So we'd have S and C [the chatterbox] in the front, and the 2 of you at the back.

G was fine with it, and it turned out to be really good for C to sit right under my nose.  Of course, it meant I had one very energetic (and thankfully, very capable) cellist sitting next to a very energetic and chatty cellist...  But the chatterbox didn't move her chair around or move over to talk to the double bass or run outside randomly or any of the other things she does that are not sitting quietly.

Mistake Face

In quartet this morning, we were having some timing issues.  We'd almost got it sorted out, but Violin 1 kept coming in too soon.  We played it again, and she still came in early.  I shook my head, and she did that wide smile with eyebrows raised in the 'I made a mistake but please forgive me' face.

Cello: She always does that face when she makes a mistake.  But when we make a mistake, she does that face.

This was accompanied by imitations of facial expressions - priceless.  Icing on the cake: at the end of the piece (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies), cellist sneezed in time with the music. 

One Shoe On...

Packing up after this morning's quartet rehearsal, I was discussing tuning with the cellist.  And then I realised she was wearing only one shoe.

Me: Ah... Do you realise you've lost a shoe?
Cello: Oh, I haven't lost it, it just hurts my foot to have it on.  So I took it off.  [sigh] I guess I better put it back on so I don't look like a crazy person for the rest of the day...

Killer Cellist

I take a quartet of 10-yr-old girls.  The cellist got a larger cello over the holidays, one which is her own (not a school instrument), and when in its case on her back, it protrudes just above her head.  We were dealing in stickers after the rehearsal this morning.

Cello takes the sheet of stickers but drops it.  Her cello is on her back - as she bends down to pick up the stickers, she takes out Violin 1 and Viola.  I look up to see Violin 1 rubbing her forehead, Viola reeling and holding her head.  Cello is horrified by what she's done, apologises, and we all check that everyone is okay. 

Cello hadn't actually picked up the stickers, so she warns everyone: Okay everyone, watch out - I'm going down again.

Incident-free this time, barring all the giggles.

Later, I saw Cello just after her lesson. 

Me: How's the new cello going?
Cello: Good... Except the tuning. 
Me: Your hands will get used to it.
Cello: Well, it's more that the case is a soft case, so if I knock it at all...
Me: Like when taking out the rest of your quartet...?
Cello: Um, yeah.... It just goes out of tune so quickly!

Casket Case

The quartet girls all unpack their instruments on the desks.  Packing away her cello, the 9-yr-old said:  It's like a casket.  So, it's like I'm having a funeral.  For my cello.  Awww, so sad.

And all 4 of them start singing the Imperial March from Star Wars.