Sistema Scotland

PRACTICAR PRACTICAR PRACTICAR!!!

Guido — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:26:19 +0000

On Saturday 10 March the Practice-a-thon Bus was alive and busy with Big Noise children, mums and musicians. Never was there a moment of no music!

There was some awesome work done by Kara, Lewis, Riordan and Jakub to name but a few – some of our young players were practising over 45 mins at a time which is extremely impressive.

And when there was a moment where no young Big Noisers were on the bus, Musicians took the opportunity to play as much as possible. We played some Bach together, some great Bartok duos, a bit of jazz with Alan Govan jamming the guitar, and some of us even practised scales! Yes – we need to practise too.

It was a great day, very intense, and of course much of the practising involved a few extra lessons too.

But that’s what becoming good at something is all about – working hard and enjoying the results. Like Olympians.

Keep up the good work Big Noisers!!

Red Orchestra Residential!

Verónica Urrego — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:33:09 +0000

The RED Orchestra of Big Noise went on a residential trip to Inversnaid by Loch Lomond. We stayed in a lovely bunkhouse where we played music and had lots of fun.

As well as rehearsing our orchestra we went for a walk to the Loch, played Rounders, did a beetle drive and a quiz.

The food was lovely which is important for everyone at Big Noise!

The RED Orchestra!

The kids really enjoyed the whole experience, click HERE to see some pictures on our Facebook Page!

Music Nation – A Sporting Fanfare.

George — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:29:28 +0000

2012 is the year Big Noise really takes centre stage – with two major concert appearances. The first one is coming up very soon. We are so excited the children will be conducted by Donald Runnicles at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow. The show is called “A Sporting Fanfare” and is a musical celebration of Scotland’s Olympic heroes. The BBC SSO, Nicola Benedetti, NYOS, NYCOS and players from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will perform some rousing crowd-pleasing pieces, with a chance to relive the sporting highlights in the careers of such luminaries as David Wilkie, Allan Wells and Liz McColgan.

Vicky’s Brassy Blog

Vicky — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:18:20 +0000

Well, Christmas has arrived and we are turning up the heat here at Big Noise to make sure the children are playing their best for the festive concerts next week. We have been focussing a lot on practice this term and we hope that you will agree that you can definitely here the difference it makes.

The Noise, our more mature orchestra, have also been working hard every Wednesday evening and have their own Christmas concert next Wednesday. They will be playing some interesting versions of some very well known tunes, come along and see who you can spot in the orchestra, you may even see a famous head teacher!

In other news this month, the Big Noise Brass Band had a very successful first outing when they participated in the Scottish Brass Band Championships held in the amazing Perth Concert Hall. The band played a 10-minute programme consisting of five fun pieces, this took a lot of hard work from each and every member. Their hard work paid off when they achieved a bronze award in the preparatory section. The official photos will follow soon….

For those of you who would like to hear a sample of the Big Noise Brass Band, Wind Band, Symphony Orchestra and all other ensembles, we have an action packed concert series everyday next week, culminating with the Big Noise Symphony Orchestra Concert on Monday the 19^th. Hope to see you all there!

Practice….

Guido — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:05:32 +0000

So, you think it’s all about fun – don’t you…

Having a wee play on your fiddle and that’s all there is to it?

I don’t think so…

It’s all about to change, musicians of Raploch. The transformation has started. A little bird flew by recently, and made the astounding observation that our young musicians are improving faster now than ever before. She asked some of the teachers, “have the children of Raploch started to really practise?”

And so we said, “Of course!”

Practising can sound like a scary word, but really it’s not. Actually, it just means getting better at what you do. Even a little bit a day can make a huge difference, and the better you play, the more FUN it is!

And, with the Big Concert coming next June, we really do want to make the Venezuelans proud. All of us! Now keep up the great work!!

So. If you thought this was all about fun – the real FUN hasn’t even begun…

The Noise Side by Side

Verónica Urrego — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:00:50 +0000

Proudly I present the video of the recent visit of the Stirling Orchestra to the Noise, the adult orchestra at Big Noise Raploch.

My chickens had the opportunity to interact with members of the Stirling Orchestra.

It was very interesting to watch – they were nervous at the beginning of the night but as they played the music they gained more confidence every time.

Music as a universal language once again proved to be a wonderful way of sharing friendship and a tool to express ourselves better and gain confidence in ourselves.

Amanda, Anne and I amazed by the sound!

As the tutor of The Noise I’m very proud of the immense effort everyone made.
I want to thank Stephen Broad, director of the Stirling Orchestra and Joëlle Fenna for making such a memorable night for all at the Noise and thank you to members of the Stirling Orchestra for participating.

Well done everyone and let’s keep making a big noise!

Click on this link to watch the video!

Blog by Aimee

Aimee — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:57:46 +0000

The Big Secret is out!!!!

On Thursday last week we announced our ‘Big Secret’ to the children and families of Big Noise – the news that our Venezuelan friends from the Simon Bolivar Orchestra will visit us in June 2012 to perform alongside some of children in a large scale concert to be held here in Raploch. The event will follow a week long residency here at Big Noise, where the orchestra and their conductor Gustavo Dudamel will work, play and make music with the children and community of Raploch. The final concert at the end of the week will also be the official Olympic launch event for Scotland – so a great reason to do lots of practice and hard work to make sure we are ready to play our best!

Our wonderful Purple Orchestra had their first external concert of the year recently – we were invited to perform at Beech Gardens Care Home where we received a very warm welcome from the staff and residents there. After a short chat and some introductions we got set up in the front room to prepare for our performance, a short and sweet programme featuring ‘Jackeroos’ and ‘Chocolate Treats’ as well as some energetic and fun action songs to get everyone up and moving. The children played really well, and seemed to really enjoy the experience of performing to an audience – we even received an encore for a repeat performance, as well as an invite to come back again next term!

Autumn at Big Noise

Peter — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:53:11 +0000

With Autumn passing swiftly into the colder, hazy shades of winter I thought I’d write about some of the things we’ve been up to since the nights started drawing in and the leaves began to fall.
October School (our amazing week of dedicated music fun and games that takes place every October half-term) was a blazing success. The Symphony Orchestra were presented with the massive challenge of learning a brand new piece (Bavaria, in a superb arrangement by our very own Simon Rennard). Not only did they rise to this challenge, but I think they even managed to exceed the (very high) expectations of all the Big Noise Team: the concert performance of this piece was a real highlight. Also our thriving Chamber Ensembles did some great performances and the Purple and Red orchestras did loads of really good work, some of which even involved using kitchen and loo roll tubes! (ask Guido or Mr Cummings…!).
Since then we’ve begun work on our Christmas music and the Primary 1s have begun to make their very own instruments with the help of many old cardboard boxes and literally miles of masking tape!!
And on Thursday the 3rd we’re going to announce something really exciting, so keep your ears and eyes open to find out what it is…

Jo and Veronica visit Sistema in New Zealand

Joëlle — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:31:53 +0000

This July Veronica and I had the great opportunity to visit New Zealand to help train teachers on the Sistema Aotearoa programme in Auckland. The programme had already started in Otara, South Auckland, where the children had been taking musicianship classes as well as playing on model instruments. They call their model instruments whisper instruments and they have been specially made for the children. When Veronica and I arrived it was the start of their winter holiday programme, in July, which was very confusing for us! However, it was still almost as hot there as it is in our summer. During our visit the children were trying the real instruments for the first time and we were helping the teachers to deliver these exciting introductory classes. As you can imagine the children were learning how to hold the bow, the instrument, the names of the strings and some basic bow strokes. We also taught them our open string song which is based on our sister centre’s song in Venezuela. It was really wonderful to be hearing children on the other side of the world learn the same games and pieces as the Big Noise orchestras. At the end of the week there were concerts for friends and family and the buzz was just the same as the concerts we have here. Maybe one day in the future the children could meet!

Sistema Aoteroa is run as part of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and you can find out more by following this link http://www.apo.co.nz/sistema_aotearoa.aspx

Since we’ve been back we have been busy getting into this year’s programme. I mainly work with the Rinconada Orchestra and our focus this term is really getting through the great new books we have just started, which means PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE!!!! So if you hear even more gorgeous tones coming out of Raploch then we are definitely travelling in the right direction. This year we are going to put on even more concerts with lots of new pieces and we can’t wait.

Summer time and the playing is easy…………

Jen — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:52:09 +0000

We’re in to Summer School. Such a nice time at Big Noise.

There’s time for chamber music and mass singing games in addition to the normal bread and butter of orchestra.

Soon we’re having a bbq for children and families with the musicians………… we’re all so chilled!

(D0 sign up if your children are coming to summer school – Friday 22nd at 12.15 we need to know numbers to order burgers!)

Jen