Our incredibly talented music students are working hard in their bubbles to keep up with their studies. Here’s what some of them have been up to. Make sure you check out their videos – they are well worth it!
Year 9
I am Tara Yoo. As a Westlake musician, it is essential that we continue to make progress by practising even during the lockdown, so that we are well prepared and improved for when we get back to school to make music with other students. The lockdown has been a relaxing time for me, but also quite tedious as I miss playing as a group and look forward to going back to school again, hopefully soon. The video below shows a week’s progression in the piece Jangan Lupa composed by a New Zealand composer, Gareth Farr, which I played for a performance challenge task set by our teacher in the Year 9 music extension class. I am currently part of an orchestra and a choir at our school, and we meet up once a week to have online lessons but other times, just music to learn until we can gather all together again. We are already through the third week of Term 2, and I hope we can spend the rest back at school.
Year 10
My name is Bella Allan-Moetaua and I am a student in the Music Extension class for 2020. Being in lockdown has been a challenge when it comes to music. I sing, play guitar and piano, it can be very hard for my family to sit around all day and hear me sing at the top of my lungs. Lucky during quarantine, I have a space in the garage where I can do all my music practice in there.
Zoom lessons can be hard, due to the lag in technology but I get along. I have had a couple of singing lessons on zoom and so far it’s been really good, because the timing of things are flexible. I also have had a couple of piano lessons and I really have enjoyed it. I have found a lot more time to go over pieces of music and get in some more practice. This means every two weeks I get given a new piece to print and look over.
When it comes to big group rehearsals, for example choir. It can be very difficult. Having 60 people on a zoom call at once can cause a big glitch in the system and we can’t sing. We do manage though. Sometimes we are asked to all go on mute so that we can hear someone talking without any lag. I miss choir so much because I have made so many good friends and it was always the best part of my week.
Overall what I’m looking forward to the most when going back to school is seeing my friends, but also getting back into normality and continuing to do choir and piano.
Hear Bella’s amazing voice here