A super day at East Barnet School north of London, working with staff and pupils from the ICT and English departments on developing visual literacy.

I taught a lesson with some Year 7 students who really rose to the challenges of creativity.

We looked at ways of recording and publishing the results of creativity.

Take a peek at these tutorials, on using Audacity, on the Radio Anywhere site. These are helpful hints to help get closer to a “pro” sound.

Even the pros find some difficulties, as this article from the Guardian shows, though, sometimes a few glitches can add to the charm of a recording.

Or, in the words of Albert (yes, Albert) Hitchcock:

I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the manmade sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.

One of my favourite music quotes, alongside:

There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn’t give a damn what goes on in between.
-Sir Thomas Beecham

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.
-Elvis Presley

I love Beethoven, especially the poems.
-Ringo Starr

The trouble with real life is that there’s no danger music.
-Jim Carrey

…and the understated,

There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
-Johann Sebastian Bach

On the subject of quotes, being in a secondary school today, we touched on links with literature, including the works of Shakespeare. How about this gorgeous anagram:

To be or not to be: that is the question,
whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune. =

In one of the Bard’s best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent
hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.

Thanks to Suzanne for the nudge towards the art of James C Christiansen.

Thanks to Hugh Seckleman, Janet Christou, their colleagues and pupils at East Barnet School, for a great day.

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