I’m just back from my Friday ‘Magic of Music‘ school.  It’s the mid-term break next week and all the kids had dressed up for Halloween.  There are twelve classes in the infant school and this morning they all gathered in the assembly hall.  Some of the costumes were fantastic!  A few that caught my eye were Bart Simpson (limbs and head completely painted yellow), a great witch with face painted a ghoulish green and a straggly wig. and a Michael Jackson (black shoes, white socks visible beneath the too-short trousers, black jacket with buttons, hat and the single, spangly glove).  Each class in turn marched around to show off their finery.  This is were I came in – supplying suitably scary improvisations on the twenty year-old Casio keyboard the school had in the store.  I refused the teachers’ offers of a duster as it would have ruined the Halloween effect 😉  Splendid fun!

One of the tunes we use with the kids who do the ‘Magic of Music’ programme is ‘Wipeout’ from Dirty Dancing.  It’s a great one to get them to hear the low, middle and high chords.  Here’s a novel approach from Michel Lauzière (his rollerblade version of music from Carmen is doing the rounds amongst my Facebook friends at the moment):