So, in Australia we have this saying that goes: “We’re not playing for sheep stations!” Okay, maybe not all Australians… It comes from a board game called “Squatter”, where the aim of the game is to win… a sheep station! I’ll admit, when students in my Music classes play ukulele, they’re not all ‘playing for sheep stations’ – but for many, making a good, clean sound straight away will increase their chance of stick-with-it-ness! The secret? Thumbs up. While the right hand thu

A brief history: My first three years of Specialist Classroom Music teaching consisted of a wholesome diet of singing, playing tuned and untuned percussion, Boomwhackers, and, of course, the ubiquitous recorder. And it was good. As both an eternal optimist and (probably autistic) task-master, I felt comfortable in how I was moulding my students into mini-musicians, half an hour at a time - whether THEY were comfortable or not is an entirely different question. Furthermore, I