{"id":1114,"date":"2011-06-20T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T02:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/denleymusic.com\/wordpress\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2011-06-20T12:00:23","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T02:00:23","slug":"bring-back-the-music-workshops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/bring-back-the-music-workshops\/","title":{"rendered":"Bring back the Music Workshops!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Music-Reflections.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1115\" title=\"Music Reflections\" src=\"http:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Music-Reflections-255x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"255\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Music-Reflections-255x300.jpg 255w, https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Music-Reflections-768x903.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Music-Reflections.jpg 871w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 255px) 100vw, 255px\" \/><\/a>I was reflecting back this morning on how I got to where I am today with my music.\u00a0 It really came down to a few influential people in my life.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll save that information for another post, but I did want to mention Donald Newton.\u00a0 &#8220;Don&#8221; as he was known to us musos.<\/p>\n<p>I have so many fond memories of this wonderful man, I&#8217;ll have to write them down in a separate post.\u00a0 Needless to say I don&#8217;t think he realises just how much influence he has had on peoples lives.\u00a0 As far as I know, he is still alive and living in Tasmania, although I know that his health is failing.<\/p>\n<p>Don was a wonderful piano player, organist, teacher, composer and conductor.\u00a0 He worked at The Violinery and would on occasion purchase music for me or have my violin looked at if something was playing up.<\/p>\n<p>When Elder\u00a0Bruce C Hafen\u00a0was the Area President for Australia and the Pacific, somehow\u00a0it was\u00a0arranged for Don to hold a calling as &#8216;Regional Music Chairman&#8217;.\u00a0 As I understand it, this calling required special approval and isn&#8217;t a &#8216;normal&#8217; calling.\u00a0 I wish it were though. If done properly, it really pulls people together.\u00a0 Under this calling, Don was able to hold &#8216;Regional Annual Music Workshops&#8217; for an entire Saturday.\u00a0 We would be able to attend classes and workshops\u00a0such as:-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Beginner Keyboard<\/li>\n<li>Music in the Home<\/li>\n<li>The Ward Music Chairman<\/li>\n<li>Basic Conducting Skills<\/li>\n<li>How to arrange hymns<\/li>\n<li>Music in Primary<\/li>\n<li>Music in Nursery<\/li>\n<li>Playing the Organ<\/li>\n<li>Music training for Bishoprics<\/li>\n<li>The Ward Music Director<\/li>\n<li>Ward Choir Helps<\/li>\n<li>Choral Conducting<\/li>\n<li>Instant Instrumental Group (those who could play an &#8216;appropriate&#8217; Sacrament instrument of a decent level &#8211; we put together a\u00a0hymn in this class and performed it that night)<\/li>\n<li>Instant Choir<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And at the end of the day we could all join together with the Regional Choir in a Handel&#8217;s &#8216;Messiah&#8217; sing-a-long complete with soloists.\u00a0 Bring your own book!\u00a0 Sing along with the choruses!<\/p>\n<p>I\u00a0believe the highlight and the one\u00a0with the biggest turnout was\u00a0when Professor Robison from \u00a0BYUcame out and did a singing workshop and masterclass.\u00a0 I think it was also that evening Bro\u00a0Hafen played us a musical item on the Organ.<\/p>\n<p>The organ class was 3 of us with Don, learning how to use the stops on the organ and the pedals.\u00a0 Don didn&#8217;t know at that point (and neither did I!!) that I would go on to be a piano teacher, or that I would end up being called as Ward Organist at any point, but I did.\u00a0 The things I learned in that class were definitely put to good use many years later.<\/p>\n<p>These music workshops were available to all ages, from adults to Primary children.\u00a0 The best part is that they were free!\u00a0 You would pay\u00a0at least a hundred dollars to attend one of these through the Australian Music Teacher&#8217;s Association or the Conservatorium of Music.\u00a0 Not all of these classes were taught by church members either.\u00a0 And the day was open to members and non-members alike, with everyone being treated as equals.\u00a0 We were all musos &#8211; as far as Don was concerned.\u00a0 I think the last of these events was held in 1995.<\/p>\n<p>We had people attending from Newcastle, Gosford, Coffs Harbour, Canberra and of course, from all over Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>Being a silly naive teenager, I probably didn&#8217;t appreciate all the hard work that had gone into these events, but I know that I did enjoy them and I paid attention and learned things.\u00a0 For that I am grateful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was reflecting back this morning on how I got to where I am today with my music.\u00a0 It really came down to a few influential people in my life. I&#8217;ll save that information for another post, but I did want to mention Donald Newton.\u00a0 &#8220;Don&#8221; as he was known to us musos. I have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,34],"tags":[93,148],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}