Music for the Masses

Because the speech contest was on a Saturday I was supposed to have my next BoE day, Wednesday 9^th November, off but I decided to show up to the BoE because I hadn't been to the BoE in a while and I thought they needed to remember I exist by making noise and generally being annoying. And I'm glad I did. That afternoon many of the BoE members went to the Miyazu events centre for the Miyazu Children's Music Festival, something I had not been told of previously, to watch the schools put on musical performances. Maggie and I headed over to the other side of town in time for the opening singing performance done by the local kindergarten. It was very cute, and if you didn't think it was cute the ohhhh~s and kawaii~s from the rest of the audience made you think it was whether you wanted to or not.

Everyone together now: "Awww~!"

Next was my primary schools with Hioki, Kunda and Miyazu giving singing and instrumental performances, the best being Hioki with their taiko drum show. It was amazingly well done with simple background beats done by the younger kids on a bamboo plank and the complex taiko drumming done by the 5^th and 6^th grade kids. The entire school of around 20 students all were able to take part and the showiness of the piece made it really enjoyable. Kunda did the Pirates of the Caribbean theme on a variety of instruments including the marimba, piano, piano accordian and melodica. I had heard them practising during lunchtimes and they sounded great.

Photo preference goes to Hioki just because they're my favourite kids.

Finally was Maggie's junior high students in the brass band and their performance was really amazing for such young kids, they did a few upbeat tunes including Michael Jackson's Thriller before finishing on a sad slow song as it would be their final performance together before moving on to their different high schools. It was amazing to see such young kids doing such great performances, but music is really pushed at most Japanese schools, way more than it is in NZ.

The finale!