Argh, Christmas Concert...

[SolidGoldFrankensteinandmurgh]

Go on, own up, how many others sit there with a desperate rictus smile as a mob of kids blunder through Jingle Bells and Silent Night in three different keys and two different time signatures. At least DS' school opts for ocarinas rather than recorders, which have the benefit of being a bit quieter and less likely to emit horrific discordant squeaks.

Maybe I'm spoilt, because when I was at primary school we had a headmaster who was genuinely musical and encouraged DC to play instruments and sing in tune, and we had a school pianist ie an old dear whose job it was to come and play the piano at assemblies and plays. At DS primary we get the aforementioned ocarinas or (even worse) some horrendous lift-music arrangement on CD.

Of course I went along, and smiled, and clapped, and told DS he had done well. But my ears and my back teeth have been hurting all afternoon....

Oh Gawd, when I was at high school our Christmas concerts was awful. It was embarrassing. I'm happy to say none of the ones I've been involved with as a teacher have been anything like that bad. In fact, they're quite good (where is [fsmug] when you need it?).

KS2 concert last night. Dd fell asleep on my shoulder, I wasn't far behind...
Don't mind a more contemplative concert, but last night was so booooring

Off to KS1 play now - I hope this will be a bit more lively!

I think I'd rather have a play, even with out of tune songs. DS' school's 'song concert' consists of them singing about five songs, the first verse and chorus of each repeated two or even three times, and then quite often at least one of the fecking songs repeated. I think what actually annoys me the most about it is it's such a dreadful way to treat music - as some kind of task to be got through, as clearly there's no one on the teaching staff with any understanding or appreciation of music, or it wouldn't be Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and horrible happy-clappy cheese that someone's downloaded.