I was doing flash cards with a beginner this afternoon, conversation went something like this.

Me: What's this called? (holding up a treble clef)

Student: errr..

Me: (trying to help) Tre....

Student: Trevor




So we've now called the bass clef Barry to match.

Are you going to add in the Sophie and Albert clefs too?

That made me lol.

I don't think I have ever not been able to recognise a treble clef or misname it by accdent.

I do get alto and tenor clef mixed up sometimes but then again I only play violin.

I bet things like this make teaching intersting for you and not a dull job like many jobs are these days.

Absolutely LOVED that. I have had a really bad day (personal, not professional reasons) and that has made me laugh so much I feel better. Thanks for posting!

Thanks! I love hearing tales of what small children say

Just nearly choked on my muesli...genius!

Trevor. How utterly perfect.



I had a similar thing happen at the Guildhall last term. My group of 9/10 year olds had been revising the simple time rhythms that they knew and I was building up to introducing the new elements tika-ti and ti-tika in a beautifully creative and imaginative way *ho hum*. They knew ti-ti and tika-tika and some managed to work out how to write these new rhythms. 'What shall we call these new rhythms?' I asked, expecting one of them to work it out in relation to what they already knew.

I got the shock of my life when the youngest in the group piped up, 'Bongy and Bungy!'.

It was about 30 minutes later that I and the rest of the group managed to pick ourselves up off the floor and stop laughing.

Oh I love kids! I was singing a song with my tiniest kids (three years old) and thought with my puppets and engaging manner (or so I thought) that I had really got their attention. There were some parents sitting in for their son's first day. One little boy was watching me really closely, his little brow furrowed in a very serious manner. In the middle of my enthusiastic singing he pipes up "My Dad hates pink cars."
Thankfully the parents know the ways of little boys and thought this was hilarious.

haha. a young student of mine insisted on naming the treble clef 'cheetah' for weeks

Oh I love that - aren't kids great

Now right hand sign and left hand sign are just too prosaic!