VronT: More than just music lessons

I first mentioned my amazing music teacher, Ms Toh from School 1 in my Of Nuns And Music post.

Well, the music teacher from School 2 was no less awesome, as VronT describes here:



While Mrs Monica Toh was the music teacher of School 1, Mrs Catherine Zuzarte taught School 2, where I was. And like my contemporaries in the other session, we found music lessons an escape from lessons and homework - a relief from books as we carried our recorder and harmonicas happily during recess time, played a few tunes before the bell rang where we would head for the hall or the music room for a good 40 minutes. We learnt what were crochets, quavers and semi-quavers - clapped to rhythms of ta-te-ta-te ta-ta. We used tamborines, castanets and triangles. I learnt how to multiply 2 and 4 times table at music class.. believe it or not?

Our music teachers were instrumental (pun intended) in drilling us in articulation. When we sang, we had to mouth words correctly - round them, and throw them. We had to pronounce our "ahs" and "oos", "ik" and "eeeek", placing your tongue in-between your teeth with "th" and ensuring that we say that "our mother is thirty, not dirty" was a drill in precision tongue positioning. Their thoughts in what they taught were well applied. (now read that right!)

I appreciated that very much.

Those exercises made us speak the way we do - with the right diction, emphasis and enunciation. Tongue twisters were taught at music lessons - quite an unlikely topic, but we were drilled to master them to sing well, ultimately to speak well. The Eliza Doolittle drilling made a huge difference in our verbal prowess.

That's why Convent girls speak differently.