Threetowners School music classes

[morag]

Beat me to it Meekan! lol!

[morag]

First song I remember was 'one misty moisty morning when frosty was the weather'. Think that was primary 1. We got a lot of the Scottish songs too. I only remember an actual music teacher when I was about 9, a Mr. Humphries. Perhaps the oddest song we learnt was 'Yippee tiyiyo git along little doggies'.

[morag]

Or cloudy was the weather..we did learn a lot of Scottish songs, the laird o' cockpen, Macafee turn the cattle, Heel ye ho boys,Skye boat song etc.. I think though, Barbara Allen affected me most. Apart from that it wiz hyms...lol!

[Sarah]

I remember Miss Waters very well , in my day she was called Fanny Walrus , I remember all the above songs
especially John Anderson my Jo Boy {I think thats what is was} Janey Wilson had the best voice and sang it at all the concerts at school, no one ever asked me to sing, still don't....

[mike mccann]

This topic has reminded me of the songs we sung at the Central seventy-odd years ago . Of course we sang lots of hymns but the other songs I remember singing in the classes over the years included:-
Hearts of Oak .
British Grenadiers .
Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes .
Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms,
Bluebells of Scotland and
Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon .

Another thing I remember being taught was a mother's reassuring verse to her child
' Hush Ye Hush Ye do not fret ye '
The Black Douglas will not get ye '

[morag]

All of these familiar but for the black Douglas.

[BobP]

Morag,
Mr Humphries, was that St Peter`s, if so, I remember him, but b*******d if I could remember what he did.

What I do vaguely remember is that he was a big fella with, not the greatest of patience in the world, somehow incongruous for a music teacher

[BobP]

I remember Miss Waters at Eglington school, and our class trying to sing frere Jacques. She would have half the class start the song, then a few Bars later the rest of the class would join in singing the same words the first lot had already sung. I don't know what you call this kind of singing but I would love to have been a fly on the wall listening to what could only be a terrable noise. Nobody knew what they were singing about as it was in french. I remember it sounded like, Frery jacko, frery jacko stormy vou stormy vou and so on. I think miss Waters must have done this just to get a good laugh.
George F

If I remember rightly, it was either "two part harmony" or a a fairly primitive version of Acapella

[BobP]

Full words for Frere Jacques, with translation:

Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques ( Brother Jacques );
Dormez-vous, dormez-vous ? ( Are you asleep ? )
Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines ( Ring the bell for matins )
Ding dang dong, ding dang dong.

It's the most famous example of its type of song,known as a ROUND, where different groups start off at different points singing the same melody, but it all SHOULD still end up as a harmonious sound....

Strangely enough, I never remember our classes' singing coming out too badly; maybe it's just me looking back through rose-tinted spectacles ( or should that be earphones ? ), or maybe it's a tribute to our primary music teacher Mrs Mc Dougall that she had even the boys well enough trained and on-side to not make too much of a racket . At least, in music classes; attempts at hymn-singing with our regular class teachers weren't always so well-supported, though just not joining in, or singing " unofficial " versions, was the most common fault there.

Susan

I swear on his life, this is true.

I was sitting here looking at composing a response and suddenly from the front room, my 7 year old son, half a century removed is playing Star Wars with his friend and suddenly all the noise stops and they start singing Frere Jacques and I am sitting here and I can`t see the screen for tears, I am greeting like a wean, oh god, where did it all go

[morag]

Wee moments like that can shake you up. Mr Humphries was a young man, light brown curly hair. I think he went to more than one school, as seems to be the case with teachers who taught one thing, i.e. Mr Walker, gym. My pal and I saw Mr. Humphries out 'walking' a pretty young lady, so of course we trailed behind them singing 'It was a lover and his lass(with a hey and a hi and a ho, nonny no) lol!

[little plum]

Stevenston Higher Grade music classes were an eye opener to me. I can still picture Mr Proctor becoming very animated when he played records of the classics to the class. As a bunch of daft wee lads, it was very difficult to hide our laughter. After 40 odd years I can still remember some of them, Saint Saens Carnival of The Animals, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture ( my fav Fingal's Cave), Holst's planets.
Being cast in the roll of Captain Corcoran in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, I stepped down from this after weeks of intimidation by the older lads, christ I was 13 and didn't know any better.

[morag]

Stevenston Higher Grade music classes were an eye opener to me. I can still picture Mr Proctor becoming very animated when he played records of the classics to the class. As a bunch of daft wee lads, it was very difficult to hide our laughter. After 40 odd years I can still remember some of them, Saint Saens Carnival of The Animals, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture ( my fav Fingal's Cave), Holst's planets.
Being cast in the roll of Captain Corcoran in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, I stepped down from this after weeks of intimidation by the older lads, christ I was 13 and didn't know any better.

I swear if BobbyD was still with us he'd come up with some footage..P.T. is probably workin' oan it!