On Monday February 7th Year 4 were lucky enough to meet Alex Neal, principal percussionist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Percussion Professor at the Royal College of Music via a Zoom call. Mr Neal has played on the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings soundtracks!
The students were given the opportunity to listen to him perform, seeing a few of the 230 instruments that he can play! These included temple blocks, toms and cymbals. They also joined in with some rhythm and listening exercises and had the opportunity to ask questions, finding out how he started learning music, how he copes with mistakes, what his favourite and least favourite instruments are and if he’d ever played on Strictly! (The answer to that was no!)
As the call neared the end Mr Neal gave the children a quiz, where he showed them some of the bird whistles he uses when he is asked to provide sound effects for film and TV. The children got 7 out of 7 correct.
The call ended with Mr Neal asking the children to provide a count down, after which he struck a large gong – a fantastic sound!
What a brilliant opportunity for Year 4!
