Living the sound of music
"You get to form them like a piece of clay. A teacher moulds children into what they become later in life. It's about that positive impact."
MBOMBELA – Music is in the air at Penryn Preparatory School with the new music lab having been officially opened.
At the heart of this lab is a music-loving teacher who has finally found her purpose and calling in life.
Hannerie Strydom is Penryn’s head of music and is in charge of teaching kids notes and melodies on a regular basis.
Her love of and passion for music ignited at an early age, as she was born into a musical family which encouraged her to play around on piano and get the feel for musical instruments.
“I started my Grade 1 Unisa music exam with the guidance of Sophia de Jongh, who was a fantastic music teacher. Now I am where she was years ago. I admire her now more than ever for her patience and passion,” she said.
Hannerie continued with music until matric, but this had to take a temporary back seat to her studies. “I studied education and psychology after which , I got a post at White River Pre-primary,”
she explained.
Hannerie then got a golden opportunity to travel overseas and went to teach in England for 10 years. “It was great to help the school that I taught at in all its musicals. It gave me confidence and I knew that music was in my blood. I never thought that I would one day be a music teacher. It just happened naturally.”
According to Hannerie one of the most gratifying aspects of her profession is the ability to shape children and to see them develop their musical ability.
“You get to form them like a piece of clay. A teacher moulds children into what they become later in life. It’s about that positive impact,” she added.
Penryn Prep offers music as a compulsory subject for all grade one to seven classes with different teaching methods being applied to each grade.
“This is an exciting challenge as we normally have 30-minute classes each week for the junior phase and one hour every two weeks for the senior phase.”
The first important aspect that children need to understand is a love of instruments. From there on, they can get more comfortable with it and the different sounds that it produces.
“The children listen to me playing and then with the supporting backtrack, they play along and learn to understand the fundamental elements. The more advanced learners can also give their own creative input in some cases,” she added.
One of the great joys that Hannerie gets out of teaching music is the collective happiness from the children. “They rush to their seats and cannot wait to learn something new. At the end of the class I give them free time to play around with the settings and get creative. It makes each class unique and fun. I always have a song in my head that I sing along to,” said this passionate teacher, who hopes to extend the musical culture at Penryn.
Read more here on Penryn’s musical side:
https://www.citizen.co.za/lowvelder/238643/teacher-uses-music-to-speak-to-hearts/
https://www.citizen.co.za/lowvelder/238610/musician-gets-break-best/
