The World of Music, students from 7th to 9th class

In the photos you can see Martin Matkovič playing the piano. Photo by Janko Lipovšek.

Do you like music? What does music mean to you? I like listening to it. I play the piano every day. I enjoy singing and dancing. It is like stepping into another dimension, something I need every day. You are invited to read how some of our students feel and think about music, some of them being promising young musicians.

Alenka Nikšič

The subject of Music at school is fun for me. I enjoy dancing and listening to music. I find pleasure in dancing and listening, because it relaxes me.

I practise ballet three times a week. Ballet involves discipline and a lot of practice. The most important things are team work and bonding. Music school and real school are quite similar. You get grates in both, but for me music school is better than real school because I do something that makes me happy and this is dance. It’s not important that you are successful at dance. It’s important, that what you do makes you happy. I would like to dance not only to classical music but to popular and country music as well. I like all kinds of music.

The best way to learn English for me is by listening and singing English music. I’ve been dancing for 10 years now.

Nika Molk, 7.c

In school, the subject music is easy for the first five grades, because we learn all the things we’ve already learned in music school. In the sixth grade we start to learn more about the history of music, which we don’t take in music school. In comparison to other subjects, music is one of my favourites.

I enjoy attending the music school, because I have a great teacher but I hate the amount of time it takes me to practise, going to music school and learning all of the theory. I usually practice about four hours a week.

I play violoncello and I could hardly be happier. Cello is a wooden, about a meter and a half long hollow instrument. For playing, you move fingers of your left hand on the cello’s, so called neck. In the right hand you hold the bow and slide it on one or two strings on the instrument, which is placed upright between cellist’s legs.

If I had to compare music school to regular school I would say I like music school better, because it takes less time than regular school. The learning is boring and not interesting, but it is concentrated on one topic, unlike in regular school. But besides that, I like regular school because of the diverse people in it. In music school I sometimes feel surrounded by perfect people who just know and can do anything with their mind or instrument, but not much outside of this, like playing sports or just having fun. Though some people are great and easy to talk to.

In music school a person, who loses motivation fast, has to win some competitions for his/her motivation to grow, but for a person who is really persistent and not so good it is not important to win a competition. As long as you don’t lose happiness and joy in playing you should not quit. In my almost seven years of playing I have never won any competitions. In the third grade I was about to go to a competition, but I had a really important thing that day and I couldn’t go.

I like some of classical music, so I don’t have complaints about it, but I enjoy playing other music, too.

I like listening to a lot of different kinds of music, but my favourite is Slovenian music mostly with accordion, one of my favourite instruments.

Iza Malovrh, 8.a

The school subject of music is a lot different from music in a music school.

In music class in normal school, we usually learn to sing and mostly the history of classical music. While in the music school we learn to read notes, composing music and other knowledge used in playing an instrument. I have been going to a music school for six years, and I spend four hours per week there. For the first few years it was a real pain going there because I only played technical music without any melody. I have been playing accordion for six years and I love it, it is a great instrument to hear, even though it is quite difficult to play. I usually practice my accordion one hour per day and sometimes I really don’t want to, but I know that it will pay off. I would say I am quite successful in music school, because I also play in the school orchestra. Accordion is a great instrument because I can play any sort of music I want on it. People always assume I play Slovenian folk music and classical music for dancing but really, I love to play French, country, jazz and other fun types of music. The reason for my passion in playing that kind of music is my love of listening to that kind of music. I only listen to English and sometimes German music because it makes me feel I am in another world. I also listen to a lot of rock music although I can’t play it on my accordion. I have always liked music with the purpose  to be focused on the thing I am doing or to reflect the mood I am in, and I have never liked listening to music at parties.

When I listen to music, I like it to be just for me and that makes me appreciate the music I am listening to. The music world is great, and I wish more people would appreciate good quality music.

Svit Turšič, 8.a

The subject of music in school doesn’t mean much to me, because I am not interested in music history. I like it just because we sing and because of our teacher!

I used to attend music school, but not anymore, because it caused me too much stress and I had to spend too much time practicing. I also danced ballet for five years. I liked it very much, but it became boring for me, so I left.

I like all kinds of music, especially pop. I really like listening to music and singing with it. Music is a good way to learn the language. With songs we learnt how to count and we learnt English alphabet when we were younger.

I like the sound more than the silence. Silence can be scary and makes you feel lonely, but the sound can be very interesting and fun. Music and sounds can also be a great therapy.

Ivana Hajduković, 8.c

Hi! I’m Martin and I go to Anton Martin Slomšek primary school. I am an enthusiastic piano player. Music represents an important role in my life.

We all know, that we like some school subjects more than others. For example, I like physics and mathematics. Music as a subject in school is fine, but it isn’t the same as music in music school. Music in school gives us the basics which we can use to build excellent knowledge about music. However, to play any instrument professionally, we must attend music school. There are usually experienced teachers who give us a lot of knowledge.        

Sometimes, when I practice an instrument, it is difficult and I would rather give up. Then I make an effort and go over it. At such a moment, I prefer to think about the success and the exercise quickly becomes easier for me. Some time ago I heard at a piano recital: “The musical path is very difficult but also extremely beautiful.” I like to practice the piano. Playing an instrument makes me feel like I’m doing my best. I love that.

I think it is important to try as hard as possible. The result comes with time.  I am motivated by every piano performance. I regularly participate in competitions, seminars and performances. This year I won three competitions, two of which were international. 

I like to listen to classical music because I listen to it critically. While listening, I think about moments that could be played better in the piece I’m listening. Although I listen to a lot of classical music, I sometimes like to relax with different music. For example, I often listen to Dire Straits. Music is also a great opportunity for language learning.

Martin Matkovič, 8.c

I don´t make differences between school subjects. Of course there are some which are more interesting to me and there are some which are less. The most important thing is that the school teacher is able to make “his or her” subject interesting.

The music school is another story. It is like a sport or other kinds of art. It is your way of living. It is you. I enjoy immeasurably in music school. I could be lucky that I also have a great music teacher. I don´t count hours practising cello. As I mentioned I am a cello player and we two are one. There are rules how to play it but the most important thing is to find line between the rules and improvisation in you. Cello is a semi big string instrument.

Music school and real school have hardly any thing in common. Marks are unimportant if you are not able to show them through performance. Beside learning and practising you also need at least a bit of talent. During my music education I won several prizes, even wins. More important than prizes for me is the fact, that through all of these nine years in music school I really improved as a musician, I learned to play several instruments, I travelled nice towns and music halls and I met many nice people.

Beside classical music I like to play and listen to rock and pop rock music.

Listening and singing music in mother or foreign language is a very good way to learn and to improve the language.

Both, silence and sound are very important. The music is a great part of my life. I enjoy practising or creating music. I love to sing and to listen to the music. But on the other hand it is unimaginable for me to walk along the sea shore or in the forest or during skiing with headphones on my ears or loudspeaker in my hands… There are so many nice, gentle voices in the nature and even in my room. It would be a shame not to hear or to disturb them.  

Jakob Maklin, 9.a

The subject of music in school seems remarkably like the other subjects that schools have, though the way it is taught is more interactive and more energetic. 

I attend music school and I find pleasure in it, because it is easier to have a good relationship with your peers there. I am in my eighth year of playing trumpet, which is hard to play because precision is needed to produce a clear sound and you need to be good at button fingerings to play faster pieces. All instruments require maintenance including the trumpet, which will not produce a good sound if you neglect it and do not practise enough. When you practise, you need to slowly get yourself in shape to play and taking time off, especially as a beginner can quickly put you out of shape. 

Music school is different from real school because it has instrument lessons and music theory, with music theory being taught more like the way they would teach a school subject. Music theory is taught within groups, like the ones we use in school and get them reshuffled every year. Instrument lessons, however, are taught individually (sometimes with 2 or 3 pupils) with the teacher listening to the pupil play, correct his mistakes and answer any questions the pupil has on improving. 

I don’t think winning prizes is an important part of playing an instrument. I have not taken part in a competition myself at any point. 

I don’t only play classical music, but I also play a lot of jazz. I like classical music and it is pretty much the only thing I listen to these days, but I sometimes listen to other kinds of music as well. I don’t think that music is the perfect way of learning English, as songs don’t always respect grammar, but you can still learn some unfamiliar words and phrases. 

Sergej Gajič, 9.c