Introducing Myself – The Start of a New Academic Year

Hello. How are you? September, to me, is more about new beginnings and feels more like the start of a new year than January. Obviously we have the start of a new term in schools, and my two have recently started their new academic year and for this year both of my children have started new schools. Many of the jobs I have had have started in September. When I worked in the theatre, it was always the start of a new season in September that ran until the following summer. And it’s my birthday in September. So I thought I might start off the new school year, and the new blog year (which is how I always feel about September, especially as I take a bit of a blogging break over August while my children are off school for the summer holidays), by introducing myself to newer readers.

Family Life

I’m Jhodi. I live in Birmingham in the UK, which is where I grew up. I live with my husband and two children who, at the date of writing this post, are aged 7 and 10. Both of my children love music – which is not really surprising given what I do, and that both my husband and I love music and listen to a lot of music at home. My son has been learning the trombone for a few years now and he plays with a fantastic ensemble, the Birmingham Schools Training Brass Band which is run by an organisation in Birmingham called Services for Education, who he also has his instrumental lessons with (and we have free instrument hire from them as part of our lessons. Services for Education run so many different ensembles for children in the schools in our area, and they have allowed children in their ensembles some absolutely amazing performance opportunities. For my son alone in the past year he has got to perform at a brass band competition, at Birmingham Conservatoire, at the Outdoor Theatre at MAC, Birmingham and at Symphony Hall. All thanks to Services for Education and their wonderful ensembles. And this is all for free in terms of membership of the ensemble.

My daughter is only just starting her musical career as she started learning the violin earlier on this year. She is absolutely loving playing her violin, and I can’t wait to see what opportunities it brings her in the next few years.

Music Education and first career

I am a flute player and singer who studied music at University many years ago. Whilst at University I, of course, studied performance and played in orchestras and sang in choirs. I also developed an interest in music psychology, in how musical ability develops in children, how people react psychologically to music, and the therapeutic benefits that music can provide, especially to people who may otherwise struggle to communicate. I still find this subject fascinating and am looking forward to attending a talk about music and neuroscience this week. After University I worked Front of House in arts venues. I got to work in some fantastic venues in the Midlands and London, including Birmingham Symphony Hall, The Birmingham Rep Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company in both Stratford and London and The Royal Albert Hall.

A bit of a change

In my 30s I made a little detour training to become a solicitor and spent the best part of a decade working in medical negligence law. Although this may sound like a huge departure, it wasn’t really. I was still working with people and resolving disputes which is exactly what I did as a House Manager and Customer Service Manager at the performing arts venues, but on a far more formal (and serious) basis. I left the law when I had my son. I did not feel that I could give as much as I wanted both to being a solicitor and being a mum, and so was a stay at home mum for a few years while my son was small and then I had my daughter.

Back to music

Like many other mums I took a few classes with my children, and the one both the children and I enjoyed the most and got most out of was a music class we went to each week (I ended up teaching with this organisation for just over a year before the pandemic hit). We went to a number of music events together, including some concerts for children (B’Opera Relaxed Concerts and the series of Notelets Concerts from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra were particular favourites of ours), the Just So Festival one year (I would love to go back one year as I think they would enjoy it even more than they did last time) and to the musical picnics at Birmingham Symphony Hall regularly.

I mentioned above that I got a job as a teacher with the music classes that I had attended with both of my children. So I led music classes for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers and their carers. This was such a lovely job, watching babies grow in confidence, and watching their faces light up with the activities we all did together. Sadly, just over a year after I started this job the pandemic hit, and so I stopped teaching these classes, and decided to spend more time working on this blog – well that and there may have been quite a bit of time where the children were at home trying to do their school work.

In the last year I decided that as I was writing about music and making music, I really should start making music myself. So I joined a local choir called Notorious, which is run by a friend from my University days. It is such a joy to be back singing in a choir. I love the huge range of music we get to sing, as well as just singing with other people itself. I could evangelise about how brilliant singing in a choir is, but will cut it short for now by just saying that if you have even a tiny inkling that you might enjoy singing in a choir, and there is one in your area that you have time and chance to attend, go for it. You won’t regret it.

When I’m not writing about or thinking about music, or looking after the children, I love crafting away with crochet, sewing and embroidery, and over the summer holidays both of my children really got into learning to sew. They have made bags, cushion covers and even an item of clothing each so far. I try baking with the children and most years we have our own Bake Off competition following along with the programmes bakes (mostly – the odd weeks like medieval week or German bread week we give a miss). We usually work in teams, me and my son against my husband and daughter. My son appoints himself as the main judge, and I do find that the scoring for each week’s bakes seems to be quite generous in my team’s favour. No idea why! All in all, we have a very ordinary family life peppered with plenty of creativity, especially music and music-making.

I am a believer in the power of music for everyone. It doesn’t matter what sort of music, but music – listening to it, singing it, playing it, however you want to experience it – is a fantastic, and brilliant thing for everybody. Actually, I think that everybody should have the chance to access and enjoy all art forms, or any art forms they like whether that’s music, art, dance, drama. I know that music education in schools, and access to music in terms of the funding that arts organisations (and the same is true of all arts) has been rather under attack in the last few years, and I am so hopeful that this situation will change in the next few years. In the meantime, here I am writing for anyone who will listen about activities you can do at home with your children, about books you can read with them, or for yourself, about concerts and events in Birmingham, UK (where I am based) and about ways that you can support your child’s love of music and music-making.

If you have enjoyed reading my blog post, thank you. I am always looking for ideas for the blog, so would love to hear from you with suggestions for topics you would like me to cover in the future. Also, if you would be interested in supporting me to keep this blog running, buying the books to review here, and supplies to make the DIY instruments, for example, I would be absolutely delighted if you would consider buying me a coffee using the following link: Buy Me A Coffee Thank you!!