Happy New Year! 2018 plans at ActuallyAmy HQ

Hi everyone!
This last year has been a deciding time for me. I took some time to think a lot about which direction I wanted to move in, hence the lack of updates on here! Tried some different things and came to more of a place of clarity in my career.
Having come back from travels I did some classroom music teaching for a couple of terms while building up private afternoon/evening teaching in and around south London. 
I decided classroom was not for me and focussed more on instrumental teaching as usual. 
Currently teaching piano in a lovely prep school out in Farnham a day a week as well as private clarinet/piano teaching in the afternoon/evenings Monday-Thursday. In addition to this working on getting more teaching in a London based school.

The most exciting news is hatching finally in 2018... Have been thinking for a long while about doing some form of counselling course and so I've enrolled with a charity called Place2Be, completed their taster day last month and will start Level 2 in Children's Counselling on the 3rd February!
It is part time so I am lucky to have the time to dedicate to study while still doing all the teaching and songwriting alongside. 
I am so excited to start this course and make a difference to young people in a different way... and get my study on again!

Promise to be better at keeping up with blogging in 2018.

With love, 
Amy

Shots of Nicaragua and returning to London.

After an incredible 6 months away I'm back in London! Nicaragua completely exceeded my expectations and I know that everything I learnt teaching English out there can be transferred to my work here. I found the people there to be so warm and generous despite having very little, in some cases. The landscape and scenery are absolutely stunning, Nicaragua is really a hidden gem of CA.

Adjusting back into London life, I am resuming songwriting workshops and teaching piano, clarinet and now english privately so if you would like a workshop/lessons please get in touch through my website actuallyamy.co.uk.

From volcanoes to diverse cities to beautiful lagoons. Here are a few pictures:

 Our Lady of Grace Cathedral, León - the largest cathedral in Central America.

Granada - previously the capital of Nicaragua.
It is one of Nicaragua's most important cities, economically and politically.

Mud pools at San Jacinto - bubbling at 250 degrees celsius!
Said to probably be linked to
Volcan Telica.

Volcan Telica - one of several volcanoes of the Nicaraguan volcanic front.
One of Nicaragua's most active volcanoes.

Laguna de Apoyo - an endorheic lake in the basin of an extinct volcano.

Ometepe Island - meaning 'two mountains'
Ometepe is situated in Lake Nicaragua and made up of  two volcanoes, Volcanoes Maderas and Volcan Concepción.

A few of my students! Academia Europea, Managua.

TEFL Adventures!

Have decided to take a 'sabbatical' and teach english abroad for the next few months! We're heading to Central America first (Nicaragua and Costa Rica) to teach and then travel round South America. Combining my love of travel and teaching, kind of realised that this is the time to go.

Thank you to each and every one of my students/schools/songwriting groups who have made my job so worthwhile. Enjoy your musical endeavours, I feel glad to have been a part of your musical journey.

With love,

Amy

Songwriting with Four Seasons Theatre, Suffolk

On the weekend of July 23rd/24th we will be running a weekend songwriting course in Ipswich! Four Seasons Theatre, Suffolk are having us in to coach their young people in songwriting.
We are also lucky enough to have the awesome Arianna coming all the way from Italy to sing! We will be performing a few songs together over the weekend.
For the workshop, together we will look at the theme the young people would like to focus on, and talk about influences and aspirations for how they'd like their song to sound.
After this, there will be some rhyming games and we will get stuck into writing the chorus and other sections of the song.

The end of the weekend will culminate with their song being performed live!
For booking please see the flyer below, places get booked up quickly so grab your place now!

SaveSave

Fundraiser for Notivate London!

Hello everyone! 
Thank you so much for the text donations so far! I'm running the Hackney Half Marathon in just over a month (eek!) for Notivate London, a truly inspirational creative charity for young people. 

To donate, please visit my GoldenGiving page here: 

https://www.goldengiving.com/fundraising/notivatelondon

This is what Notivate are all about and more info below...

Their brilliant Singer Songwriter course is dedicated to young people to increase self esteem, willingness to take creative risks and the confidence to learn.

I have seen first hand the impact this programme has in these childrens' lives, and the experience stays with them for a long time.
Music has been massively prevalent in shaping me to the person I am today which is why I feel so passionate to do all I can to help give our next generation this opportunity. 

“Very successful in captivating and motivating the children.” (Children’s Fund)

“Brilliantly fantastico!” (Pupil)

Over the six weeks, the children have the space to express themselves, explore their feelings and perhaps try something for the first time.

They become more tenacious, team orientated and able to think creatively.
Isn't that amazing?
I'd love to spread the word and give this opportunity to as many young people as I can!

In case you missed it, here's the link again: 

https://www.goldengiving.com/fundraising/notivatelondon

Thank you so much!

If you feel that this resonated with you, please feel free to share the article with your friends.

With love,

Amy x

'Notivate London' children celebrate their debut song!

This morning we had a 'Notivate London' celebration assembly with the wonderful John Bowman - founder of the Notivate Trust, and heard the debut performance of Sir Francis Drake schools' awesome song! 

So proud of these children! Together they wrote, rehearsed and recorded their song on the theme of 'believe in yourself, never give up'. Lots of discussions were had on how they'd like  the production of the song, who their influences were and what to sing/rap in each section!

Their vocals were recorded at Atomic Studios, South Bermondsey, with thanks to Marcus our sound engineer. 
The song was mixed and mastered by Zoé Beckett for Left Handed Sound - brilliant! 
Here are some photos of their studio day... 

'Believe' by Sir Francis Drake Primary can be found on the website Notivate.org. 
Enjoy!

I'll leave you with a quote I absolutely love on creativity: 

"Why should we all use our creative power? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate" - Brenda Leland

Please comment below and share this article to enable more children to be able to benefit from the brilliant work of Notivate. Thank you!

Fundraiser for Notivate London!

As many of you know, I am doing some work with an amazing songwriting charity called Notivate and have just delivered the first Singer Songwriter course into a south London school, over the 6 sessions, the children will write, rehearse and record their own original songs in a London studio.

Have a look at the singer songwriter course here: http://www.notivate.org/singer_songwriter

“A very imaginative and interesting programme.”
Paul Harris (Music Educationalist)

“Very successful in captivating and motivating the children.” (Children’s Fund)

“Brilliantly fantastico!” (Pupil)

As well as promoting this impactful course into schools, I'll be running the Hackney half marathon to fundraise for another course to be delivered.

Over the six weeks, the children have the space to express themselves, explore their feelings and perhaps try something for the first time.

I'm really passionate about the impact this programme has on the young people, and the lasting results are astounding. They become more tenacious, team orientated and able to think creatively.
Isn't that amazing?
I'd love to spread the word and give this opportunity to as many young people as I can!
To donate, please text NTVT16 followed by an amount of £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10 to 70070.
Anything you can give, however big or small, is so appreciated. Thank you so much!

If you feel that this resonated with you, please feel free to donate my cause and share the article with your friends!

With love,

Amy x