Sally Adams Teaching

I have come to the conclusion that quite often in life things are decided for us, sometimes before we have even arrived.

It was never a conscious decision of mine to teach the flute, let alone play it in the first place. But in hindsight, the Universe had other ideas…

Back in 1942, my father's idea of a first date with my mother was to take her to a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute. A sophisticated choice for a 17 year old one thinks! The magic obviously worked as they were married in 1946 after my father had survived a heroic stint in the Royal Marines.

When I finally arrived quite a few years later, my mother was asked by a nurse in the hospital what she thought I would do with my life. She will either be a musician or a Balinese Temple Dancer was my mother's characteristic and  idiosyncratic response.

At 5 I started piano lessons. It has to be said, I wasn't a natural. 

My mother would oft regale people with my attempt to play an Initial grade piece which had a total of 28 notes in it. I apparently managed to play 24 of the 28 incorrectly.

By the time I'd staggered to Grade 1, my motivation had gone into overdrive. I had been offered riding lessons if I passed it. To say that I was a horse-mad child was an understatement. Much to my parents chagrin, this passion never abated.

My musical exploits at Primary School were confined to continuing to thump away on the piano and also to entertain all and sundry with tunes from a recorder tutor by the aptly named Freda Dinn.

At the age of 12 after moving back to Oxfordshire, I found myself deposited in a large and terrifying comprehensive school. It was a bit of a culture shock after the academic hothouse of a grammar school. It's saving grace was the outstanding music department. 

By this time I wanted to play the oboe as I loved it's plaintive and expressive sound (and still do!) I expressed this desire to the Head of Music who said there were no vacancies for oboe lessons and I would have  to play the flute instead. I can already play a flute I snarled at him. I'd got an old wooden flute that I'd inherited from a great uncle. After demonstrating my prowess on this rather basic aerophone, I was told I was being signed up for flute lessons with no further discussion allowed.

It has to be said that I hated school but I utilised the 1970's laissez-faire attitude towards education to my advantage. I could get out of lessons I didn't care for by saying I had a music lesson and then I would scuttle off and go and practice. I happily spent my teenage years doing no homework whatsoever, writing stories, playing my flute and rampaging around my uncle's farm on an ancient pony that I'd acquired.

I did, however, have a defining moment that made me aware of the potential power of my flute playing. It came about when I was told that I would have to play for a year group assembly. The thought of standing up in front of a sneering mob of unforgiving peers filled my heart with dread. It proved to be turning point, as they all listened intently and enthusiastically applauded! Perhaps I was on to something here I mused?

Playing the flute was an awful lot easier than playing the piano and I developed an insatiable curiosity for discovering new repertoire. I simply loved to play, unlike my sister and her clarinet ...! My dear sibling recorded herself practising on a cassette tape and every time she was told to practice she (unbeknown to my mother) would stick the tape on and lounge on her bed reading a Jackie magazine! 

My parents were not overtly interested in my musical activities. My father's MS made him intolerant and irascible and my flute playing irked him. In fact anything my sister and I did seemed to irritate him... So when I expressed my desire to study music he wrote in his diary "Sally never fails to disappoint. She has no talent and will be lucky to end up busking at Piccadilly tube station". He didn't at this juncture suggest that I should consider Balinese Temple Dancing as an alternative…!

By this time I desperately needed a new flute. My request fell on deaf ears and I ended up working in a music shop in my gap year to earn the money to pay for it.

Eventually I embarked on a Music in Education degree course at Kingston University. In hindsight,  it was an amazing course, hugely challenging but it equipped me with so many diverse musical skills. I was fortunate to have flute lessons with the exacting yet somewhat austere Averil Williams. I had recorder lessons with Doris da Costa. Best of all, I ended up having piano lessons with the wonderful Brenda Stokes who through her patience and good humour transformed my pianistic skills beyond recognition.

After leaving Kingston I did a PGCE in primary school teaching at Oxford Brookes. It was at this point I had an epiphany which showed me the "writing on the wall" for education. 

I completed the PGCE and discovered that there were no jobs to be had for primary school teachers, a far cry from the teacher shortages of today's world. By this time I had started to teach the flute privately as I had procured several pupils by taking my flute into the school in which I did my teaching practice. So instead of waiting for an elusive class teaching post, I applied for several flute teaching jobs. To my surprise, I got them all!

The rest is history. I have spent the entirety of my working life teaching both the flute and the recorder, despite saying to myself that one day I would become a primary school teacher. It has been a successful, rewarding and entertaining career trajectory. Although I still have the yearning to write and be an amazing horsewoman, but sadly not a Balinese Temple Dancer! 

I truly have a great love for teaching - I see each pupil as an individual. We go off on a wonderful learning journey together and happily most of those I have taught have done very well - an extremely high number making that journey from beginner to diploma and indeed professional level.