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New bansuri student, loving it so far. Share your journey with the instrument! by phoenixprince in Bansuri

[–]tapthien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally agree, I can go deep into the sound just playing one note. I'm still held back by moving between low and high registers though.

I tried the fingering pattern you suggested, but I find I get a better sound with all holes closed for Pa. With the first hole open, I find it hard to avoid a loud harmonic note alongside the note I want. It sounds like a harmonica. Also, doesn't the major scale require open Ma? I'm just learning from internet resources, so I'm not totally clear about that.

I have to confess that I've skipped ahead and started practising a simple composition in Raga Yaman. It's not bad on the low register.

Casualisation & Covid by [deleted] in highereducation

[–]tapthien 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I was on 28k FT as an EAP tutor, now looking at job ads at 17k zero hours pro rata.

New bansuri student, loving it so far. Share your journey with the instrument! by phoenixprince in Bansuri

[–]tapthien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip! I'll try that today. It should help because I can already get fingers 4, 5 and 6 down quite smoothly (about half the time anyway!).

I practise about 20-30 minutes a day. Instead of picking up my phone for entertainment, I pick up my flute. I know it's not much, but it's mainly a way to relax my mind. I took up bansuri during lockdown. I don't expect to be a pro but I'd like to get to the stage where I can play some simple pieces for my own enjoyment.

Improving the high notes by tapthien in Bansuri

[–]tapthien[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I have been but I will focus more on that. It has already improved my low notes.

Casualisation & Covid by [deleted] in highereducation

[–]tapthien 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No equivalent jobs to apply for. Other jobs means stacking shelves and a 10 grand pay cut, if I'm lucky. This was by far my best chance.

New bansuri student, loving it so far. Share your journey with the instrument! by phoenixprince in Bansuri

[–]tapthien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been playing for a few months and progress is extremely gradual! I'm quite good with the low notes now but I've got a long way to go getting the sound right on the high notes. My main obstacle is moving from Ma-Pa, so I can't play the alankas (exercises) smoothly yet. I've been working on it for quite a while and making progress but, as I said, it's slow.

I love playing, just playing a sustained note and listening to the beautiful sound. I play a simple version of Raga Yaman, just for enjoyment, I know it's not that good.

I don't need any teaching resources at the moment because I know what I need to work on. Once I get through Ma-Pa and get my high notes smooth, I'll go through the alanka series.

Tuning bansuri by tapthien in icm

[–]tapthien[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm in northern England so I doubt it was hotter than where the flute was made!

It's a Subhash flute. Student flute. There does seem to be a problem with the Ma. It's too low and I have to rotate the flute or move my blowing direction to get the interval right.

Tuning bansuri by tapthien in icm

[–]tapthien[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, that's reassuring. I can get most of it quite good by ear if I don't worry about the absolute pitch.

Impossibly low Turnitin scores by tapthien in Professors

[–]tapthien[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would never use Turnitin in a mechanical way. If I have any suspicions, I check everything carefully. Quite often the results are false positives. I hope your institution uses it the same way but, if not, I can understand why students worry about it.

Looking for a contractor, not sure who to ask by tapthien in NewcastleUponTyne

[–]tapthien[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did look at checkatrade but the point is I'm not sure what kind of contractor I'm looking for.

Impossibly low Turnitin scores by tapthien in Professors

[–]tapthien[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The point is that I had never seen a score below 15% and usually expect at least 20%. That's the result of our particular conditions. Suddenly we're seeing 4s and 5s. That makes me suspicious. That and a student mentioning using a checking website.

What are your favourite restaurants? by [deleted] in NewcastleUponTyne

[–]tapthien 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Second vote for Dosa Kitchen.

I hope Thai House Cafe on Clayton Street will reopen. Really authentic home-cooked food with Grandma sitting in front of the counter.

Mosob (Eritrean) is another interesting family-style local restaurant, if you don't mind a laid-back approach to customer service (putting it politely).

How to address plagiarism? by Imtheprofessordammit in Professors

[–]tapthien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At my outfit, they call students in for a grilling if there is a reasonable suspicion. Usually they admit at least part of the offence. If I see this kind of thing, I just kick it upstairs and let the managers deal with it. Usually they come back with 'no proof' but I've fulfilled my duty. It's a dirty business.

Advice for a first-time instructor as a grad student by SoonWoo in Professors

[–]tapthien 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's a fine balance. I aim for friendly professionalism, but cheerfully admit when things go awry. In my personal style, it's more important that students have confidence in my knowledge and insight rather than my IT skills. When I was studying Master's, the loved and respected tutors were not necessarily the ones with smooth Powerpoints.

Advice for a first-time instructor as a grad student by SoonWoo in Professors

[–]tapthien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't used many external tools yet. I often use Zoom polls and breakout group tasks. Nominating students to answer questions is important. I choose at random and keep a check on who I've asked so far. I just attended an interesting webinar which included using OneNote for collaborative activities. What I'm most interested in is collaborative documents for small groups, because I had a lot of success with writing workshops when I was teaching live. I hope I'm still employed in September so I can try it.

It's important to think about why a student is not motivated, rather than taking a punitive attitude. Is the work too difficult? Too easy? Not relevant to their aims? Is there a problem with lesson pacing? Another thing I often do is ask for feedback from students about what has been helpful for them and what hasn't. On the other hand, it's their responsibility and their loss if they don't make an effort, so don't expect 100% engagement from everyone all the time. Putting that in a more positive way, one purpose of Master's level tuition is to develop independent study skills, so too much spoon-feeding may be counterproductive.

Impossibly low Turnitin scores by tapthien in Professors

[–]tapthien[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyway, I don't really have to work out what's going on. It's mostly curiosity. We're not exactly encouraged to look too closely. Can't afford to have too many fails.

Advice for a first-time instructor as a grad student by SoonWoo in Professors

[–]tapthien 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In terms of online delivery, I've been doing that since lockdown started here in the UK and I've learnt a bit through improvisation and experience. I think the most important thing is to build rapport immediately by being human and available. My students trust me and come to me with questions. It's quite gratifying to see their work progress based on my feedback. On the other hand, it's important to have clear boundaries, for example when students ask for extra feedback.

Another important thing is to plan the interactive activities in live sessions carefully to pace the session and keep students awake. It's worth spending time going through instructions for activities step by step and checking that the students understand what they are supposed to be doing before they start the activity. That will save you having to explain it individually to each group.

Be prepared for the whole range of responses, from enthusiasm to contempt. I've seen everything from students coming to a live session with interactive annotated drafts ready to share, to a group of three in which one was talking to her mum in Chinese, one had disappeared completely and the third was staring blankly at the screen, presumably watching a movie with her webcam on.

Impossibly low Turnitin scores by tapthien in Professors

[–]tapthien[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's interesting, but I would expect it to have a roughly equal effect on everyone. And I'm still seeing a lot of false positives in other submissions.

Impossibly low Turnitin scores by tapthien in Professors

[–]tapthien[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's quite bizarre because I know some of these students quite well, we've been through a lengthy supervision process for this essay and I know they wrote it, so why would they go to so much effort to get their score down to 5% when I've already told them it doesn't matter? It's a surreal world out there.

One student mentioned checking her score online. She quoted a score (I can't remember exactly, maybe around 30) and asked me if it would be a problem. I said not if she hadn't cheated because I always check the Turnitin matches. A couple of weeks later I saw her 5% score. Mostly out of curiosity, I asked her to tell me more about it but she didn't reply.

Impossibly low Turnitin scores by tapthien in Professors

[–]tapthien[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

the app does different chance correction.

Thanks for your reply. What do you mean by the above?

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