My student - Filipa

Filipa came to me as a guitar student when she was 14 years old. Her mum told me she did not speak English but I said that was no problem and she would get free English lessons thrown in with the guitar lessons . I should add that as the Algarve relies heavily on tourism, English is taught in schools here and most Portuguese do speak it, so Filipa has always understood more than she speaks. Anyway Filipa progressed steadily and, as usual, I was encouraging her to sing along but she was so quiet that I said many times the clock on the wall was making more noise than her. However what I could hear was in key and sounded good but no amount of encouragement would make her lift the volume and, after discussing it with her mum, it transpired that she was uncomfortable singing in the shop/school. She lived only 100 yards away so I suggested that I went to their home for a while so she would feel more at ease and slowly she gained in confidence and I was right, she could sing well.

A few months later we moved the lesson back to the shop/school and her lesson coincided with two boys (one playing bass and the other guitar and keyboard) and they heard her from the next room and asked if she would join them and sing for them (you know what boys are like, they will not sing and like to have a pretty girl to sing for them ). Filipa was very nervous, but excited that she they thought her good enough to sing with them and she agreed to give it a try. It worked well and my colleague, Howard brought in Sophie, an English girl of a similar age, who was coming for singing lessons. The two girls worked well together and gave each other confidence; mind you both thought that the other was better than her, when in fact they were both very good but had different vocal ranges and quality of tone and their voices worked well together.

Howard has a regular summer gig at an Italian restaurant and in July 2011 we decided to take the girls along to perform in a guest spot for the very first time in public. They did a dozen numbers and were very well received so here is a video of their first half hour. Please excuse the sound quality but it is direct from the video camera’s mic.

After the introduction Sophie opens with Killing Me Softly, then Filipa with Price Tag, Sophie with White Flag, Filipa with You’re No Good, Sophie with I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing, Filipa with Love Story and finally (but cut short) Sophie with Ironic. Camera battery died.

I am very proud of Filipa, who is now 16 by the way. When I remember the reluctance to sing, the tears, the encouragement from her family and I so now the only tears are from me as I listen to her.

The video is quite long at 30 minutes but I hope you enjoy it:

http://www.youtube.com/user/RogerGuppy?feature=mhum

Roger