Angela Duncan
A few months ago I met Angela at a PSYBT Elevator event. Since then I have kept in touch with her and I am so happy she agreed to be the special guest for this month! Here is her story;
“I went to Blantyre High School and stayed until 6th year doing some highers and advanced highers. I started learning the clarinet in 3rd year after a woodwind demonstration from a music teacher. I picked things up really quickly and after a year I knew that music is what I wanted to do with my life. I started playing piano in 4th year and picked that up quickly too. So with tuition at school, some extra lessons outside school and a lot of hours spent practicing I auditioned for Edinburgh Napier University and got an unconditional offer at my audition. I was really pleased as I felt all my hard work had paid off, and I had no back up plan for studying as I had never considered anything except music! So, I went to uni for 4 years and studied the clarinet with Alison Waller and took modules in Music Therapy and Music Psychology as they had always been subjects of interest to me. In 4th year I applied to do a postgraduate in Music in the Community at Edinburgh University and got a place on the course. I was devastated when I realised I wasn’t going to raise the funds in time and had no option but to decline my place and re apply for 2012, hoping I would get in again. At that time I was working in a local sandwich shop trying to find another job that would get me though the year so I could save for my tuition fees and after a few months I managed to get a job as a junior teacher with a company who run music classes for pre school children. I was incredibly excited as it was exactly the kind of job that I needed. So I started working there and after a few weeks I was running classes on my own, and loved every minute of it! I had never worked with children that young before, but I found that I had a natural flair for it and it was something that I could see myself doing for a long time. I then decided that I could do the same kind of job on my own, I had qualifications and enough experience to know I would be good at it.
So I went to my local Business Gateway and spoke to an advisor who encouraged me to write a business plan and get the ball rolling. I got started on it right away, came up with a name with help from friends and family and everything started to fall into place. My advisor put me on to the PSYBT and after a month I had a panel meeting arranged to discuss funding. I got what I needed
to set up Little Chimers and I feel it’s the best thing I have ever done. I hired a graphic designer who transformed my ideas into reality by creating my mascot Charlie Chimer, and the kids in my classes look forward to seeing him every week. When I think about how much potential it has it makes me really excited about my future. I have been running classes for almost 2 months now and I
love every minute of it. I have written original songs that feature in all my classes and hope to have them recorded one day.
At the moment I run 30 minute classes for ages 6 months to 3 years in the Cambuslang area but hope to expand the ages and the areas I visit in the next year . I hope to introduce things like the Dalcroze Method into classes for older children so that they start school with a solid musical foundation and I still hope to study Music Therapy one day and open a sister company to Little Chimers.”
For more details you can contact Angela at littlechimers@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/littlechimers
