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Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Extra-curricular activities

Cross with the violin teacher

19 replies

emkana · 11/11/2011 07:00

dd is in year 6 and has violin lessons at school, she passed grade 2 last Christmas. The teacher she had until the summer was gearing her up to do grade 3 around about now, and dd was very motivated. Unfortunately the teacher then left unexpectedly. I spoke to the new teacher once on the phone in September when she called me and we agreed that she would do grade 3 with dd. Since then she has not done focussed preparation on the agreed pieces, but keeps starting different pieces. Yet as the syllabus changes soon if dd doesn't do the exam by march she will have to start again with new pieces. Then yesterday the teacher suddenly suggested to dd to not do abrsm, but the level 3 awarded by the county music service, because of lack of time! I have no means of contacting her as unlike the old teacher she hasn't given a number or an email address...

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roisin · 11/11/2011 07:25

I think you're right to be cross emkana.

I would contact the school and ask for the teacher's phone and email address and call her to discuss it.

There should be plenty of time for her to prepare for the grade 3 exam in March, if she's prepared to work hard and do regular practice. 1.5 terms is plenty to prep for an exam - longer than that gets tedious.

emkana · 11/11/2011 21:46

Thanks that's reassuring. Shes good at the pieces already, but needs practice with the scales.

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roisin · 12/11/2011 08:16

How often does she practise? ds2 (piano) plays scales every day for the first 5-10 mins of his practise time, depending on whether he's learning/mastering new ones or just using them as a warm-up.

It's just part of his routine and works well.

If the scales are the sticking point, then just concentrate on 1 or 2 at a time and get them right before introducing more.

toutlemonde · 12/11/2011 19:14

Definitely get contact details and get onto the teacher. As its via school I guess you have little choice, but when I had similar issues with DS and his grade prep, the solution which worked was switching teacher...

ImNotaCelebrity · 12/11/2011 22:31

Well, there's plenty of time to enter for next term (until 21st Jan if you enter online), so that's not an issue. And from January, the new scales syllabus comes into force, so as she's been struggling with scales this will work in her favour as there are fewer - is she learning from the new syllabus now? IMO they're fairly easy, and now a gentler step up from grade 2. DS did grade 2 last term and can already play all the scales and arpeggios for grade 3, even though he's nowhere near attempting the pieces yet. (Like Roisin's dc, he also starts every practice with a few scales.)
Another plus side of deferring entry til March is that the sight reading is now easier too - got to be a bonus!
And if you didn't know already, you can enter for exams online, so there's nothing to stop you doing that yourself, presenting the teacher with this, and asking her to please ensure your dd is adequately prepared for that exam period, as originally discussed and agreed.
//www.abrsm.org

emkana · 15/11/2011 22:36

Dd has really cracked down on the scales this week, which I'm really pleased about. I will go into the school when it's her teaching day and try to speak to the violin teacher in person to see what her thoughts are, while making it very clear what dd and I would like. Hopefully we can come to an agreement.

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roisin · 16/11/2011 02:07

Hope it goes well emkana.

I find, having done both, that music teachers expect far more communication with parents when the lessons are out of school. But in-school lessons have lots of advantages too, not least being they don't eat into 'free time'.

ds2 is about to start out of school lessons (3rd instrument) and I'm already dreading it! There's the transporting him around time to be factored in, and the lesson/travel itself eats into the time he would be practising other instruments. AND he will have to find time to practise the new one too. ... But he was very very keen, so we've agreed to give it a go and are going to do just fortnightly lessons at first to see how it goes.

emkana · 17/11/2011 10:31

So - she said there was no need to do all the grades - which I agree with, but I would like her to do this particular one before going into secondary, because it will give any music teachers or groups she comes into contact with there anidea how good she is. She also said dd wasn't ready - and that did make me cross, because we had agreed back in September that dd would do grade 3 and if she isn't ready then in no small part it is because the teacher hasn't been fully focussesd on getting her ready! She then said she would let me know at the end of term. Is it me being awful to feel hang on a minute, I pay for this?

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DeWe · 17/11/2011 14:42

I would ask why she isn't ready. It may be that there's something that your dd can work on that she hasn't been getting because she hasn't realised she needed to focus on.

Isn't grade 3 the point where you need to be able to go up to 2nd and 3rd position? (Long time since I did it) I remember speaking to someone who was much more talented than me who said he found that a real problem until he'd worked on getting the pitch absolutely perfect, because he could hear in his head if he was just a bit off and it totally put him off.

lucysmum · 17/11/2011 14:53

interesting comments re scales/sight reading - is this a general change by ABRSM or just violin and/or grade 3 ? My DD has just done grade 5 violin and scales were a real pain, there were so many of them. She is doing grade 5 piano with Trinity and scales seem very minor part of syllabus and fewer that for grade 4 ABRSM piano. Any comments welcomed !

emkana · 17/11/2011 18:40

Dd had a lesson after I spoke to the teacher and the teacher was trying to talk dd round to wanting to do the level. where do I stand on this - can I insist on her doing the grade with dd? Should I talk to the music service, who sends her?

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emkana · 17/11/2011 21:10

.

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toutlemonde · 17/11/2011 21:28

What about complaining to the music service and getting a refund for the rest of the term's fees? And finding a tutor privately to get your dd ready? I can't see the teacher suddenly going the extra mile to help your dd prepare after what she has said... if you insist then maybe she will begrudgingly do what you ask, but the danger is she then does the bare minimum and inadequately prepares your dd, maybe even blames you for rushing it if your dd doesn't get a good pass...

emkana · 17/11/2011 22:02

Thanks toutlemonde

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emkana · 18/11/2011 11:49

Spoke to the music service and was basically told to listen to the teacher as she knew best and grades were nit necessary. Great.

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ImNotaCelebrity · 18/11/2011 19:48

lucysmum, all strings are changing as of 2012 for all grades.

emkana · 20/11/2011 22:29

Private lessons sorted!

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roisin · 21/11/2011 07:28

Excellent! Hope it goes well.

toutlemonde · 21/11/2011 16:30

Hope it works out Emkana!

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