Summer Term Music, Musicians and Music Exams thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello again everyone! I know not everyone in the UK has gone back to school yet, and some of you are overseas, but term here starts today, so it's time for a new thread. Please post away about your children, your own musical studies or any questions about music exams/ learning an instrument generally. We have a helpful and experienced bunch of people here to answer queries or reassure you.

I have MiniWaffle, who is 9, and BabyWaffle who is 6. Mini has passed Grade 5 Recorder and Grade 4 Flute, and also plays some trumpet, piano and ukulele. Baby has passed Grade 1 Recorder and Initial Cello, and tinkers with the piano (when it's not in the repair shop...)

This term for exams, we have Grade 3 Theory (Mini) - as a warm-up for Grade 5 which will hopefully take place next year - and Grade 1 Cello (Baby). Both in June. I am doing Grade 2 Xylophone for the NCO Parents' Challenge! We have been challenged to learn an instrument unrelated to our proper ones, and I'm really a clarinettist.

[Ishouldbeweaving]

Mine has gone back to school today complete with an early morning bus pass panic. We went to the RNCM yesterday for the finals of the National Concert Band Festival, DS(15) went off on Saturday afternoon for last minute rehearsals. They overnighted at the conference centre where they usually practise so it was hotel style accommodation which was a first for him. He learned a lot starting with "room doors lock behind you, oops" and moving on to "don't leave your clothes on the floor when showering". Music certainly has provided him with a pathway to a wider life experience than I had at his age. They came away with a platinum award so there was a bit of whooping.

This term is probably nothing out of the ordinary, school concert, music school concert, a competition and possibly an audition but as yet he hasn't decided whether he wants to do that or not. No exams for us, DH is considering G8 piano but I wouldn't have thought it was going to be in the next session.

[Mistigri]

DD13 has an actual exam this term for sax - a first! Not a UK board, but a conservatoire end-of-year assessment by a jury. She doesn't know what level she is being assessed for (this is completely typical), probably for entry into the French "cycle 2" (equivalent of grade 4 approximately).

We also need to sign her up with the conservatoire for piano next year and she will have to do an audition. She has a couple of pieces ready that will more than satisfy the required standard so this isn't going to be a big issue.

Guitar will just be just prep for end of year shows. She also has lots of concerts with the senior wind ensemble coming up, and she sings with a jazz clarinet group.

[RaspberryLemonPavlova]

We were back today too, including me as I'm a TA.

DS1 17 (trombone/tuba) has AS levels this term, so that's his main focus. He has lots of concerts with his bands though, and he and DD are in County Orchestra for the first time so looking forward to that. He is having a chat with his teacher this week to decide whether to drop his trombone lessons and just have tuba lessons with a view to Grade 8 next year.

DD (sax/cello/piano) has the same concerts, plus some workshops with NYJO, which she is looking forward to.

DS2 12 (piano/trombone/clarinet/chorister) remains busy as always. He is doing his silver RSCM award in May, and his Grade 6 piano towards the end of term, which hopefully is not going to clash with the school band trip to Italy! He is making noises about starting working towards theory Grade 6!!

Mostly though there are lots of concerts to enjoy this term

[notanotherinstrument]

This term we will be mostly:
Waiting for ATCL result (DD)
Practicing for NCO Challenge Grade 1 piano (Me)

[chauffeurmummy]

My dd (8) is doing Grade 2 singing thi term and apparently "a cello exam" in November. She learns both at school and they try not to put them in for more than one exam per session so I think it's a case of her cello teacher piping up now before her singing/piano teachers declares first. It seems to have gone suspiciously quiet on the piano front though so I do need do investigate what the plans are there!!

[SuspendedinGaffa]

Happy birthday Waffle!

Lots of fab results for the end of Spring term exam fest - congrats to all concerned.

This term, DS will be doing Grade 2 Trumpet and continuing to get to grips with his Cello.

[Wafflenose]

Thank you, Suspended.

Mini has just got her certificate and mark form for her flute exam, and has suddenly forgotten to be disappointed about her mark. I have to say, most of the critical remarks are about breathing mid-phrase etc and probably wouldn't be an issue if she was a bit bigger - she hasn't grown since last summer. Maybe we'll wait a good long while before the next one!

[singinggirl]

Hello all! I have kept reading the threads but have been unable to log in for ages due to a name change for something more personal that I had forgotten about!

Here, DS1 (14) is still waiting for his Grade 6 piano results but without much hope, having had a melt down in the exam with his scales (he even owned up that he should have done more practice on them. Some practice on them would have done me) Whatever happens there, the focus this term will be Grade 7 violin.

DS2 (12, multiple instrument changer, Aspergers) has passed his Grade 2 clarinet and is happily sticking with it, and preparing for his first drumming exam, not sure when. These are instruments five and six that he has started, and the fourth and fifth he will take exams in - so I'm just glad he is finally sticking with something

I am still waiting for piano results for four of my students too, though I already know that one Grade 2 passed well. This term is my big one for entries though - potentially up to fifteen candidates from Prep Test to Grade 6, though I think there may be a few who will choose to wait so as to avoid their GCSEs/ A levels.

It was very frustrating to not be able to log in for so long - last term included buying DS1 a 'good' violin, which he adores and never stops playing, and then him getting the opportunity to play the first movement of a Vivaldi concerto (Grade 7 piece) with the school chamber orchestra to open the school concert at the end of term. I was very proud

[LooseAtTheSeams]

Just wanted to say a quick hello and thanks for the new thread. Wafflenose, I hope you had a lovely birthday yesterday! I'm glad Mini was pleased with the comments and I am sure the breathing comments are due to her being very young - it takes a while to develop the diaphragm. DS1 is a giant and still has to work at it!
Hopefully not too much exam action here - DS1 has a grade 4 drum exam and DS2 piano grade 2 (to be decided on for sure by end of month!) I might do my grade 3 piano but lost some momentum due to ill health so might postpone this until following term. I am well aware that DS2 is going to overtake me before too long although my sight reading is much better thanks to my teacher's enthusiasm!

[Fleurdelise]

Quick hello here also! No exam this term for dd, just building piano repertoire, practising, she still loves doing that and sight reading. Also enjoying her new choir at the local music school.

Happy Birthday for yesterday Waffle!

[Fleurdelise]

Also good luck to all the DCs taking exams this term!

[Mistigri]

We have the date for DD's sax exam: 6th June. Bit of a pain as it means rescheduling a guitar tech workshop she was supposed to be doing that day, but at least we have plenty of warning.

She had a lesson today and played the piece all the way through for the first time. I asked her afterwards if she was nervous about the idea of an exam and she rolled her eyes at me and said "nah".

[Ishouldbeweaving]

Good luck for all those with exams ahead (not that there's any luck in it).

notanotherinstrument How long do you have left to wait for the diploma result? We're at the stage of putting together a programme and timing it. I suspect that once we get to adding an accompanist in the empty bars he will have a piece too many and something that he has got invested in will have to go. It's better that way around than coming up a piece short late in the game.

[notanotherinstrument]

Ishouldbeweaving they say within 6 weeks for result and exam was 2 weeks ago, but with Easter in the middle of that I'm not expecting anything for ages. DD is on NCO course and I'm sure has completely forgotten about it!
To help putting together programme find You Tube clips or other recordings online of his pieces and look at timings - obviously every recording will differ a little but it will give you a rough idea to start with. Sites such as Presto Classical are useful - you don't have to buy anything but they list tracks available for download along with timings of each track. Find a few and go with the average time. Also hugely useful to listen to a few different interpretations of the same piece. Also don't forget that your accompanist can shorten very lengthy piano introductions, for example to a concerto. DD did this with Vivaldi, whilst it is useful to have a few mins for the lip to have a break I think she just might have fallen asleep during 70 or so bars of piano - and that's not what the examiner is there to hear!

[Ishouldbeweaving]

notanotherinstrument - we started with Youtube and the repertoire list so he could hear what they sounded like because I didn't mind buying the music for the pieces he was going to play but objected to buying pieces he would play once and discard. As it turned out his teacher had all the pieces that were runners, they've been whittled down over the last few months to something approaching a final list. It is lovely to listen to him play, it's standing at 28 minutes at the moment but I have my suspicions that the six or seven bars where he is standing about will be slightly longer when there is someone else playing in them. Multiply that a few times and then he's over time. It's manageable though and better to be too long than too short.

[Musicmom1]

Notanotherinstrument - gosh didn't realise you did has done diploma and is still young enough for NCO - she must be amazing (and work amazingly hard!)

Well done to everyone's docs and be,aged happy birthday to Waffle!

Back from holiday and dd got 135 for g3 clarinet so v happy. Cello g6 in dec IF we take and pass g5 theory. Really not sure about either right now....

[Wafflenose]

Musicmom can she do Trinity to buy her some time for the Theory? That's what we are doing for Recorder. We are cracking on with theory, but can only really do it at weekends and in school holidays. Mini is entered for Grade 3 Theory as a practice run, will hopefully cover Grade 4 during the summer (one page a day) and take Grade 5 next spring or possibly summer. I can't work out how to do it faster, but her flute teacher isn't worried... yet.

I think I have about 18 exam candidates this term, and about 30 Music Medals!

[singinggirl]

Well DS1 passed his grade 6 piano despite the scales, but he seems to have taken a bit of a lesson from it since I heard him playing scales on hi violin earlier. Think I may need to do some serious aural with him before grade 7 though, the grade 6 mark wasn't great!

[Musicmom1]

Hi Waffle - sounds like a very busy exam term for you. Dd's teacher is not that keen on switching boards at this point and I don't think often does it, so it seems to be either have a go in June or not take a cello exam until g7. I was happy with the latter but after a term dd already seems to be drifting a bit. All the technical work is really good for her, but she is def not experimenting with repertoire as she normally would and I think she needs some sort of milestone to chart progress against.

[RaspberryLemonPavlova]

DS seemed to go through Grade 4 and 5 theory much faster Waffle. Actually his teacher had him going through both books at once as she would take one home and mark it, setting him work from the other. She said she often tended to find it went faster after Grade 3.

We were severely time limited too, and he did a lot in the holidays. Good luck.

[KaputKiss]

Dd (11) took grade 5 cello a couple of weeks ago and passed with a distinction . She also received high merit mark for grade 5 theory the same day - so relieved that is out of the way! She is now concentrating on grade 7 violin, which she is planning to do this term. Dd didn't do grade 6, so this will be her first first violin exam in a couple of years. We have been getting extra help with the aural part of the exam as it's really difficult!!! I can fully understand why grade 5 theory is so important now!

Ds (7) did his grade 3 violin exam last week and we are awaiting the result. He also started guitar in September and will be taking grade 1 this summer or possibly grade 2 in autumn, depending on how it goes!

[ealingwestmum]

Off to buy DD's (11) G8 violin music tomorrow, with aim to sit in Autumn...she's quite excited having not sat a violin exam in a year. Did not realise each piece needs to be bought separately, felt a bit silly returning 2 deliveries to Amazon for not including the music with the CDs!

[swarskicat]

DD (13) has grade 5 clarinet this term and is just starting learning the grade 6 pieces for piano (after a year off from exams).

We need to get sorted on grade 5 theory before she sits the next piano, but guessing that will be about this time next year so have some time. She is finding the theory books very tedious though so think that I need to find her a teacher to work with on them.

[Wafflenose]

swarskicat We are working on the theory right now as well, and yes it's tedious, but usually necessary at some point. My DD is younger than yours so doing a lower grade, but I've bribed her to take the exam, and my mum is going to get her a small reward if she passes!

She did her first practice paper today (Grade 3), and needed talking through two of the questions, but scored a respectable 87%. She hasn't learnt much Italian yet, and struggles with grouping notes correctly, but is super hot on scales!