Summer Term Music and Music Exams Thread

one point I forgot to add goldenlillies was that one of my DD's teacher's did state that for scholarship/music auditions, there is always a good bias towards children that play the more unusual instruments, even if at a slightly lower grade than that's required.
Again, those that have got their children through the system may be able to validate.

JustAShopGirl - know exactly what you mean...mine doing the same, with the addition of Pink Panther...must be something about G4 that sucks some of the pleasure out of playing!

Mrs Fox - sounds like he aced it, if he felt good, then that in itself is a great result!

Hi goldenlillie - will leave the feedback to some of the others with multi talented young musicians. I have a DD that plays 2 - our juggle (and fights) are more with the swim coach and ballet teachers that require 5/6 and 3 weekly commitments respectively per week (minimum 1.5 hours each session) and don't fully understand my resistance to pigeon her into one discipline only. Yes, the music teachers also think she should 'prioritise' with comments like 'it's such an important grade' but I have learned to be thick skinned. I am thankful that at this stage I have a 10 year old that likes to do more than sit in front of the TV, and that sport is actually a good de-stresser for her more academic/musical interests. Just entering Y6 so she may change when in senior school...

Hello I have been lurking on this threat quite awhile. My DD has just sat her Grade 3 piano and Grade 2 flute and we are waiting for results. Her piano teachers wants to jump her straight to Grade 5 and also play lots of other things apart from grade pieces which I am glad about. She also has her Grade 3 harp and Grade 4 singing next term.

For those of you who have children who play more than 1 instruments how do you fit in all the practise? DD does some in the morning and some in the evenings and is managing quite well. (I am also a music teacher). However all her music teachers want her to give the others up and just concentrate on one instrument! We're aiming for music scholarships in Year 9 so thought it best to keep them going until she goes to secondary school, then drop something. (She's in Year 6).

Thanks all :)
DS did his grade1 yesterday and was happy with how he did (though we have no point of reference for this!) I could hear the 3 pieces and they sounded fine so just a question of waiting now

Breathe...... grade 4 piano exam for DD(13) done yesterday.... she is upstairs playing Harry Potter tunes now, enjoying her piano playing.

What is it about the 3 pieces that drags the joy out of it?

Fantastic, Trinity exams don't have singing in the aural.

Without getting into the merits or otherwise of each exam board, I thought it would be useful for you to know that, especially if it becomes a dealbreaker for you, which in the case of one, possibly two of my DC it certainly would. DD did ABRSM Grade 2 and 4 for Sax, Trinity for Grade 5 and 6 and the Trinity exams suit her much better.

Fantastic - just do a little every day. The aurals singing part gets more complicated. Dd has started doing grade 8 aurals practise. Singing the bottom part of a three part. Sight singing a fairly complicated melody against a countermelody performed by the examiner - all fine if you've done lots of singing and interval work. We start aural practise as soon as the next exam is on the horizon.

Hmmm.... ISTD dancing exams start on Sunday (I mention as I'm the accompanist for the ballet here)... but then, practical musicianship on Wed for me. Still not got the theory results, ABRSM take forever.

Fantastic,

The singing is worth a maximum of 4 marks, don't sweat it. I have a couple of not-up-for-singing pupils. They can hum or even whistle their responses if it's likely to be any better, or I think they can technically opt to play it (which is 100% bonkers as it's way harder).

What... wait.... but......
DS has just gaily informed me that his teacher has said he will be fine tomorrow but in future will need to practise his singing. As a musical Neanderthal I genuinely had no idea that music exams contained any form of singing and DS cannot carry a tune in a bucket
Presumably his warbly, wavery voice will do for tomorrow but what the hell am I supposed to do about future exams? Please don't say there's more music lessons ahead to pay for?!

Ds did his exams today. Came out in tears because he thought he'd messed up his aural. He should be okay as his pieces sounded fine. Just the wait for the results.

Wafflenose I will pm you re theory

Congratulations Hedgehog junior, what a lovely clean sweep. Three distinctions in one sitting must take some doing.

Our holiday challenge will be daily practice (apart from Sundays where two band rehearsals is quite enough), he's plodding through G5 theory papers and we should be able to tick that one off soon. He should go back to school in September being tuneful on trombone.

That's great Hedgehogs.

Waffle, I'm going to do similar with DS2, There is no rush from the point of view that his piano teacher uses both Trinity and ABRSM, but he will need it at some point. He is nearly at the end of his Grade 3, so am aiming to get a good chunk of Grade 4 out of the way. DS2 is happy in principle with this, we've agreed a bit every morning when he is fresh, and I think it will be so much easier that fitting it in round the term-time activities. He will also do his choir Voice for Life Red Book to get that out of the way too. (More theory).

there are some My First Theory workbooks around, DS1 had a nice one aged about 6 that he liked doing when DS1 was doing theory, would it help if DD2 was doing some work too?

Fabulous results Hedgehog - she must be chuffed to bits!

Hedgehog Junior has her results - distinctions (just) for both practical exams and for gr 5 practical musicianship. Phew. Can now move on to take a gr 7 next term.

Thanks. We seem to be tied in to AB and trinity here. I do think for sax the idea of learning the pentatonics, blues, modal scales et al are more beneficial than grade 5 theory for jamming.

Jazz folks...

I've been pootling around with the jazz syllabi for piano and I think the LCM one is the best. Downside: can't get an LCM examiner here. Upside: can still do performance assessments by DVD. If you haven't looked into LCM, take a peek.

For piano, there are small moments of improv. in the set pieces from grade 1 up; at higher grades there are options between playing pieces as written, with or without embellishments; playing from lead sheet; playing your own composition/improv based on given chords; playing iconic vamps (effectively jazz comping).

For flute (and it's the same for all winds I think), because I've been playing the syllabus for my own benefit, the technical requirements of the pieces at the higher grades aren't up there with the classical grades but it really seems to assess the jazz performance. The same thing applies - you can improvise over a backing, or play a set piece as written, but the improv. expectations are higher than for piano as you only have the melody line to deal with.

There are options between studies and scales - and the scales used are useful ones for jazz, not just random scales.

There are jazz "step" exams too for piano, so it's really treated as a separate syllabus not an addition to classical piano, and grade 1 is grade 1 and doesn't require you to already play to about grade 3 standard (which the ABRSM seems to).

Hello, have just read the jazz exam posts with interest.
My dh is a jazz musician and educationist of some repute and although he teaches jazz and impro won't touch the jazz exams and our dd is doing gr 4 sax next week.
His main problems are the marking criteria and how they aren't really looking for jazz players, iyswim.
He believes there are enough jazzy pieces in the normal syllabus anyway.
Not sure if this helps anyone, just another opinion.

DD is in her singing exam atm, so I am killing time before pick up and taking to her audition for x choir.
There is so much on atm, but at least that's 2 important things done.
just sax, violin, 2 concets another audition and 3 workshops to go

Anybody know the turnaround for results atm?

You must have had a really bad evening Singinggirl, what terrible timing.

I'm sorry, singing girl. My daughter us preparing for jazz sax and I have been watching your threads with interest. Now I feel bad for your son and still in the dark about what they're really looking for in jazz exams.

I'm sorry singinggirl, that's really hard for both of you. So close too.