Summer Term Music and Music Exams Thread

Shaky, tell her not to worry too much about the vibrato. Intonation and flow are far more important, and in fact dd's cello teacher tells them not to do vibrato in the scales, because it is about perfect intonation. I really wouldn't worry too much about the vibrato at all, it's not going to be a significant thing in the scales!

Thanks maggiethecat (great name) - she is doing grade 6 so harmonic AND melodics for the first time. They are secure. But they're not perfect. And she demands perfection of herself.

She had a meltdown yesterday over trying to get some nasty seventh position bit with just the right amount of vibrato. Fortunately today the children decided to play together - she transposed at sight (which would have made me cry at her age) and they had a great time improvising afterwards.

My guess is that all the tears are self induced exam pressure. So if we can just keep an even keel over the next few weeks then she will feel so much better once she has taken it.

Miss 7 is just sailing through work. No stress. Go figure.

Shaky sorry to hear about dd - which grade is she doing? is her teacher aware of her difficulty ( i say that bcos i know that a teacher can presume that a child can work things out even if things are a bit wobbly and so not spend too much time on the problem)

Are her scales generally secure? dd messed up one arpeggio - claims she played the first note, froze and muddled through the rest - examiner wrote that it was hesitant but that the rest were very secure. she got 17/21 for scales despite that so it seems that they will take the overall picture into consideration.

A big summer for us too.
DS 1 16 taking grade 6 percussion (and GCSE's)
DD2 age 8 taking Violin grade 1 and piano prep test.
DD3 age 7 taking tuned percussion grade 2.

I foresee a lot of gin drinking (by me)

Bramshott re lessons in school - we only ever got one set and they were funded (yay) by school from GCSE ( but only 30 mins).

As it happens, because they had private lessons from year 5-6 on 1st instrument because it wasn't taught at their level at primary (yep recorder) these were 2nd study ( or 3rd or 4th depending in whether you count piano - which we've never found taught in school , or singing- which they've never had lessons as such ).

We've not had much problem with thrm getting out of lessons for peri sessions but it's only the years7-9 that have in lesson clashes, everyone else before/after/break times for lessons.

I do think 3 lessons a week out of curriculum time will be too much.

I remember a stroppy teacher in year 7/8 writing a snide comment on my report as I always missed 30 mins of her subject for a cornet lesson. Regardless of being high up in the class on results. It clearly sticks with me even now...

Mum of three here...I am quite musical (piano, double bass and singing) but not a teacher!
DS2 (8) just received his mark for Grade 1 violin and got 134 so very proud of him. As a result he is taking Grade 2 in the summer (the teacher entered him today after hearing how well he had done over the Easter hols learning the pieces and scales- that child works HARD!). He is also doing Grade 1 piano in the summer.
DS1 (10) is taking grade 3 cello after skipping grade 2 (distinction in Grade 1) and grade 2 piano.
DD (6) has just started learning piano- and she also sings but doesn't have lessons (yet)
After last summer when DS1 did Grade 1 cello and piano in the same term I swore I would never do it again and somehow seem to have them taking 4 exams all at once.... gulp...

Sounds like next year for DD1 might be sorted - I just spoke to her new school, and they have offered to find her a small bassoon, and to fix her bassoon lesson for a break-time so that she's only missing lessons for clarinet in her first term. It sounds like she'll take a break from singing lessons for a term as there isn't currently a group working at her level, but there is a group taking grade 4 at Christmas so she could join them in January. Sounds like that might be quite a nice way to ease herself in to a new routine and new school. Phew!

Not strictly this term, as they took them at the end of last term, but we only just got the results.

DD got a high pass (nearly merit) in her grade 1 flute.
DS2 got a distinction in his grade 1 clarinet.

Both got full marks in the aural.

V.proud of my two beginners!

Poor miss 10. She is really trying to perfect her scales on violin. The B flat set is 3 octaves and she is only playing a half-size violin as she only turned 10 last week. 3 octaves slurring 7 notes to a (little) bow makes her more than a bit frustrated. She can either get them with two but not three parts -all slurred, fabulous intonation, amazing tone and vibrato. So more tears.

I tell her not to worry and she gets cross with me. I tell her to practise more (nicely) and she gets cross. I leave her and don't help- she cries. I help and she shouts. Then cries. All the time whilst trying to practise them. I am starting to hate them, so what must she feel like?

The only thing I've found that helps is chocolate ice cream.

Well done to your dd NannyPeach. That is quite an achievement!

Meeemooo -my dd could do with some grade 5 theory help!! What is your website?? Thank you.

Hi dancersdad - another Grade 4 singing parent! We can all share notes. I agree that there are lots of lovely songs to choose from.

Thanks all for your advice. My hunch is that 3 x lessons in school per week may be too much for a new Y7, but we will see what the music dept say when we go to see them.

musician/teacher/parent.
happy to help if I can…...

Hi everyone,
I'm a music theory teacher, teaching online via my website and email. I teach up to grade 8 theory. Please give me a shout if I can help out with anything! :)

Just had brilliant news dd got a good distinction in grade 4 cello that she started in September!

Waffle, I did a theory grade a year from about age 7 or8 as a child the year I did the equivalent piano exam as that was the way my teacher did it. My older 3 children did grade 5 theory only at one with their father and one got almost full marks at age 10 (or may be grade 3 too?). I did those various grades with the youngest 2 one a term just because I wanted to keep momentum and they did a grade 6 and 7 at a fairly young age so had to have the theory grade 5 for that. When the younger two were getting towards the grade 5 exam I asked their school brass teacher to give them a theory lesson once a week in addition to their music lesson - they are twin children so they shared the lesson and that definitely helped them pass as well as what I was doing at home. Children tend to pay more attention to a teacher than a parent.

On children learning at school mine have one lesson at school and another at home out of school time. As GCSEs near leaving 2 lessons a week in school is perhaps a bit much? I think one of mine who learns 2 in school at present fixes one lesson (electric guitar - yuck) for lunch breaks and schools try to do that for more lessons as children get older where possible.

I am a music teacher, mainly piano plus theory and teaching recorder and class music in school. (I am also a qualified primary teacher, plus having taught secondary music part time for a bit). Not sure how many exams this term yet, definitely a prep test, five grade 1's, two grade 3's and a grade 5. Some yet to decide on finally!

DS1 is taking grade 5 violin this term and DS2 may do grade 2 jazz piano, but for both of them music is only a hobby, not something they will study beyond GCSE.

My youngest two did grades 1, 2, 3 theory one term after another with me teaching them at home just because I wanted them to have exam practice and having an exam and certificate seems to motivate them. They then did the grade 4 book over the summer holiday and grade 5 at the Christmas or something like that. I did all the theory grades to 8 as a teenager as I liked it but most people stop at grade 5.

Bram Dcs secondary school allows up to 3 lessons in school time each week.

DS1 has 2, and learns piano outside. DD had 2 until Christmas, plus piano (she stopped one instrument then).

DS2 currently has lessons on his second study at primary school, (15 min shared lesson with a different brass instrument), but will go to a different specialist teacher in September. He has piano and singing outside school. The singing lesson is part of his Chorister training but is still an extra lesson to get to. He will learn clarinet in school but am not looking forward to managing the extra lesson outside school!

Secondary school subsides the music lessons, but has a policy that you must play in a suitable level wind band/string group as well which is still an after-school time.

Obviously therefore the school is supportive of music lessons, but individual teachers aren't always as supportive. Mostly it gets sorted, but it one of the reasons DD gave up cello. It helps if the teacher has a lot of slots available. The woodwind teacher is full time so lessons rotate over a much wider selection of lessons. Cello teacher was only there one morning a week when she had double DT, which was a lot more difficult.

Next year DS will be in Sixth form so his lessons will be fixed slots based round his timetable so he doesn't miss anything.

Bram - dd (y5) learns violin at a conservatoire and started cello in September 2013 at school. She took grade 4 cello two weeks ago and we are currently waiting for the results. She has been lucky to receive individual lessons at school as she was too advanced to fit with a group.

DD has decided on Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof for list C of her grade 4 singing (ABRSM), and a Serbian lullaby as her traditional song. Still to decide on the other two, there are so many she likes. She's done a bit of sight singing practice and seems OK at that, it's the aural tests she's less confident on. Her violin teacher wants to put her in for her first violin exam last minute as she reckons it will help to have an exam on it should we opt for independent schools for secondary and we put her in for a music scholarship- DD is currently year 5. Her mum and I aren't convinced as she also has dance exams coming up and it seems a bit much.

Bram - DD1 learns her second and fourth studies at school, and her first and third studies outside school. DD2 currently doesn't learn anything at school (although she has her second study lessons in school time, at another school, since her school didn't replace the peri who used to teach her when she retired last summer). When she changes school in September she will learn her second and fourth studies at school and her first and third outside, just like DD1 (same instruments). They also do dance (DD2) and drama (both) outside school.

They could both do third study (singing) at secondary school too, the school would allow it (and it has been suggested) but they like the person who teaches them and don't want to swap teachers.