Autumn Term Music and Music Exams Thread

It's so reassuring to know that we're not alone!! Maybe there's something about the musical psyche which also tends towards perfectionism and independence. I was hoping that the piano would suit DD2 in the end because of her very independent personality.

Bramshott - miss 10 is still like that. Cries over anything because most things come so easily to her. We both have perfect pitch and I bite my tongue over intonation as we can clash so easily over note intonation, when others can't hear the difference. She is no better with age - she just cries because her vibrato isn't quite right or her loud isn't quite warm enough, etc. She cries when I say something and she will be upset when I leave her to her own devices. So - I sympathize!

She's using the improve your sight reading grade 7-8 book for violin. I think they are a great series and it has certainly got her thinking more about getting over the character of the piece as well as everything else!

We youtube stuff too. It's nice to see how others play the same music. Miss 10 hates us recording her. Miss 7 is on there a lot for sax. Just different characters.

Mistigiri -

Same sightreading suggestions here. I used a similar book for violin way back when grade 6 and find the logical progression through the skills helpful. OTOH, I can't get my students to actually work through the thing so am recommending the ABRSM's app.

PS Loose at the seams thank you for the sight reading book suggestion. I'll check that out.

DD won't be filmed unless the piece is at performance standard so that's a no go here. But YouTube is incredibly useful, in fact she basically taught herself to play guitar using it and got off to a good start on the piano that way too.

She'll need youtube again this week as she has just come out of her piano lesson where she started work on a new piece that will challenge her sight reading abilities and which personally I think is miles too hard. I'm saying nothing though!

yy- filming/recording is good

one of my DDs (exhibitionist) loves being recorded/playing back. Also a useful tool in getting her to practice- easy to see results after just a week

and yes, youtube v useful, too

sometimes I think I'd really struggle without technology!

When things have got heated in our house re not accepting wrong notes/playing wrong dynamics etc, I've taken to using the ipad (thankfully DD's very vain and loves filming herself) and then low and behold, she gets it!

I think this is possibly limited at the lower grades...

Re insurance, we are with Endsleigh - violin, bow and case as we've now got some serious kit compared to last year!

"mini-despot" excellent!

And to nailing stuff down! I admit defeat when it comes to twins. We sometimes joke about how much more exhausted and oppressed we might be if DS2 had been twins. And then turn very pale... DS1 wisely never comments on his practice although though he has recklessly attempted to play the piano himself before now amid cries of "No! That's MY piano!" and reminders that no, it isn't!!

oh Bramshott

this is me and BOTH my dds

however gently I point out a missed note or slightly off rhythm, even if I bury it in a load of praise, I just get wails of YOU THINK I'M RUBBISH etc etc

what's worse is if the OTHER twin offers the practising twin a bit of friendly advice. Then I have to nail stuff down

There is a reason why we refer to DD2 as "the mini-despot". She is very small (think 7 yr old the size of a 4 yr old) but is a force to be reckoned with!!

Good tip about YouTube for the future!

Yes, you're right about the EEEE EEDD - in those cases I just point to the music and say oh, look, it goes down a note there, and hope for the best! Definitely point out the improvement in pulse, that's impressive at this stage and teachers pick up on it, too.

A bit further down the line, when you have grade pieces, youtube can be useful for hearing how it should be played - just be a bit wary of which version she listens to. It was the only way I could prove to DS2 what tempo one of the pieces should be played at (otherwise it would have been the slowest 'March' ever!)

On the sight-reading, the series DS2 and I both use is Improve Your Sight-reading by Paul Harris (Faber Music). They are graded exercises to prepare for exams and develop the skills needed. I would get the grade 4 one Mistigri as the first part of the book would recap skills from grade 3 before it moves to more advanced stuff.

Thanks all for quick responses! I will definitely try to praise first, and go lightly with the corrections. The error we fell out over yesterday was her playing EEEE when it was EEDD so it wasn't something I could leave for her teacher to correct really! But her sense of rhythm and pulse is so much better than it was even just a week ago, that I could start by saying how well she's doing on that I guess and see if I still get the same "but I AM playing it right" reaction...

I'm not allowed to make comments or suggest improvements either (though funnily enough DD is quite happy to correct ME when I am playing the guitar ;) ). Most of the time there's not much I can help her with tbh, but I've tried suggesting that she look at the score at bit more when playing the piano (she plays absolutely everything from memory) and that just results in screaming.

On a related note can anyone suggest progressive sight reading materials (for piano)? Ideally I'd like a book that spans roughly grade 3-4 sight reading materials. She is comfortably playing pieces around grade 5-6 now, but her sight reading is held back by being slow at reading the bass clef.

Oh, just to add you are allowed to scream into a pillow when they come back saying 'the teacher says it's like this, you didn't tell me that'!!

Hmm, Bramshott, this sounds very like DS2, known as Mr Independent! Though he is MUCH better now, maybe they all have to go through this stage! We still have shoutiness over sight-reading, though! With DS2 if it got very heated, I would abandon the practice until another day and just make a note in the practice book that X was good but Y needs more work. It sounds like it's early days for your DD, so keep sessions short and expect one or two mistakes as normal - the teacher is your friend here, and will sort them out in the next lesson.

With DS2 I always had to begin with praise and enthusiasm - there will be something to praise, even if it's just getting to the end of the exercise! If there were errors, I'd suggest playing it again to see if he corrected anything. If it was still wrong, I'd ask if I could have a go and then act a bit surprised that it sounded different - then I'd say, 'oh, that was sneaky of them, see what you have to do here?' That usually worked - after that, one more go of trying to do it correctly would be fine until next session, right or wrong. Any improvement is positive and kids are good, they tend to learn from mistakes quite quickly, not like me.

And then I tried to remember to be enthusiastic about the fact he'd practised at all and pour myself a large !!! Good luck, your DD's enthusiasm will win the day!

Bramshott - we have the same problem, not helped by my lack of musical credentials! Many a time the teacher tells her what she has filed to accept from me.....no solution here so will watch the thread with interest.

Well dd is unexpectedly being entered for G5 cello this session....so we have a new piece and scales to work on, just as everyone starts to think about concerts etc!

Our instruments are just specified as valuable personal possessions on our household policy. I was advised a few years back that if you'd be happy with the cash in the case of a theft, then that's the way to go. Where the specialist companies (I used to have a British Reserve policy) excel is that they will try to find your instrument, not just pay up for it.

I could really do with a bit of advice on DD2 and her piano lessons/practice. She is keen and loving it, but will NOT accept help/correction with her practice! Ended up in a teary stand-off yesterday when she was insisting she was playing the right notes, and I was trying to point out gently that she wasn't. Her personality is very much like that (very defensive if she feels criticised; fiercely independent and very self-sufficient) but I can't just leave her to practise on her own between lessons at this early stage!! I did try to explain along the lines of "this is tricky and you're only just starting, you're doing really well, and when I tell you that note is wrong I'm not saying it's terrible or you're stupid, just that you need to check the note again", but to no avail (DD2 was sobbing and overwrought by this point). Sigh. Anyone else??

That's a coincidence on insurance! I had a frenzy of music admin efficiency yesterday and finally remembered to insure DS1's flute (with Allianz, including unattended car provision, though at the moment the likelihood of leaving it in the car seems a bit remote). Also entered the DSs for their G3 and G1 exams and ordered the cello scales book. Can now move on to my next to-do list!

Insurance is at the front of my mind at the moment Troutsprout as we're going to be buying in the next few weeks. We use BBIS, but they have a sister company, Musicians Insurance Service, for non-brass players. We didn't look around much, BBIS provide insurance for the band so were an easy choice. The things we specifically asked about for were coverage of theft from the car boot and what they felt about having a £4.5k instrument at school and on the school bus. I think the premium is 4% of the value (plus tax).

Congratulations on the new instrument, DS said that he could play so much better on the one he was trying out at the weekend, my mother was so impressed at the difference that she's going to let him use it before Christmas. Hopefully we kick the purchase off with the assisted instrument purchase form tomorrow.

Dd has her new clarinet ( a combo of grandparents and our b/day and early xmas presents )
She tried out about 10 different clarinets and different mouthpieces too ... We were there 2 1/2 hours.
Sounds beautiful ...really clean ...and seems to be loads easier to play than her student model. The high register sounds soooo much better.
Fair trade and british made too! It's a thing of beauty.
I've just insured it with Allianz ... Didn't really look around tbh- who do you lot use?

The children are enjoying the holidays. Our clocks have changed and spring has definitely sprung meaning they get up and have more energy! I love holidays because we don't have to rush practising. There's been plenty of time to play choir music on instruments, and music from Cats and Joseph. All the things that are harder to fit in during term time. I do miss Christmas being cold. I don't think I will ever get used to carolling in 30 degrees!

Hi everyone! I've been following these threads for a while but as dd1 (7) has now been entered for her Grade 1 singing in November I thought it was time I actually jumped on! She has done several dancing exams (where I'm always a lot more nervous than she is!) but it's her first music exam so we'll see what happens!

They've just got back, apparently they found a trombone that had to be prised from him so that's a win. It is reserved for us so I just have to do the paperwork to get the local authority to order it (assisted instrument purchase - vat free). Hopefully the insurers will be able to do a part year so that I can have the renewal fall at the same time as his other instrument, I'm all for keeping things simple.

Ishouldbeweaving - good luck with the trombone shopping.

We are guitar shopping this afternoon, theoretically for me (I've started playing seriously again and my birthday is coming up) but it probably makes sense to get an instrument that DD can use for jazz guitar. (She tends to take her acoustic along to jazz workshops but it is significantly harder to play some of the jazz chords on the acoustic, especially as she has mini hands.) I'm taking her along as my guitar tester as she is a much better player than me.

Hello to the new faces, I'm glad DS didn't want to play harp because I think we would have needed a bigger car. All this time I've been glad that he didn't want an Eb bass and now I'm thinking that there are even worse instruments to cart about.

A question - is there anyone whose DC sat their GCSE music exam in Y10? What did they do with the resulting gap in the timetable in Y11? I could ask school but it's possible that I've got the wrong end of the stick and he's not sitting it next summer. I don't want to look like That Mother without due cause.

No music school for us this Saturday, we're going trombone shopping.