New Year Music and Musicians Thread

Greenleave yay. Definitely better than a car. I can't stop thinking how nice if all cars in London were pianos instead. Music in the air instead of fumes!

howabout We live in London and the council contracted out (like everything else ) the schools music service to the local performing arts FE college. I guess this is one of the advantages.

Well come new joiners!

Just a quick note to say I couldnt resist so I bought it online today, it will be delivered in a week, its a new U3 SH silent. There will be beans on toasts and no trip to coffee shop for me for a long time however hopefully its worth it, I keep telling myself that we use it more than our car which we even have to pay tax for it and use it very little so its worth it!

Hi MrsWombat very jealous of you getting to go to a school concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

Mine started playing various instruments at 7 and 8. I am a great believer in little and often and even now they are 13 and 14 they still stick to about 10-15 minutes per instrument per day (except they also spend a lot of time at orchestra rehearsals etc etc out the house as well now). If you can find a 15 minute slot like straight after homework or before minecraft (DD2 is only just outgrowing this) it is much easier to get into a routine.

If you want the theory book for yourself then I would go for the AB Guide. I started off with the best of intentions to learn all this properly before teaching DD1. In the end I didn't get round to it and DD1 taught herself from the ABRSM grade books in conjunction with the guide as a detail reference. We did have some half hearted attempts when they were young but actually she mostly did it all from scratch in 3 months prior to the grade 5 exam. I would say no rush for theory as it is much easier when they are a bit older.

Sleeping we don't do exams but it has been said to me that DD would be a good candidate for the practical musicianship tests if she wanted to do them. Not sure I completely agree with this for piano (the suggestion was from her old piano teacher ) as her piano sight reading isn't that good, though it's a strong point on her other instruments.

She is very good at transposing, improvisation and playing by ear - I watched her record an improvised piano accompaniment to one of her songs last weekend, in a single take with no prior practice (obviously she did know what the chords were). It's one of those things that some people are just mysteriously good at, and the rest of us find baffling!

Teachers tend to be a good judge of this sort of thing so I would follow his/her advice.

Thanks Waffle- Ds is very good at maths so I think he'll be fine with theory, but we haven't really done a lot. But his teacher thinks he can probably do the musicianship quickly. So it's probably worth a try and then do theory in a more leisurely fashion. (Is there a need to take the exam if he gets grade 5 musicianship or is it just useful for scales etc?)

He is very good at sight reading and has been practising transposition- so that makes sense. I'd say less good at aural, but I think perhaps my standards are high as he always does well in exams!

Hello everyone! I've just read through the past 700 odd posts and am amazed at how talented you and your children are!

I have a nearly 8 year old who has been learning clarinet in group classes during school time since September. He's done the copper medal, and is currently working towards bronze. He's also just come home with some grade 1 music and scales to start learning so I guess we are in for the long haul! He's in the school orchestra and they are currently working on an end of school year performance, and for a concert the local music service (who organises the school teachers) are organising at the Royal Festival Hall. (I might be rather excited at that!)

My background is I learned Recorder (rather well but didn't realise there were grades) and Violin (rather badly) at primary school as well as being in a RSCM choir, and learned the keyboard in a hurry to do GCSE Music. So I know enough to get him through the beginning bits I hope!

So a couple of questions for you lovely lot!

How much practice should I realistically be looking at persuading DS to do to get him through to grade 1? (He's very keen once he dragged away from Minecraft and gets started) How much a week and how many months? (How longs a piece of string!)

I'm looking at buying a music theory book to keep as reference for myself but also maybe look at DS doing music theory grade one once he's done grade one Clarinet. (after reading this thread) Which one should I get...First Steps In Music Theory or The AB Guide to Music Theory?

Thanks- he plays quite well by ear so hopefully that will help? Sounds like it might be easier than gr 5 theory in the short term anyway

My DD did this as after she'd been doing theory lessons for a while, it became clear that it was going to be a long process. She just had a handful of lessons with a different teacher, and passed with an A (equivalent of distinction). Much much easier than gr 5 theory, which she did pass eventually. But you do need good aural ability.

Hope you don't mind if I join in? I've read a few pages of this thread- and been very impressed by so many dc - but certainly not read it all so apologies if this has been covered already.

Does anyone know anything about practical musicianship?

Ds (9) has just done grade 4 piano and will hopefully take grade 2 cello next term. He's a very quick learner and hasn't really been playing that long. His teacher thinks he should try practical musicianship rather than grade 5 theory. But I've no idea what it involves. Would be good to hear if anyone else went down this route

Music is actually THE activity for which children get serious scholarships and funding. Far more than for any other activity, surely.

Raspberry: 22 exams!!!!you must have a steel nerve.

Newlife: yes, it sounds alot, I thought we spend quite alot on music(£65/week, sometimes more if close up to exam and if our teacher has to come to the exam). I cant imagine having 2 at the sametime not mentioning 3. We tried to conceive the second one in the past but now I feel fortunate about the age gap as I dont know if I could handle 2 of them at the sametime and paying for equally same cost(but then we have to pay for nanny cost).

Funnily the U3 and U1 is 15cm wider than my current piano and it means it wont fit to the current piano place now. We are thinking of rearranging the whole living room then we realised if so we need a new sofa...hahaha, we are stretching our budget alittle too far I think!

In terms of cost though, it can't be as expensive as dancing
probably not far off but at least there isn't uniform, make up, costumes for shows.

Even instrument repairs, insurance, accessories and all the rest doesn't add up to what we paid when dd danced. She only reached intermediate level and it was bad enough.

Wow raspberry I don't want to account the £££ spent on the exams at your end as it would make me rethink the future

raspberry I think that is something that you are better off not knowing, once you've counted the exams then you can never go back to blissful ignorance.

Wow Raspberry.. That's amazing

Newlife I'll bear it in mind!

Fleur I've just counted, between the three its 22 practical Grades on 7 instruments, 1 theory plus DS2 3 RSCM singing levels.

I feel exhausted and penniless!

DS2 will have some more yet!

Raspberry great news.

raspberry

I can recommend a good teacher who taught some of the leading conservatoire teachers
I'm glad it's not all stopping for you at once, our other two weren't musical and their sport was very local so no ferrying them about.
I miss it with dd, but coming to terms with it now.

Looks like Ave Maria then, thanks folks.
Hope she likes it. She's heard it and attempted it before, can't remember if she liked it or not.

Congrats raspberry I guess that means you have been through 16 exams as a parent?

NewLife I'd love to hear your DD singing Ave Maria!

Absolutely Icouldbe, we frequent the same threads!

Thank you everybody.

Newlife no the running around hasn't finished yet, only DS1 goes off in Sept. And he has been driving so my running round will increase when hes not here to drive the other two. We still have final Spring concerts and he's going on school band trip in July.

They'll both carry on with their music lessons until summer. I don't know what DD will do next year (Y12). Her sax teacher is retiring anyway and she isn't sure what she wants to do. It wont be a diploma! Definitely feels like the end of an era though.

Problem might be if she stops school lessons as to whether we can still hire the school bari sax which she plays in all her bands. (She did exam on her own alto).

DS2 will finish his choristership in July so next year will be very different.

Drummer - what a lovely story!

Raspberry - wow well done to you and DCs alike, great achievement (ESP matching scores!)

Newlife - we love Ave Maria - DD plays it and it's one of her favourites

We break up tom but just found out DD has rehearsals Friday........