New Year Music and Musicians Thread

Greenleave - be careful what you wish for - DS at over 6 foot and still growing rapidly is the tallest in the family, while DD and I see rather too eye to eye for comfort (she's just over 5 foot 5, but as a dancer spends a lot of her life on tiptoe!). I will be the shortest in the family only too soon.

[Goes back to the fruitless task of trying to find school trousers for DS in 26" waist, 34 inch inside leg - or I would take 28 inch waist with button elastic. His size 11 feet with weedy ankles aren't much better]

I feel I am staying sane because I have such a gap between them, I have a massive admiration for parents with any closer gap.

Speaking of height, I am 5'2" too and I thought I was smallest, even on here!:) and I have a secret wish for my children to be taller than us( who is still squeezing fresh oranges to give the kids daily and who is secretly pushing them in their swimming-min 10 laps each time in the pool before fun time)

Green

Practice should be constant, honestly, you never know it all.
My dh still practises between 2 and 4 hours a day, it's his work.

Dd about 3 hours but it's never all at once, spread out through the day.
It's also about quality as well. If you are doing it right 30 mins is better than 3 hours giving yourself a little concert and not getting to the nitty gritty bits.
Here endeth the lesson on practice/ practise I can never remember.

Noteven

That was beautiful and so different. I loved the harmony and your ds solo was really good.

Greenleave

I don't think she appreciates what she's got tbh, it must be hard for her to comprehend, which is why i may appear about meh about it all.
One of us needs feet on the ground, those two are too much sometimes.
I love them dearly but sometimes it's such hard work just staying sane.
Maybe we could swap just for musical purposes, mind.

Noteven: you must be very proud! Congratulations on his big achievement!

Fleur: I keep them all too(with a faint hope that the little baby might use them in the future, also they have her own notes, it would be fun to see them again. We do look at some of her drawings when she was a todler and we still laugh our heads off...

Newlife: wow, all these instruments! You are lucky having your husband who is into it too. I asked my husband to leave her education to me and I feel regret sometimes as I feel lonely and stuck many moments like these. He however is trying to help with all other things(entertain us, keep us happy and balanced).

Waffle, anyone who has music theory experiences, please can I ask if there is an easy way to learn the foreign terms. I was told by our teachers on email tonight that she must learn them by heart. I am thinking I might have to google a list then stick them on the fridge or something for her to learn by heart.

Also second question is: is it true that the higher grade you do the more practice you need? And roughly how much for a grade 3 and/or 4 each day your child is doing?

Fleur - DD loves dipping back into earlier books now (not do much at the tine!) and it is quite interesting to see the difference from when she first played them. So I would vote for keeping if you can and think dd might enjoy them again in the future.

Noteven - wow!

Raspberry - I can't work out how our summer term got do busy already; DD seems to have offered herself out as a 'spare' cello in all sorts of places. Not quite sure all the logistics will work...

Can't believe we are still awaiting the clarinet exam result from March.....

Here's DS singing with his lovely choir at the school concert where he won the award for highest contribution to school music. He's the first soloist
Nice to be able to share here.

Fleur I still have all my music from when I was learning violin and I used it to teach my own DC so don't be too quick to discard.

Good job its nearly a new term as we have almost filled this thread!

Next term's calendar is already starting to fill up with unforeseen events, I thought it was going to be quiet, GCSE s and Alevels aside

I passed on all mine to piano teacher, occasionally she arrives with a couple of £1. I gave some to a friend, and she went to our piano teacher and asked her to order the next book DS would need on her behalf.

Size wise, 5' 6.5" and DD is just taller than me, to her great satisfaction.

DH is just over 6' and my DS1 is just over 6' 4"

We gave all the beginner music to his music teacher, we didn't know any learners and it was a waste of space.

Waffle we've had some interesting concerts with our county wind band. Their conductor has a tie in with one of the conservatoires so occasionally they do a joint event. Soon they will be having a day of workshops with the conservatoire wind ensemble and on one residential they had an afternoon of being conducted by a succession of students on a conducting course (DS thought that was very good, you can learn a lot by watching people get things wrong). Ours is subsidised to the point of being cheap which is a rare and splendid thing.

If Goo is younger than the rest of the band bear in mind that their procedures will be based on older teens. DS was in a children's ensemble and county at the same time and there were big differences between the two - he much preferred county as he got to keep his phone all day and go to bed an hour and a half after his normal time. It's probably not so bad if there's a range of ages but the audition he went to seemed to be made up of people wanting a line on their personal statement and currently the majority of players drive themselves to rehearsals (the age range goes up to 21 although the majority drop out when they go off to university). I found it a little worrying when he was 13, less so now he's older.

Can private people sell on Amazon?

Thanks waffle I'll have a look. I guess I'll keep all the graded scales but is there a reason to keep the other graded ones? She's now picking repertoire from different books so not sure she'll ever use them again, unless for sight reading.

Needless to say this is the list of the books I don't want, there are more such as the books in which the alternative pieces were but I will keep those just for repertoire.

Quick question: what does everybody do with old music books, such as previous grades or method books? I am tidying up and we have rather a lot of music books to which I believe DD will not go back such as a method book, grade 1, 2 and 3 books abrsm, upgrade 1-2 book and a few more books I bought just for when she'd be ready but forgot about them and now she's past them such as nursery rhymes. So what do I do with them? I don't want to think how much money they costed me . So what what do you do with old redundant books?

waffle DD is 5'2 (and a half, probably) - just marginally taller than me. Her dad is tall and she was quite a tall child but she stopped growing at 12. Her hands and feet have been the same size since before she left primary school (she's a 36 shoe - UK4 I think). I remember her first guitar teacher telling her that her guitar was just the right size "for now" - she has grown no more than an inch since then and her hands not at all! Her brother will be the tall one.

What do string players do if they never grow out of a 3/4 size instrument? Do they have to move up to a full-size anyway? DD can play larger guitar sizes but depending on the shape they are not necessarily very comfortable. And reach is an issue on piano (an octave is a stretch).

Waffle - dd's predicted height is exactly the same, and braces go on next week. Our two continue to have twin like tendencies. Will you sign up for County? Our County options will gave wait until spring 17 I think.

New - interesting. DD is happy with Alto for now but she tried a bass (with low c) clarinet recently - I loved the sound and she does have the reach for it, but it still looks a bit too much for her physically. Think I will agree to an A clarinet for now. (And am still resisting e bassoon.....)

Misti

I don't think I could either, I'm only 4ft 10.5 and the .5 is very important to me

raspberry I'm sure your dd will be fine and i expect if not fully grown yet, very close.
I also think at dd school they have to go by the research and what they know because they could be in so much trouble if a child was injured.
Plus, on another point completely, my dd is only 12 and I suspect they want her to concentrate on Alto for now and soprano and clarinet as extras. This on top of Piano and singing is surely enough.
I think at some time she has to pick up flute too.

I have a good friend who plays bari sax in a professional jazz ensemble, so DD got to try it when we were in the UK last year. She's fully grown but there is no way she
could play bari - too short/ petite and hands too small (she does have very small hands!). She's 14 and she is definitely not going to grow any more!

That has always worried me a bit, tbh. She does use a good harness rather than neck strap. She rarely practises on it as her alto is her exam instrument. The bari lives at school mostly, except for concerts. However she is 16 this month and I would think now fully grown.

Ha Ha it reminds me of the goon sketch with the little man sitting on a high stool playing contrabass.
She thinks they're hers but she can't take them to school and her teacher would have a fit, so they stay at home or dh work
Apparently, there is extensive research that shows

"girls shouldn't play anything bigger than an alto until fully grown"
I don't think a bit of a blow will harm, but can see why teacher wouldn't allow intensive practice, which is required at school, iyswim.