New Year Music and Musicians Thread

Well done to all those dc's who have had exams. I hope they all do ok
Thanks also for your thoughts about music practice

Your DD's lifetime of course.

Fleur it sound to me as if the teacher's expectations are putting YOU under pressure. It's a hard one to fight for parents but just think what little difference her teacher's reaction (disappointment or elation) will make in her lifetime! Just focus on your DD and make her proud of going through it once again, like you said.

Thank you mom17

*out

Best of luck to Li'l fleur, I am sure she will come put with flying colors like last time.

Well done little 2ndSopranos sounds all good news!

Green I agree completely and I keep saying to my DD that I don't care what the exam result is, what matters is that she worked hard and she has my admiration for her determination. I am so proud of her!

I guess I am getting nervous as I feel her hard work may not be rewarded with the result she is hoping for, I am doing my best to lower her expectations by explaining it is only 10 min of her time and it may not reflect how hard she worked for it.

She's done.

She came out seeming happy enough, although her accompanist says she did miscount a rest. She also said it wouldn't have really made much difference and she played beautifully. She knew all her scales and said she definitely made sure to observe dynamics in the sight reading. So we shall see!

You must be obsessed at some point to be able to be really good at anything especially extra curr related(art, music, sport) as it needs alot of work and most important self motivation. This is the reason I hope hoping for my daughter to learn to play couple of instrument well. She doesnt have a gene nor talent but I am still hoping she learns the hardwork, determination and self disciplined through it(apart from the skills itself). Another thing I am hoping she will be better than us and appreciate music better as we are both nonmusically and super "dry", little taste to music(if you know what I mean).

Fleur: some expectation is nice and works as a small push/encouragement for her to do well but try not to pressurise(I know its hard, I sounded so fake when I told my daughter many time before her exam: dont worry, you work hard, enjoy the pieces, slowdown in scales then it will be a pass. Even if its not a pass then its fine, there isnt anything missed, we just know that we need more time and practise a little harder-This is what I told her before any exam actually, I even know come to believe it hahaha). My tiny trick, dont think about the exam rather than planning for the future after exam(but independent of exam results), this then keeps us being busy and distracted( I was trying planning for theory and violin and swimming and thinking of a piano which our little baby wont be able to make any damage)

2ndsopranos how did it go? I hope all went to plan and no surprises for your DD if she finished the exam already.

I am starting to feel sick in the stomach also for Saturday and I am doing my best not to show the nerves. It started this morning as we only have 5 days left and all I have done all morning is googling "grade 3 piano" information, I mean I am now a walking encyclopaedia on the exams

Not sure how this helps me, but I have this image that Dd's teacher may be disappointed if she gets less than a distinction as she keeps saying how DD is her best student. I am sure this wouldn't be the case as in the end DD is the produce of her teaching but I still can't stop thinking it.

Oh and I have this image that DD will restart her pieces 20 times (she doesn't do this at home but you never know) and when the examiner will ask in her aural test if the change was in pitch or rythm DD will say "so which one is which again?"

BBC Young Musician 2016 on BBC Four
Friday 8 April – Keyboard category final
Friday 15 April – Woodwind category final
Friday 22 April – Percussion category final
Friday 29 April – Brass category final
Friday 6 May – Strings category final
Saturday 7 May – semi-final
Friday 13 May – Jazz Award final
Sunday 15 May – final

Thanks everyone. Lovely having somewhere to share things like this

Still a bit stunned!

trout don't get me wrong - I don't think obsessiveness is worrying in itself, in fact all the best performers have that or they would not reach the top level of technical achievement! I know a lad who started guitar about the same time as DD and is incredibly motivated and obsessive, and also an extremely skilled guitarist (far better than DD, he is jawdroppingly good). He does have some social difficulties but nothing major. DD is a different sort of musician, she's not motivated by virtuoso playing at all, her main skill is composition (for eg today she's written a new song - guitar and vocal - and also arranged and recorded vocal, piano and guitar parts for a cover version. She basically improvised the piano part, she's done this so much that it's second nature now).

Grade 1 violin tomorrow. I feel sick with nerves for her. I haven't pushed practice too much this weekend - literally just got her to play her pieces and do her scales.

She doesn't seem that nervous. I'm sure she is though.

Yes .. It's def a perfectionist thing.. Oh well .. It's obviously something I DO need to think about. Thanks for your help anyway Misti

Gosh Raspberry "most promising young singer" eh? I'm proud and I don't even know them!

DS is away on a county residential this weekend so I'm going out for lunch with just my husband later on. It's a thing that never happens and I'm looking forward to it. I will have a big sticky pudding as I don't have to set a good example today.

Rumour has it that there's a school concert coming up although DS was a bit vague on the date. No change there then.

trout my DD is not obsessive about it in that perfectionist way, I can see why you might find it a bit much. It's more of an expressive thing for DD, or just plain "having fun". If anything she is not perfectionist enough especially when it comes to public performances (she relies too heavily on the fact she she performs better under stress).

Misti: its amazing at that age and they already grow a serious passionate and willing to work hard for it

Raspberry: your ds2 results are amazing!

Wow Raspberry.. Amazing achievements!
Good luck to everyone waiting for results

Oh thank Gawd Misti ... I was seriously starting to think..omg ! she's the only one!!
That's exactly it... It's hours!
She goes from clarinet to keyboard and back again. It's not always practice as such.. More like she's mucking about ...playing with it I guess. So similar to your girl.
More at weekends...(plus she is at music school one of those days.) Her mouth hurts at the weekends.
She does some parts over and over and over.. And she makes up bits and she records it and listens and does it again. This is the bit that seems quite intense and a bit obsessive to me
I told her to stop last night at about 8pm because we live in a terrace and I feel bad for the neighbours.
My gut feeling is that it is something I need to keep my eye on. It seems unusual when I talk to other parents. Her sibling has an asd dx and sometimes when it comes to her music, I wonder about her too tbh.

Musicmom thanks. He fitted in a Maths challenge day yesterday and a Piano masterclass this afternoon too! Think it's a good job its not a choir day tomorrow.

Raspberry - Wow!!! What amazing performances/results and ESP your DS2. And what stamina too!

Well done Waffle! Are you all done?

Good luck to examinees and festival performers alike.