New Year Music and Musicians Thread

waffle piano certainly does seem to take more (and more focussed) practice than other instruments, so it is definitely good for teaching that effort in = results out.

DD is used to taking no more than an hour or two to master a guitar piece, so piano was a new experience for her. She's working a longer piece at the moment (a Chopin nocturne), which will probably take 4-6 weeks to get right, so we are again in new territory in terms of the sustained effort required.

I just wish she would read the music rather than memorising everything straight off ... I fear this is a guitarist habit that she is never going to break.

Not a music exam but…first outing at a festival for DS today and it seemed to go very well. He didn't win either class he was entered into, but came away with a merit and a distinction respectively so is very pleased with himself. It was amazing to see some quite different instruments in one of his classes - bassoon, oboe, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet, playing very different styles of music. I don't know about him, but I learnt a lot!

It dawned on me last weekend that in school dance band play in black, with the girls in ankle length skirts. Miraculously DD and I found a skirt on Boohoo that she actually likes.

This is for the dance band class at our Festival next week. She and DS1 are in 3 bands, playing consecutively. Black trousers, white shirts and appropriate band tiefor the first two. Black shirts, plus change into skirt for DD, for final band. They aren't the only ones doing this, its quite fun watching the mayhem. DS1 has a change of instruments too.

Green. I have 3 musicians here. But not so little now as eldest tops 6'4", and is hopefully off to Uni in Sept. It gets very noisy!

How tall is she? I got DD an adult size 6 when she was 1, from Asda.

Whoops, sorry. Girl "child" so not Burtons then.

Loose: hope he is enjoying the practice, there is plenty time in July! I cant imagine having 2 little musicians in the house or have to take care both of them at the same time, for me now after putting the baby to bed then I turn to the elder one!!!

Fleur: they do that do they, couple of times our tutor told us that she just wasnt listening, completely distracted(then he was being kind saying may be because she was tired on the day, but some cases I know she was just not concentrated. Regarding to stopping in the middle my tutor always remind us that during the test if there was a mistakes realised while playing the pieces then just carry on playing as normal as its worse to stop and/or replay it as its upset the rythm/flow of the pieces

Oh, also try H&M have seen plain black there too.
Maybe a school outfitter may be good for long skirt, may be pleated though.
You might get the shirt there too.As long as it's at least 3/4 sleeve they are alright, so a pretty blouse would do just as good.

Rapidly

I know it's easier to get the shirt and skirt than the long dress, well until they are teen wearing adults.

dd doesn't have the dress as Big Band/ Jazz, not orchestra, but I got the shirt from BHS I'm sure it was school range.
You could try the children's section of River Island, her first was from there and they go up to twelve.
I'm sorry, I can't help with skirts as dd wears trousers and shirt.

Have you asked on the school forum, I bet you'd get lots of ideas there.

I've bought black shirts from Burtons in the past, the boy is now man sized and now I get them from Marks and Spencer. It's not cheap but it is convenient.

i think doing the mock exam on a Friday might have contributed - has she had a busy week?
My two set off for theory tonight with the younger looking like he was being sent to prison and the elder looking keen but a bit decrepit after overdoing it in PE! There was a bit of piano practice from DS2 but the alleged xylophone practice sounded suspiciously like a guitar so DS1 has gone back upstairs to do the practice he was meant to do!

Oh and in aural, teacher: "now I'll play a piece twice with a change, you'll have to tell me if the change is in pitch or in rythm". DD: "what is pitch? Which one is which?"

She was doing fine in this area last week, suddenly she seems confused

Green if it makes you feel better DD had a crappy lesson tonight. Had a mock exam, we have issues with the scales, constant second takes, not that she doesn't know them but the moment she hears the request (A Major left hand for ex) she jumps straight at, misses a note and needs to start again. Pieces even though at home they are fluent she had two stops in one of them.

At least her teacher marked a merit in her sight reading which is her weak area.

So hopefully she'll pull herself together in the next two weeks. In fact, remembering last year experience with the scare 2 weeks before the exam I have decided next time I won't tell her the exam date and how much longer she's got as she seems to think it is fine to mess it all up 2-3 weeks before.

DS1 was a bit like that - if it wasn't effortless, give up! Funnily enough, I like that kind of constant going over things in piano - you think you will never play it and then suddenly you can, then you can improve it. It may be as Goo gets older that the piano really helps her in other studies as well.
Your young theory student sounds familiar. There seems to be something eminently 'collectable' about the guitar! It's lovely that you've been teaching him for so long - and that he's teaching you about his music!

Waffle - it definitely sounds like the perfect time to do piano. I really wish DS1 would learn as he has managed to teach himself a bit and to me sounds like he could be quite good if he did it properly. However, he is much more interested in guitars now!

The timing on Jack is Sad is deceptively difficult but I think good expression on that piece counts for a lot as well! Good luck with the exams - I am sure MiniFleur and MiniGreen are breezing through everything. DS2 can already play Stormy Coast better than I did and he's not doing the exam till July. Just as well, in his case, though as there is quite a lot of work left in other areas.
I have to say my two do not sound like the dedicated children I read about on this board. DS2 moans about doing theory, although I have to say DS1 does enjoy it and he's on a bit of a high at the moment as he was made one of the Music Ambassadors at school - he has a job description and a badge!
Glad it went so well for Goo and I hope she is feeling OK with the braces very soon - especially in time for the flute exam. She is a very resilient child.

We are going down hill with stormy coast for some reason as she was ok 3 weeks ago then after last lesson our tutor said the pulse was very uneven especially on quaver runs in bars 2,4,8,11,13. We need to work on Jack is sad too. It might be because she was tired on the day and also no practice during more than 2 weeks holiday.

I am only planning for dd to take g5 theory test as to be honest we are very busy(both have city long hours jobs) and lazy, trying to skim things if we could.

We have 1.5 hour lesson weekly for everything(piano, violin and theory). Our tutor takes home what she has finished during the week fir theory to mark and come back in the next lesson to explain bits she got wrong.

I see her reading the red book, took at least 2 weeks for the practice books then 2 past papers each weekend(she could do them all but I wanted to wait for the tutor feed back, correction). Grade 1, 90% consistent(may be too easy for 8 yrs old after more than 3 years practical learning, so no effort required. Grade 2 was hard, only had average 80% on 3 years(x4) past papers

Green I also meant to say, last year before the exam DD had some really poor lessons where the pieces went quite bad (including forgetting one of the pieces 3 weeks before as she was playing it from memory and she just suddenly couldn't do it anymore). However all went amazing in the exam and scored 137 points so don't stress too much.

Oh and her teacher would also like her to take grade 3 theory exam first just to familiarise herself with the format. Not sure when though.

DD (8 yo) does theory already in lesson, but just set as a homework. So the teacher takes 5 min to ensure that what is required in the book is explained or she understands what she is meant to do and sets her a couple of pages to do.

The plan going forward is that we would keep keep one of the lessons (she currently does two lessons a week 30 min each) for theory, scales, sight reading, and the other lesson based on repertoire and exam pieces when approaching another exam. This way there would be more focus on theory on weekly basis and she will keep having theory homework set.

Green DD is ready for the exam I would say but she still has a couple of things to cover in the next two weeks like improving the dynamics in the Stormy Coast and the timings in a couple of bars in Jack is Sad. Other than that I'd say she's ready.