New Year Music and Musicians Thread

Newlife It is a lovely sound. DD's bari is only borrowed through school, she plays it in all her ensembles, school, music service and community. She has her own alto.

Every year at the Music Festival the adjudicator comments on the gorgeous bari sound in the school sax ensemble. There are two of them, both slight girls, surrounded by tall boys on altos and tenors!

Waffle

That's amazing, I've never known anyone have so many.
I know dh gains great satisfaction from teaching the few he has, but he isn't really a conventional teacher.
They don't have to be great, but the attitude has to be right.

They came home with a soprano with straight and curved necks, a tenor and a baritone. They traded in several mouthpieces and a tenor, I think.
There are more cases than before. Oh, my ears.
I don't mind bari though because the low notes are beautiful.

Icould
your letter to Mr Bassoon should be a classic of epistolar literature up there with the exchanges between Anais Nin and Henry Miller.
Can't wait for Bassoon's answer.

Waffle

sounds like you teach some from home too.
It drives me mad sometimes, not the pupils though it's dh practising.
I don't mind nice tunes or even scales and long notes but some of the exercises he does are downright nasty on the ears
I complained so much that we put the house up for sale so he could have a garage or workshop type of thing sound proofed.
He went off the idea of moving, sign came down and we're back to square one.

I so want to practice regularly I'm not very good as don't get the chance, but dh bought me my dream clarinet for Christmas, I've hardly touched it

School starts again on Monday, DS has a workshop this Sunday, his second bassoon lesson on Wednesday, music centre Saturday and another workshop on Sunday. Business as usual then, plenty of petrol in the car and cash in my purse.

Only got tomorrow with dd left too. Her and dh have gone to Yorkshire trying out new instruments, buying and selling etc.
Trouble is they will sell 2 or 3 and come back with 2 others
She has her eye on a baritone, Tenor and a new upgrade soprano. I'd be saying no but her, dh and finger wrapping, I'll say no more.

I'm enjoying the last day of the holidays. It all starts back tomorrow, piano lessons am, the DS2 is doing jazz workshop both afternoons.

Musicmom1 just saw your post - many thanks! I hadn't heard of London Cello Day but it sounds fantastic! Not sure about this year but I will definitely make a note for next year. I love the idea of all those cellos turning up!

We're not going fast at all! In fact, although ds2 has the workbook for grade 3 theory, he seems to be going through it very, very slowly! Ds1 is doing practice papers for grade 4 but there are gaps that need to be filled in before he can do grade 5 and I think December makes more sense. The main difference between them is that ds1 really enjoys theory and ds2 doesn't!

ha wafflenose. But only the superdc on mumsnet are doing all this so fast. My dd1 has just done grade 4 in 1 instrument and about to do grade 3 coming term (was planned to do together but ) She has only just been told to start thinking about theory. Luckily her (secondary) school teaches it, so think she will start attending theory lessons in Sept, and I have been told it takes them 1 year to get through it.
But then she isn''t very motivated like your dcs. She practised her 2nd instrument twice during these holidays and only slightly more frequently on her first instrument. after a lot of nagging...
ds, hm, not sure he has practised at all...

Waffle: completely forgot about the March one just past(I was only checking for this year earlier and it showed only Jun and Dec, silly me)

Had I done it differently then I would have theory is learning in parallel to practical, I just never heard of theory at all until January this year from this forum. I think for each child there is a different approach and depends whats your plan for them. My daughter is a fast learner(but not deep) and has little patience. I am always worried she might drop music if she isnt being challenged, she loves being stretched and challenged, she is excited in learning new things. I do also have a plan for her to go back and focus on academic from year 5 as she will have to take 11+ route so I will have to drop music a little. Also my standard for music is low and I only want a pass for theory so hopefully that could be achievable, lets see. The worst case scenario then we would have the exam as a trial (expensive) test and if we fail we will retake in Dec.

Fleur: theory tests are only twice a year.

My lesson learnt from this first one to the baby: do not start piano too early, its waste of time and money and they might give it up for good. Do not start violin too late. Learn theory in parallel.

My dd is 12 and still not done hers, it would have bothered me but it's not something school have wanted to push this year.
So much has improved though and where she used to be a high merit on aural sight reading/ singing she is now a clear distinction.
So much has improved and I don't recognise her playing sometimes now
I'm buying music to make me feel like I do still have a little control of what she plays, but I'm kidding myself

Waffle if it makes you feel better DD is still going through grade 1 book veeeerrrryyyy slooooowwwww!

She always did theory since she started piano at 6 but took it slow and did activity books (stickers, colouring in quavers and so on). Only now she's doing some "proper" theory and I hope it will speed up to ensure she can progress past grade 5 but there is no rush. The fastest she'll do grade 5 practical could be next March, therefore she'd have another year after that to do grade 5 theory. So no rush here.

How many theory exam sessions are there in a year? 3 sessions, same as practical?

Loose - I thought you might be headed for full size soon; DD loves her's as its much louder of course 😀 Have you seen the London Cello Day details for next weekend - always a great day and I love seeing what seems love hundreds of cellos arriving. Def worth thinking about.

Fleur: hope minifleur will enjoy the new book, how exciting. We had a book of 50 greatest songs of all time from Yamaha as a complimenf for purchasing the piano and in the book Fur Elise was one of them. I told my daughter there is a girl at grade 3 piano is going to learn this song, she was really impressed.

Pique, Fleur: hahaha, I will tell her the same. In fact she has a small soft lump on her middle finger in her right hand due to holding the bow and she was told that finger is the most beautiful because it shows her violin work and she should be incredibly proud of it(not too sure if she buys it yet)

Loose: thats it, Indian Pony race, she is still "sight reading" it now so we will come to the "fast phase" very much later especially with theory and violin exam. I am hoping she doesnt have much home work now, her progress at school is ok then she could focus on theory this term. I havent planned for her piano exam yet even this year as I am really hoping to have theory done out of the way first. If she is bored of the pieces then she can do some other songs in between.

That's a really interesting link, PiqueABoo. I have small hands but can just manage octaves ok.
Green I'm learning the Indian Pony Race, too, it is really great fun but the challenge will be to play it fast. I think your DD will enjoy it, especially on the new piano of loveliness! Good luck with the grade 5 theory, too. I don't think ds1 will do it until autumn as we have three exams next term and I don't think I can cope with anymore than that!

*required by her teacher

hahaha Pique, Dd's other love is ice skating. We were having a similar joke more so before her exam, if you do fall don't put your hands down, make sure you keep your fingers up in the air.

Just got Dd's new music books as required by her DD and all I can see is black dots on the stave, lots of them. First thought was "really?! She'll be able to play these in a few months' time?!" I guess she will if her teacher thinks so but I have to say they look really hard.

DD enjoyed herself the other day protesting that one of her current pieces has some (major) tenths. I can't reach those either. Went looking and there's some discussion of 'hand span' distributions and a pretty graph here:

www.smallpianokeyboards.org/how-many-pianists-have-small-hands.html

Re. injury risks DD's favourite physical activity is fairly serious rock-climbing which isn't exactly an ideal choice for a pianist. I'm not that troubled by the prospect of her falling hundreds of metres to a certain death provided she doesn't injure her fingers - realistically, injured fingers are the much greater risk and applying too much climbing stress on growing hands/fingers is also a bad idea (not that it stops idiot parents making their little climbing prodigies).

Anyway, DD is aware of but has shown no interest in Moonlight Sonata for which I'm very, very grateful because that 1st movement is something I don't need to hear again. And definitely likeable Einaudi obviously gets around, becase she's got one of the collection books.

Fleur I imagine that DD being an Internet savvy teenager found it free somewhere (I don't recall buying it) - but it is no doubt still in copyright ;)

If your DD has small hands you may have to adapt the LH part. When dd started learning it, she had to miss out the bass note - she could reach it (just) but it's a very repetitive left hand part, and she didn't want to risk an injury to her (guitar) fretting hand.

Green good luck with the exams ... We are still waiting to find out what DD has to play for her audition in May/ June ... She says her teacher is being a bit vague! It will be OK though because she will be assessed at a much lower level than she currently plays at.