New Year Music and Musicians Thread

Also fleurdelise - this is going back to a comment you made a couple of pages back - my daughter and I saw Amy (the film) at a music festival this summer. Very moving. She was so dreadfully let down by the people who should have had her best interests at heart :(

DD started on recorder with a teacher who taught and built traditional instruments (her husband made harpsichords for professional musicians, in a massive workshop behind their house). She played in a local baroque ensemble for a while, mostly with adults - a great experience for her. There are many ways of making music, all perfectly valid and equally important.

We don't have any exams imminent although DD is waiting to be given the pieces she will need to prepare for her end-of-year tests at the conservatoire. She is working on a piano duet written by a contemporary composer which is being given its premiere by a group of students from her conservatoire.

She has also been invited to play one of her songs (guitar + voice) live on radio the week after next - she was contacted out of the blue by a presenter who'd listened to one of her youtube videos.

Rapidly I think with theory it depends a lot on your instrument(s) and teachers and personal approach to music, but some students do seem to pick up theory quite intuitively without much formal tuition. DD played recorder then guitar then piano and by the time she had formal theory lessons (at a French music school where a weekly theory class is obligatory for all students) she was able to skip the first six years of theory class. In her case, playing and composing on the guitar, and having studied with a pro jazz guitarist, gave her a huge advantage in terms of understanding things like transposition, chords and rhythm.

I have found this attitude with my DS flute exams. He took G2 with ABRSM and G6 with Trinity because his teacher feels that Trinity is best for his type of playing and got the same distinction - but people still look down on his achievement because he 'obviously can't do scales, theory or the harder pieces and chose the easier exam'. This makes me soooo cross as it wasn't easy, just different requirements. No-one at his orchestras asked him which board he examined with.....just whether he could play the audition pieces. I shall go and have that glass of wine now

Don['t worry - I am sitting here being subjected to very loud amplified electric guitar as we speak.... punishment enough.

Thanks Loose, Raspberry and Uhtred for the reassurance.

When the recorder (not a proper orchestral instrument etc) was written about I laughed out loud - point proven. ABRSM is the better board in general. DeoGratias this is utter rubbish. DD has Trinity gr8 distinction recorder (for the reason given by Uhtred) and ABRSM gr8 distinction on what I expect you would see as a 'proper orchestral instrument'. The standard and preparation required was the same for each board. Both 'bits of paper' (which is all they are at the end of the day) are equally well respected by teachers/audition panels/conductors/adjudicators that she comes across. She did not take the Trinity recorder exam because it was easier (it wasn't) or because she didn't want/couldn't do gr 5 theory (because she had done it anyway). I will not start on how angry it makes me when people refer to the recorder as somehow a 'lesser' instrument than others - as I have had a nice day, am in a good mood and do not want to rant - instead I will go and have a glass of wine and Deo please go and listen to someone who plays the recorder well.

Loose - universities ask for grade 8 theory as an alternative to A level, not as an alternative to playing. DD1 applied to the top universities for music as a backup plan in case she didn't get a conservatoire offer and not one of them - and no conservatoires - required grade 8 theory. And none of them made any distinction between trinity and ABRSM either. As it happens DD1 is taking grade 8 theory this term but that's purely because she wants to, not because she has to.

Drummers - it's fine. Don't worry. DD1 Has 2 grade 8s from ABRSM and one from trinity. They are regarded as equal in quality. The conservatoires certainly don't consider one better than the other.

Deogratias I am ALSO writing as a classical musician and as the parent of a DD who was offered places at RCM, Guildhall and Birmingham conservatoire, and who will be starting at RCM in September. You don;t know what you're talking about. I suggest you stop.

drummersmum its fine.

I have no view on which is 'better' (if indeed one is). one of our local festivals will only accept absrm pieces in the grade class's which I thought was odd, esp since there is quite an overlap of pieces between absrm and trinity!

Even ABRSM Grade 8s don't necessarily have theory, they can do jazz or practical musicianship instead.

I'm sure it doesn't make any difference at grade 8. It might be why some university courses specifically ask for a theory grade separately, though, because not all students would have it if they switched to Trinity but as far as I know they don't specify particular boards.
By the way, as a fan of Early Music, I love recorders and vaguely remember the last two woodwind finals of Young Musician of the Year were won by recorder players!

DS has switched to Trinity for piano gr.8 and all this talk is making me doubtful ladies

Interesting. I move in the dance world a little as well - it's DD's 'thing' - and there are similar discussions around RAD vs ISTD ballet. They test different things - RAD is about 'doing rigidly set exercises with impeccable technique', ISTD has, from the earliest grades, an emphasis on 'knowing individual steps so that in the lesson or exam you can be given a new series of steps to dance, to unknown music, and you will be able to perform them'.

It seems to me - I did ABRSM, DS does Trinity jazz, DD has started ABRSM strings - that there is a similar divide between the different music boards. They value and test somewhat different skills within the 'overall sphere of music', though they have a considerable 'overlapping core' within the syllabus.

I suspect that in later life it's a bit like the old O-level boards - at the time, some people may have said that Oxford and Cambridge board was better than JMB, but what people care about now is that I have good O-levels in English and Maths and show those skills day to day (unless I'm typing fast!). I'm sure that genuine musicians don't sit around going 'I'm better than you, because I have ABRSM Grade 8, whereas you only have Trinity Grade 8'. They'll be talking about their latest commissions or concerts or employment.

When the recorder (not a proper orchestral instrument etc) was written about I laughed out loud - point proven. ABRSM is the better board in general.

However I am writing as a classical musician. I have a son who as well as his classical stuff learns the electric guitar and one of my other sons did grade 8 drum kit which was not ABRSM.

I am just being snobby....

Also, Trinity offer 'Jazz syllabus' exams for clarinet, saxophone etc.

Although I appreciate that for a 'purely classical musician', these are probably lower status than the equivalent ABRSM grades on the same instrument, they are a much better measure of what is important to a jazz musician - the ability to play jazz! DS and a schoolmate have equivalent grades on saxophone / clarinet but in the two different boards. Schoolmate comes to the fore when the key signatures get heavy-duty in wind orchestra. DS is the jazz soloist of first choice for competitions. Horses for courses.

Thanks

Recorder.

For which instruments Uhtred?

Deogratias indeed both boards aren't equal across all instruments. Trinity is better regarded for some.

uff. can't spell names either tonight. sorry

Thank you DeoGratis. Don't know enough about the boards but erred on diplomacy in the absence of any 1st hand comparisons. Sounds like you've had your fair share of pain endurance getting all of yours through it!