Spring/ Summer Music and Musicians Thread

tradGirl good luck, I want to learn but not enough time in the day.

For the America in Gd 3 violin you can do lots of good work with phrasing by thinking about appropriate bow speed. Vibrato isn't essential at all for this grade. I have a kid doing a revolting finger vibrato which she is proud of so I'm having to be ultra tactful!

Green: it is imo a huge jump from grade 2 to 3 because of the shifting. America is a tough piece due to the speed and the number of shifts. progress is far from linear and maybe she needs a period of consolidation.

Neverever: I dont see it coming for her this grade 3 either and I dont know if she is practising on it as she normally picks her violin up when I was upstair with her sister. After that I normally sit down with her to catch up with her day then she goes to bed at 8.30 with some readings(I normally stay in her room till light is out around 9). Last year on grade 1 I had to sit everyday during her 20-30mins practice

Marking place as I have my first ever music exam in June, when I'll be turning forty. Nothing like leaving it late!

DS not doing vibrato yet.

Musicmom: yes, we havent been practising vibrato that much as we know its very hard and she could get away with it now so I dont think he meant vibrato alone. I felt his frustration as for the last 2.5 yrs he has never offered an extra lesson. Recently he stays slightly later than 1.5hr however before it was very strict 1.5hour. Violin is our second instrument and I dont have any particular goal for her in short time so if she needs to work on scales etc then its fine by me. From his email it doesnt seem like she was and that concerns me most. I never attend her lesson unless it was bank holiday or my day off(which is rare). She however really likes him even tonight was close to tears when I said if she cant focus then we might stop the violin lesson

Teacher not 'tax her'!

Green - does your DD enjoy the lessons? It is possible that the teaching style just doesn't suit her. It does seem like rapid progress to date so it maybe a longer period of consolidation is needed for technique - when this has happens with dd teachers have focused on studies scales and non grade pieces for a period. I wonder if that is an idea? I think a number of us said before that vibrato is a work in progress for quite some time, and to be expect it that much (or even at all) at grade 3 is perhaps not necessary.

Sorry just some thoughts - but extra free lessons sounds a little unusual unless the tax her is trying to find a way to make it work between you all and investing time to see if that is possible?

Green
I'm sure your teacher knows not to endlessly repeat something to a kid if it's not making sense to them. I'm sure he knows to change what he's saying or doing?

America. Just started Theme and variation.

His old teacher spent a fair bit of effort at the correct hold and posture. But DS is receptive even though he never quite looked like he was paying attention ...

Neverever: what pieces he is doing now, my daughter is doing "Pastime with good company", "over the rainbow" and "america". Over the rainbow is done however the vibrato hasnt come. America is terribly out of tune and Pastime has only just started. Our teacher comes to us and its a 1-2-1 lesson. To be honest 15mins is very short. Playing a piece is around 2-3 mins however there is always some rest, turning around so if its only 15mins then she might only have 1 piece played 3 times without any scales and arpeggios

I just showed her his email after putting the little one to bed and I told her we might need to stop the lesson with him because he couldnt get you do it as he wanted and she will have to go back to the school lesson. Then she said she will try again this Saturday, she doesnt want to go back because it doesnt go anywhere.

Here is what he wrote:

"wasn't working properly, wasn't fully focusing. I had to repeat the same things again and again, gave her many examples by playing the violin to show what I meant, but she wouldn't change and played in the same way. I noticed that she paid very little attention when I was explaining and giving examples. wasn't working properly, wasn't fully focusing. I had to repeat the same things again and again, gave her many examples by playing the violin to show what I meant, but she wouldn't change and played in the same way. I noticed that she paid very little attention when I was explaining and giving examples.

I'm so dissatisfied with yesterday, that I want to see her as much as I can this week to prevent her practising in the wrong way by herself at home. Don't worry, I'm not going to charge for the extra lessons"

green He's 9. Gr 2 last Christmas but started to learn shifting maybe about last summer. His old teacher was really pushy with him and got him on stuff that was quite hard but he could cope. There's been a change of teacher and he started Gr 3 pieces just before the break. He started about 4 years ago.

green, she sounds hugely committed, which is half the battle. Progress is full of many walls, and some lessons don't go quite right with frustrations from both sides. The number of melt downs we've had over the years, always followed by the teacher in question saying 'maybe I was too hard, pushed too much' etc. But...the next few lessons, it comes together...honestly, until the next hurdle...

Good luck with the weekend's lesson if you take him up on it - 2 hours is a long time to spend on one instrument in one go to overcome technique so completely understandable she may have got burnt out. For G3, 30 mins is plenty time for daily practice, you just want to ensure she is drilling the problem areas in short bursts otherwise frustration may put her off her violin altogether. She's good, and doing just fine, and will hopefully be motivated by others' suggestions of exposure to more performances too.

Neverever: how long has he been learning g3 and how long in total has he been learning violin, how is is he(sorry too many question otherwise its very hard for me to weight), yes and third position is another thing she hasnt got it right

(DS does about 10 minutes practice about 3/4 days a week only. )

My DS did his grade 2 violin and passed with flying colours but he was already learning the 3rd position by then. He's now doing grade 3 pieces and I said that we are not going to be too bothered about exams. I think grade 3 is a big jump because of having to learn the 3rd position, and it takes a while to get that.

Fleur: she has never said she hates tests/exams. We jumped to grade 3 because g1 was so effortless(only a merit but nearl max marks on all 3 pieces, screwed on scales and sight reading). The grade 2 pieces were learnt so fast too. I knew it is a jump and expect efforts, frustration etc however never thought it was from our teacher.
Ealing: my main aim is being able to join orchestra and to be noticed(meaning playing well at a good level in secondary, so she could eventually play quality music) so playing variety of pieces is equally as important as technique(however ofcourse she needs to get the technique right too).
How: so true, we started doing it since last November, I will need to look into it more, there are so much going on in London at all level too. We always got the nearest seats, one time was in the front row and I could see how much she is into it, its mesmerising. Last few concerts we went we waited outside the stage to be able to meet the main solo and both of the time we were asked who is my daughter having her violin lesson with. They both had lessons from some popular teacher(to be honest I have no idea who they are). But my impression was they were succesful because they had right teachers.

If its a huge difference at g3 having an excellent teacher for violin then I should look around. We found our current teacher on google search so he wasnt recommended by anyone. He is although a ver kind, nice teacher and very patient toward my daughter that I have nothing to complain.

She has 1.5 hours each week with him and in the past it was mostly on piano. She needed very little time for her violin and she still progressed well. Last lesson he spent nearly 2 hours with her on violin only and today I received an email asking if we are free this weekend and he would like to offer a lesson for free as the last lesson didnt go well and she couldnt get the technique right.
She practises 30 mins each day and its ok to do 45 mins if it needs much more than that for grade 3 and above then I am not too sure to compensate on other things she should do too. Awhgg!!!

Totally agree with Howabout - DD still loves going to concerts and is hugely inspired.

Still waiting for our mid March result......assumption is the whole four days of sessions has gone into serious moderation; not sure how they can moderate that much without videotapes etc....?

I couldn't agree more, howabout - we're lucky to have some great children's concerts near us as well, and it's been really useful for DD to see how she needs to hold the cello. (They also tend to put on tea and cake afterwards which is an added bonus...)

Green as you know I teach my own DC violin and viola but I am not a professional and mine are older so am reluctant to comment on specifics. However one of the best tips I can give for passively improving technique without causing frustration all round is to go to some high quality concerts. Ideally you need to be close enough to the stage to see posture, left hand position and bowing and the better quality you are watching the better. We are very fortunate to be able to go to Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Symphony Orchestra performances regularly. They do short children's concerts in the middle of the day at weekends and there is usually an opportunity to catch informal performances in the foyer beforehand and talk to the musicians afterwards. (I kid on I am taking the DC and get to listen to some fab live performances just for myself)

Green, is she playing violin for that whole hour is it split rate between piano/violin? It's a long time for that age otherwise, I would recommend longer lesson times for the higher grades unless she has great concentration!

It's a tricky balance - progress vs getting technique basics right. I would definitely say (now, with hindsight) focus on technique correction, as this will help her fly later. But, this can be counter-argued if the violin is not her first love and that a decent level of competency is the objective to gain access to orchestras/ensembles and general musicianship. It really depends on what your daughter wants out of her violin learning, and maybe there may be some inadvertent pressure to rush her slightly, as vibrato was also on topic recently? 127 is a very decent mark for G1, some schools like my DD's wouldn't teach in-school until start of Y3.

I cannot comment on the quality of your teacher, but the fact that he is prepared to give extra support is encouraging...though at £50 per hour, you are also paying top dollar, even at London rates so make the most of it!

Green does she want to do grade 2? DD is not very keen on exams, she is ok taking them but she'd rather have them less often. If she achieved two pieces and scales already at that level and she is keen I would let her take it next term in June.

The reason Dd's teacher skipped grade 2 was because she believed she was higher than grade 1 when she did the grade 1 exam so grade 2 preparation would have been holding her back.

Now she decided to skip grade 4 as she doesn't want to "waste" the actual prep time on it, so playing pieces at that level and higher, scales, sight reading but not actually sitting the exam. She did say she may change her mind though if she sees DD loosing motivation without an immediate future goal.

Well done to minigreen on sight reading fur Elise.