September Music and Musicians Thread

Thanks for your opinions ladies

LooseAtTheSeams, not yet (grade 5) - not going to happen till next year and when she is 9. But I made it sound cool, didn't I

Special thanks to Wafflenose - not sure why but your words made me feel very...

Just to clarify - I don't feel she can get away on grade 4 level piano with 20 mins commitment-I just don't see it works, not in her case anyway. Body and self control is the biggest issue and obviously neither is up to the task at this stage. I would describe her level as confident 2.5 grade even though she managed to get a distinction for grade 3, just (perhaps examiner was in a good mood )
I have a feeling we are going in circles with piano.
The reason I am thinking about jazz piano is that it is still a piano :) but my understanding is that it works more towards general musicianship with the emphasis on improvisation and rhythm sort of things, rather than repetition and technique. Jazz piano was on agenda anyway but I was thinking about few years perspective.....
Piano and violin teachers are different. And dd is a bit of nerd so she is not into Disney or pop music at all....(I remember someone was writing about high % of strange children in music recently? )
My other concern is that piano teacher is very sweet and it would be difficult to leave her esp after all the efforts she put in, but...
Just don't know what to do!

Waffle can you send Rara over to organise my boys! They would let me do a timetable and quite cheerfully ignore it!
Only I think jazz piano would also require a lot of practice but I think if you suggest using a jazz book like Martha Miers' series your DD could just focus on tunes for a while and take a break from, say, sight reading for a bit to cut down the amount of practice. Your DD is amazing to be on grade 5 violin at her age so definitely agree she can ease up a bit on the second instrument!
Ds2 tends to do piano every day but not his cello - that Needs to be ramped up - but he has an ensemble group as well so that helps a bit. And we really have to work on getting him to focus more when he practises.
Ds1 usually manages bass every day plus either xylophone or drums so he does two lots of practice a day and more xylophone than drums at the moment.
We had to have a serious talk about computer time last night. He had a strop because his brother was on the computer, not realising ds2 had only been there for about 10 minutes! I think he calmed down after a bit but I also gathered one of his friends had wound him up and we got the receiving end of it. I was actually accused of being 'tetchy'! That's quite strong for ds1!

I am going to give up after this last attempt. Was meant to add 4 x a week (and that's if I believe she gets that done in school)!

Our turning point was G6. She finds the piano's value adding the other musical things, just like theory knowledge does. So not wasted, even if progress may not be as rigid or obvious as the primary instruments!

Not good with bold on a phone

only: ditto *hapsburg" here. We've never increased the 30 mins lesson on piano (during term only), DD practices when she can that is not more than 20mins x week, more at weekends due to time limitations. She's Y8 and is G7 level, does 1 exam a year with most time on non-exam stuff. And really enjoys it now as the pressure is off, and it's her 2nd instrument. No pressure for teacher either...he knows the score.

I hope this reassures you a little that keeping it ticking over may be an option vs giving it a break...

only it is perfectly possible to keep piano ticking over on 20-30mins most days. It is DD(12)'s third instrument and she has absolutely never done more practice than this (in fact for her more like some days than than most days!!!) and managed distinction at gr6 a couple of years ago. She has decided not to do any more exams but still has lessons, practices and improves steadily as she realises it is so useful alongside the other instruments. If she decides she wants to do gr8 at some point and is prepared to put in a couple of months solid work on it then she can, but for now she is enjoying some nice repertoire with no exam pressure - in fact she is probably playing much more now that she is not grinding away at exam pieces.

Alexandra you must be so proud! Well done to your son!

only I am not in the situation where a second instrument requires more time, DD can still go by with 15-20 min daily on clarinet due to being a beginner so not sure how we would manage the practice time if both instruments would require a similar amount of time. Saying that I believe I would concentrate DD's efforts on the main instrument while on the other I would make sure she does enough practice to still progress but probably at a slower rate.

Does she have the same teacher for both violin and piano? If so maybe the teacher would understand and assign less practice on piano. Would jazz piano not require a similar amount of practice? if she still enjoys playing the piano would your DD be more intrested to play popular pieces (Disney songs, modern, jazz and a bit of classical here and there) without doing exams just for the fun of it?

Feel so guilty as I still didn't read everyone's news but need some advice again please...

I am still struggling to optimise music/school from time management point of view... I feel the more music is done at primary school the easier life is going to be at secondary school... Here is my question....
Just to remind-dd8 is moving towards gr5 on violin and was due to do gr4 on piano this term but after speaking to piano teacher we decided to leave all the piano exams in the foreseeable future and just play for fun whilst concentrating on violin.... Few weeks into this plan and I still feel it does not quite work as piano require quite a lot of time which is not always possible...
My new idea is - to stop piano lessons all together (for few years) and to do jazz piano instead. As she will need to start from scratch but she already plays piano presumably it should not be too difficult but this way she will acquire new skills whilst not spending too much time on it. And when either violin or jazz piano is done and she is more mature she can return back to classical piano. My concern that she may struggle to do classical piano again if break is too long, or am I wrong? She is clearly not a classical pianist but she enjoys playing piano...
Does it sound reasonable?

Still no strong wifi so now I have Waffle's and Fleur's vids to catch up on!

Well done Alexandra's son! Fab.

Going to send the cleaning link to the head of music at school. I did read something last month after hearing something on R4 about bagpipes. How terribly sad for such a young person.

Oh wow! Alexandra that is fantastic! Well done to him!

Was it today Alex? Well done! Its great that he is so chilled isnt it.
I have a small problem, just realised I have a 3pm on Sunday at Royal Albert Hall (09th) and this means my daughter will miss a rehearsal. Will check with the Orchestra if this is allowed as we booked 3-4months ago before we joined

How fabulous Alexandra. Well done to him!

That was a terrible story. Glad I made DS1 clean his flute regularly but mine must have been a nightmare as a child (though i did at least clean it so maybe not).
It is interesting what gives. Ds1 never plays flute now but is very focused on bass and percussion.

That is very sad, I will go and clean dd's clarinet when she has gone to bed!

Waffle that would be the same at DCs school. There was Junior and Senior Strings, and invitational Orchestra. But strings have declined so much there is only 1 string group and this year no orchestra due to lack of strings

Aw, it's all very interesting isn't it.
I'm quite often amazed when it comes down to choosing the serious instruments what they choose.
DD only started sax because her dad plays, I'm sure of it. The progression was quick as not only did she have him on hand when she was H.ed but had played violin and singing before she started.
The violin has truly gone now, she still owns one but she hasn't played anything in over a year now.
She does go to listen during the compulsory visits they have to make to other depts at school. They have up to 2 hours lunch, sometimes it's free other times they have to attend rehearsals. I think we'd call it peer to peer observation

I think with the cleaning it's common sense, but it always surprises me how many teachers/ schools don't clean the instruments they have in cupboards, this must be the worst.
They hand them out to children/ children told to get one out of cupboard and they have no idea if they have been cleaned, or how long ago.
The other obvious one is not allowing others to play and taking extra care when you have a cold or other infection.

Gilly that is heart breaking! I'll make sure DD will always clean the mouthpiece. Thank you for highlighting this to us, I had no idea.

Gilly so sad and shocking. This is totally new to me and will let other young wind and brass players I know about it.

Hello all, dd came home from school with more news of a young person losing their life due to fungus from the mouthpiece. He was 24 years old, that's all and otherwise very healthy.
Have looked but can't find the story, but please have a look at this if any of your children play wind or brass.
www.medicaldaily.com/clarinet-player-who-didnt-clean-instrument-30-years-develops-saxophone-lung-allergic-reaction-fungi
Please click on the link at the bottom with further instruction if you haven't been advised how to clean.
Sorry for the sad post today.

Thank you ladies! The piece needs polishing of course, and it is only the beginning but I like recording her and tracking her progress on both piano and clarinet.

drummersmum I'll record her on piano doing one of the pieces she has completed, currently working on three other pieces. I'll share those when ready. One is a Chopin prelude which you can learn the notes quite quickly but interpreting it up to a good standard is quite a challenge, more so as it is sad and DD is only 9, maybe I should give her a reason to be sad.

se22mother in all fairness the teacher asked her to listen to all the pieces on the cd and choose another one but DD failed to do so therefore the teacher suggested Moscow nights saying that if she finds it challenging they can change it next week.

Fleur : all through the night sounds lovely. enjoy Moscow nights

Oh Fleur what a lovely tune and she sounds very good. I just love the sound of the clarinet. Thanks for posting! One of the most unforgetable concerts I have ever attended (long time ago, before DS was born) was Giora Feidman and I don't think I closed my mouth the whole time.

Now that you're out, please post some piano whenever she's ready!
OK, I'm really enjoying getting to know everyone's sweet children. Anyone else dares?