October Music and Musicians Thread

Thinking about teacher's praise...Mentioned this subject to dh, and really liked his response He said - any teacher compares more able child with the rest of his/her students. But it does not mean that all of them are able. Therefore, it is really difficult to judge if a child stands out from musical point of view-as comparison is not done with the most able cohort but with the ordinary cohort

Thank you for your reply disorganisedmummy, this is very interesting. And this is in line with what I know about twice exceptional children. How long does your ds doing music?

BrollySmolly, I guess they all should do it at some point of their musical study, classical or not. But when teacher comments on a student's ability he/she probably refers to the ability showing really early and without rigorous training. But I guess most of dc in this thread are above average in music...

well, fleurdelise, thinking about what you said about aiming just playing for enjoyment for your whole life. It depends on so many factors.
In my previous life I played piano, incl pieces that I have now seen in the grade 8 syllabus. However I now never get around to sit down and play .
But what I do do now, is playing recorder duets with dd, and the descant I only played in primary school, with a year of treble in secondary.
But dc and I do live in a different world than the rest of the people on this thread, so definitions various amongst people.

Disorganised - my dc are suzuki trained and can do all the things you described. I think they are talented, but there are still many, many things to learn.

I would like to add that even though it has been mentioned that ds could take GCSE music early,considering he is only in year 6 it is far too early to make that decision and as you've all pointed out that is so much more to music that simply playing notes on a page. Due to his Aspergers ds is not especially good at understanding the feel of a piece but could tell you how it's constructed. We have a very long way to go yet. I just love hearing about everyone's brilliant children.

Fleur - yes, and he loves it despite having to travel for the lessons! I think you're right about post-grade 5 depth - and the other benefit is that MiniFleur now plays clarinet so she'll have lots of ensemble opportunities to reinforce her musical knowledge. DS2 is very much at the early grade 4 stage in both his instruments but after an early surge in cello, I can see that it'll be worth taking time on technical aspects before worrying about exams. If we can defer the next ones to a year from now I would be very happy because in the meantime he really enjoys playing with the string orchestra.

Loose wow he does Japaneese? I do believe him that he did more in one term that in a whole year at school.

With regards to exams early (incl GCSEs) I think I will slow DD down after grade 5, it depends what her teacher will suggest of course but personally I want her to have the maturity to understands what she plays and she already plays stuff that is beyond her age. While she can understand the technique to play something sad for example, I want her to feel the music, to understand why a composer was sad and so on.

My dream is her playing all her life. I don't even want her to have a musical career, just to be able to sit at the piano when she feels like and play.

DD tends to prefer the clarinet teacher as she is easy on the praise. Because while the piano teacher praises her skills she also expects a lot from her which needs to translate in a lot of work, our evening practice is taking over an hour now just for piano. So she knows all this praise is asking for a lot in return. And the standards are higher every day.

With clarinet being just the beginning she seems to think it is all fun fun fun. Which is fine, I think she needs that. After the exam her teacher said she'll start her on some Disney and musicals music which DD loves so clarinet is slowly becoming a favourite as it is more fun.

Hmm...good though they are, I am not sure our teachers are scaring the DCs enough to make them work hard!
These threads have made me more questioning about what's being taught, though. My aim is for my children to know enough for music and music-making to be a lifelong pleasure, not a rusty skill like it was for me, though I have gained a lot by trying a completely new instrument as an adult, I think! I am now a complete convert to the circle of fifths and will be practising that for when I eventually take grade 5 theory!
Taking GCSE music early is an interesting idea - with arts and humanities early entry is generally discouraged as greater maturity tends to help get the very top grades. However, that said, if there's likely to be little genuine choice of options in year 9 - and once you've got the three sciences etc this tends to be the case - it could be tempting just to ensure you can do it! dS1 insisted on doing both art and music GCSEs, which means he is doing his language GCSE outside school. He really wanted to do Japanese, which school doesn't offer. He claims that in one half term of lessons he has covered more than a year's work at school for French and looking at what he can do, I think he's right. Languages, like music, though, need regular practice, which makes yet another thing I need to be on his case about!! Aargh!

disorganisedmummy you DS sounds impressive! I hope he succeeds at his musical career.

Dd1 says her teacher is 'Just the right level of strict ' and makes her work hard. There is praise but its not over the top. Dd2s teacher is perfect for her, inspirational but also very tolerant of her independent streak and works with her rather than being authoritarian but he gets serious dedication from her this way. Ds1 is younger and things are fairly relaxed but his teacher certainly challenges him.

Only,ds's teacher says that he has perfect pitch so he can hear a note and tell you what it is and also if you ask him to sing a note he will be able to do it. He can also recognise intervals for example his teacher played lots of intervals on the piano like a third,fifth and so on and he got them right and also got a diminished and augmented right.
She says he has an exceptional musical ear,so he can listen to a piece of music and then be able to play it back without any sheet music. For example he can play Meditation by Thais even though he has never seen any music.

I was told that he could potentially take GCSE music early but that was his music teacher at school and I'm not sure at all about that.
I have no idea if any of this means he's talented/gifted/twice exceptional or even if it's unusual in a child his age?. All we care about is that ds can pursue a career in music.

disorganisedmummy, dd's teacher says that all good musicians are autistic to a certain degree :) To be honest I can see his point.
Could you tell please, what is it exactly that your ds's teacher says about his musical abilities? (I am not doubting her words, just interested in the subject of twice exceptional children but hardly know any musical ones unfortunately)

Wafflenose to she can tell that Goo's ego constantly needs massaging

disorganisedmummy your ds's teacher could be my dd's teacher except that dd's teacher is "he" and not "she" .

Waffle I don't think she'd get any damage anyway, there are people getting to grade 8 on digitals so unless you really want to I don't think there is a huge need of an acoustic one.

Russian teacher here and we have never heard about her ability. The only time he was impressed when we forwarded him her theory results. He said: that is an achievement. That style suits us well so far. The recent violin teacher said "she learns new things real fast".

only maybe he DCs in the video are not as musical? Just joking, I think as a teacher it is very hard to asses something in one video, if the DC is fantastic he/she could have learnt by rote the entire piece, or if the piece is just being learnt then it isn't polished and it sounds a bit rubbish.

Also,she tailors her lessons for each child. So ds did grade 1 and then said he didn't want to do anymore and she was fine with that and she has pushed him in other ways.

We're very,very lucky with our teacher. She has just the right amount of praise and "telling off" when needed. She is a pro violinist who has an incredible reputation locally-her word is gospel. She told us that ds has perfect pitch and that he is gifted and that we should look at any of the Junior conservatoires. She knows exactly how to get ds to do what he needs to do which considering his Aspergers is a miracle in itself. She understands him completely and even though he can be very aloof with some people,she can see his talent. I feel I need her to live with us at the mo to keep him in check with his practising!!

Pradaqueen - to Russian teacher - been there, done that :)
Fleurdelise - love your piano teacher!

What I noticed with some of our teachers- they praise dd, which ok, I like that , and then I show them the videos of some of my friends' musical dc, who are very good as far as I know. And our teachers don't look impressed! And this worries me! Feels like they feel obliged to praise (and yes, their praise goes beyond "wow that is great, you're doing fantastic").
I guess it takes more to assess a child than just watching an occasional video, but I was wondering....

I think we've been lucky with teachers who are encouraging but focus on what needs to be done. I'd be suspicious of unnecessary gushing!
That said, DS2's hearing of criticism can be somewhat selective...

Oh and also the piano teacher is also quite strict with her teaching plans, she adheres to the usual "an exam a year for the average abilities student", she doesn't agree with skipping exams, she only has three students (DD and another 2) that she is pushing quite hard considering they have potential. Being with her for three years already I could see the change from "oh it takes around 2 years to get to grade 1 and then another 3-4 years to get to grade 5, no point in skipping or pushing" to "she has a musical ear so I want her to skip grades, play a vast amount of repertoire, I would like her to audition for a music school" etc.