November Music Thread

Thanks Loose.
I know - drummers mum-I live in a house of constant noise, normally some type of percussion instrument. Not sure how but the neighbours don't even hear it!
Lucky!

I'm attempting to teach myself piano- I can just about play a grade 1 piece. Clearly the children do not get it from me. 😀😀

Great PaulWeller your DD seems to be really into her percussion, yay.

Will do, I'm not a jazz fan but she's already sought out Buddy Rich on YouTube.

Agree withDrummers on the Jazz drums - if I remember correctly, DS1 and his last teacher used to listen to jazz pieces and analyse them, then play bits, so there was never a book as such. Just looking at G5 rockschool book as it's lying in front of me and it doesn't seem to have a specific jazz piece but the books do have different styles.
Never have replied!

Waffle Hope you recover from the car accident soon. All car-related mishaps are alarming ...

Loose will pm you.

Waffle

You know me, I don't really know much
I think dh has bought it second hand off a colleague, it sounds right though.
He's the type who buys good instruments and is always swapping and changing different parts or whole instruments.
He just tends to wait until something comes up and is quite knowledgable so does well buying and selling on ebay and the woodwind exchanges.

They are both at the RNCM today for the saxophone day, there are stands there and I can guarantee he'll come home with something.

I've been away from everything in here!

Waffle and Fleur I do hope you can go back to something resembling normality soon.

Loose and Alex you're both very brave and a role model for me except I can't find the time to dedicate myself to myself but I WILL, someday, sometime, over the rainbow. Loose congrats on Grade6 done also!!

paulWeller I think Rockschool include a jazz piece after certain grade. I agree with gillybeanz that all the learning your DD is doing now will be useful for all genres, but it's great she's showing interest in jazz so young. Why don't you ask the teacher for a jazz standard he/she can work with your DD, and also maybe start teaching her some specific jazz rudiments? Also, a friend of mine who's an international renownded musician on another instrument was a prodigious jazz dummer when he was 10 years old. I remember him telling me that he had never had a formal lesson in his life, instead he had spent hours in his basement playing drums to jazz records, listening what the drummer was doing, imitating him, playing along, etc. I think there's so much our children can do outside books and teachers. If I have learnt something over the years is that DS will do something if he wants to do it, I don't need to be offering him support for everything like I thought I needed to do. Of course he's older now, but the same did apply when he was younger. There was no point in me buying a book on composition or hiring a composing teacher, if he wanted to compose he would already be doing it at the piano, on his own. So I would encourage your daughter to just have a go, download some classic jazz standards, listen and watch Steve Gadd and Buddy Rich, and play along her Ipod or wathever. That will do so much for her musicianship. There are piano and bass tracks alone without drums that she could drum to...

With the clarinet we are adding bits to it slowly to delay getting a new one! We had a new ligature last Christmas and in a year or so we will look for a new mouthpiece.

This Christmas I was hoping to buy a bassoon stand and maybe a new sling but the stands are an enormous price! I have got her a Little Miss Clarinet t shirt though.

Just been watching marimba's on Youtube; we live in a terrace and I have a feeling my neighbours would kill me if we acquired one of those!

altik that sounds like bad news for that old Yamaha. Is it worth phoning round a few other repair shops to see if it really is terminal?

One of the reasons I went for a 211 was that I understood I could get a better headjoint fitted to it when the time comes (I was hoping it would do her comfortably to grade V...assuming she sticks at it).

I hope the waffle family recover from the wars. They've put the ice rinks out around here ....aaagh!

Hi Gillybeanz, she's on a bit of a quest after seeing some jazz drumming during an open day. She's been looking on YouTube and didn't want her to pick up any bad habits to start with. I'll ask her old drum teacher, he was very into jazz. 😀
But yes, she's has ages to learn it anyway. She's doing rock school drums at the moment. But will maybe look at Abrsm/Trinity books for drum kits.
Thanks x

hello all, sorry to hear about all the illness and your accident Waffle hope you are on the mend soon.

Have found flute, but as dh has been playing Gershwin in some orchestras recently, dd has decided she needs picallo too, flute it's a 211 if that means anything to anyone. I'm told it's good enough if you only need to be able to make a noise
Dh is working hard atm and received a 5 min standing ovation at London Jazz Festival the other night 40 chorus's iirc. Have gone from proud mum to proud wife now.

So many concerts coming up and looks like dd has finally broken into the solo voice performances, so she's in them all apparently.
I wish they would let us record though, it doesn't seem fair. I appreciate why though, although plenty other schools allow it.

Paul

I wouldn't bother about separating Jazz and Classical at this age and stage honestly. The techniques are the same for both and I'm pretty sure a good standard on classical is expected before going onto jazz.

Oh waffle sending lots of mending vibes your way.

Altik- were not in the uk so im not sure prices will be very helpful, we ended up with a trevor james privilige, which Even dh was convinced sounded a good cut above the others she tried. Of course it was the most expensive she tried ....

Re-Xmas present, I will think more about it this year, he travels a lot on tube/train so I might get him a Thermos cup which keeps drinks hot and the one doesn't leak. I see him wearing the scarfs we gave him last year in every of our lessons on cold days and I feel good, that two scarfs were only present that we ever gave him though.

Hope you are ok Waffle!

Wanted to tell Alex that you are so brave, well done!

I always pay more to my teacher, he usually comes for an hour rehearsal then we travel to the exam centre together, it's usually less than 2hr and I still give him £100( his rate is £50/hr). He never asks for it though, we just never talk about rate. Many days he stays longer in the lessons than he should so I am still much appreciated. We are revising scales every day. Looking back, the only thing I wish I should have started earlier was scales. 2 months are enough with the pieces but scales are a lot. We are very determined though, we must nail these scales, there are reasons why they are required!

Hope you are ok Waffle!

Practice going relatively well here, two pieces sounding really nice, speeded up a bit and the detail added in the last couple of weeks. The last piece not going as well, she says it sounds better at school so who knows, but she is getting very frustrated at not being able to practice the bits of it she wants to work on because it "all sounds rubbish"

She's now trying to teach herself an F sharp on the bassoon so she can play her first scale.

Waffle I do hope you're ok. poorly doesn't sound good and I'm sure even a minor accident can leave you shaken up.
Alexandra I am starting to think the boys are living a double life! Sightings of DS1 are fairly sporadic except when he wants food!
Flutes - I'm really not an expert on this but when DS1 used to play I got him a flute around grade 3 level that was intended to see him through the grades. His teacher helped us find it. My budget was £500 and he tried a couple of new yamahas and a second-hand Pearl. He chose the Pearl, which cost £450. I discovered afterwards from the shop that the owner had asked £900, which was about right, but needed cash quickly so had halved the price for a quick sale. This is a long-winded way of saying it's well worth looking at a second-hand one. I'm glad I didn't pay more as he gave up lessons at grade 4!
Pm me if interested in the abandoned Pearl!

Forgot to add in the complication...

DD2 also learns flute and is currently on an even older Yamaha 21. Her split E mechanism has broken and cannot be repaired.

Our plan is to buy DD1 a new flute and to give DD2 DD1s flute. So if we can get the flute cheaper, we will buy it sooner, so we can upgrade DD2s flute sooner.

But DD1 wants to start Saxophone next year, so we will need to buy her a Sax. (Hiring looks really expensive and false economy, so would prefer to buy rather than hire - but happy to buy second hand!) Again, the music shop said it was false economy to buy her the cheapest Sax as she would outgrow it too quickly... so we're looking at £400 - £500 for a Sax. Don't want to spend 1.5k on musical instruments at the same time, so will need to juggle...

So when will DD2 start needing her split e mechanism (her flute teacher has said we should replace her flute at that point)?

But if I can get it cheaper, that would be fab!
Hope that makes sense!

Oh no Waffle!

Gosh I now realise what a service DD's piano teacher is providing us with. She has spent 30 min already to practice together with no charge, had a lot of input on the shape of the pieces and how to play it together the best. She's also coming to the exam just for her also and rescheduling/cancelling other lessons she has at that time. All without charge. I think I'll buy her a consistent Christmas/thank you present!

Mendingfences

Could I please be cheeky and ask how much the flutes were...? My DD is currently preparing for her grade 4, and is using a 30 year old hand me down Yamaha 211. I've been told her current flute is a "workhorse" and we've been regularly servicing / repairing it - so it will last her until grade 5, but not beyond that as it's not very refined, shall we say! I've also been told she needs a silver head next time.

I know nothing about flutes... am not in the slightest bit musical, so have been guided by the flute shop which seems to suggest her next flute will be in the £700 - 1k mark, depending on the flute she chooses, but that she should try the flutes out and see which one suits her best. However, on another Mumsnet thread, I was told that I could get a grade 6+ flute for £400 and that £800 was ridiculous. I did ask where from, but they never responded.

So sorry for the long post - but I don't want to be talked into buying a more expensive flute than DD actually needs. However, I don't want to waste money by buying something that won't last. DD wants to do GCSE music, and possibly A level. It's got to take her to grade 8.

So, can I get a silver headed flute for £400 like the Mumsnet poster told me I could... or am I looking at £800 like the flute shop said....?

Thanks