November Music Thread

Been shopping NeverEver?

Exactly Fleur, you can't be responsible for ever.

All this Festival talk is getting me excited already. DS2 went round to his teachers last night to meet up with girl he duets with, and they've picked one out, ready for him to start after his exam.

We all have different parenting style and it's dependent on each child personality and also under each family circumstances. I dont think I have the same approach for my two children (even both of them dont listen to me and dont follow my rules).For now, I know their strength and weakness so I will have my tactic built on it, each month this needs to be updated with other priorities: works, personslity grown/changed, childcare etc. She can make it if she practises mindfully 30mins aday (it could be even a distinction as she played Prelude in C very nicely on Sunday). For us apart from enriching her life with being able to play couple instruments(and having fun and making new friends blah blah blah) appreciating hard work, good attention to details, understanding the importance of some "boring tasks" are the reasons we wanted her to take responsibility of her commitment. Usually suggestion comes from our teacher(except theory), he fully believes she can do it. More than 2 weeks is alot of time if she is committed.

This is part of the reason we missed the cut off for entering grade 3 this term. It's so hard to know if they will be ready in a couple of months time. I suspect dd could pass now, depending on which scales they asked for! But hopefully next term she will get a merit or distinction.

So a Yamaha flute costs £500+!!??

drummers DD's grade 5 piano is also planned for the summer session, DD kept asking what if she's not ready. Her teacher explained to her she won't enter her in that case which put DD's mind at rest. She on the new syllabus anyway which means she'll have two years to take the exam (of course that would be crazy but with secondary school exams in sight you never know what happens).

Raspberry I agree to that method, that is the reason for which I hand over that area to the teacher, I never ask when is the next exam I let her make the decision and she does enter her when she believes she's ready, if anything I think she enters her a bit late but I understand she has her own stats also and she doesn't want it messed up by her pupils. Saying that at this age (9) if I would personally believe DD would fail and her teacher would agree to some extent I would withdraw her. When she's older I do agree, once DD commits to an exam she'll have to take the responsibility herself and if she'd fail she'd learn her lesson.

We are now trying to decide if DD should be entered with a grade 5 piece in the festival or not. She'll know it by then (January) but it may not be enough time to polish it to her teacher's standards. We'll discuss it in the next lesson.

The harsh was in relation to my brief first post!

Yes, I would agree about being ready. The piano exam was different in that it was his last opportunity as he was stopping after that term and asked for a shot at it.

Neither the teacher or I will do that again!

That sounds quite harsh. I mean I'm not bothered about them doing grades, it's up to them. But when they decide to do one, they are expected to commit, injury or unforeseen circumstances excepting.

DDhates them but was determined to do
Grade 8. She worked hard and knew if nerves got the better of her, I'd said it was fine and I'd pay again.

DS knew he needed to work hard for that exam and didn't. I was actually proud of him for giving it his best shot on the day and reading the comments, it was his musicality that tipped the balance. He confessed later he expected to fail it. It's not a mistake he's made since!

Exams: all of DS' music teachers up to now have refused to sign him up for an exam till he was ready. The advantage of course is he gets good marks, lower stress levels, more UCAS points, etc. The disadvantage is the two to three months between registering and taking the exam are spent waiting and playing the pieces again and again -- slower progress and more limited repertoire. It's a Cash 22 really.

Piano teacher has set date for Grade 8 exam: summer term, because he wants DS to have performed each of the three pieces in public on three different occasions before the exam. Interesting.

Waffle so nice to hear about Rara and the clarinet. Nature or nurture I wonder?

Alexandra congratulations to your DS on passing to the next round of the comp!!

Music exams are non-compulsory in this house up until the moment I hand over the cheque!

Fleur we loved the young musician recorder player as well! I do like recorder music anyway - there are some really beautiful pieces.
I would usually rather postpone an exam than try and wing it but sometimes that can be a wake-up call!

My DH was shocked when watching bbc young musician, when he heard "recorder" he started laughing and then he spent the entire recorder performance with his mouth open. To this day he'll tell everyone that was his favourite BBC young musician performance.

You guys are so much braver than me, I wouldn't allow DD to take a music exam if I don't feel confident she'd pass. Academic exams are different but I don't want music to become even more stressing than it is, she does tend to stress prior to exams and failing would be her worst nightmare, I am sure she'd ask to give up.

Well done to mini Prada, sounds like a great Festival.

How brilliant Rara has found her instrument. Go Rara!

Piano exams - DS1 entered for Grade 5 piano with some work still to do. He didn't do it. He passed the exam with minimum mark and it was a huge learning experience. I wouldn't pull them from an exam unless there was a reason like injury!

DS2 Grade 7 piano is 2 weeks today. I don't think he's in danger of not passing, but I think he may not get his usual Distinction if there isn't a bit more quality practice. Nearly 14, same age as DS1s piano Grade 5 experience!

Point them in the direction of BBC Young Musician,!

well, wafflenose. Wish you could talk to my husband, Even he (in addition to siblings) was making comments about" playing recorder doesn't sound very impressive."

Thanks everyone for the lovely wishes! Well done to Rara!

Green - I'm like you, enter and hope for the best 😂😂 We have 4 weeks til G7 violin. Oh dear.

Sorry I don't comment on all the news, I am on my mobile and I forget what I want to say by the time I write my post.

NeverEver a piano quintet, I am intrigued!

drummers we are accelerating the sight reading as she didn't use to do any dedicated sight reading practice pre grade 3, she only did sight reading through her pieces. We then started with improve your sight reading exercises book 3 and she's doing 2/3 a day, on grade 4 now, her sight reading has massively improved since the exam. I am expecting to see the dividends paying off in her next exam as she almost failed it in her grade 3, she used to hate it.

Well done miniprada for the win, I bet you are so proud, I wouldn't expect a win in a festival so I would be really taken by surprise.

Waffle so great to read about Rara's motivation and the fact she found the one instrument she is dedicated to.

Green you are so much better than me at these exams things, I would definitely panic and withdraw DD if I wouldn't be 100% sure she'd be ready. But maybe your DD is ready and it is hard for you to evaluate the situation, I tend to feel DD is not ready when her teachers tell me otherwise.

Well done MiniPrada! - sounds like she really shone and lovely to have glassware to take home too :)

Waffle - three cheers for RaRa and the clarinet :) i think it is such a lovely and versatile instrument, and so much ensemble playing - dd plays in a jazz group as well as her classical stuff. As for Goo - she is really sporty!

Drummers - think i know the cello too!

not much news here - last audition for a while next week, but dd has already moved on to some fun pieces; we have our advice audition booked but the day is now looking impossible work wise so we will see. Is it very wrong to already be looking forward to the post Christmas day lull....

Prada that's fantastic! Well done to Miniprada for her triumphs!
Waffle it's really great to hear about Rara and the clarinet and it definitely sounds as though she has found her instrument!

Glad to hear that Goo did well with her runninb and especially Rara has found her instrument Waffle, sometimes the only thing as a parent we could do is being patient and it usually proves the hardest.

Prada: how wonderful and what a lovely award, miniPrada truly has impressed me on her energy and hard work!

Prada wow, an actual tangible prize! Congratulations.

I have passed a new law: one piano sightreading a day. Whether there's piano practice or not, whether there's time or not. One a day.