November Music Thread

ealing And to the idea of an extra locker with a duvet.
trumpet welcome and hope you find in here support, info and a place to bounce things off.
strings that really is a development. Is your DD ok with the idea of boarding?
only thanks so much for books links. Will definitely check them out.
waffle it's wonderful Goo is so interested in the piano. He teacher must be a factor too. She must be motivating her?

I have booked DS for an informative event for teens at the RCM about careers in music. I will go with him to this. We have also applied for the NYO Inspire day at the Barbican in December, but we're waiting to hear because it depends on instrument and demand.

On a different note, he cooked dinner for us the other day! Pasta with fried onion and tuna. And it was delicious. I was on my deadline and just heard him calling from the kitchen announcing dinner was ready. Forget grades, scales, etc. This is what matters!

Looking forward to your report about Guildhall! It is very exciting!

disorganisedmummy, how much time he can dedicate to practicing? Dd usually practices this way (this is for gr5 level)

scales/arpeggios for warm up (I wrote above-at the moment it is usually one of the following - scales+arpeggios detached/scales+ arpeggios slurred/or the same but only scales or only arpeggios)

Then piece(s). Tricky bits 4-5 times, then the whole/half of the piece - depends on the length of the music and how well she cooperates

If she is in the working mood - it is usually takes about one hour, but if not....

Waffle - yes :) i am still not convinced, and DD isn't either - hence the baby steps. She has an exam for a senior school on Saturday that combines music into things much more than the others she is trying for, and where she could be a choirester, and I suspect it would be prove to be 'enough' for the next few years if she got in, and we could come back to the specialists schools at 6th form. But seeing the kids from the specialist schools at NCO etc has opened her eyes to how much supervised practice time they get each day and so on, and how hard it is to replicate that at home. Possibly the answer is less sleep....

you have such a great sounding school so close - wish we had thought things through a little more, earlier!

Disorganised fitting it all in is tricky and ds now has year 7 homework too. Basically he does his piano before school and trumpet in the evening ( on days when he isn't playing in a band ). Theory tends to get done the day before his lesson with a lot of nagging from me. His teacher sets him loads to work on on his trumpet each week and he's getting better at organising this so that each practice counts , rather than just playing through the pieces and hoping that they improve ( although he does still need reminding about this fairly regularly!!)

Trumpetboyz - welcome! glad the NCO audition was positive experience; DD is hoping for under 12s this year (long shot but we can hope).

Disorganised - sounds like Guildhall are really on top of things. If anything like our JD, they will be expert at keeping things low key, calm and informal when they ask him to play. Make sure DS knows they may want to see how he works with them and will be a bit like a trial lesson (albeit much shorter). Wish i could help on timetabling - we muddle through :)

well have tentatively applied for an advice audition at one of the music schools (GillyBeanz...yours i think?) ..taking baby steps on this but am sure we will get useful feedback even if we decide this isn't for us right now (or if they say she is not yet 'there')

Hi all and welcome to Trumpetboysmum. Just a couple of days to go till our visit to Junior Guildhall on Saturday. I've had the timetable through and it's pretty full on but sure ds will love it-he's very excited. It seems like they will want him to play which he's fine with. It ok now having a major stress. He has a habit of. It using all his bow. Plus due to his Aspergers he may not be very good a being put on the spot answering questions. They have been made aware of this.
Also,can anyone help me work out a practise schedule for ds? He needs to be working on his theory (he has a lesson once a week),scales and arpeggios and pieces but struggling to fit it all in on top of everything else. For those who are new,ds will hopefully be auditioning for junior Guildhall in the spring.

ealingwestmum I know what you mean there definitely aren't enough hours in the day ( although my children seem to think so !!)
I will definitely be looking at those books, it's hard to know if I'm doing the right thing half the time. I was talking with his teacher about my ds's plans and hopes the other day as he has decided that he wants to be a professional trumpet player !! Obviously there's lots of time for him to change his mind and as long as he's enjoying it that's the main thing, but I also don't want to miss out on doing the right thing and giving him the right sort of opportunities. So pleased that I've found this thread

I'm really impressed with all of you juggling multiple instrument practice, we really don't have much spare time once we've done an instrument each for 3 kids.

There have been musings that DD1 should start piano as a second study if she is going to continue with music the way she is heading, but this poses a number of challenges, finding the practice time and getting hold of an instrument are not insurmountable but various 'political aspects' that would prevent her from having lessons in the district music school where she has violin lessons (on a 'guest' place as our district music school does not offer violin) and would require her to travel 30 minutes by car each way (no public transport at all) at a time point when both me and DH are at work (me 2 hours away and DH 30 mins by ferry in the district she studies violin....). Pigs might fly (and thereby solve the problem), but 10 year olds not so much

other than that Christmas is clearly coming and we have carols and other festive tunes in abundance

and our his life it's just totally crazy and he can't be happier with it!!

This, Drummersmum just sums your DS up wonderfully. I know you have a lot of soul searching to do, will support him in every way possible (whilst sharing your real concerns here when needed), but your boy is both very bright and musically talented. With his drive, he will make his future work, for sure...

Also wanted t mention the very last post from Mumswallet in October thread - I found it very informative -I highly recommend to have a look if someone missed it.

drummersmum thank you for the info re composing!

TheSecondOfHerName one week to theory for us as well

Wafflenose same with my dd-one day off practice - and it feels like she never practised before-no interest, problem into getting into practicing mood, refusal to practice. Grrr

Ha-ha, Fleurdelise just read you have the same problem, ah, nice to know I am not alone :)

Re practicing jar - we didn't learn all the scales and arpeggios yet, so at the moment she plays one of those - all scales detached/all scales slurred/all arpeggios detached/all arpeggios slurred/all scales+arpeggios detached or slurred - depends on time. But she only plays them once

Trumpetboysmum welcome!

And finally books....

Ordered the book above yesterday, could not resist....

The other interesting titles I found are
"Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music"
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0195382595/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

also ordered yesterday (it has very good reviews on american amazon)

and
Producing Excellence: The Making of Virtuosos
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0813570050/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
Didn't buy it yet, as book is a bit expensive but there is an article about it if anyone interested
newrepublic.com/article/123167/how-make-virtuoso-violinist

Such a fast moving thread and growing community...thanks Waffle!

Have a DD here, 13, Y8. Plays violin around G8 (no exams for 3 years now), piano at G7 and sings. Lots of prep for forthcoming concerts, but other than participating in 5 x weekly ensembles at school, 15 x hrs weekly swimming, I can sit back and cheer you all on for your DCs' exams and auditions.

Some days I suggest she takes out a 3rd school locker to keep her duvet in as she can remain on school premises for a straight 16 hours on swim training and concert days

Hi!

Marking place.

Grade 2 flute exam coming up at school - but no idea when.

And various other instruments not being practised enough ...

Hi,
Hope it's ok to join you. I''m mum to a ds 11 who plays trumpet and has recently started piano and a dd 9 who also plays piano, but mostly likes to sing. She is also supposed to be learning the trumpet at school but isn't keen ! Ds is fairly obsessed with music and considering he has only being having private lessons for a couple of years is doing really well and has got to around grade 6 / 7 standard. We spend a lot of our time transporting him to various bands and orchestras and trying to supervise his practice. He auditioned for the NCO last week which he said went well so at least it was a positive experience for him, he really wants to get in I guess we shall see. This is all totally new to me. He can't do any more abrsm exams at the moment as he hasn't got his grade 5 theory, but he seems to have hatched a plan with his teacher to do grade 5 jazz instead, it looks really complicated but he will probably find it more motivating than revising for a theory exam. Looking forward to following this thread.

Fleur Good tip! Did something a bit similar with cards for all the Grade 4 bassoon scales. It was a huge number for her to get through when that was the first exam she'd done. Breaking it up made it much less daunting and she was far more willing to do them. Much less stress all round!

doubleup we were talking a few threads ago that once dc get to the higher grades and they have to practice all the scales there is no time to cover all every day. Rather than miss scales and practice them certain days only you can create some cards with the scales written on them and put them all in a jar. You then pull three (or more depending on your available time) and if dc can play them correctly three times you leave them out, if not they go back in the jar.

When the jar is empty you start again.

Scales jar?

drummers thank you for your advice. I'll encourage more freedom on the piano.

Waffle I found exactly the same thing with DD's music practice, skip a day or two and then the assumption that we can skip some more and the strops begin. It is much easier to create a routine with DD and she never questions it.

DD works from 9 separate piano books (and 4 clarinet now including scales) and what I do though from time to time is exclude a book or two from practice when I see that she is tired, I ask her to do the essentials.

We've finally implemented the scales jar as practising all the scales now is just not possible, she would probably be at the piano for over 2 hours and we don't have this time. It is working just fine.

Green I am sure minigreen will be just fine for her exam and you have nothing to worry about. And you can make a decision last minute before the exam if you feel she needs more time till she's ready.

only that looks like an interesting book I may purchase.

Icouldbe we spent the whole of Sept/Oct struggling to get the bassoon apart due to the change in humidity in the weather. It spends the week put together on its stand and just comes apart to go to the lesson/bands. Can be a two person job twisting the bell and long joint in opposite directions. Used to worry that we'd break something with all the keys and levers, but now used to how much force you can apply.

Still amazes me how dexterous she has to be with her thumbs! So many keys!