December Music Thread

LooseAtTheSeams, hm... interesting connection between long wait and not passing
I remember waiting for finals result of my professional qualification.... Some people got it at 5am, I received mine at 4pm. I must say it took me weeks to recover from that waiting....

Fleur, yes, this is what I meant about lessons, sort of... Apart from- if lesson is one hour already-would it make difference to have two lessons during the week? I mean - would it reflect in quality of playing (as opposed to quicker completion of all grades)

Patience wearing a bit thin - was resigned to waiting until next week for the six-week deadline and then realised music centre, which gets the results, will be closed! I have emailed abrsm and asked very politely if there's any chance they could just tell me how DS1 did as I don't want to wait until after Christmas!
The longer I don't know the more I convince myself he hasn't passed!

Good luck with the concerts everyone, I can't wait till DD is in the band to go to concerts drummers I do hope she'll have fun this is one of the main reasons she started playing the clarinet.

only well done for doing the festival, I told DD we're not in it for the competition but for the performance benefit so I don't even hope for top places. I am not sure I get your question but in our situation yes, progress was faster when we moved to two 30 min lessons with piano as there was so much to cover and not enough time. Now we moved to a full 1 hour lesson (same time but not split in two sessions anymore) as DD can definitely concentrate for the entire lesson. To answer your question yes I think in our case progress is faster as DD would not be able to cover scales, sight reading, a bit of theory, technical exercises and around 3 pieces each time rotating them in only 30 min. Therefore she'd cover less in lessons which means that less would be assigned to practice.

And do send me the link to the video only! Can't wait, I'll watch it tonight

to learn that is :)

Prada great idea - electric violin. I was thinking of it at some point but decided that it would put at risk her desire to play conventional violin

And dd started to lean Bach double violin concerto with her teacher - my long term dream, teacher obviously decided that it is easier to go ahead with my wishes than to look for reasons why not to every lessons.... - still no one to play it with though

Wafflenose Rara is doing well with her height I am sure there are smaller girls in dd's class, and dd is winter born, so... Rara is definitely taller than I thought based on your description of her height some time ago! Cello wise-I cannot comment as I have no idea how it works with cellos :)

Fleurdelise I know my dd's height because she informs me of it regularly - she wants to get rid of her car seat and I believe child is allowed not to use it once they are over 135cm

We just took part in local festival, got top places in both categories, not first though.

For no particular reason, just one of my silly questions-do you reckon that extra lessons with teacher can make a difference in progress? Or one lesson/week is perfectly all right? I am just seeing so many examples of various attitudes to lessons and a bit puzzled that some opposite approaches may bring very similar results....

I would also love to see mini Green's video!
*Fleur" can send you ours whilst it is still not passworded

fleur wind band will be so much fun for your DD. Congratulations!
mending any private teachers around? At school maybe? 6 is the age DS started drumming lessons. It's not too young brrrrrrrr mutter mutter.
3 children in y7 at DS school got into NCO this time. Impressed.
ealing good luck with concert.

Green - well done to Mini - pieces must have been really good to get some max marks

Prada - electric violin is a great idea; sounds like she will be very excited

Loose- you have much patience!

Three more rehearsals and two more concerts to go and then a rest - dd has a really heavy cold today so will be touch and go on the singing; i do feel for the serious choristers on here when they get colds etc

Well done with those marks Green... We did not fare as well in the aural or sight reading which were the areas that let her down. We're not skipping any piano grades from now on and will do G6 in March.

Concert sounds lovely Fleur. Loose, any news on the G5 theory? I'd be going mad by now!!

Oh and a great succes last night with the clarinet high notes, she managed to hit them in a Christmas Carol without the horrible sqeak so I am hoping they will be sorted by the time she'll join the junior wind band and going back to lessons in January.

Green where in London are you? There is the North London festival sometimes in May, I was looking at it but DD is doing another one in February so after that she'll focus on grade 5 prep as she plays different pieces in her exam than the ones for the festival so currently working on 5 pieces (3 for the festival, 2 for exam just started) besides studies plus will start the 3rd piece for the exam after Christmas. But you can enter your DD with whichever pieces you have ready so you could maintain the grade 5 ones? Still waiting to see minigreen playing, do sort out YouTube

DD is petite (like her mum) so at the mighty age of 9 she only slightly over 130cm I haven't measured her for a while though.

Battling Summertime in our house, DD loves it but it isn't an easy piece, some octave stretches which she's just about reaching but it doesn't sound clean so waiting to see what her teacher thinks of it.

As a junior Orchestra we got to play 10mins this Sunday for Xmas concert, still I am very excited. We are away from next week until 04th and I havent had a holiday since August so its much much needed.

Only, mine is just 9 couple of weeks ago and 1.4m. So we might just get one this weekend.

Will look into festivals next year where she can play pieces more to build up her musicianship for aural. Also joining the school choir for fun.

Prada, we had max mark for prelude and nearly for Am Abend while 60s swing was only 27. In the waiting room we played 60s swing and she just couldnt get over bar 13 as well as usual. The other day I was messing with youtube as I tried to post her playing 60s swing here

Drummersmum

DS is only 6, so I do appreciate not every teacher is going to want to take on a little one, but its hugely frustrating when he's done so well. When he started in september last year his teacher was very honest and said he expected to basically be working on rhythm games with him for a good while and not to expect much in the way of drumming, so no need for any kit at home..... DS however took to it like a duck to water and by Christmas his teacher had helped us source a second hand drum kit....

I havent got an answer from DS about whether he'd like to try piano, just dark mutterings along the lines of 'I understand he (culture school head) is trying to say sorry but I do drums mutter mutter mutter'

Congrats MiniGreen, its really amazing seeing the time she moved from Gr-2 to Gr-5, can't fathom DS doing it.

Lovely lovely updates for the end of year from all. We've just got the violin teacher's concert tomorrow and choir concert on Thurs (with her supporting in orchestra - she's not managed to squeeze in choir as one of her activities in secondary school).

She came home today and said she can't wait for the holidays. I asked if it was because she needed a rest. No, she said, it's because she's really looking forward to practising her instruments. I did feel her temperature at this stage .

So excited that I've just noticed these, I've got to use another one

truffle good luck clarinet shopping, exciting! I have a long time till DD needs an upgrade but I am making notes🙂

Loose good luck with the carol concert.

Prada an electric violin! How exciting!!!

Well done mini Green! I am amazed how well she did with her "shift" practicing .
We ordered 3/4 violin which is expected in January, it as Gliga again, but better model. How tall is mini Green? Mine is 135.

Forgot to say thank you for all the good wishes!

Still no exam result for us. However DS2's voice is much improved and back up the octave. Such a shame he missed out on the treble Once in Royal solo as it will be his last opportunity.

He's actually singing alto most of the time at the Cathedral as they have gaps at present, and he is 14 so we are on borrowed time. We just need to get to the beginning of January which is the last treble event planned.

Tonight was the school Presentation evening, which is held in the Cathedral. Older 2 DCs received their Alevel and GCSE certificates. DS2 played in brass group and sang in school choir, after first singing Evensong, so pretty much on the mend. School music concert tomorrow night!

Well done minigreen! We had the opposite, missed a merit by 1 on G5 piano but we took a pass given the short time also....

We also got a medal (and team trophy) last week in the London chess classic and miniprada was invited to play with the world's top 10/11 chess players the day before at a swanky club! It was great fun.

Well done minifleur! Good luck to loose an the concerts.

In other news here, I've bought an electric violin for miniprada for fun for Xmas (she never asks for anything) think Escala -style thing. As luck would have it someone was playing a similar thing on Strictly/X factor at the weekend and she sad 'mummy that would be awesome to play that sort of instrument'. Cue verrrry smug mummy and daddy was like 🙄 I haven't told him we need to get the 4/4 size violin yet at Woodbridge violins... I'm waiting for the indie exams to be over first...

Loose: hats off to your patience! Please let us know how does the carol concert go.

Another couple news I had for her were a medal in the Olympia yesterday for chess and asked to join the council swimming squad(just finished stage 9 equivalent). However to me music is more important, more a long term thing and something bothers me which I think I need to support her better.

Fleur, yes, (you have better memory than mine) grade 2 last Autumn term, grade 3 end March then stop completely until June with dictation and etudes(stopped for 3 months for theory and violin for summer term). Then our teacher by beg of Sept said she should try G5 this term as she did really well with etudes he doesnt think she has any issue with the pieces(he didnt think of scales by then I think). It took us maybe 1.5months for the 3 pieces however the scales are killer. Or its just my child who loves being challenged and doesnt like anything repetitive (thats why I get her to try music at first). She memorised them very quick then when she had to play them again she just played 2 octaves instead of 3 for example or either too fast or too slow. And we missed the arpegios marks by not being able to play at a required speed simply because we never practised playing hands separated

So far we could get away with little practice and being laid back. However since failing the NCO I realise that we need to do more if we want to be better. Just being lazy and thinking if we wants to give up more time for music(question asked in a wrong place I know).