February Music Thread

Oh no Green, you never stop learning to count and clap ... DS2 massacred his rhythm today and had to stop and stamp beats. I frequently have to do that myself just to make sure I get them all correct.

To avoid her spending time googling then I have to buy books, she could burry herself into them while I am wrestling the (terrible two) sister to bed, she chose these books though.

To you all, any of your children who is still counting beats and clapping hands during lessons. I was home slight earlier today so could see the whole lessons was her learning counting the rhythm, clapping and playing a note all over again( that "note" wasn't in the piecies she is on). I thought we should have done with this basic for now(or its only her).

I suppose your DD could beat all of us! My DS wants to be an astronaut if not successful as a musician (please don't laugh as he is serious in his tiny 9 yo brain). He loved uncle Albert series when he was Y3-4ish. But I guess your DD is probably reading real books about space...

Oh nice Kutik, your son can then teach her as we both cant play. I have this one nearly finished now on the sofa today

My DS studied all by himself for a very short period too but it was just last term so y5 not y3! By the way we are a family of chess and space lovers (we have a chess championship nights and host a star gazing party where we spot some planets and stars and do quiz and a bit of knowledgeable speech and so on- my job is baking star shaped cookies and play David Bowie cds). Your DD may enjoy a visit one day!?

She is def better than me as I have no idea, neither my husband. There were 2 things that helped her during her 3 months(ish) studying theory: she doesnt mind reading (boring/dry) material(she is into all the quantum of physics quirky books)and read/reread the pink book and she is good with mental maths. I remembered we were more struggling with skipping g2 violin and jumped to g3 at the end. My violin/piano teacher is a Russian who studied music in do re mi so he wasnt most familiar with abrsm theory. He although explained the difficult terms. We bought loads of past papers and had to do the g5 practice book twice(however only redid the bits she wasnt good at). We didnt do loads of g5 past papers mainly because we solidly had above 90% and needed time for violin. That was her first ever written exam.

Green This means your DD was smarter than me already when she was only 7/8 yo! I thought I would try together with DS but quickly got stuck so left all to DS to cope alone!

We loved theory the most, it didnt take us long to study from Zero and got a distinction(only grade 3 on piano and g1 on violin and she was yr3). We wished practical was the same as it is so far the thing we worked on hardest. The whole lesson today was only on the rythm and counting beats...there is a child who could play the piece perfectly right with perfectly wrong rythm....sigh!

Enormous Yes I totally agree. It was his very first time to sit such an exam and he was so unprepared! I saw some of you on this thread had the same approach as Enormous like introducing G3 prior to G5. It's very sensible (and kinder to the child).

Kut, it can be confusing. It is one reason why I made the twins do grades 1, 2 and 3 before 5 so they just got used to turning, up being timed in an exam (there were not many school exams for them even at age 7/8 etc).

Good luck to everyone doing exams. One of my twins did grade 5 theory 3 times (passed 3rd time).

Cingo I am sure she'll be fine! DS1 rushed through, escaped at first opportunity and still passed so I'm confident your dd will do much better than that.

Congrats to Miniprada, lovely need.

Cingolimama I'm sure she'll be fine, exams seem to concentrate the mind
I made DS2 stay the whole 2 hours so he knew there was no point rushing. He and our teachers other student were the only 2 left at the end.

Congrats to MiniPrada - what a lovely extra surprise!

Oh Prada, I am so happy for you and miniPrada.

Prada great news!!!!
I see now that every school has very different information in terms of teachers on their websites. Parents evening is speed dating in every school I'm afraid.

Thanks for the luck, people! What a lovely thread this is.

Congratulations to miniPrada, what a great start to school life.

I know it's hard but try to ignore the discussion if it is souring the experience for you. It's not often that you can manage to convince someone on the internet that they are wrong and unless you are in charge of admissions at the school you are not responsible for the policy or how it was communicated. Enjoy your moment, you've done enough running around this year and this is the payoff for your efforts.

Good luck cingo! Miniprada failed it once then decided to retake it to get a distinction so I'm glad we left that exam behind last year!!

Thanks everyone for the good wishes. Kutik - minikutik does seem ready for the challenge

Fantastic news Prada, congratulations!

Good luck cingo I'm sure it will turn out just fine if the material is known.

Prada what fantastic news - congratulations to your dd! Very much deserved after all that hard work!

Does anyone have a DC doing Grade 5 Theory this week? Feeling a bit nervous about it - don't know if my DD will pass. She knows the vast majority of the material, but keeps making silly mistakes in the past papers. aargggh.

Anyway, good luck to anyone else.

Pradaqueen Just missed your post. Congratulation to your DD. What's a fantastic way to start a week!

Our JD challenge is back on the plan after abandoning the idea pretty quickly last month. We have no preference but it has to be in London. I'm aware of RCM, RAM, Guildhall, and Trinity Laban. We know some children who go to the first two but know no one who goes to the latter two. However we have visited Guildhall and met the head of strings so know the place while zero idea about Trinity. I understand RCM and RAM seem to be regarded as the most popular/competitive, but those labels mean nothing and I am sure all are good. So I like to know more about Trinity and may be also Guildhall (as I don't know anyone to ask about those two places). As far as I checked online, Trinity looks greeny and lovely environment being a bit outside, but Guildhall looked a bit too grey on our visit (however teaching looked very good)... I'm afraid I have no time to make the visit to Trinity before the closing date for the application so any information would be very much appreciated!

Morning everyone! I've just received the loveliest email - miniprada is now the proud recipient of a music scholarship for the London school I am insanely proud! Her head teacher got her to phone home and she had a little cry of happiness. I am really, really thrilled for her as she had worked so hard. The new orchestra being of a much higher standard has helped her sight reading immensely I think. Thank god for county music services....and the competition was incredibly fierce but I do think that the award is linked to an early acceptance of the offer made. The argument is still rumbling on in Secondary Education....

Well done to Rogue's DD and Fleur - I cannot believe that the teacher wanted you to deliver that news .

I also cannot believe how rude some parents are a concert. They are kids!