April Music Thread

Congratulations on the results everyone

Fleur we all have those evenings sometimes..... best thing is to leave it to the teacher to sort

Fab news, Miranda, Irvine and drummers. Too many super stars on this thread!!!

Irvine so glad for him, well done!
DS finished the day winning 1st prize in the advanced category of the drums competition. He will sleep sound tonight!

Well done Miranda and Irvine!!! You must be proud!

PiqueABoo we must have a copy and paste version of the same dd

Dd is still working hard but we've had a meltdown last night and nearly one tonight. All to do with useless practice, she wasn't in the mood and Summertime is being polished and she is adding her version of it ignoring rhythms and dynamics because "it sounds better". So I ended up shouting "it says loud look!" and she stormed off.

It's going to be an interesting lesson tomorrow when she'll play her version of summertime to her teacher.

Hi, we just received grade 1 piano exam results for my ds. He has got 131 points, distinction!!!
We are so so so proud of him.
Thank you all for all your help, we couldn't have done it without your help.

Miranda, Drummers, double fantastic, well done to your DC.

Kutic that seems very odd with the school.

Congrats *miranda"!!
Kutik I doubt they will allow outside teacher for first study unless it's a teacher in another jd or someone they know. JD will keep him busy re participation! Why would not having school teacher affect his participation? That's not right.

Got an email from the music centre with DD's exam result - she got a distinction in her grade 2 flute and is very pleased .

Also got moulds done for her braces this afternoon - will get the braces in June. Anyone got experiences of twin block braces and flute playing?

DS is dying to study composition but first has to pass grade 6 theory. Then composition could be his 2nd study at JD.

Thanks gilly and drummers. My first instinct was to keep the outside influence so to continue piano with his current teacher. I was going to go with it. But then thought I may ask opinion here before sending out the form. It seems it's the way to go.

Now, this is a more difficult bit... I'm also thinking to keep his violin teacher, at least the first year. DS enjoys being a school violinist but if he stops lessons with the teacher at school he won't be able to be involved any more. He will be year 6 when he starts JD. Wondering if JD let's him carry on until the end of primary school. We also had a special relationship with the teacher.

Drummers fantastic news
Ds whistles tunes constantly ( I'm not even sure that he knows he's doing it) he can sing has a good voice and sings in the schools boys choir. He's also asked for singing lessons to help him out with future aural exams I think ( he's just waiting for a space at school) which is good really as ask him to sing back a tune for his aural and he suddenly sounds awful. got his trinity aural practice book today it will definitely need some work , it's always been ds's weak point and where it shows that he's not been learning for that long really.

loose I will get back on future plans!

kutik if you keep piano outside it will be easier to extend to 1 hour if you want in the future. RCM allow second study outside. Thank you everyone for bday good wishes Rushing off to drumming competition now... Hello gilly! How I would love to hear your DD play...

Kutik

Have they said that they will allow lessons outside school.
I know some of them say definitely no, even if a different instrument. Some say no to same instrument but will allow others not studied at the school, and some just a blanket no.

If it was me and it was allowed I'd keep the outside influence if possible.
I know in the holidays that dd likes to visit her old singing teacher to get a different perspective, even if they don't actually do any lessons, just chat.
If the teacher outside is good maybe stick with them for a while and then look at changing to jd teacher with progression or if it becomes more practical.
The teachers t the jd are usually more experienced and/or qualified than a LA peri, but there are lots of variations in between.
I think you just have to go with your instinct.

gilly, I've never regarded singing inferior musically. In fact, quite opposite. Being able to sing is more of natural ability to me, so in a way more admirable (to me, who cannot sing!).

even in her sleep
We have similar kind of child.

Dd is in the choir and sings all the time

Snap again. Y9 DD does that too, but adores the Trinity not-singing test. She has moaned just a little about the 'Comment on...' bit in their aural, but I think that's because the answers are fuzzier than elements like a time signatures. The real test has gone OK.

Summary of Trinity aural tests for different grades are here: www.trinitycollege.com/resource/?id=7400

Kutik
I do this all the time, although honestly tongue in cheek, and knowing that you didn't mean it in this sense, but so many people do think singing is inferior musically and technically to playing an instrument.
I never miss an opportunity to point it out to people

I think the constantly singing or humming is interesting and it sounds like most of our musical children suffer from this .
I used to tell her to be quiet because it was never ending, constantly, even in her sleep.

I need to decide whether DS studies both violin and piano at JD, or just 1st study (violin), and carries on studying 2nd study (piano) with his current teacher. I need to decide this very soon.

If DS learns both violin and piano at JD, the merit will be that he can have all the music lessons on Saturday so it will free one evening during weekdays. Plus, JD can see the whole picture of his music studying having both taken with them.

If DS carries on studying piano with his current teacher, the merit is that we can keep his Saturday as compact as possible (as less lesson). I thought it may be a good start as he will be still only 10 when he starts JD in September. Eventually he can take both lessons, may be in his second or third year? I also heard that the 2nd study will be pretty much pushed back at JD as the main focused will be on the 1st study (obviously). So if DS learns his 2nd study outside of JD, he can still receive a good attention from the teacher and also has more opportunity to perform (the teacher arranges concerts through a year).

Any suggestion or advice would be greatly appreciated...

Well done to your DS drummers!!!

Every 6 months piano tuning recommended here also by both the tuner and the retailer.

Drummers that is a truly amazing result! And so lovely he got the result so quickly. You must be so proud of him! What does he plan to do next? Is there a diploma or will he concentrate on piano for now?
Happy birthday for yesterday!

drummers, he is a star!!!

gilly, sorry me being ignorant! I just wanted to say DS seems more natural with 'playing' instruments (piano/violin) than 'singing'. But again, it may be another example of me being ignorant. He may be a good singer!

Well done to your ds drummers that's a great result.

Kutik How can you say that singing isn't being an instrumentalist, the voice is an instrument.

Happy Birthday drummers I haven't been keeping up with thread recently.

God news here, DS just called after his Grade 8 Orchestral Percussion exam, got the result two hours later (Trinity), a Distinction with 95%. All he said is he forgot a repeat in a sight-reading. I said who cares!!

Green, our piano was delivered last October! The tuner said we should have tuning ever 6 months for the first couple of years. Once it's settled in the new environment, then it can be done once a year thereafter. I can't tell if it's out of tune so I just have to listen to the tuner (we are a very good customer for anyone who is trying to make money, I know).