April Music Thread

No singing in later grades cadences discussing key features of pieces changes and modulation ( I think this is off the top of my head !) ask me in a couple of months I will then be an expert as I always seem to have to help ds with this - he promises to cooperate this time and not get cross we shall see

What are the Trinity supporting tests?

Great I will look this up too Double

String, dd's teacher advised using Hoffnote as practice for the supporting tests.

we like the Trinity syllabus a lot - has many of same pieces as ABSRM at same grade, but also lots of other really good 'stuff'; however our teacher won't do the supporting tests for Trinity so that made a switch difficult (as a completely musically ignorant parent!)

On the subject of Trinity v ABRSM, DD2 is switching to Trinity for G7 bassoon as she hates the singing element of ABRSM aural. Two of the pieces are on the syllabus for both boards. Certainly not easier.

Trumpet, I'm also feeling relieved this afternoon. Different reason though..... DD1 managed to leave her sax on the public bus this morning - again! The local bus company are great and called me back this afternoon to say it was back in their office. I'm thinking of investing in a set of security handcuffs! Needless to say that DD1 is also very relieved......

Feeling slightly relived this afternoon as we've found out that ds's trumpet teacher can continue to teach him next year - so maybe we can put off grade 7 if the exercises aren't ready I'm in no rush for ds to sit it we shall see

That's total rubbish about trinity being easier some of the pieces for trumpet cross over and both carry equal ucas points at higher grades and are equally acceptable for uni entry etc - I only know this as I've checked because I've had similar comments Pique !! In some ways trinity are much better for brass, and were also more highly thought of for classical guitar which was my instrument as a child

We switched to Trinity for G8 because of the pieces, he liked them better.

Y9 DD moved to Trinity for piano a couple of grades back because they were (definitely) more enjoyable pieces. If I'd known about the rapid turnaround for results I might have leant on her to move earlier regardless of the pieces.

That said she's a big fish in the little local pond and regularly gets a few other music kids, proxys for competitive parents (and possibly sharing some of the genes) wittering on about ABRSM being much more difficult and how they would be one or two grades higher if they were doing Trinity blah-blah-blah.

Grass and Never, thank you for the comments. I just got home and re-tuned using the digital tuner (my ear is not reliable). They seem to have coped OK with the long journey from the violin shop. Hopefully they won't be too wobbly. I will remind DS to keep his eyes (ears?) on them this evening and re-tune them as needed (he can tune by himself). The lovely lady kindly did a quick cosmetic job on the old chips (paint & varnish). I am so hoping DS won't make a new chip tonight!

Kutik DS2's new violin strings settled down really quickly. They didn't go out wildly at all...

New strings will be stretching for a while; some string / instrument combinations settle more quickly than others. He will need to retune a few times during this evening's rehearsal - if he's fine with tuning then he'll be ok, if it is something he still finds difficult it might be worth you or him (depending on age!) alerting someone who helps at the orchestra that he may need a hand retuning new strings? Especially if he needs to move the pegs. Merely saying "his violin's just had all new strings on today" will alert anyone to the problem!

Hope he enjoys the orchestra!

Making an emergency visit to a violin shop to have the strings changed for DS's violin. I'm also on my duty to pop in the bakery near the violin shop. My DS loves their JUMBO sized gingerbread man!

DS's strings were really worn out so needed to be change asap and today was only day I could visit the violin shop in the next 2weeks. This is the second time I'm doing this. I remember last time we were told that it could be unstable for a while. This evening, DS has his first rehearsal at a youth orchestra. Do you think he will have a problem with the bland new strings?

got our abrsm results within 2 weeks, done in March.

Our borough music centre books 2 days twice a year for music exams otherwise the teachers arrange dates themselves.
DS1 seems to be playing other tuned percussion pieces than his grade 6 ones so I checked with him that he isn't meant to do the exam this term. He said he just wants to get his grade 8 bass this term and not think about any other exams just now! I think he's still recovering from his year 10 school exams!

Yes, my children's schools arrange the examinations to be at the school (a special visit) and then the date can fit around things like other things on at school and school general exam timetables. If you have enough pupils taking AB exams it works well and when we've had them saved me having to drive the children to some other centre, finding it, parking etc. My son on verge of A levels seems to be spending a lot of today helping others with music - as his twin said this is the downside of taking on these prefect roles I suppose... anyway it will be fine. He is being recorded playing the trumpet for some music tech A level boys this morning and then is staying late tonight his band is another boy's A level music ensemble so that's to be recorded. Then he's not going to lessons on Friday as he's helping supervise lots of local prep schools coming into their (senior) school for a music day. He seems very happy about it all so that's not a problem. I like it. He's the youngest of 5 so unlike the others not had younger children to help or look after so it gives him a chance of helping with much smaller children at school.

We had one drummer (passed grade 8) but he does not play much now. The kit is only out on special occasions or when his brother's band practices here. It fills almost a whole huge cupboard space upstairs.

Drummers yes it's a realy different approach. I'm a bit concerned as so far ds has only learnt the pieces he's playing them well but has never looked at orchestral extracts before or had to add dynamics in scales so it's a lot to learn. I'm hoping ds and his teacher have made the right decision .

Special visits are arranged by a school or teacher with enough pupils to be examined, and the dates can be chosen by the Centre.

Trinity also set their general centre dates in advance, so you can see on their website which week it would be in your chosen centre.

It could be because we needed more time for everything really, 3 months for everything wasnt enough, especially for us with scales. We learnt the lesson.

What is special visit? Tempting to ask Prada couple of times in the past although never thought we would ever need it as there isnt a goal. However it might make sense to have a chosen date with violin so we could have booked things in advance with accompaniment and it will be less expensive.

DS was OK with ABRSM G7 piano scales. We switched to Trinity for G8 because of the pieces, he liked them better. Trinity requires less scales but they require different dynamics in them which can be tricky. It also adds the style exercises, so there's more to learn. They're just different approaches I guess. His exam is this summer, he has been playing the pieces for sooo long now, if this term hadn't been so busy he should've taken the exam this term... At least he will be performing the Mozart sonata next week

6 weeks if you don't count this week. Which freak me out to be fair even though dd's teachers are working with her to be ready by the first week I am still hoping she'll get last week.

Why would the exam be so early Waffle? Is it a special visit?

Waffle there are still at least 7 weeks till the exam so I am sure Rara can improve a lot in this time. If dd can do it I am sure Rara can. Dd's pieces were a mess last week. This week they sound so much more convincing. One piece though worries me as it is quite fast, hopefully dd can achieve that speed.

As to teaching: dd was asking the other day what she'll do after grade 8. I said there are diplomas to get and she could teach. She counted that if she keeps to a grade a year now she'll be grade 8 by 13, so she could get some pocket money during teenage years by teaching little ones piano at a smaller fee. Not a bad way to earn some money I guess.