May Music Thread

Great to hear you are happy with both the piano teachers only!

Woolley well done for the choir outstanding mark and good luck with the wind part of the festival. Do you hire accompaniment for the festival or is she playing without? I don't know how the wind festivals go and I think dd will try it next year.

Weegie welcome, your dd sounds very musical considering she is taking the exam two years early, good luck to her on Thursday!

I quite often follow on here, though my children aren't as musically gifted as some of yours!

However, I'm really proud of my dd2 who is sitting National 5 music on Thursday (GCSE = in Scotland). She's only in S2 (Y8) but was judged good enough on her piano and violin to sit for it 2 years early. She's a bit nervous but its great for her, she's 13.

Hello, I have dd, 10 who plays clarinet and bassoon.

Today she was with her school choir at our local music festival, they got an Outstanding but just got beaten, they are all very happy.

Saturday we have our first experience Woodwind section of the festival so will see how that goes. There are 16 in the grade 3 class that dd is doing, and only 6 in grade 4 which is interesting.

No exams for us this term, school work really ramping up to prepare for entrance exams at the moment. Plus we need to make a decision as to whether to continue with bassoon when our year of free lessons is up in the summer.

sorry for mistypes, did not check before posting

Just remembered that there is a time for a new thread!
Thank you Waffle for keeping us all together!

I have dd9 who sits grade 5 theory this term and ds6 doing grade 1 violin. I am tempted to leave the theory exam till November as so much going on, but I feel it is a bit risky though there are no immediate plans for grade 6 - we decided to concentrate on technique. Dd's teacher suggested to start learning diploma's scales too-have no idea what for though....

For those who remembers - dd started piano lessons with a new (Russian) teacher - I am totally in love with her (surprisingly, as I am not a big fan of Russian teachers), and ds had his first lesson with an English teacher (the BEST around, which is reflected in her fees too ). The idea was to transfer them to the one teacher eventually, however I found myself in a most both bizarre situation - both children started with different teachers at the same time but I absolutely cannot see my dd going to her brother's teacher now and vice versa. I am an adept of the idea that there should be a perfect match between a student and a teacher but I never thought it will work that..... literally :).
So I feel a bit relieved for the time being as both children are finally fully packed with the music teachers and with the best available ones too. I can breath out now though it is a lot of work to do! No surprise I I don't have time to follow music threads in spite of my best intentions!

Hold by hand wonderful team..... last ever school senior concert tonight for dd2 . Not only that it'll be the last ever school concert full stop and after 14yrs at the same school with 3 kids heavily into the music there it'll be very emotional.... how will school music continue 😂

It's also a bit upsetting that we've lost both of my parents since they were both their to see ds at his leaving concert 😥... still the inlaws are here .... off we go.

Irvine: is there a local music festival near where you live? You can enroll him in any and its very cheap. He can see everyone else playing, learning from them and performs himself and learning performance experience, he can enroll in 1 class or various different classes. He will hear everyone else's feedback outloud for everyone and also himself' performance. Few things abrsm does well is asking for variety of things: 3 different styles of pieces, sight reading, aural, scales. You can still learn toward their requirement however you dont have to take grades exam. In fact this is what I am thinking for my second child after learning my experience from my elder daughter. We might just take g5, g7 and g8(if she does any instrument). We will do loads of feativals for different styles of classes. You never fail, you can only win and I love the big fact that I can see and hear my child playing, to me, thats all matter.

I met my piano teacher yesterday after a long time. There is one good news: less scales after g5, they are there however we only have to learn half and they are asked in different style. There is a bad news, that we love Chopin Nocturne in C# minor piece in the book and my teacher said we probably are not matured enough to do that piece. There are other pieces in the Romatic category that she can do better. We love the piece though, absolutely felt in love with it, the first time since we learned piano more than 4 years ago. We will need another 3-4 weeks for the pieces we are learning half way. We will start with the exam pieces in June.

Oh no waffle poor Goo . still waiting to be seen ... so we shall see
If he's out of action for too long we will put back the grade 7 pieces are great but it's quite a last minute decision so lots of other stuff to work on I wouldn't mind but when I picked him up school were very excited that he was down to take grade 7 and as it's organised through school had already put the cheque in !!

Trumpet as long as it's his left hand, he'll be fine. Dd2 only has one hand and she plays the trumpet. You can shove your left hand through and just about play with only a left hand but it isn't ideal.
You can also get one-handed recorders.

Dd2's very happy because she's been moved up a section in orchestra. Which means she gets to tour with them. Smugness dripped off her for about a week after she'd found out.

Thank you, I am actually dreading it.
Ds has a bit of asd traits, so he can get obsessed and will try hard to achieve, but to get there, so many meltdowns and tears are expected.
He does play totally separate songs on the side, which he practice on his own. (Game music.)

Ds said he wants the book, so I will order it and see how it goes.

Hello, I'm going to jump in and join you.

My eldest plays the piano beautifully to about Grade 4, but is refusing to do another exam for now, after his voice broke during his Grade 3 (he still did well, just fluffed the aural).

DS2 (aged 10) is actually more musical. He's playing from the Grade 3 book, but also not wanting to do exams at the moment. He actually prefers jazz piano.

He also plays the double bass - he's been playing for just less than a year, and is somewhere between grade 2/3 level.

Oh no Trumpet! Hope it is just a bruise.

Welcome MissyMew dd didn't do grade 2, jumped to grade 3 piano but covered the scales and pieces and yes the scales are a jump as hands together rather than separate but do trust your teacher, I'm sure she wouldn't enter your dd if she wasn't ready. Hand holding here.

irvine it depends what your DS and you want. Personally no, I don't like jumping from 3 exam pieces to another 3 exam pieces as the exam syllabus is not a teaching syllabus, Dd does a lot of other repertoire between exams, only when she has played other pieces at that level her teacher is introducing the exam pieces. The scales however are always introduced after the exam, so once done with grade 1 the next lesson she started on grade 2 scales, when those were learnt grade 3 and so on.

Saying that there are kids who are highly motivated by exams and that is the only way they they learn/practice, knowing they will do the next grade up. But if the plan is to take a grade a year I personally wouldn't like dd to spend a whole year learning 3 pieces.

Hi, thank you for such a friendly and helpful thread as always.

Ds had a first lesson after he got results for grade 1 piano. The teacher suggested to get grade 2 piano book. Is this normal to work on next level so soon?
I was thinking that we can forget about exam for a while...
I have no music knowledge, so I should really go with her suggestion, but I really wanted to forget about exam for a while.

Thank you raspberry hopefully it's just bruised

Oh no Trumpet. Maybe it won't be too bad!

Waffle you know how you were saying that dodgeball and playing instruments didn't go well together ... currently in accident and emergency with ds who's hurt his arm at school playing dodgeball !! Maybe he won't be doing grade 7 this term after all !! I hate to limit his extra curricular activities because he's good at 1 thing , but it's so difficult ( his other favourite sports are cricket and hockey) at least it's not rugby I suppose

Just wanted to join in this month (always follow) as DD 10 is doing two grade 2 exams next month and I think I might need a bit of hand holding to get through! Grade 2 Piano is the worry as I am not sure she is ready but must have faith in teacher. Drums on the other hand are the other way (too confident) and a bit bored doing the same stuff over and over. Anyone else find grade two quite a step up from grade 1 in piano or is it just me?

Thanks so much for the reassurance loose, I am sure there are many prospect career iterations to come in the next few years! My strategy is to continue to nod and listen for now

Ealing it's a massive dilemma for the all rounder! it's so hard for them to know for sure in Y8 or even Y9. DS1 (Y10) has considered various careers (just in case rock stardom doesn't happen) but they have been rather varied. If you go with his strengths it would be computer science or graphic design. But that would be too simple!
DS2 (Y7) has so far come up with working with robots or 'something to do with music'!

Thanks waffle. Have a DD in Y8, fast approaching 14. Violin, piano and voice, participating in many school orchestras and ensembles involving violin.

Came home last week from first visit to careers department, stating she may consider a music college for HE. I am ashamed to say DH and I were a little dumb struck and and noncommittal on feedback, stating she had plenty of time to consider.

I genuinely would support her if I felt this was where her real passion was. She's a very competent musician but she does not have the love and dedication that lots of children on this thread have, but is in a slight panic as her peers appear to be more decisive on what they wish to do.

The downsides of a good all rounder I guess, and reality of them trying to find their thing...

Thanks Waffle for a new thread. I have a 9 yrs old who plays violin and piano. We have been lost for some times with violin as we couldnt find one fitting in with our circumstances for the last 9 months or so. Things seem to be slightly better with a new teacher now although we expect it will take her sometime to adapt the new bowing style, requirement. Piano is ok, we have been learning various different pieces, technique non-exam related the last 5 months. To me, who doesnt know music at all then exam is a great track for me to know where she is. There is a new passion for chess where she has been enjoying some successes recently with tournaments, competition, although we might not be able to fully support her as I feel she is too busy and young to take another activity seriously. Music is now still our priority among all others.

Thanks waffle for the new thread. I have dd 8 who plays violin (G4 early autumn) and clarinet (will probably take g2 in the same session. These threads are an endless source of advice for the non musical parent

Trout I'd definitely echo that - I'm convinced doing music has made DS1 a much happier teenager than he might have been! Or just too busy to get into much trouble. he certainly seems to be enjoying the gcse music anyway.