(Mostly) August Music Thread

HI Waffle and all - been v work busy but have now started the obligatory annual thread; the benefit of doing so is there are lots of parents who only join in that thread, plus i found it really usefully when we were first thinking of doing the auditions, that i could find lots of info on the annual threads. No reason people can't post nco stuff on both of course :)

lack of patience, ability to drill and skipping over technique

It's my DS!

Good luck drummers! I remember the Spanish wait last year for miniprada. I'll still as proud as punch about that!

We're on holiday so just posting to say good luck toFleur's DS for tomorrow! And drummerboy for Spanish and everyone else waiting for results!
No instruments on holiday for possibly fhe first time in years but we're staying in a cottage attached to a working light house with a working fog horn to make up for it!

No worries Drummers. I must get in sooner next time we get the heads up

PS hope prep for YDOY is going well. It seems not longer until entries open.

drummersmum thanks - mallets will suck up pocket money in a hurry! We seem to be spending more and more as of course the basic ones will not do :) The joys of percussion instruments taking over the house. Used to have marimba in my office which was fun during holidays. Hopefully your parents will get bored soon (in nicest possible way of course :))

Welcome everyone new!
ealing oh so sorry, I thought everyone had seen them already...
herts it's very difficult at times to keep up with this thread and everyone. There are few percussion news except DS spent a big chunk of his pocket money recently on new mallets and a cymbal bag, and enjoyed a jazz residential drumming for a week...

It's hard for him at the moment because my parents are staying with us 10 days and while he practices marimba or piano - both instruments are in the living room - they just sit in the sofa listening and they clap every time he takes a pause! Even after a scale! They haven't learnt my technique of becoming a ghost, so he can "almost" forget you're in the room and he can focus and not feel big brother is watching. So it's very off putting for him. I know its out of love and enthusiasm, but hopefully they will relax in a few days. They are keen to go places but all DS wants is to stay at home and practice as we've been travelling. They sleep in the attic where he plays drums and yesterday he monopolized their room for three hours But they understood. It's going to be an interesting 10 days... For my part, with so many people, planning meals, etc I doubt I will be mumsnetting much...

Fleur very best for tomorrow! I'm sure your DS will have done great. We're just waiting for early Spanish. Will your DS be going into the school?

Waffle I read the NCO thread anyway!

Feel for you Fleur. We had AS last week and it's our fifth consecutive year of GCSE and/or AS/2. My autumn is is uni applications and associated drama.

Should be clear that I used the soft bit of the sponge, not the scratchy bit. Although, come to think of it, using the scratchy bit might have resolved the gripping too hard with the chin and shoulder problem quite effectively

Thanks people. We have a few years yet to find the correct bath sponge

So exciting - our Kodaly books arrived today! Started singing/playing the nursery songs, all in d major, and DS sang a d a few times, quite insistently. I think it was a fluke though as he usually babbles between a and f... but I'll keep it as first evidence that he's a musical genius

Ooh fleur - that schedule looks like us last year! Good luck!

Waffle - I think it's easier if we keep everything on one thread? I think miniprada will audition for NCO but not decided yet. She is just starting her violin G8 pieces and G7 piano pieces on top of starting secondary school in a couple of weeks so we'll see.

Good luck to anyone's DC waiting GCSE - miniprada's sister is waiting 😱

When DS2 started as a small 5yo on his tiny 1/8th violin, I cut the rough bit off a kitchen sponge and attached it to his violin with a rubber band. We had a succession of ever bigger sponges, until he moved onto a conventional shoulder rest (kun then playonair). He has quite a flat chin rest. I don't know which brand.

I play without a shoulder rest but with quite a raised chin rest.

Schwanengesang most young Suzuki violinists begin using a half a bath sponge, held on with elastic bands, rather than shoulder rests.

My girls (13 & 15) have long necks. They prefer Everest shoulder rests. Easy to adjust and brilliant for staying on the violin (as opposed to regularly falling off violin, like many other brands do...). I think both used sponge shoulder rests until they were about 8 of 9.

Violin people, on the subject of chin placement and shoulder rests: what is a good starting point for a little child? Can you recommend good chinrests or shoulder rests for teeny tiny violins, or does it mostly not matter?

I started violin rather late (age 10) but also very small, with small hands, weak arms and a long neck, and I found it impossible to hold the violin for years, because the chinrests had a huge edge that stuck up under your jaw, and the shoulder rests were slippery plastic balloon things fixed with elastic bands that slipped. It was all fairly miserable for 3 years until I was lucky enough to be allocated a teacher who identified that I couldn't hold the violin properly and gave me a wolf shoulder rest and told me to play chin-off. Chin-off was good practice for baroque, which is now my principal instrument. So now I have no idea what you're meant to do with your chin, on a modern violin.

Taggie likewise, and thanks for the tip. Dd is the bottom end of the grades bracket on their website so we are using it as a performance exercise. She's keen to try, but realistic

Thank you Misti it is indeed a long wait. For dd it is even worse, application by end of October, allocation day 1st March. At least this time we find out how she did in the exam before applying and get at least an idea what school she'll be allocated, when dd did the exam you only knew on allocation day, they didn't tell you any exam results before applying so you had no clue of the real chances. Good luck with the piano place, fingers crossed you get it.

Waffle thank you again for the recordings, dd listened to them again and she chose two good contrasting pieces I'd say from all the books she's got. One from your recording and another one from the movie themes which is grade 4 currently and she can play it by sight reading it so hopefully she'll do it justice.

Dd finally got back into practice and we of course had tears with piano. She made mistakes with Summertime, minor ones but it was of course the end of the world, she is bad at it and she will fail the audition if she gets there.

Luckily the clarinet fun pieces put her in a great mood, she played "if I only had a brain", Over the rainbow, Hedwig's theme, etc she loved it.

Thank you waffle. So reassured about the sight reading. DS2 is not exceptional (can play g7 pieces but will play g6 pieces for the audition). I will be so delighted if he gets into U10s. One line is good news. His main problem seems to be maintaining focus.

se22 nice to 'meet' someone else going for violin auditions for the U10 :-) For the chin problem, I would look at her overall set up, particularly the left elbow. Try moving her elbow a little forward and back and see if that helps. Check also that the elbow is in the correct place for each string (furthest round for the G string). We have the opposite problem of chin drooping, improved although not resolved by moving to a Playonair shoulder rest.

Thursday is results day for DS and being stressed is an understatement at this point, I keep dreaming of getting there and finding out he failed all his exams.

Fingers crossed for him fleur. Such a long wait in the UK! We had about a 3 week wait for DD's first baccalaureat results (they do two French literature exams and the science project in the equivalent of Y12) and it was horrible because DD convinced herself that she had messed up the written literature paper. (She hadn't). What is your DS planning to do next year?

ealing I've never attended DD's music lessons either. In fact I see her piano teacher maybe 2-3 times a year, at concerts.

I'm still hoping to get a place for piano lessons this year (they offer the occasional place for adults). Am working on a selection of pieces around grade 4-5 level (a movement from one of the Viennese sonatinas, a very pretty Mussorgsky piece that DD learnt a couple of years ago, and two easier pieces). It is mildly frustrating because none of them is hard - I can easily sight-read pieces of this standard if I take it steady - but I struggle to get them wired and up to speed. It is an age thing I suspect.

Waffle violin pieces will be 2 very contrasting grade pieces. Clarinet she wants to do a fun piece - really likes a lot of Lloyd Weber and one of grade pieces.- either deep river or shh, all good experience if nothing else.

Welcome Ilovesushi, and good luck to your DD & DD music learning!

I've always been a little envious of many of the parents on here that are so much more engaged in their children's practise than I have been. Also our music teachers have never been a fan of sitting in, so I used to hear from elsewhere if at lessons were at home, and just prompt on reading the notebook or applying concentration when it lapsed. Which was often. Lots of fights when DD was younger, mainly managing her lack of patience, ability to drill and skipping over technique. But, I have a good ear, but neither parents are musical . And was helpful on the time management, and a stickler for even 15 mins practise before school as routine (for us) was key.

Now I leave her to it, though may remind her of scales/sight reading once in a while. She knows I have not switched off completely, but still tries it on, just to test me