September Music Thread

schwan condensation - I see you are playing early in morning so recorders are cold (especially with temp dropping recently) and you are blowing warm air into them. If you wipe them out after a few mins of playing you will probably find not so much more builds up as by then the recorder will have warmed up a bit. Alternatively, stick to top joint of recorder in your pocket, under your arm etc while you make a cup of tea, then it will be a bit warm when you start to play. DD's sometimes sit on a hot water bottle before concerts if the venue is very cold!

First clarinet lesson done and dd was very stressed going in, before the lesson she actually said "I'd rather do my 11+ again than be here".

She actually came out fully enthusiastic, she said she loves her new teacher, she liked what she did a lot, and the teacher agreed to help her with NCO audition. She came out with two new pieces, one from the Music through time grades 4&5 and one James Rae study, I wonder if her plan is to chose the pieces with dd herself, we'll still continue with the old one for a while and see how she is by the audition time.

Kutik73, many thanks for your reply - I will chat to the organiser first thing tomorrow and if the copy isn't acceptable, I will withdraw DS from that class. I'd rather lose the fee than have him feel humiliated and / or disqualified.

It may well be, and the recent variability in weather might well explain why I haven't noticed it til recently.

A question for the recorder players: how much dribble is too much? Having not played the recorder for approx 35 years until the last few weeks, I am only now getting up to playing for 20–30 minutes (when DS is happy about it, which is most days). By the end of a session playing either descant or tenor, descant will be clogged with saliva and making funny noises, or tenor will be damp enough that I can feel the humidity inside with fingers on holes. Am I doing something wrong, am I weird (I swear I don't go round dribbling normally...) or is this just what recorder playing is like? I have only just started trying to tongue notes rather than breathe like a singer—is that maybe the problem?

Loose dd loved Cool even if she didn't play it for her grade 5. I did as well. She won't finish it to performance standard though as her teacher assigned a lot of new pieces as she wants to move on (Kuhlau Sonatina, Bach invention, Bartok grade 6 piece, duet piece).

Green I know what you mean, you do need to prioritise family over work sometimes and that is what I am kind of doing now, I got to a level where if I progress more I'll end up sleeping at work so I am not aiming for that role just yet.

Dd luckily learnt the scales for grade 5 pretty well so now for grade 6 she just needs to extend them to 4 octaves. The staccato ones though will pose problems though as dd's wrist is not mobile.

She also started a grade 6 piece today without her knowing is grade 6 (we have the alternative book) her teacher said she's doing amazingly well and would like her to do grade 6 before finishing primary school.

Ooh! More videos, will take a look!
DS2 has had a nice piano lesson, just starting Cool from the G5 book as it seems the one most like his preferred style. He's also got theory homework! No rush to take theory exam as we're a long way off grade 6 even if he takes G5 cello in December!
Then he came home and played guitar for a bit.

Fleur: this was what I was told by our teacher after the last lesson. Scales are really our enemy.

First thing - the Scales. The fingering in the left hand is absolutely awful, and it looks like is happily it without realising, even though we pointed it out every single time!!! Please, correct it!!! She is constantly skipping her 2nd finger in LH and in general it's just wrong patterns she learnt. It only happened because of mindless practice. All the fingerings are in the book, please ask her to sit down and re-learn her LH. It applies to all the scales. RH is sometimes wrong too, so check it, but the biggest problem is with the left.

How did I miss Minivideo, will go back to the channel tonight.

I said no to an opportunity at work today because the responsibility means I might not even get home by 7pm each night. I like my job and we still have a large mortgage to pay so working is inevitable for me however I do need time with the girls too. Small thing like this Weds when I dropped my second to the new nursery and I had to do the name tag and I realised that was the first time I did it as there was always some one else who did it when they dropped and picked up.

Have seen Goo also, she is very good I'm impressed with her piano progress.

Good luck with the Inspire audition Raspberry and ealing.

Back to piano lessons today, Dd is starting grade 6 scales and aiming to do grade 5 theory in March, her teacher said it isn't much she wouldn't know. We're buying the Eric Taylor grade 4 and 5 books so we quickly work through them and then accelerate straight to past papers.

This is really useful info. Thank you both.

H Charis - we got written refs from everyone so we could use them multiple times - when there was a form that had to be used, we would go to the person who really had the best idea of commitment and potential; so that may be school or may be the teacher - you would know best. But what we def did was collect the refs etc ourselves so they def went off. For the form, the head of music gave it us in a sealed envelope, and we made sure it went with the others. We also did a music cv (most people did so was just copying them!) which we sent even if not asked for

Watched goo - sneaky mum Did she know she was being filmed. Love that last look towards camera. Her piano playing is as always advancing impressively.
Saw mini too enjoying the acoustics of RAH. Nice playing as well!
Thanks both for sharing.

Hi charis - if one of the forms is longer than the other, it's surprising they don´t specify WHO should fill it. We gave in forms from his instrumental teachers and also a couple of forms filled by people running music courses he had participated in. As he was in a state primary, there was no school music teacher per se... Does your child partcipate in many music activities in the school? in which case, the school music teacher may be the one as he/she can talk about your child's level of participation and commitment - something schools will be glad to hear about. Another way to decide is to ask yourself, based on what you know and the referees involved, who is more likely to write a good glowing positive reference.

Hello everyone, just wanted some advice about music scholarships for year 7.

Some of the schools want multiple references so I was going to ask the school music teacher and DDs instrumental teachers.

However one of the references is a longish form. Who do you think should fill it out, the school music teacher (runs the choir, orchestra etc) or the main instrumental teacher.

No idea how to complete all this stuff. Any advice much appreciated!

SuspendedinGaffa, would it be possible for you to contact the organisation directly? I was in a situation similar to yours, although it was for auditions not festivals. Their website stated strict rules about copyright. I phoned them up and explained the reason why we didn't and couldn't have the original score. They explained the reason why they had to put the strict notes on the website, but then was flexible enough to understand exception. My DS went for the audition without the original score and all was fine. I think it's best to clear any concern with the organisation directly. They often have more flexible approach when talked in person, I guess. Plus, you don't want to keep thinking 'if' till the x-day.

Hello hello....I haven't posted in probably a year, given we've moved countries, schools, etc. DS plays trumpet (will be taking G4 in Nov) and cello (G4 but no exam planned for now). I have a quick question concerning a festival he is due to take part in this weekend. One of the classes he is due to play in is a performance in a jazz / blues style, including an improvised section. His teacher has provided a handwritten music score for the adjudicator. The piece DS will be playing is very well known. Normally, for copyright reasons, performers are required to work from the original piece of music. Does anyone know if this remains the case for classes with improvised sections? I'd hate for my boy to be disqualified because his sheet music doesn't satisfy the rules, but his teacher is quite laid back and doesn't seem to be concerned. I've read the syllabus and rules, but they are silent concerning improvisation classes. Many thanks for any guidance you can provide!

And good luck!!!!

Ah thanks ealing x

NCO Inspire Drummers vs NCO. we've never looked at it before due to commitment (and I guess cost?) of the full NCO membership, but Inspire could work better due to the lower commitment (and zero cost!)

They contact successful applicants from Nov.

Is this NCO you're talking about? I'm very lost.

Good luck to miniealing and miniraspberry!

Good luck to her Ealing, DS2 will be applying. He loved the residential last year, until he got flu.

My post wasn't very clear, it should have said aged 13 - 18 and Grade 6 or above!