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Original poster

September Music Thread

665 replies

Wafflenose · 01/09/2017 01:01

Hello, and welcome to a new thread for September. This is a lovely, calm and supportive corner of Mumsnet where we can talk about everything to do with music lessons, exams, practice, auditions, and whatever else you like. Contributors of ALL standards and ages welcome. There are lots of experienced music parents on here, but we also have a steady stream of beginners, and the collective knowledge on here is impressive.

I'm Waffle, teacher of woodwind - mainly clarinet and recorder these days. My DH plays the guitar for fun. We have two DDs - sensitive, highly strung and accident-prone Goo (11) who plays the flute and piano, and starts secondary school next week, and laid back, funny Rara (9) who plays the cello and clarinet, and is also a reading machine.

There's not too much going on for us musically this term, apart from auditioning for NCO in October. My main priority will be getting Goo settled in a much bigger school, with a longer day, and she's getting there under her own steam, eek! Luckily for us, we don't have any music exams or secondary school entrance stuff going on, but I know that lots of you do. I am anticipating Grade 8 Flute and Grade 3 Clarinet next term, and Grade 5 Piano in the summer term. I've no idea if Rara will do any more cello exams after the drama of the last one! At the moment, she says she's sticking to the odd numbers. Nutcase.

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Kutik73 · 05/09/2017 13:02

I hadn't visited the channel for a while. Thank you for drawing my attention to it, drummers.

earling, DS watched it together and absolutely loved it! He is having his first piano lesson this Thursday and he is going to ask the teacher if he can play it. He said 'all my friends would love this!!'. It seems the motivation for him (to look cool in front of his peers Grin).

raspberry, oh my, raspberry... What's a beautiful voice he has! I was drinking tea but totally froze for the 2 mins 28 secs with the tea in my hand.

drummers, I can confirm my renewal of the membership of minidrummers fan club (anyone wants to follow me?). He is so so cool.... Can't believe DS is going to the same college as this cool boy. I can't wait to see him in person very soon (will do so in distance as I don't want to embarrass the teenager).

drummersmum · 05/09/2017 12:46

raspberry I just heard your DS. Absolutely amazing. So lovely. So now there are two new things.

drummersmum · 05/09/2017 12:36

green I've never heard of "Eat That Frog". I will check it out Flowers

There's something new on the channel.

Greenleave · 05/09/2017 12:23

Goo looks so grown up, what a pretty girl!

Drummers: time to time I reread "Eat that Frog" to remind myself not overloading with bits that isnt as important and could be harmful. FlowersFlowersFlowers.

Loose: will look up for scales Bootcamp tonight, thank you!

I will catch up with Alma Deutscher documentary tonight.

Read August end bits and wanted to say massive congrats to all the great news especial Fleur and Drummer son's gcse news! Laughing at Prada's oven incident and hope Kutik stitches are gone now. Many other wonderful news and updates from everyone too.

gillybeanz · 05/09/2017 11:31

waffle that's a lovely photo, she looks so smart and grown up.
What a lovely smile Thanks

Minimusiciansmama · 05/09/2017 11:14

TheGirl needs a music bag for school this year as they all start recorder from y3. She has a kids personalised one from her music lessons so I thought she could relegate that one to school and buy her a really nice one for starting CATs, something to last her. Any recommendations?

Minimusiciansmama · 05/09/2017 09:52

Ahhh looking so grown up Goo!

Doubleup · 05/09/2017 09:47

Waffle, a lovely photo! I have another year before I'll be taking one like that.

I watched the Alma Deutscher documentary last night with my jaw on the floor. Wow!

Trumpetboysmum · 05/09/2017 09:46

Lovely photo waffle

LooseAtTheSeams · 05/09/2017 08:47

Lovely photo Waffle - and so grown up now!

drummersmum · 05/09/2017 08:39

waffle what a nice photo - she's become a young woman!
loose many congrats on your first lesson back Star
trumpet i will watch Alma's doc! Thanks.
green I just pushed myself too much with stuff and forgot I'm not made of steel Smile

Original poster
Wafflenose · 05/09/2017 08:32

Off to work soon, so more later. But for now...

September Music Thread
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LooseAtTheSeams · 05/09/2017 08:22

Good luck today everyone! The boys have a later start today while school settles the y7s in.
Green I like your style! Lesson was good in the end - I managed to do quite well on the F sharp major scale but F sharp minor needs some work. We had fun (?!) trying to play really fast!
For piano scales MiniGreen might have some fun with Scales Bootcamp by Philip Johnston. I think you can do the scales in any order you want but there are lots of challenges built around each scale. The idea is if you can do those you'll never forget!
I am going to use it this week for minor scales with sharps! I'm hoping it will inspire DS2 when his lessons start again.

Trumpetboysmum · 05/09/2017 07:57

That's really interesting kutik I will look that book up . Good luck today Goo and everyone else going back to school. New journey to school and work for us all here so hoping it works out fine .

Kutik73 · 05/09/2017 07:34

Trumpet, I didn't watch the documentary, but I know Alma Deutscher.

She can compose/improvise like that partly because of her innate ability but also hugely because of her way of learning music. Her father deliberately avoided the traditional English method of exams and mechanical learning, Instead her musical education focuses on composition and improvisation, common teaching method in eighteenth century Italy (if you are curious, read his book Music in the Galant Style). The father searched for a teacher who could teach Alma in the method and found one in Switzerland so she receives weekly lessons via Skype. It's all about understanding harmony. She also learns piano and violin from teachers at the Menuhin.

I think it's good to share with your DS some clips of her improvising (especially interesting when she does so in the lesson with Tobias Cramm). I watched some with DS before (Youtube) and he got so inspired by her method.

Minimusiciansmama · 05/09/2017 07:05

waffle I hope Goo has an amazing first day at her new school. Same of course goes for any other new starters today.
Last day of holiday here today and we have absolutely nothing planned apart from ballet and mourning the return to chaos!

Trumpetboysmum · 04/09/2017 23:59

Did anyone else just see the documentary about Alma Deutscher ? It might have been on before and I just missed it but absolutely amazing . Ds will never manage to sit through the whole thing but I will just get him to watch the bit where she takes 4 notes and then uses these to improvise / compose an entire piece which she plays straight off out of her head . How did she do that ?

Greenleave · 04/09/2017 23:18

Drummers: what happened? Hope you are feeling better now!

How was your lesson Loose? We got away with being told off by loads of biscuits and a bottle of good wine we brought from our trip. This is the first time we give our teacher something after a holiday, he is more of a family to us now. We are told that we need to develop a system for scales learning and he will need to see how we are learning them the next couple of weeks to decide if we should take the exam this term.

Waffle: only 4 terms so Goo has been progressing really well compare to us learning the last 5 years(with weekly almost no holiday lessons), Goo is doing really well.

Will need to read the end of August posts to catch up with any news I missed.

hertsandessex · 04/09/2017 19:24

drummers I'll send you a message but really good. The adult competition was amazing but the kids great as well with people from all over including China and Russia. Hope your summer things went well.

drummersmum · 04/09/2017 18:57

herts LOL How was the marimba festival this summer? I forgot you were going!
waffle I think it's very reasonable, everything you're saying.

LooseAtTheSeams · 04/09/2017 17:51

herts Smile
I keep forgetting how quickly Goo has zoomed through the grades! Definitely a good idea to consolidate now on piano and focus on grade 8 flute for exams.

hertsandessex · 04/09/2017 17:38

I know a millionaire jazz drummer. However, he had to give up drums in his late 20s and become a stock trader :) I don't think percussion in any form is a route to millions although I did spot a marimbaist driving a rather new Mercedes at a competition in Belgium over the summer so all is not lost.

Original poster
Wafflenose · 04/09/2017 17:30

Brr, winter tennis! No thanks!

Goo hasn't done a piano exam (or performance) yet, and I don't think she's ready. She's been learning 4 terms so is very inexperienced, no matter how clever she might be. If they want to work on Grade 5 pieces, that's fine, but she just needs to concentrate on school this term. I think Grade 8 Flute is also pencilled in for March, so that's not a good time either. Maybe we can persuade her to play in an unthreatening Festival class next January and see how that goes? Goo's teacher and I would both like her to do Grade 5 piano at some point, and Goo has agreed it's a good idea. But not yet!

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LooseAtTheSeams · 04/09/2017 17:18

drummers Flowers hope you're feeling much better soon. Sadly I doubt there are any millionaire jazz drummers. There is no justice in this world...
I have booked DS2 in for an introductory guitar lesson on Wednesday. It would have clashed with tennis lessons but this year he's decided tennis in Winter is less fun - having persevered with it for the past few years I think he's entitled to make that decision! Nice warm, dry music room vs cold outside tennis court - no brainer to me!
Waffle maybe if Goo believes there is no exam, she may become more confident and decide herself that she wants to do it? Hard to know with them at this age, though! I can't tell if DS2 wants to do his grade 5 cello at Christmas and have a blitz on scales this half term or not. He keeps just complaining that they are too hard and he likes the piano ones more!

Original poster
Wafflenose · 04/09/2017 16:58

Goo has just had a piano lesson. We bought the Grade 5 book, and the teacher spent most of the lesson playing the pieces to Goo and getting her to rank them. She told me that it's a great selection, and that Goo had been doing well with the alternative one she was set a couple of weeks ago. I had another talk with her, and made it absolutely clear that we don't want an exam going on at the moment. I was nice though!! The earliest sensible time for her to do it would be in June 2018, and if she needs that long to prepare, then she's not really Grade 5.

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