November Music Thread

drummersmum thanks so much for the tip with musescore. The conversion of the score was fantastic. It pretty much failed at the lyrics but the score was really good.

Congratulations to Japanese's mini for a great result; green and double mini's for sitting, and to all those with busy concert/performances coming up.

Finding the language debate fascinating, especially how each appeals to DC in different ways. Mine just loves Mandarin, but can't wait to drop French, yet has been doing french in some form or other since junior school, and still doesn't gel with it. She has found Spanish much easier to pick up (from Y9) as a result though...

So busy st Work so sorry not caught up.

Loose - learning Japanese to support gaming is so cool!!!! Although I am sure he is only gaming in japense to revise language etc 😉

Waffle I did German and French at school, then added Latin later on. I think it's a good combination although agree with ICouldBe that French and Spanish would cut the workload down a bit! I think it's brilliant that Goo's school let them try out these languages - hopefully they will take notice of her preferences and she gets her choice!
DSs' school has a very utilitarian approach to languages. Y7 get either German, Spanish or French and that's it. DS1 rebelled when he chose GCSEs and dropped French to learn Japanese outside school. He loves it but seems to be using his skills to play computer games in Japanese. Sigh.

Well done to your DD1 for her exam, Double. Compared with your DD's heavy schedule, mine sounds nothing, but we have a bit of performance coming up too. DS has his orchestra concert in which he has a solo part. He told me this today and the concert is next week. He was also asked to play a duet with his former teacher at Christmas church service which is a couple of weeks away so plenty time to prepare for this one! Both are not so risky, especially for the duet which DS can sight read really, so I can sit back and enjoy the performance!

Well done to mini-Japanese! And congrats to those invited to play solos in Christmas concerts. That's quite an honour .

And I forgot that she insisted on trying out double bass of all things at a music centre have a go evening. The teacher thought she was a natural. Not sure she could manage to fit in practice for another instrument, never mind the size of it for transporting around!

Busy week musically and otherwise, especially for DD1. She did her Grade 6 sax exam today (said it went OK), has been practicing for the school carol service next week (orchestra, choir and wind quintet) and is taking part in the National Concert Band Festival at the weekend with one of her music centre bands. And she's playing carols at her school fair too. Oh, and had parents' evening this evening! We're all exhausted....

Great result Japanese . Well done Goo and a lovely opportunity to play at the Christmas concert if she chooses . Ds has been asked to play at his - which is a slightly scary experience I think in the sports hall ( i.e. Huge) and in front of over 200 people . Luckily he has now decided to play a beautiful piece that he can play well rather than the risky newer option so hopefully I can enjoy it

I took two languages, for ease I'd take french and spanish because what you learn in one can be applied to the other. We did Spanish O level in two years because it built on what we had learned in french.

I had another discussion with DH over DS's secondary school today. I rather like to drop private options now but DH is not having any of my words. DS thinks he is going to the secondary school but doesn't mind doing the exams as an experience (and also to satisfy his father). How many DCs take the exams as an experience? What's the point really? Sigh...

German and French would be a perfect combination for any classical musician! I suppose!

green fingers crossed. Like others have said, too early to talk about retakes. Even if it didn't go well, probably better wait longer and move onto g8. Once you have your g8 nobody ever cares what you got at g7 or whether you even took it. And if there are issues of motivation then what can be worst than having to retake an exam, same pieces all over again, that kills anyone.
Waffle that's so nice for goo. Hope her solo recital goes splendid.

Sounds like senior school is really suiting Goo waffle, hope her confidence continues to grow.

Waffle that's so lovely for Goo! I love those sessions where a year group gets to show what they can do and it sounds as though she's getting a lot of love from her peers!
The practice sounds grimly familiar although Goo clearly thrives on her routine. I can basically get half the week on piano from DS2 and half on cello but theory homework is going to be a rush job tonight, which was not supposed to be the case!

Ah, and same as DD, year 5.

Niggle, I think miniGreen is 10 (the same age as DS but a year younger in the school year)!

But yes I agree with Niggle, it's quite a quick jump to think of retake even before seeing the result, Green. Suppose she could do Grade 8 when she is ready instead of retaking the same grade soon again?

A big to Goo (and Waffle)!!

DS is an active boy but at the same time quite lazy, Green. His hobby is 'doing nothing', so he claims. He is very serious about his hobby.

Hey Green, you might be being a little hasty about a resit for piano! That was g7 piano, so mini green is no slouch, as she is only 11? Our piano is about g2/3 level, as there hasn't been much time, and while it seems very easy to get out of the habit of something, is is definitely harder to get back into the habit! After violin exam will be trying to get that back on track.

Are you thinking of g7 violin next year? If so, I have kind of thought about it for Dec next year and skip grade 6. The complexity of the scales seems similar.