November Music Thread

I'm with Kutik - there is still all to play for (excuse the pun!)
I know as a teacher, I usually have much higher standards for pieces than are expected in the exam. It's a peril of being a pro player - I have in mind how I'd play the piece, which is of course way beyond what an examiner is looking for. My pupils almost always get better marks for their pieces than I think they will, so hopefully it is the same for minigreen and her teacher.
Keep the faith!

Normally you take an exam when your playing standard reached or in some cases well above the level, so you should be able to learn the pieces reasonably fast anyway. But I reckon playing note perfect is not enough for higher grades so you need more time for digesting and understanding the depth of a piece. I supposed it's a difficult bit for younger ones especially.

You have one more week or so to the exam? miniGreen still has time to polish up and may surprise you again like she did so with her violin exam! I remember someone (teacher?) said 'NO' to the exam but she did well in the end?

Yes its Abrsm Floot, there are some scales with Trinity(I have used the wrong words, he didnt mean to avoid the scales rather than if she finds it overly tedious and hinder her enthusiasm in learning then Trinity might be an alternative.). The pieces are truly hit and miss, this is a 9 yrs old who could learn things fast (doesn't mean she have mastered it properly or even near the standard).

Is the exam ABRSM, Green?
Yes, subjective but examiners have very clear marking criteria. I think a piece would have to be pretty poorly played to fail, and even then, it's possible to pass the exam if other pieces and elements are passed safely.
I would never recommend a pupil to avoid scales; they are essential for good finger technique and a life-long part of playing an instrument, not just to pass exams.

I sent my teacher the recording we had last night as there might be no lesson till the exam next week, this is the first time we are told that we might fail the piano test. We probably deserve it anyway as most of the time we were working on scales the last 3 months, our teacher mentioned Trinity the other day to avoid scales for the future. Food for thoughts.

But it could apply to any subject, actually. Writing is another weakness of me - I was endlessly editing my essays...

I must say Art is destined to be a time consuming subject! Even more so if you are a creative type or/and a perfectionist. I found it so hard to work to the deadline whenever I did any art project at school. There seemed to be always something I wanted to add/develop/polish.

Leonardo Da Vinci has lots of unfinished works (like Mona Lisa). He had trouble stopping himself from making minute adjustments to his paintings.

I am happy to have something in common with him.

Ha! The stress bit with composition is that he has to do it at school - he tried to finish at half term and the last 2 Saturdays as offered and couldn’t because no one was there to supervise. But it will get done. And to be fair he is enjoying music and art.

Loose and double good luck with the coursework. We were advised not to take both Music and Art. Luckily DS was not considering Art. His free options ended up being Music, History, Latin and French. As it happens, History also has coursework and it's the free subject that's demanding more time and work. My experience so far with Music is similar to Icould's. He does a lot of the composing in school. BTW his ensemble performance graded assessment is in December already!!

double busy week and so nice that you felt that amazement.
string good of your girl to get that extra time for practice. The daughter of a friend of mine, a gifted musician, also gets games off. But this girl doesn't do any other sport, unlike your swimmer. Young people need sport - old people too! I have wondered about DS getting games off sometimes but I want him to have a purely physical time off every week. This term he is doing Golf as his games option and spending two hours a week in fresh air, surrounded by green meadows and not having to think of anything else beyond the next shot. He loves it. So I doubt he would like to substitute for practice...

Schwan thanks for adding your wise words and experience. Your contact in Manchester could be really helpful for more info. I'll pm you.

Hi Drummersmum,
I’m afraid I know nothing about the joint uni course. I’ll email you x

Loose - music and art, yes two of DD1's choices for GCSE and it causing some issues already. Year 10 and she still struggles to be organised!

DD1 had her school concert last night performing in choir, orchestra, concert band and sax ensemble. She was the only one on first sax with the tune throughout the piece and I was amazed by the sound she was producing! it was lovely to see and hear the confidence she is developing. Tonight both DDs are performing as part of a stage band at the local theatre (DD2 did that last night too) and then DD2 is singing in the festival with the school choir rather than playing. Busy week!

I can't say that I ever noticed DS doing any work for music GCSE, he'd play his compositions for us from time to time but that was all. The only thing I do remember is that very late in the year we had to scurry round for the sheet music for the piece he'd performed earlier in the year, if they'd asked for it at the time it would have been less of a panic.

Oh and just a note of caution to anyone thinking about GCSE option choices - music gcse is great but has a comparatively high coursework component. This is all fine and good until your child chooses another high coursework subject like art and spends a considerable amount of time binning their work because they don’t like it! I think he’s on track with art now and will do well but the composition side of Music is raising my blood pressure a bit!

I don't think ds could or would want to stop sport as he doesn't fit any in out of school-his choice . I think when it comes to options I am going to find out how many and then ask if it's more than 10?!? that by year 10 if he's still doing lots of music he could quietly drop one ( or 2!!) I think it would be wise to see how it goes in year 9 . There might be other lessons that he could miss too that aren't GCSEs . He already rarely goes to registration because of various ensembles and working on his compositions ( which actually might be more like hanging out with his musically minded friends )

drummers I know someone in the Music dept at Manchester who might be able to advise re the joint degree. It sounds pretty good.

As floot said there are so many paths to being a musician. And so many away from it. The three most successful ones I know (one plays in a world-famous small classical group and got in straight out of the RAM; one conducts & plays solos with his own orchestra, touring Euope every year & the world every few years; one is a world-known soloist/ conductor of his own opera company) are all notable for their seriousness of purpose, and extremely professional work ethic from a very early age. Their contemporaries had a great time partying at uni/ National Music Camp while they went for a quiet beer with their conductors/ professors to discuss the finer points of ornamentation in Stamitz or Gabrieli or Clementi. I suspect they would all stringly approve of the joint degree (two did university music followed by performance postgrad; one did conservatoire music followed by musicology PhD).

Although we probably don't need the negotiation yet as DS's teacher doesn't ask a lot of practice and sounds like it will stay this way for a while.

Also..., it hasn't been a long while yet since DS became like this (music mad?). Half of me think he may find something else at secondary, then no need to increase practice time. Let's see...

I agree double degrees cannot be taken lightheartedly. But they are designed for those who thrive on challenges. drummers's DS sounds very much capable if that's what he wants.

Well done miniearling!

Green, we are thinking to go for A1 & B1 also, but not 100% certain yet. Need to talk to the teacher. C piece is almost decided near 100% as DS loves it a lot. Looking forward to listening to the recording!

Well done to ministring to gain the flexibility. Trumpet, I do also wonder if states offer the same flexibility. DS will probably go to state school so curious to know. Although PE is only twice a week (3 hours) at the school, so not sure if we want to eliminate for music practice.

Trumpet - you may be right; dd is the same re academics and to be honest this is the best outcome we could have hoped for, as there really is limited time in the evening esp given i work so often don't pick up until late and we leave home early in the am

Well done mini Ealing hope she continues to feel better

We will definitely be going into ask String !! I did speak to school yesterday after ds had seemed totally overwhelmed on Monday morning ( in hindsight I think he was feeling unwell) they know how busy he is and do try to be helpful I guess we will just have to see what they say . I do wonder though if flexibility is more easily achieved in an independent school though our other local high school can be quite flexible for the minority of students who are pursuing sport music or drama at a high level so I might point that out the thing is ds would never dream of not trying or handing in rubbish homework which means he does well in most subjects ( but he puts himself under unnecessary pressure really)

Trumpet (and others in early years of secondary and wrestling with the specialist/non specialist debate) - dd now has a two hour practice session per week at school, in place of a sport. Lots of sports scholars of all types at her school use that same slot to have specialist sports training at their own clubs, so dd asked if she could have the same flexibility and without a murmur it was granted! it is unsupervised but often one of the staff will drop in for a chat. I agreed on the basis she swims three times a week plus does other school sports, so she is not short of physical exercise, so missing one sport she loathes and which she is wary of in case of finger damage, is no big deal. Amazing what a child can get if they ask!

Greenleave - DS2 is 9.5. Thanks so much for the compliment. I'll pass it on to DS2. I think his enthusiasm for the piece really shone through.

Well done miniealing.
green it sounds like she'll be alright. Those scales look yummy.

I will try to record one of our the piano pieces we are learning this weekend and share to make up my missing contribution

A very weldone to mini Ealing! Fingers crossed for the best result. We chose A1, B1 and C1, C1 was only chosen about 3-4 weeks ago, B1 was chosen for 5 months somethibg however not in lessons till Sept. We are still not great with scales and aural(failed to sing to repeat the playing every single time and just purely “hate”— such a strong but true word— scales, 75% of the practise time is me nagging her on scales. She says she knows them but she doesnt. I ended making scales jar as suggested here).

Taggie, I am sorry to ask how old is miniTaggie, I showed my daughter the video(along with others video today) and we love it!