November Music Thread

It looks like a lot of orchestra work is good for mini musicians. DD has NSSO, once a year residential, and will most likely not get into NCO. She just got into a county string orchestra (which goes up to age 13/14 and most are 12 or so with some younger ones), and first rehearsal is Dec. But there are no school orchestras or anything like that at a village primary.

So tonight we will go along and try out the regional youth orchestra. It is g5+, but she is playing at g6 standard (g5 exam in Dec). Her teacher was concerned, though, that all the other players will be 14 and over and she is 10 (year 5). Hoping there are a few other minis there and it is appropriate.

When I say appropriate, while we were waiting to do the g5 theory there was a small group of 16/17 year old girls also waiting. They had a long, loud conversation about how drunk they were recently, etc, with the kind of lovely details that I didn't really want DD to hear.

DD's teacher says her only current weakness is a lack of attention to detail on rhythm, so I am assuming orchestra would be good for this? I don't know, I am getting to the stage of winging it, not being a musical person.

Kutik - my DD has been orchestra leader (junior strings orchestra), first violin of another more advanced orchestra, first violins at her new out-of-school full orchestra, first violin of her school junior orchestra and also section leader of second violins at school. Her sight reading has improved over the year or two she has been participating but where school is concerned (the 'best' orchestra in terms of ability) she'd rather be leader of 2nds than in the 1st where she finds it more rewarding and 'safer'. I think it depends on the orchestra level - the better the orchestra, the greater the pressure she feels in 1st violins it would seem. Whilst he is so young, I'd let him decide where he is happiest. Also, when they start secondary school, you need to let them bed into the new environment with as little pressure as possible externally imo.

Don't know anything about violins but I think it's good to play in different positions because like your ds has observed you need to do something different for each of them . It also stops them seeing playing first as a goal because it's somehow seen as better !! Difficult in youth / school orchestras because parts 1 ( and 2) are often more difficult and given to the more advanced players- but as I always say to ds you can't always play first and you need all parts to make it sound good .

DS joined a youth orchestra last term. He started with 2nd chair of 2nd violin, then became the section leader (2nd) later on. During the holiday course last month, he was given 2nd chair of 1st violin. He said 1st violin's part was very much fun (due to being able to play tunes), and loved being sitting next to the concert master.

Back to the normal weekly rehearsal, DS was asked if he would prefer leading 2nds (as he has been) or would like to move to 1st violin. DS said they seemed to think DS would benefit more from being the section leader for now. I was not there when DS had this talk with them, so don't know why they think being the section leader would be more beneficial to DS and why they are giving DS a choice to move to 1st violin then. This talk started when DS expressed the joy he had with being 1st violin during the holiday course, so it's likely they kindly thought of giving DS a choice.

DS likes 2nd violin's part too. He said it's actually not necessarily easier than 1st and can be quite challenging as the role changes constantly (more towards 1st violin, more towards viola, and so on). So he is going to keep his place as it is for now. But I know he is still thinking. Any thought from more experienced people would be welcome!

Prada, your DD's school's music provision sounds very much top notch so quite rightly there is no need to look for alternative teachers outside!

Luckily those painful teeth issues are not very relevant to violinists. But then, you guys can wear tops with a zipper.... (sorry I'm still talking about this...).

Wonderful playing from Goo and MiniDouble - amazing tone and control from both. thanks so much for posting the videos!

Mini that's exactly the treatment that I had when I was younger and it worked ( though I think at times it was quite traumatic) . Ds's teeth are fairly straight the bottom ones are slightly crossed but the dentist hopes it's going to be ok so fingers crossed . His sister of course who sings and plays piano has perfectly straight teeth !!

My DDs dentist is suggesting when her front teeth have come in she'll fit her for a nighttime retainer in an effort to minimise the impact of clarinet/try keep her teeth straight to avoid having braces.... I like the principal. Though it did take the removal of lots of teeth to make enough room in my mouth for straight teeth so we will have to see.

Just watched the video of Goo- beautiful playing

Waffle she had done amazingly well coping with the braces . I know lots of ds's trumpet friends are struggling with them at the moment

Ah, yes, the dreaded brace issue! I could weep for my pupils - just as they really get going with decent playing and interesting pieces, along comes the dreaded orthodontist...

Waffle, you must be very proud! I've just spent a very enjoyable 10 minutes watching Goo' s various videos. She reminds me of me at the same age. :-)
Fantastic fingerwork and a great tone at the top end.
What make is her flute? I don't think I moved over to an open hole instrument until I was a bit older.

Thanks, Waffle - will have a watch now. :-)
Prada, DS's school allows his free lessons to be on any instrument, or singing, or theory one-to-one. As it is, he's started piano lessons, but otherwise I would have signed him up for theory or another instrument.

Kutik - that was miniprada's Dad's view on the joining of a JD. How is that different? I guess as we are accepting of the free lessons, we need to accept the rules laid down. Plus, in all honesty, the amount of music she is doing means she has no time realistically for additional lessons. And I am over £40 a week up

Schwanengesang, we have a digital tuner so can tune to any. DS doesn't use a tuner (but this is another topic to talk about as I am not sure if his way is correct...) so it's left as it came from a shop which is 440.

I felt the same as Floot about miniPrada's school's policy. I remember you saying the school encourage the scholars to join the neighbouring jd. So I assume quite a few already go there. Don't they have their principal teacher there?

There are compulsory duties for music scholars at DS's secondary school (to be), such as scholars mornings (starts at 7.45am once a week...) plus orchestra, choir and so on. They also offers instrumental lessons but it's fine to keep the private teachers outside of school. DS will probably not take any individual lessons at school.

How do I find Waffle and Doubleup's videos on YouTube?
Not much to report here. DS has a local music competition coming up but has hit a bit of a slump after the NCO audition and is busy doing lots of school music...not so much practice.

Interesting to read your DD' s school's policy regarding teachers, Prada. DS is a music scholar at a cathedral school, but they are flexible about this: DS has kept his private cello teacher and we were able to request a specific piano teacher for lessons in school (in our case, a work colleague).

Prada - painkillers and make an appointment with your dentist! You have to make the time sometimes (although I am dreadful at taking my own advice!

Thank you everyone for the Vivaldi advice and good wishes. To be clear, it is the school YmotY!! But the standard there is so high it might as well be the real thing. At music evening a y11 child played her own concerto...

Icouldbe - please don't worry! Thank you.

I agree the new teacher is the new teacher so we are working on that basis.

Raspberry - sorry about your news.

Happy Thursday everyone. I have a tooth abcess but no time to be ill...

Other people to listen to in general to understand baroque style are Pieter Wispelwey, Gustav Leonhardt, Andreas Staier. And Herreweghe's recordings of Bach cantatas and motets; Paul McCreesh's St Matthew Passion; Concerto Italiano's Brandenburg concertos; anything by Christophe Rousset; and lots of singers, eg Gerard Lesne, Emma Kirkby, and Magdalena Kozena's first CD of Bach arias.

Dipping in and out of thinking how I learnt baroque and galant style while dealing with a sick baby, so please excuse the unfocused nature of my posts. DS is in the horrible coughs til he vomits stage of a cold, not a nice way to spend your first birthday...

*Prada^ I'm sorry, I made your post all about me. I was trying to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel and instead it came out rather like snap. It is so hard when we pick up something else to add to the endless things we pack into the day and having recently been there myself I really feel for you but I had something of an expression-fail.

Raspberry how awful and sad . How have the students all coped ?
Sounds like the new head has the right idea though the head at ds's school is similar. I can't imagine many secondary schools these days where a cast of 60 plus the band are allowed a week and a half off timetable to rehearse ( this happens before the show every year) not sure that the other teachers are best pleased but I think ds has just had the best week of school ever and I'm expecting that the show will be amazing . He said last night went well though the trumpet part is ridiculously difficult and very very high !!

Kutik not sure re what your tuner would be set to.. if you use a tuning fork it will have 440 or 442 written on it. Digital tuners can obviously be set to anything. Standard modern pitch is 440 and standard baroque pitch is 415. Both may vary according to conductors' preference. Classical era standard is 435 . Renaissance is now typically 415 but varied very widely.

One other good book is The Early Violin And Viola:A Practical Guide (can't remember author but silver grey cover and distorted pic of Veracini on the front).