January Music Thread

That's a fabulous description drummers I will tell her that!! I kind of figure that once she is immersed in it, she will forgive me for losing theatre school.

If we do it, I really hope we can cover piano as well as violin, as part of my 'selling strategy' to DH is that it will take the pressure off a bit during the week. She's not as advanced on piano though....

Hope today's entrance test went well Kutik. You must all be so pleased to have finished. Common entrance still to go here for a local school on Mon/Tues. We'll have to see how DD fares in the science paper as they do very little at school currently a there are no facilities. Then perhaps one more music audition at the end of the month, depending on how today went. It's exhausting for all of us, but especially for DD - a very busy 10 days.....

I'd definitely go and have a look folk. - even if it is just in case the teachet moves on ( how exciting for them) I remember this time last year not knowing whether ds's teacher would be around for this year ( and beyond) or not. Ds wanted to try for AYM where you keep your own teacher so it was a nervous wait . Luckily he's still around but Kutik's right finding the right teacher can be difficult ( and a bit of alottery at times)

waffle when Goo can make her own way, and feeling I know her quite a bit after all these years, I am sure she will love it.
Folk as DS is only doing one study at jd and the other two during the week, it hasn't freed up any time. In our case, it has taken away several hours and made our life harder. But I'd say instrumental individual tuition is not the main point of jd at all. There's a special atmosphere. They hang out with like minded young people. They feel like a true musician one day a week but without the worry of having to live off it! Everyone there, students and staff, are passionate about music and want to make music at the highest standard. And it's contagious. And it's beautiful because it's not utilitarian, it's not nothing else but the joy and beauty of music making. Like an oasis in the urban jungle. It's the closest I've seen to Howarts if you were to swap magic for music. That how I feel about jd!! The old gals in this thread know I was worried about the sacrifice and added academic pressure it was going to bring to DS' life. It was his decision. As with everything, DS knew best. And I miss him like hell on Saturdays

Ah how cool would that be if they all ended up in Cardiff waffle!?

The other thing I didn't mention, which has partly prompted this... I'm worried we may lose DD1's amazing violin teacher next year. He's currently doing an orchestral masters with guildhall/LSO after which he'd be mad not to try and get a seat in an orchestra somewhere!!

So I'm thinking we go and look around, then maybe audition and see what happens. Apparently we can defer for a year...

kutik good luck! You're probably in the same cafe I sat in five years ago!! And that library is one of the nicest ever, truly.

Hope the exam goes well today Kutik - and well done to your ds for sitting them ( I think at 10/11 that's quite a lot to take in though I know lots do)
Folk I feel exactly like you do about dashing around - we only have Sundays free in this house. Fitting in practice is also tricky here at times but I am determined to help them stay on top of it this term !!
I think go and have a look and see what they think - dd would never give up stage school for anything ds was so taken with AYM he has happily sacrificed half of his school holidays for it , but currently doesn't want to do jd as with homework as well he says he would never get to see his friends at the weekend. Having said that he also talks about going to a jd in a couple of years maybe- I think they know and we have to be guided by them a bit as it's such a massive commitment on their ( as well as our) part

You can see I am bored at a cafe. I forgot to bring a book...

However, if you have a great teacher, you should think the move carefully. We've been quite lucky with teachers, but I know quite many people struggle to find the best match. It's very precious and fortunate to have a teacher whose schedule fits in yours, and who is very good to the child.

DS really wanted to go to JD. He almost forced us to apply. It was nothing to do with his teacher at the time, but he was so so willing to the challenge that no one could stopped him.

Loose, thank you! We arrived too early so were allowed to wait in the library. DS quickly found a corner filled with a great set of dictionaries of music and musicians, so spent the waiting time ever so busily on searching for composers until he was asked to move to the exam hall. I am in a cafe waiting at the moment!

folk, for us, JD hasn't made our life easier nor harder. DS studies only violin there. He used to have his violin lessons at school during school time, so moving his violin lessons to Saturday didn't make any difference for our weekdays schedule. He still has piano lessons with the same teacher after school, so again no change here. He used to go to Saturday school of my country so was always busy on Saturdays since he was 3, so again no change for us schedule-wise.

If your DD has lessons after school during weekdays and move all of them to Saturday, I think you will see quite a difference as you can drop all the ferrying after school?

JD dilemma....

Is it going to make life easier, or harder?? Currently we have violin (1-2hrs lesson at home), cello (45 min lesson, half an hour away) and piano (1.25 hrs in total, 20min away) plus stage school from 10-2 on Saturdays which is 45 min away and usually results in 2 trips. I feel like we spend our lives dashing between places, and we have little time at home to fit in the essential practice.

JD would mean giving up stage school, but Noo's secondary school (starting September) has a fab drama department so she will start to get that there and she can carry on with holiday projects etc. at local theatres.

Going to look at JD in Cardiff in a few weeks. Noo not keen on sacrificing theatre school though, and I haven't even broached it with DD2 (they have a 'music first' programme in Cardiff that we would try to get her on if Noo gets into JD).

Then we have the dilemma of leaving their excellent teachers....

Of course, all hypothetical as she hasn't even auditioned yet, but they're being very positive about her chances.

Good luck Minikutik and well done!

By the way, I even thought it would be great if somewhere like JD or music centre would schedule scale classes in their weekly programme! It's so important yet everybody seem to struggle to learn/teach/practise properly. For some, it's also easily ignored as it's a small percentage of marks in exams but ideally shouldn't.

Loose, glad scales are shaping nicely in your household!

DS is sitting exam No.2 at the moment. Then that's it. Good bye to 11+ papers. Hurrah!

DH is away at the moment. This morning we received a text from him saying 'have a great day at JD!'. Seriously? I don't know why he can't even remember his son's exam day...

Kutik yes! I could just hand DS2 over to someone else! Great idea!
I am prepared to admit the scales started to sound better last night. Two more sessions and at least the major scales and arpeggios should be ok-ish!

Don't you think it would be great if a professionally organised scale boot camp existed? You would damp DCs there and a few days later they would come out with perfect scales. Any instrumental or music teacher who may be reading this post, I would suggest it will be a great business chance...

drummers, according to DS, I am the second gentlest, kindest, sweetest person on the planet!

Thank you all for sharing your experience! I often hear the lucky dip method but have never thought of trying - not sure why. I may try out with his piano scales as he is supposed to do the exam this term. But if I make a card for hand together, single handed, staccato, legato for all the scales and arpeggios, it'll be nearly 200! If we want to rotate the whole thing weekly, he must pick 50 cards each session as he usually practises 4 days a week... It sounds very daunting! drummers, can you please tell me how you grouped for each card?

Violin scales are peasy compared with piano quantity-wise. However, piano is easier to spot mistake so I am less likely to be tricked (though I can't tell which scale so if he plays a wrong scale smoothly and pretends nothing is wrong then I won't notice). Violin is hard to spot especially when played fast. So DS can get away with dodgy scales.

Ooh lots of great scales advice! We do need some kind of system. Drummers great picture - that is pretty much how I feel about it!!
Kutik sadly, I can tell when the scales are wrong. I wish I didn't know. Sometimes they don't even have the right number of notes. Occasionally there's a less than convincing readjustment while playing the note! To be fair, they are easier on the piano! Hence I have to slow him down and make him focus. Then it's OK. The most frustrating times are when he plays accurately and slowly on the ascending scale and fast and inaccurate on the way down.

DD also had lucky dip scale boxes in the run up to exams - a little tip though - make sure the cards are all exactly the same size/colour/shape/texture! You would not believe how quickly she worked out which was f sharp melodic minor without even being able to see the card!

If there's one that needs more work, it goes straight back in the pack rather than waiting out for the re-shuffle.
That's a good system folk. DS has been doing this for marimba.

Drummers the cartoon made me laugh having said that ds decided to play all the major scales the other night and just rattled them off ( I think f sharp major needed a bit of work) so he probably needs less work on them than I think. I must remember to make him do the minors at the weekend - that'll make me popular !

Awesome drummers! Our system is not nearly so refined! 👏🏻

I posted this in july 2016 when DS started preparing g8... This was for the lucky dip box.

Cross posts, I was answering waffle.
We always had lucky dip scales box on top of piano. With three compartments: one for scales, one for arpeggios etc and a compartment where to put the ones done. Then you start all over again.