January Music Thread

Having learnt the first movement of Schreck's Sonata for bassoon and the third movement of Vogel's Concerto in C major, one of the schools has asked for one piece no longer than 3 minutes in length, so doing a cut down version of one. DD2's teacher decided to cut the other one down too for the audition that wants two pieces. To be fair, one piece would be about 6.5 mins and the other about 4.5 mins if full length and their audition slots don't really allow for that. DD is fine with the shorter versions, but now the dynamics count even more. Just trying to get her through to the end of Thursday without any meltdowns. Then 3 more days of entrance exams, one of them being common entrance over two days. Looking forward to letting her chill a bit - although there may be another audition at the end of the month if next Saturday's exam goes to plan.

earling, I am a turtle rather than a rabbit - not a big fan of moving forward too fast too soon. Serious skill studies would slow DS down but in a favourable way. DS's teacher understands a child needs a treat so he will have some pieces to have fun here and there (I hope...).

DS played footy this morning and now is out for diving in a pool. 11+ what?

Thank you Kutik. I rather like it too, but I think it needs a real showman to pull it off - she's lost her chutzpah of late on violin so I hope she can gain her confidence back if she gets through.

GOOD LUCK this week on the entrance exams to minikutik; minidouble and any other minis I may have missed!

The first thing DS's new teacher introduced was scales. So, good bye to those days when DS had to practise only one scale (anyone remember?). Now he has lots on the list.

ealing, I've also checked Scene de Ballet (I am having a steep learning curve today!). I love that! How lucky for your DD to be able to learn the piece! Good luck with the music comp!

It's good that your DD spent for good 3 years on consolidation her skills and techniques. DS needs that too. He started with some skill work with his new teacher but then it was replaced with learning several new pieces for auditions in mind. Once the auditions are over, DS will go back to focus on skills again.

Mending, I've just checked Schubert Sonatine OP137 - it's so beautiful!

Trumpet..., I was a keen latin dancer until I totally damaged my health some years ago. Tico Tico just grabs my heart...

Waffle, I may be wrong but cello was considered to be Rara's first study, wasn't it? It seems clarinet is very close to take over? Isn't it interesting how 'main' changes? I always thought piano was DS's main and violin was something for messing around and having fun. Now it's a total opposite. these days DS's piano practice is near to nil (which is not ideal!).

Icould ds has stopped playing in jazz band ( for now at least ) in favour of more solo practice- it's already made a massive difference as rehearsals stopped ed at the end of November plus he had lots of time over the holidays. He has school exams though soon so who knows how much practice he will fit in.
Disorganised I always get ds to run through a mental checklist in his head before he plays a note of sight reading- otherwise he just launches in and guesses !!

This all sounds very impressive! DS2 is working on Cool at the moment and will be starting another G5 piece. His teacher likes the Sostenuto by Chopin (as do I) but I'm not totally sure DS2 will go for it. For cello he should be playing his scales, enough said.
God knows what DS1 is up to!

Thanks,he does a fair amount of sight reading with the 3 orchestras and string ensemble he's in and I'm told he is very good at it but I'm sure he can always use more practice. How do I know if it's right though?

Sight reading- disorganised- practice, practice and more practice. If he’s bored of the sight reading books, try normal music as sight reading, obviously pieces he doesn’t already play.

Hi all. It's lovely to hear what your fab dc's are working on.

Ds is currently working really hard on his audition pieces for JD which are Czardas by Monti and the 2nd movement from Vivaldi's violin concerto in A minor.

When he's not doing that he loves the Bach violin concerto that Minikutiq is doing and has done some work on that. He has also played Humouresque and it's a favourite piece of his. For ds we have discovered that he adores playing concertos and the like and working through the different movements.
As he's preparing for an audition,he's being doing his scales (g7) ones which are sounding fairly ropey for some reason. He seems to get the harder ones right but messes up he easy ones plus he hasn't yet committed them to memory so lots more work needed on that.

My only concern is sight reading. I know you can buy the books and we have one book but am not musical enough to help him. Does anyone have any good strategies for sight reading?

DS has also played Tico Tico, it was on the G8 euphonium list at one point but I can't remember now whether he actually played it for the exam or whether it was one that was ditched in favour of something else.

It has come as a surprise to some of us that if we are not going to four band practices a week we need to step up our solo practice regime. Who would have thought that?

Shuddering as I read about the early starts your DC have had. Our first one is Tue's swim at 05.20; school doesn't start until Weds but I am dreading being in sole charge of DD for 10 days AND doing these earlies and nightly pick ups (instead of just waving goodbye from my bed)!

Kutik, DD is polishing off a long pice by De Beriot called Scene de Ballet, in the hope that she makes it through to this year's advanced music comp at school early in the term. HoM is not a big fan of hers so we're not holding our breath, but she's worked hard and I'd love to see her perform it as a first solo in a while.

Other than that, her school teacher has decided to order her another G8 piece (not sure if from current syllabus) after a whole term of scales and studies only. At least her technical skills should be much improved, even though it's been challenging on the motivation! No violin exams since Y5 (G6) so it's been all about the development over last 3 years.

It is a great piece raspberry he first played it in jazz band last year when funnily enough he played the sax line !!

Tico tico is a lovely piece Trumpet, DD played it on alto sax a few years ago.

Not sure which pieces DS2 is working on, I'll have to ask him. His longer term plan is Grade 8 piano next term and Grade 5 organ possibly this term, but I think next term is more likely. He is leaving theory alone for the present after Grade 6 last term.

His Festival entries are massively reduced from other years only three individual classes (two piano, one organ).

I also have no idea what will happen to the school group entries as the music department is still not right after the death of a key member of staff last term.

Ds is polishing an exciting trumpet piece called Tico Tico at the moment and is learning the Neruda trumpet concerto. No doubt his teacher will turn up with new ideas tomorrow as well. I'm just hoping to actually make it to choir practice this term and maybe have time to have the odd play on my guitar. I think my plans to learn to play the piano might have to wait till the house is finished

Hi kutik dd1 is just polishing schubert sonatine op137 and will be starting humoresk by tor aulin as a comoulsory piece for an audition. She will also need a self chosen unaccompanied piece which we havent looked into yet....

I am learning theory g2 for myself...

DS won't see his violin teacher until the end of January. She is going to think of DS's next pieces by then, but also asked DS to think of it. DS has named a few already but I asked him to take time and think carefully. We have plenty time till we see her.

I was wondering what pieces your DCs (or you!) are learning or are going to learn, if you have a plan for a long term (a year or more) or short term (this month, this term or this academic year), or both! Would be interesting to share our ambitions or plans between all the instruments, levels and ages. Anyone?

Thank you, Taggie and Loose.

I always think Mozart and Bach are a lot harder than they look. DS did well today, but what he did today was a quick lick of the piece. He's still got to go through biting, chewing, tasting, swallowing and digesting to get closer to real mastery!

Yay! MiniKutik - well done, that's brilliant!

Well done mini-Kutik. The Bach A minor is a lot harder to play well than it looks. Bravo indeed

Thank you for all the cheering! DS was quiet and didn't look happy after the performance. I thought it was just a nerve thing. But when I asked him how he felt about it, he said it was okay but he could have done better. I really think he did very well within his current ability. I wish I could show DS all your kind comments but he doesn't know he is miniKutik!

Trumpet, it may be so true about the danger of over-thinking/over-cooking. I felt DS's concerto was not ready but it may be a good time to perform in front of people. It was flesh and passionate.

Well done mini kutik !! Yes kutik you're right ds's teacher doesn't like him to over practice before a performance I think he takes the view that if he's picked it then it should be one that's ready and in over perparing it he might over think it not play so musically etc ( it also stops ds stressing about minor details- but does nothing for my nerves 😀)
I also think it's a short term and so am hoping that maybe dd will only do 1 music exam - or may wait till the summer she's been getting really stressed about them and it's just not worth it -I'll have to see what her teachers say .