November Music Thread

Fingers crossed for trumpet and others doing their theory exams this week!

Good luck to your ds Trumpet!

Good news he might be able to do some bits of composition at home . I think it just depends on the school . Right off to his theory exam now

Thanks for the Futurebeat link Herts, looks like a fantastic day was had by all.

Foundoutyet, this is too funny. My 8 year old constantly blames me for everything. For example he is not good enough violinist because his parents are not a ballerina and a lawyer like David Garrett’s parents. He is not good at piano because his parents are not Chinese. If only he had a violin like Nicola Benedetti or a grand piano or a professor for a teacher. Etc etc etc.

For lurking and not so lurking drummers out there video of Yamaha Futurebeat final if anybody interested:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZGn6n8CGQ&

Also Young Drummer of the Year for under 16s open for entry for another week or so.

Foundout - that made me laugh. We are just embarking on our teenage journey with DS1...

minisnowballs - You are not alone... if you find the solution to how to keep your temper in the face of such extreme music practice induced provocation, please post it here!

Have a in the meantime.

Ha - foundoutyet.... that makes dd1 sound reasonable! Apparently I should have known that dd2 wanted to play the bassoon before she had even seen one....She's grudgingly sticking to flute and cello for now.

minisnowballs: my now 15 year old daughter blames me for:

1. not sending her early enough to a good singing teacher (she never gave any indication she wanted singing lessons),
2. that she is playing piano instead of keyboard (we have inherited a really good piano at home),

Welcome to everyone who's joined in over the last week! We are Yamaha fans here too - baby grand downstairs and an Arius YDP-162 upstairs. We also have an amazing piece of software called Pianoteq which models lots of the big names - Steinway, Grotrian, Bluthner, Petrov etc. We run this plugin using Logic X with a Roland A-88 midi keyboard. www.pianoteq.com/

We had a great day with DS at JD on Saturday - there's a lovely friendly feel to the place and I love the fact that we can sit in on rehearsals, which we weren't able to do at the last place.

In other news, DS has been given a chance to join the school symphony orchestra, which is a superb opportunity for him.

You might recall that DS came home from school at HT without clothes. I now have a small collection of things that he's forgotten to take back with him, including socks, underwear and toothbrush charger. We'll get the hang of it eventually!

We have a Yamaha digital here, although a fairly simple one. We don't have any 'serious' pianists in the house but it works fine for the 2 kids who have lessons and for theory stuff without taking up too much room. Headphones are great for late/early practise sessions and yes different voices can be a motivator, ds certainly will do repeats checking out different voices without noticing they are repeats

We bought a digital piano a year ago to replace our (really really awful bought off eBay) upright. We went to the Yamaha store in central London (if you have never been there, it is the most amazing place ever!!!!) and ds2 tried them all - including the £100,000 one. We were very impressed with the sound. We ended up with one that cost around £700 (and they price matched an online price when I googled it standing right there in the store). DS2 is about to take grade 6 piano and I was assured it would continue to be good enough for him for a few more grades at least. We do love the way it sounds and I love how slimline it is in our living room.

Hi all, it's taken me a minute to catch up with the thread. Went to our first residential over the weekend. DD has just had her first practice since being back and the bowhold has improved!! I can't believe 2 and a half days of a workshop and it seems fixed! She has been battling with keeping it curly for - forever it seems. I'm sure it will need maintenance but I am just so surprised - and very relieved. I am now imagining what a week at pro corda or NCO would achieve.

Hi to all the new posters! nerdy we have a clavinova and it’s great for the kids.. it’s quite an old one but has lots of different sounds, we use them to relieve the boredom of scales! .. they fiddle around and do say, minors on ‘harpsichord’ and majors on ‘church organ’. You can also record one hand and then practise the other one with it.

I think some of the violin players here have GEWA air cases??

Can anyone tell me how to change the combination for the lock?
I misplaced the instructions and can’t find anything online.

Thanks ealing
DS is doing some kind of jazz composition for one of his A level ones but he was also working on something 'baroque' - not sure if that was just a practice piece though.

We have an upright but bought a digital as well for another room and I think the digital gets more use. DCs seem to like playing with headphones so nobody can hear them - my DCs are not the most support of eachother when they think one of the others is not playing correctly!

On GCSE composition I think it varies depending exam board and not sure of exact requirements but we have had classical marimba, full on rock band with vocals and something for piano/violin. There seems to be a lot of flexibility.

Horsey: ahhh, that sounds interesting (complicated, but interesting). Wish I could afford money and space for both types of piano. I do think the linking up of technology would be useful (for the kids, not for me).

I also want to buy a small digital drum kit so that the boys can host band practices. I realise I might regret it ….

Nerdy, we went for a clavinova and love it. Even my husband who plays proper piano is coming round to it. You can change lots of the settings to get the sound you like. He can record himself playing the accompaniment for my DD to play along to when he's not there. My ideal is to get it to talk to my laptop so I can input with musescore but it's not working yet, laptop too old! Need to try work one next.

Thanks for the comments about composition technology: we bought a home version of Cubase which is what they use at school in Years 7-9 (don't know about thereafter). It was only £80. However, I spent 10 x that to buy a really good laptop that would support it properly....

Sibelius is the only other one I've heard of, as I had a personal brush with it in a job I had years ago, but never really got the hang of it, although thought it was rather clever (as you can tell, I'm not technically-minded).

A midi-keyboard would be cool. We'll be buying a new piano soon and I'm in conflict about whether to let the kids have a Clavinova that's enabled with all sorts of gadget-y things, or go for a new upright purely for my pleasure.

On the subject of composition: what do they actually compose at GCSE/A level / IB? Is it 'popular' stuff, or do they do kind of pastiche 'minuet in the style of Bach'? I have vague memories of being horrified by the idea of any composition when I did A level, but managed to swerve it by doing orchestration instead. Which was far more use to me in later life.

Violinboymum: I love Two Set Violin on You Tube. It's something that amuses us all. They're so funny. I particularly loved the 'types of mother' (ha, ha, ha - we had fun seeing which one I was) but also 'type of pupil'. So funny I had to send it to my son's violin teacher.

Loving this thread - I don't have many other musical mums to talk to.

It’s reassuring to hear that DS is not the only one. All my friends are football mums, it’s nice to be able to talk about it with someone who understands the struggle.

Phew, Kitty! Glad you don't have to fork out. ☺
M inisnowballs, I just laughed out loud at your, "Reader, I lost my temper"! 😂😂😂 I'm not surprised you did, given your DD's accusations! I think I'd call her bluff and say that, since you're such an awful (non) teacher, you feel it only fair to butt out of her practice until after the exam...

Don't know about blackmail, I'm finding bribery effective with DS. If he wants bonus screen time he needs to do decent practice. Either on his own or by letting me help. I have a low baseline but am trying to be tough about enforcing it - practice has to happen and something has to be improved so not just playing through.

DD at 6 is being positively angelic. She will take on board suggestions, she will also really pick things apart to improve on her own. And adds wacky similes into the mix. Early days but I'm watching with interest. Maybe she just hasn't hit stroppy age yet mind you, not counting any chickens!

I have no idea how you keep calm mini except... practice! Have a laugh at their more preposterous claims?