January to March 2019 music thread (Title edited by MNHQ)

Thanks Cat and Shakey!

She is on Violin Star 1 and Strings in step book 1 at the moment(on French Folk song at the moment).

She loves huming and singing all the time and loves all types of music, very different from my elder one who has refused singing flatly every time. She could also read the notes quite well by herself.

Thank you LIttleladsdad - I've had a look at the ABRSM website, looks like you can do the exam sections in any order, so then depends whether the 3 'pieces' are counted as one section or three seperate sections - I will investigate further....but putting the aural before the scales may also provide a useful break...

finewine another thought. I seem to remember that you don't have to play the three pieces back-to-back. I'm fairly sure that you can do the 2 accompanied pieces followed by aural, extracts etc before playing the third piece. Can anyone confirm?

Hi there! Also on exam prep duty here at the lower end. DS(9) is taking two grade 2s and DD(rising 7) taking grade 1 piano. After being worried about DS being ready in time and DD being nearly ready months ago, DD is now littering mistakes and DS has jumped up to the line. There's always got to be one to worry about! DS sounds a bit like your DS1 in approach lotsofmilk, he's bombed through so many times he can actually do it pretty accurately now.

Good luck finewine we are also preparing for DDs grade 8 in a few weeks...hopefully all will go well. Also have DS2 who is super anxious about his grade 1 clarinet in 2 weeks’ time. He panics if he makes any mistakes and puts his clarinet down so just trying to get him to run through the programme without stopping. DS1 is doing grade 2 piano and completely blasé, just bombs through despite quite a few slips hard to believe they are brothers 😂

Thank you Boys and Shaky more great advice! Hadn't thought at all about changing the practice site... Run through with the piano today - should give a good indication of what still needs to be 'tweeked'!

Thank you fellow queen! 😊

My guys did 1 1/2 hours practise daily for their g8s. It was split into two sessions. The first session was for isolating bits and practising passages. The second was a run through, plus scales etc, for stamina.
Ideally, they would have done two hours a day, but schoolwork meant that wasn’t really possible.
I also echo what has been said - it’s great to play in different acoustics.
Get lots of practise with the accompanist. Stamina is a huge factor for grade 8 upwards.

Will keep my eyes open Mabby as we are both Royalty

I’d second on the masterclasses. DD has done a couple of piano ones (organised by school) and they were really useful!
If anyone can help me I’m looking for a holiday camp/club that’s orchestra/strings based for DD to take her cello to. We’re midlands based if that helps.

Well, it's surprisingly quiet here, dh is working in London and will be back in small hours and dd finished hers for a couple of days, back to school sunday.
Dh doing a masterclass in a Northern City with another sax player. Dd has decided she's signing up with the other to get a different experience I hope he takes it well

Do look around for particular masterclasses, lots of shops are hiring venues and bringing in specialists, also covering instrument sales and accessories, advice and a fun day and they are free.
Just have a google, it's amazing what's about.

Agree with everything Neleus has said and I would add the tip of playing in unfamiliar surroundings. This could just be in a different room from usual (obvs not easy with piano ha ha) or round at a friends or relatives house. Or an empty room at school. Anything to get them out of their comfort zone to prepare for playing in the unfamiliar territory of the exam room. Unfamiliar surroundings should also help to focus the mind and not lapse into the daydreaming as well as getting used to playing in different acoustics. My poor DH had to resort to watching my DS practising for his G8 to counteract the daydreaming. Annoying but it worked!

I would also add the importance of 'focused' practice especially at the final stage of a preparation. By that stage people often know the pieces so well that mindless playing can be kicked in and I think 'play through' just encourages the danger. Playing straight through pieces over and over while you daydream, you might be better off not practicing at all.

Good luck!

Thank you Neleus, that's good advice, there are a couple of 'high note' points which I think may never be entirely secure and she needs to practice those seperately, but the rest of the slips are random, so that's another vote for playing straight through without stopping!

Hi Finewine.

If your DD makes mistakes at the same place then it may be an indication that some technical issues are unsolved. Then she should stop playing through and goes back to work on the tricky bits. If mistakes happen at random places then her techniques aren't to be blamed and she probably needs to practise 'play through', in which case she shouldn't stop at every mistake but carry on till the end.

I think when you need to play through a few longish pieces at one go, you need stamina physically but also mentally. At least that's in my DS's case. Silly mistakes happen when he loses concentration for a second. So, starting the play through practice one or so week prior to the X-day seems to be a good plan.

Thank you Littleladsdad - So - I think she will stick to playing all three without stopping for the next couple of weeks to make sure she can make it through on the day!!

Finewine stamina was often a concern for ds on his way to G8 - I seem to remember him running out of steam on the third piece during his G6 exam. One of the signs that he was ready for G8 was that it was no longer an issue.

It's actually grade 8, so we probably should know what we're doing by now...but she's had a bit of a break from exams and hasn't had to play 3 pieces in a row (without mistakes!) for several years. Stamina is definately an issue as its a brass instrument...

Finewine what grade? Stamina is important. Examiners are really lovely and quite forgiving in those early exams. Especially for young players. Is this her first exam?

Hello all, I wonder if I could ask for some practice advice? My daughter has an exam in a couple of weeks. She can play her pieces, but still not absolutely perfectly every time. Do you think it would it be better for her now to just play all three pieces one after the other and keep going regardless of slips (my preference) or should she still keep stopping to go over the problem a few times before continuing (her preference)? She will play with the accompanist for the first (and possibly only time before the exam) later this week. Any advice gratefully recieved!

Hi green, I had a smaller than 5 beginner - one thing is they don't mind repetition nearly as much as older children. It's only recently at rising 7 and reasonably proficient music reader that DD actually wants to move on to the next piece, up till now she wanted to keep playing the fun thing she could already do rather than try a difficult new thing.

What book is she doing? DD had some fiddle time starters then abracadabra when she started which both have fun accompaniment tracks so it sounds cool even when child is just playing open strings. Her teacher was also great at making things into games. It was never "here's an exercise to help you hold the bow right" it was telling a story that required different speed windscreen wipers, or being a caterpillar racing up and down the bow etc.

Greenleave we did little and often. Daily practise and building good habits. Five minutes at a time, playing to soft toys, etc. we also did a little gentle aural work too, to keep interest. And lots of praise.

Question for near 5 yrs old violin beginner, how did your mini violinist practice around this age. I am worried about her having to do the poking for too long and couldnt move on then could loose interest.(my elder daughter started violin from the school when she was 7 so much older and already had a routine from the piano practice).

Love the triangle awesomeness too!

For someone who doesnt know any thing about music, the most fascinating thing to me to watch in my daughter’s Orchestra concert are the percussionist. I imagine the moment has to be perfectly right, in the perfectly right amount of time, not mentioning the amazing drum.

Druid: we went to the school one day and hear someone playing organs around lunch time and miniGreen said” awesome!”

Mendingfences : we thought of moving house recently(no longer a plan now) and most worried about moving the piano:).

Love the triangle awesomeness!
As it turned out, the gong playing went absolutely fine on the night! In rehearsals, it took me a while to get the hang of damping the sound - so there had been quite a risk of drowning out the rest of the orchestra! It was The King and I so I was actually quite important! No, let's be honest, the gong was quite important! I was probably more of a hindrance!
No VHS, thank god...