Spring Term 2020 music thread

Thanks. His brass teacher is very nice and wants to see how it goes for a bit which is fair enough I guess. He teaches a lot of teens so he will have seen it plenty of times.

The plenty of time and parking for venue was advice I gave on one of my very first posts on Waffle's original thread many years ago. Which she created for advice for her daughter's Grade 1 recorder exam. Lovely it's all still going on.

Loving the post exam cake tradition! We've done that sometimes especially after auditions.
Taking a sneeky few extra minutes for cake at home after an exam sounds great!
Also a great idea to check out where you're going and car parking options and allow plenty of time for any extra events with the DC.
It cost us £9 in car parking for three hours at Trinity and I had to get the change from a garage up the road.
Fortunately we had plenty of time to sort it out.
You can never be too prepared for all these things

Congratulations Juggling! We'll be waiting till April 1 for the US answers... my nerves can't take much more of this!

DS2 will be having one fitted in the next couple of months. He is 17 so a bit older than most. Hopefully as he is a bigger mouthpiece it's going to be ok.

Music centre had a few french horn players switch to euphonium when they had braces fitted because it's a larger mouthpiece.

I'd ask the advice of his music teacher, it's a common issue for children.

Friend's DD who played trumpet switched to trombone for a couple of years?

Thank you, maybe it will be better than I'm expecting then. He's already had two types of removable brace to adjust his jaw and that caused him quite a lot of frustration so I'm dreading this stage.

I did a brass instrument at school (slightly larger mouthpiece than a cornet though) and had a brace for a few months, don't remember it ever being an issue, either with the playing or impacting the effectiveness of the brace.

Does anyone have any good tips for brass players and braces? DS plays cornet and had fixed braces fitted yesterday. Google is telling me that the cornet is a terrible instrument for braces ...

He loves brass and does 2 school bands, he's going to hate it if he loses brass for the next year or however long.

Good point re. Venue, thanks for that, any stress def. wouldn’t help. Thanks. I intend to celebrate effort too and the amazing achievement she’s making in even doing an exam!!!!

Another cake fan here too - we celebrate the work not the result!

Not direct preparation for your DD as such, but I make sure I know exactly how you get to the venue and where to park, and allow plenty of time, so I'm not stressed and can concentrate on the DC

Ok thanks- will have a look at them then. I’m doing my best but know very little about clarinet !

Aural tests are the same across the instruments so a grade 4 piano exam or grade 4 clarinet will have the same format of aural test.

Ok great I won’t tell school about post exam cake!! Does anyone have a link to the example clarinet aural tests online, I assume it’s on YouTube. I have looked at some but need to be sure I’m looking at the right example before showing her!

We don't tell school about cake, they don't know the exam is only 13 minutes long!

Ha ha don't tell school about the cake. Cake doesn't take long and getting to exam/centre running late/doing exam/getting back from exam takes an indeterminate amount of time anyway. We often end up bumping into lunch break one way or other and have to feed them lunch anyway.

Also practice in front of ' strange people' eg if you have a visitor, you could get her to do a piece for them, it's not showing off, it helps with nerves to have tried it in different situations.

You can choose to do scales or pieces first I think. Most pianists do scales first to get used to the instrument. Often ones where there is an accompanist do those pieces first so the accompanist can leave ( it lets them start with the familiar person in the room) but they don't have to. The hostess/steward person can call in the pianist when the scales are done if you prefer.

Congratulations to not so mini juggling! What a relief! An exciting next step.
We do post-exam cake too, rewards the effort rather than just the result. You can watch sample exams online if that would help you both. I would probably also prepare her that the examiner sticks to a script so won't say things like 'well done, that was nice' etc which might feel a bit off-putting.
Also make sure she knows what to do if she makes a mistake etc so it doesn't throw her off. Mine have all found the aural tests the hardest- singing to a stranger is tricky. You can find the criteria online so it will include things like confident response. It's quite helpful to read.

Thanks- post exam cake is a great plan. I’ll speak to school and make sure we can get the extra time out! I think I’ll need cake, or something afterwards too!!
I want to make it as easy as possible for her so am doing everything in mixed orders for her as I was worried that if I did it one way and the examiner changed it, it would completely throw her and she would refuse to do it. Is there a set order that they have to do them in?

Sounds like she's very well prepared alakazam. Very important exam technique: post exam cake . Only other thing I can think of is if she's feeling uncertain about it, could her teacher or someone else you know do a practice exam for her? You can also do practice run throughs at home sometimes, so pieces/scales/exercises in the order she will do for the exam. Just so it's all really familiar.

Congratulations Juggling, sounds like a great opportunity and lovely to spend some time living in London. Even better with grandparents close by!
My dd will be taking her grade 1 clarinet in early March and I’m just wondering if you more experienced musical parents have any tips that make her more likely to pass. She is practicing well and her pieces are perfect but she has additional needs and although she has extra allowances if there are any tips that could make a difference, or anything I won’t have thought of as a beginner that would really help.
I’m not bothered if she passes or fails cos it’s amazing that she could even do this but it would really boost her self esteem to pass (and if she didn’t have the additional needs I would be looking at specialist music education for her as she has perfect pitch and loves music so much) thanks

Thanks everyone! Still feeling on cloud nine for my boy!
He's gone to Blackpool this weekend with his brass band for the British Open championship
It's been lovely messaging everyone with the good news
If he goes to Trinity (still thinking of keeping his reserve for Birmingham as a first choice) his grandparents will be able to visit him for any concerts and just a walk by the river as they're only about half an hour away in South London.
We all have so many memories of Greenwich, the park, the Cutty Sark, the foot tunnel under the river, from growing up in Blackheath (lived there until I was 8)
Thanks for reminder about NYO Inspire events raspberryripple
DS took part in a great day with them in Sheffield recently and I think they have some Ensemble days coming up which could be really good experience for him. Looks like they are open to late applications for some of the brass instruments.