Autumn 21 music thread

I'd tend to agree. Ear protection on a string ensemble would be overkill I think.

@thirdfiddle thanks that kind of what I thought. She has been doing a strings ensemble all through lockdown via Zoom. She has been invited to her first face to face one and that’s what’s set off my anxiety. They will be really infrequent but I think I would feel better getting her into wearing them when she is playing with other musicians. I don’t want to put my anxiety into her either however.

@doesanybodyhaveamap thanks so much for the reply, that’s really good to know. I will have a look on Amazon.

Ds is a drummer (amongst other things). He wears ear defenders when he practises drum kit and his teacher varies a lot so he often plays hand drums (bongos, congas, djembe) which are easier on the ears

@Spudina there is growing awareness of this issue. DD is at specialist school and they have just issued noise reduction ear plugs to all their musicians. You can pay lots for custom fits, but the ones you buy inexpensively off Amazon etc do the trick well enough, especially for normal school orchestra type levels. DD and lots of her peers have been wearing them for a while (just off-the shelf ones) and she finds them helpful (she is generally very sensitive to noise so they get a lot of use!!).

amp.theguardian.com/music/2021/apr/23/musicians-hearing-loss-sound-of-metal

Hi all. I have a DD who is working towards Grade 2 cello. I have a bit of a random question. There was a film recently made about a drummer who was losing his hearing, and the Guardian did an article about heating loss/tinnitus in musicians. Some of those interviewed said that they had started with problems after being in school orchestras etc. This has worsened the weird phobia/anxiety I have around noise. I’m worried I’m damaging the DDs hearing by getting her to play. She has been invited to a group ensemble and I feel irrationally anxious about it. I see that SpecSavers do ear plugs that reduce the decibels for musicians. Do any of you have experience using them? I will try and link the article if I can find it. Thanks. Apologies for the long (crazy) post.

RAM back to full normal timetable. Maybe Scottish guidelines are different though?

Yes Guildhall back to normal timetabling this term. And it was one of the most conservative last year - almost no f2f compared to RCM and RAM.

Thanks, yes any JD information is useful, RCS is claiming they are following guidelines the same as all other conservatoires in only having face to face alternate weeks and if your subsidiary study is different to the cohort in on your face to face week it is all online, which is a bit rubbish.

CYM has been back face to face in full since Sept - so I guess that Guildhall is too as they do the same.

Any JD?
DS is at RWCMD JD and has been back f2f for all classes since the summer term.

Can anyone with children at a JD please let me know whether they are back face to face or online and whether they are getting all their timetabled classes or not?

Any RCS juniors parents who are frustrated with the current arrangements, would you mind sending me a pm?

When working for advanced grades DD used to do one alphabet letter of scales each day so anything in A on Wednesday, B on Tuesday etc and finished with G on Tuesday am before her after school lesson. It worked for her and meant that she didn't have to think too hard about what she had to practice each day.

My DD2 has a grade 7 in December, and has three pages of scales so we just do one page each practice....Not sure how effective this is as a strategy, but she seems to know them - there are an awful lot though. I have no idea how she remembers all those dominant and diminished thingies.

She only manages 20 minutes four or five times a week for flute so I tell her she has to be efficient. Tricky passages, and then perhaps work on dynamics for one bit. But she does her aural class at saturday school and then a run through with an accompanist there most weeks as well as her lessons which probably helps. But it is SO hard to find the time now that they're back doing all the other stuff.

We have been focusing on scales as the last exam DD did was Grade 1 before lockdown and now doing Gr 5 at the end of November, so that's a lot of scales that weren't in the previous grade! At the moment we do major + arpeggios one day, minor another, then contrary and staccato / chromatics/ dom seventh the other. A variation of the pots of scales approach has worked for us in the past though with my other child - we stuck a bag to the music stand and wrote all the scales on a piece of paper and then he had to dip in randomly and play 3 each time. I figure its good to have the totally random nature of being able to play any scale at any time, rather than just in a set order of eg A maj, then B etc.

You can ask the teacher for ways to structure the practice, eg five minutes long bows for technique, five minutes focused on two tricky bars from one piece, then five mins play through that piece or a different as a performance. Playing through as a performance is very different as you keep going regardless. They really don't need to play each piece through every day, it will pay off doing much shorter sections. They could maybe put a star at the tricky bars.

For scales, you can put all the names eg g Maj scale, c Maj arpeggio on separate slips of paper and have two small pots. Start with them all in one pot and select a couple each day. If they do it fine it goes in the 'done' pot, if they need more work on it, keep it in the first pot. Hopefully by the end of the week, they are all in the done pot, then start again next week or fortnight. If you are in the car to activities, can you listen to the pieces on YouTube so he really gets how they fit with the accompaniment, or do some rhythm clapping or whatever from the aural tests. Oh and the promise of a cake after the exam always helps! Honestly 20 minutes focused practice will do just as well as an hour faffing around.

anyone else working towards grades this term? trying hard to prep 8yo DS for G4 cello. he is motivated to do it - promise of Robux might have something to do with this - but still struggling to get the necessary practice time in, esp on scales. it's tough to fit in on busy school days, we're now trialling 2 short practice sessions a day, doing 15 mins morning on pieces and 5 mins in the evening for scales. doesn't really feel like enough though, but all he can manage.

DS did some of the Nikki Iles arrangements last winter, and they are gorgeous and very playable.