Spring 23 music thread

To be fair. Dd has only done grades 1 and 4 on the cello and skipped a couple of piano ones too. She is the type of child who is very motivated by exams and the challenge of them so she usually asks her teacher when she feels she's ready to start working towards the next one.

Dd has two or three concerts left before the end of the school year and a similar number of chapel services too. She's just done call backs for a school musical so 🤞🏻

My little one is very keen on violin exams but his teacher is saying no for the moment. She lets him learn a lot of the pieces from the grade books but says he's too young to take the exam 😭. She says at 6 he might not comprehend what is an exam and might start chatting to the examiner or start crying if he got one note wrong. Although he went to our local music festival and won the highest score for strings up to grade 6, she still doesn't think it's time well spent on preparing for the exam. She's giving him new grade 3 pieces every week, recently taught him vibrato (which DS loves!) and developing emotions and feelings of music. What does everyone else think of her approach? It just seems hard to get sense of achievement without exam nevertheless DS is happy. He really wants to do the grades for beavers badges only lol.

DD's new flute may be worth more than our car... though that isn't much of a feat to be fair.

It will @minisnowballs. She's been very lucky with her school 3/4 as it's a pretty good one and people are often surprised it's a school instrument. Just hoping we're as lucky with a full sized one! We'll probably buy her one of her own once she's settled into the larger size - second hand of course. I was astounded by the price of some of the cellos.

There's a girl in the sixth form whose cello is worth more than my car!!

That will keep her busy @QueenMabby! Great that she can use a school cello too... DD would probably need a new one this summer too, but cello will be the casualty of her school move - so probably won't bother and she'll always have a 3/4!

We'll add our hat into the ring on the grades front. Dd has decided yes to g6 performance grade for the cello so her teacher has emailed me a list of pieces/books to get. That'll keep her occupied over the summer hols! She needs to move to a full-sized cello although as we rent through school that won't happen until September when leavers' cellos are returned and we can all shuffle up one!!

Dd also heading towards g8 piano performance but still a way to go with that - she's just starting to think about it so it's probably a year away yet.

And @horseymum Howarths is wonderful... a real Aladdins Cave. I was sent there to fix DD's rented mini bassoon after her second lesson - had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Stuck behind a panicking man on his lunch hour buying oboe reeds for his daughter in a scenario not unlike the Love Actually Rowan Atkinson salesman who spends ages wrapping things up. The salesperson wanted to talk about oboes - the dad didn't have a clue and just wanted to leave.

I'm always super impressed by performance exams - an extra piece is no mean feat. DD2 has her grade eight flute in July. Pieces fine, scales fine, sight-reading probably fine. Aural she LOATHES. And i bet she's forgotten to go today as I forgot to remind her (one of the instrumental teachers at school does a session with her each week which is really kind).

DD is a bit bored with her pieces too@herbaceous. She's learning the rest of one of them on the basis that the whole sonata is a diploma piece and at least that's 'useful'- but it would be better if she could take the exam sooner rather than later now.

Shiny new Muramatsu ready to pick up this week though so hopefully that should encourage her.

Yes waiting for grade 5 theory results to see if can sit grade 7 piano on the 11th July. Results should be out for us on 18th June. Theory is 28 days from date of exam released to the person who entered them.

@northerngoldilocks are you awaiting grade 5 theory results in time for a practical exam? Dd3 took hers on 18th May and due to take grade 7 violin on 4th July 🙈 I was hoping for a result sooner rather than later as she wasn't very cooperative at all with the theory practice / revision and it could possibly need redoing 😫😬.

I want to encourage his love of playing, his crazily good improv skills, his ability to hear a song then recreate it on the piano, etc etc. And he's sick of his grade 8 pieces, lovely though they are. But a bit more application wouldn't go amiss.

A little less conversation, a little more action perhaps!

@horseymum that's fair enough - woodwind playing is particularly exhausting as their pieces get longer. DS needs a rest after a couple of pages so hoping his stamina increases rapidly (suspect this is just more practice) or he's going to struggle with gr 7/8! Surely there is some additional 'reed faffing' that can take place on Oboe to just give them a bit more 'recovery'. Know that violin can be exhausting too -but really that's kind of the deal with violin as in orchestras they'd need to be playing constantly - especially if they play seconds! Woodwind generally has more gaps!

@herbaceous - laughing at the stealth grade 8 and Elvis scenario! Pre gr 5 I had to ban DD from Christmas music until after the exam - own choice stuff is always more interesting, especially if they've been working on exam pieces for a while. DD has 5 weeks until her exam (if she passes theory) and we've been doing additional pieces (combination of Chopin and Taylor Swift - though not at the same time!) to stop it being a chore!

Love it when they don't tell you what's going on at school! We have a grade 8 next week, pieces/ scales fine, DD hates the aural though. Recording four Oboe pieces would not be an option though, three is enough to tire her out so am impressed at four grade 8 piano pieces in a row. She already has some stalling tactics arranged with accompanist to get her breath back! ( Not being underhand, just careful tuning and being careful about arranging the book on stand, even a few seconds extra helps!)

Morning all! Lots going on on here.

We're in strange musical limbo at the moment. DS's voice is mid-change, so he is no longer the angelic choirboy of old, but sinking rapidly through the altos, and hoping to end as a tenor. He spends a lot of time playing Elvis songs on the piano, and singing along. Elvis had quite a low range!

He's been preparing for performance grade 8 piano for ages. Little did I know they've actually been recording at school. Had I known I'd have nagged him for some more practice, rather than aforementioned Elvis songs.

I'm glad both DDs oboes have just been available to us at the right time/ price and we haven't had to make choices as I can see DD just saying 'fine' to them all if she had to choose between several! Although j would love to go to howarths shop in London one day just to see the variety after being a long standing mail order customer.

That's so good to hear @Pollyanna8844 .. we have had weeks of vacillation - in the end she felt the tone of the Altus was 'darker' (which she quite liked) but the sound on the Muramatsu was 'purer' and 'sharper in a good way' ... so that's what she's gone for.

Can you tell I've no idea what she's talking about half the time? She spent a lot of time playing them with her eyes shut and getting me to record bits..

@Minisnowballs DS2 has been playing a Muramatsu flute for the last 4 years and is very happy with it. He took ages to decide between it and another make, but definitely made the right decision in the end. Hope your DS is just as happy

Thanks @minisnowballs yes DS is state educated and plays in a local music hub so should be eligible. But it sounds like a lot of hassle so maybe only worthwhile when it's time for an expensive one. Good to know anyway!

Thanks @northerngoldilocks. Not that DS needs a new violin right now but definitely something worth checking when it's time for an upgrade for the next size.

Basically the school has to buy the instrument and then 'sell' it to you VAT free so it's a bit of a faff if they've not done it before @chickentikkasalad. Ours has, but there's an entirely new school business team so they've not come across it and it's taken intervention from the deputy head to get it done at all.

Of course I feel guilty as DD is moving in September so it's not like they 'benefit' from her any more, but she's been basically helping to run the music department this year and it costs them nothing. It just feels like rather a luxury when schools are so squeezed to be taking up time on an expensive flute purchase.

According to HMRC as long as you are state educated being in a school orchestra counts as tuition, as does using a local music hub.

Our school do it (junior school) for year 6 children when they leave as until that point they have borrowed an instrument from school. They only allow children who have had lessons on the instrument in school to access the scheme, though the wording of the scheme is actually wider and playing in a school orchestra or at a music hub might be sufficient. @minisnowballs has given me hope that the secondary school might be convinced that they would like to let us access it when DS needs a new flute though!

@minisnowballs I've never heard of the assisted purchase scheme but it sounds very inviting! Is it tedious and was your school happy to do it or a bit reluctant?
Thanks for sharing!

Dd2 is jekyll and hyde with practice. One day meticulous, the next all over the shop - and until recently a 'bad tone day' would throw her off completely. She has strategies now which help.

Excitingly, new flute now reserved and money transferred to schools that it can be bought through the VAT-free Assisted Purchase Scheme (this is well worth it, people, it's saving us a fortune). She is SO excited - it was clearly so much easier to play than the Yamaha and so much louder for little effort. She was very nearly swayed by the slightly cheaper Altus but has gone for a Muramatsu in the end.

First instrument she's ever chosen herself or owned so a massive deal for her.

I have the whole spectrum - one meticulous in every aspect, one fairly diligent but a good sight reader so lessons are generally easy! And one who plays from the start until the tricky bit, then starts again, resulting in lots of pieces they can play the first page of really really well!!