Autumn 23 Music chat

Alsoplayspiccolo that's absolutely shocking your poor DS. Do they have any idea who? What a horrible thing to do. Congratulations on getting through all that and offer 🎉🎉🎉

Apologies for dropping off the thread recently.
This term seems to have flown by, with DS applying to conservatories and subsequent auditions. Unfortunately, it wasn't without a huge amount of stress, after he discovered that someone had backed into his UCAS account the day after the application deadline and withdrawn all his applications.

Thankfully, his school managed to contact the conservatories and they reinstated his applications but the ensuing enquiry, involving various external agencies including the police, has been incredibly stressful for DS and us.

DS had his last audition on Thursday and had his first offer on Friday (from what's probably his preferred choice), so hopefully he can relax now; he's been so stoic about it all and was really happy with how he played at all his auditions.

Looking forward to having him home in a couple of weeks, for a couple of weeks, before he's off again for NYO and then straight back to school for mocks.

Well done to your dcs @Butternutissquashed and @chickentikkasalad! Both really impressive. And @horseymum i think getting into things is all the sweeter when it takes a while- it’s good to remember perseverance is rewarded. I was stupid - the first time dd1 auditioned for nco she got projects when she’d applied for the main orchestra and we thought we’d been foolish letting her audition as her teacher was disappointed. The next year she got in to the main orchestra and she’d learned success is not a given along the way. So it all worked out ok.

as an aside- she now has the tutor she had at nco projects as one of her teachers- which is brilliant continuity and has really helped with her transition to specialist school- because someone has some idea of where she’s come from and what her progress has been!

hope Christmas concerts ramping up for all? Thursday we’re off to see our ward play in her first ever school concert- on cello, and then dd1 and 2 have performances at the weekend which require a swift transition between London and Somerset. Fingers crossed.

@horseymum , good luck to your NYOS result. Nice to know that it can work out with perseverance :).

Congratulations on the merit @Butternutissquashed. Glad you didn't have to wait too long.

Exam was on Monday and result was through on Friday morning. She got a merit so was quite relieved, as were we!

NYSO update - the results are out. DS got a reserve place. We all think it's a great result as he's still very young and it's first time he tried auditioning for anything.
BTW DS moved onto 1/4 violin today and the sound is much better!

It was through the local music service, so they put the entry through. The examiner then came to the music centre headquarters. Not sure if that makes it faster/slower/any different.

DDs is on the 19th and I'm wondering the same @horseymum - might be that we don't get the results until after Xmas, which in the grand scheme of things isn't long and nothing compared to when I did piano exams as a child, but will definitely feel like forever!

Does anyone know how long practical ABRSM results are taking to come back at the moment? DD took hers last week and is getting twitchy. She keeps remembering all the bits that went wrong!

Yes. His motivation for grade 1 piano was to get a beavers badge too...

Sweet, great incentive!

Latest thinking from DS is to leave the exam to later when he's comfortable to do a grade 5 exam. The reason is there's a musician badge in beavers for grade 5! His teacher is right - kids in this age range change their mind so quickly. So there'll be no pressure for violin exam for quite a while!

I didn't get around to actually doing g8 violin till about 4 years after I was playing repertoire at that level. Guess there wasn't really anything i needed to tick it off for and the longer you leave it the less of a daunting project it is.

Congratulations on the piano result chickentikka's DS.

We've had a similar thought process about violin exams vs repertoire. For DD it looks like being 5 (done), 7 (maybe next term), 8 (no hurry). And definitely doing them when comfortably in range. Polishing up three pieces at her cutting edge playing level would be way too much like hard work. I do think it's being a helpful consolidation exercise again. Not least making her remember the scale fingerings rather than doing one set one week then moving on to a different set the next week and forgetting the first.

@chickentikkasalad no words of wisdom here but just congrats on the exam result!

Thank you @horseymum for the sympathy. I'll say a beautiful played grade 5 piece is much more enjoyable than a pass g7 piece to listen to. The other day, just for fun, DS played some of the g4 pieces he played back in the summer and they sounded so much better. I don't know how I listened to them everyday back then!
I think the main thing DS lacks behind a bit at the moment is the timing, specially for long notes. For fast rhythmic bits his timing is really good. But when there's a long note he could be caught in the middle of a trill or vibrato and forgot how long the note should be! That's exactly something perfecting for an exam will help you isn't it? However recently his teacher told him off for not letting me clap during his practice now I'm allows to clap at home. Hopefully that'll help!

@Violasrule many thanks and you're very right it's not just about the grades. He'll learn and develop the technique skills by perfecting for the exams. If I explain it this way he might take it more seriously. He has no problem doing the piano exams as the piano teachers 'dictates' to go slowly and do most of the exams. Violin teacher has always had a child-led style because of his age (he started before 5 and has only just turned 7) and she thinks he's very talented and confident. She ensures the technique bits are covered in the pieces but she really gives him as much freedom as he could have. Maybe that's why it's hard now to ask him to slow down a bit to prepare for an exam.
The teacher said not to worry children of this age often changes their mind easily but I fear this one doesn't! He's all in the heat of overtaking me at the moment. We started learning the violin at the same time. I used to be better than him but now he's really catching up. Maybe after he's definitely left me behind he'll be looking for his next challenge .

@chickentikkasalad 3 of us in our family play viola and violin. I think the key thing is ensuring that technical skills are developed and it’s not just about the grade of the pieces.

It sounds like your DS is highly musical and IMO it’s worth taking the time to perfect scales, work on technical exercises as well as aural skills which will underpin his development.

@Bunnycat101 agree with you for not jumping into grade 2 straightway. DS went straight to g1 after initial because it was ready for it and it was a spur of moment decision. I don't think he enjoyed preparing for the exam either. It was hard work and discipline but not much fun! Teacher has some plans for the next term like some solo and duet at our local music festival. Next piano grade will probably be the summer.

I have another problem with his violin. Finally his violin teacher is saying going for a grade 4 exam while still learning g5 pieces. We'll learn 3 g4 pieces together with the g5 ones but won't perfect them until close to the exam date. She knows he loves keeping learning new pieces. Getting stuck in 3 pieces for a long time will bore him. It all sounds fantastic to me. The problem is DS now doesn't want to do any violin exams! He just wants to learn as fast as he could. He's already secretly learning some g6 pieces and wants to try some g7. What should I do?!! Teacher is happy for him not to sit any exams until he wants to. But I fear he might miss some stuff you can only learn by going through exam like aural. He still learns all the scales for each grade and he's constantly sight reading. Is it only the aural development that he'll miss? Is that a big deal? It's not that he needed the exams to motivate him - lol he's highly motivated already. He says he already has then feeling of achievement by learning new pieces. Am I being selfish to want to know which grade he's at? A lost mum...