Summer Term Music and Music Exams Thread

[Wafflenose]

A new thread for a new term!

If you're a music parent, or music teacher, please introduce yourselves here. It was getting hard to keep track on the old thread.

I am a music teacher (woodwind, 90% recorders these days) and I have:

DD1 (aged 8) who is taking Grade 5 Recorder this term, currently working towards Grade 4 Flute, and also sings, plays the piano and one tune on the ukulele (no lessons on these three). She has completed a video audition for the South West Music School, but we won't hear yet, and quite honestly, I don't think she'll get in this year.

DD2 (aged 5) who is taking Initial Grade Recorder this term, started the cello a month ago, and can play a few tiny, baby tunes on the piano and ukulele (again, no lessons on these).

I only have one pupil doing an exam this term, other than my girls - a Grade 2 Recorder player. I'm doing 11 Music Medals though.

I was given a firm offer at York for the BMus without auditioning, and for Leeds for the BA with possible transfer to BMus course (which has the extra year), likewise without audition. But I went to KCL instead (where I likewise didn't audition).

Of course, that was more than ten years ago and I live on a rock in the English Channel.

morethan sounds like your DD is very mature for her age. Hope she gets a well deserved rest and it all gets sorted.

Herc now that term is almost over, hope you all get the rest you need too.

Not sure how we would cope here if both DDs did loads. Though DD2 has decided to start singing lessons again soon which is good news.

Circular that thought has occurred to me, that although school is encouraging him to aim high at present that needs to follow through! So we aren't going totally mad, just getting a feel for some.

Oh, and for general info, I passed my theory exam with merit, 85, which given the facts that I didn't bother doing any preparation and left after two hours because it was really stuffy in the hall, is fine. I know I could have done better, but I was aiming for a pass. I didn't do super-duper fantastic harmonisations or anything, and the point is I now actually have the prerequisites to do my DipABRSM if I choose to. I really don't like theory and I only did one term of analysis at university, which is why my degree didn't suffice for the prerequisite!

Well done Julie!

Raspberry this piano exam was a surprise since she only started learning at Easter. I think that none of us realised how draining doing les mis for 7 shows over 5 days would be, to be honest. Mind you she was the least drained of any of the kids. I'm going to try and schedule her properly next year though. No term with more than 2 exams and if there are 2 one of them has to be singing. Although after tomorrow she'll be stuck until she's done grade 5 theory anyway, as far as singing is concerned. I've never had much success scheduling Dd1 though, and her health problems and hospital visits/stays this year have really buggered up what little planning we did do. Ah well. The plan was to have all the grade 8s out of the way by now but she was so ill at Easter we didn't let her be entered for either her 2nd or 3rd study grade 8 this summer, since she couldn't play or sing for more than 5 minutes at a time. She's fine now, but we couldn't bank on that.

I'm definitely pushing both of them to reconsider their life plans, just because practically anything seems easier than what they have set their hearts on!

Well done Julie!

DD1 may do grade 8 theory next year, through school. If they don't organise it and teach it (in school time) then I'm not going to push it, because I think she is doing too much - but it is definitely a great thing to have. Certainly the brainiest qualification I have, I think. It was certainly the hardest one! But I'm not a keyboard player (much) and I always found the harmonisation stuff much more difficult than my friends did.

Raspberry sorry for my negativity, did have the added hurdle of changing schools and DD very young for her age.

Julie KCL don't welcome any applicants predicted below AAA these days. Seems to be much more academic than others, and very much favouring ABRSM exams.

Herc Bath Spa still on list for an October visit. Good luck to your DD2 for tomorrow.

Herc Re grade 5 theory, there's always the GAM residential course late August if your DD2 has recharged her batteries by then.
When DD1 did it, ages ranged from 8 to 17. Got her from Grade 2.5 to Grade 5 level, although exam not till November so you need to keep it going and/or swot up in half term.

Sorry Herc I didn't mean that for a dig at you, I know the piano crept up on you, I'm just trying to forestall it happening to us AGAIN. However best laid plans and all that!

I'm glad your DD is better.

Circular - she's only 10, I'm not sending her far far away on a residential course! She'll be fine, I think a break from singing exams may not do her any harm, but she's working at grade 3 now, and we will keep it up through the hols, so I reckon she should be ready by Easter (I remember when I did it! at 10, it took 2 terms. From scratch. And she's brighter than I was and rather more driven (I liked the idea of not having to do grade 6 yet, although in the end my disinclination to do badly in any exam kicked in and I did my thing (being good at exams was my super hero skill as a kid)). I might engineer a bigger gap just to give me some breathing space though!

Circular,

The music degree requirements when I applied were three As at A-level (A2), including music and preferably a foreign language, grade 8 in principal study and a minimum of grade 6 in a keyboard instrument (if not main study).

Even Oxbridge only expected AAB for music entrance.

OTOH, I mucked around, had a jolly good time, did lots of other stuff, became ridiculously Catholic and spent all my time reading Aquinas, and learnt lots of things that weren't, unfortunately, on my course, was in SRC for humanities, sat on plagiarism and disciplinary committees, and wrote my entire final dissertation in a weekend. As you can imagine, I didn't get a first! ;-)

Oh, I was also a choral scholar and CathSoc secretary at a time when KCLSU wanted to ban CathSoc.

If I do grade 8 theory at some point, I will actually have to study for it. Sad, but true. Grade 6 with no preparation I figured was possible. It makes sense if you realise that my real love is traditional and early music, whatever my main studies may seem to indicate.

Julie sounds like you had a great time at KCL. Far too academic for DD1 though, not come across anywhere that requires A level language now, though I think there was still something in KCL blurb about favouring languages.
DD1 also fond of early music, though finding all those offering modules in it are also at the higher end.

Is Grade 8 theory really bad?
DD1 enjoys theory (quite mathsy, opting for Bach Chorale over composition for A2)) but gets little time for it in term time. Doing another 'crash course 'in the summer and hoping to take Grade 8 in autumn. Wondering now if that will be too big a jump.

I did Grade 8 theory, after doing quite an academic music degree. I didn't do any written exercises or past papers, but I read through the textbook (Music Theory in Practice). My aim was to get 66... I think I got 86. Or was it 88? This was still in the pass category, but fine. I did kick myself though, because had I done more work, I would have got a distinction.

The following year, they brought in the Merit category for theory - 80% upwards! Oh well!

Circular,

I think the courses I looked at ranged from AAA to ABC. If your DD is likely to get below those grades, you may have to consider location carefully - find a location rather than a university necessarily where there is a good Early Music scene? Or find a university that's willing to take UCAS points total rather than A-level grades (so all her music exams would count ;-) ).

Or just do something else then go to Guildhall (lots of friends did this, mainly singers who had to wait a few years for voice to settle).

For those of you with DCs who do grade 8 before their GCSEs - do they think of taking a diploma while in 6th form, or do they leave the diploma as something to do when they're at music college?

DD1 is doing (working towards) a diploma. She's currently in Y11.

I wonder how do-able this would be for a singer. With the issue of voice immaturity. Has anyone's DC taken a singing diploma at a relatively young age, and were there issues to do with that?
DD is proud of the fact that she was singing a couple of diploma level pieces in primary school, but I'm guessing that they'd need to be sung in a more mature way if you were actually taking the diploma...

Thanks Julie
Really won't know where she stands till AS results next month.
Probably capable of BB or even AB in 2 of the 4, but it's a 3rd subject that could be an issue.
Could be in danger of only being allowed to continue with 2, and possibly a new AS.

Thought even with UCAS point entry requirements, a big chunk needed to be from full A2, and still often required 3?

circular - I had to go away and look to see how A levels work these days, it's a long time since I did mine and much has changed. I am now less clueless than I was before about AS/A but not by much. If I'm talking a load of twaddle then someone better qualified than me will hopefully come and correct me.

The one and only course I've looked at (DS has only just chosen GCSEs) was Huddersfield because his class went there on an enrichment day. Their B(mus) is point entry equivalent to ABB (320 points) but they don't specify 3 A levels (although applicants need A level music at B grade or better) and they don't limit how many points can come from music exams. It shows that your DD will still have options although maybe not at the establishments that she set out looking at. A G8 merit would net her 70 points, which is roughly a half A level to go with the new AS (if that's the way things pan out). Actually taking the G8 exam rather than "playing at G8 standard" is going to go a long way to putting her back where she wants to be providing she chooses a course that lets her use all of the tariff points from her music exams (I'm assuming it's DD1 with the G8 piano exam rather than DD2).

I'm not looking forward to my time with this, I hope the school's career advisor is going to step up because I am Mrs Clueless Parent.

First results in dd got a distinction at grade 4 singing.
We had a chat and no more exams apart from theory until grade 6. Well in singing anyway.
She wants to learn German to go along with Italian and take it next summer or winter.
Just one more to go on Wednesday and then finished for a break.

Was reading the posts above about Diploma, it must be hard for those reaching grade 8 at a young age as they can't take Diploma until 14.
My friends dc are 9 and 6 the 9 yr old gained distinction grade 8 piano at age 8 and her db is currently doing grade 6. They are brilliant.

Herc re the far far away on a residential course: there are quite a few kids that age that do the gam g5 course and the recreational activities are organised to suit - it's not like borstal (and the kids tend to go back year after year to senior orchestra or jazz once they've done tje g5 course)! I think we'll be sending ds next summer - he's doing a different gam course this year.