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.

Oh - I forgot to add, that the children just sit the grade 5 exam. We didn't bother with any earlier grades. Grade 4 is remarkably similar to grade 5 and they very quickly understood the early grade material so they just did all the grade 1,2 then 4 and 5 booklets and past papers without sitting the exam until grade 5. The thing my 9 year old was the most bothered about was what to do if she needed the toilet and whether she should leave before the end as she had finished! The exam was fine.

Grade 8 before 10yo is a scary thought...

I took grade 5 theory at around that age! Mind you, didn't start playing anything until year 3. And it was the only theory exam I did - and the only stuff I learnt. Grade 6 theory only happened 20 years later. :p

Scariest thing was being in a room with all the littles doing grade 1 (and why bother sitting the grade 1 exam? My students will all just do mocks).

Gosh, no I don't put any of my pupils in for the other grades! It's just that it's hard going with DD1. The Grade 1 book took a few months when she was 6ish. The Grade 2 book and past papers took 4 weeks this summer holiday (doing 30-40 min per day) but now she is heading back to school I imagine the Grade 3 book and papers will take many months. I'm just shocked at how fast everyone else seems to manage it!

I'll have to start a new thread for the new term soon!

I think it comes down to making it fun. Miss 7 has been playing sax for nearly three years. That's nearly three years of rhythms, key signatures, analysis of melodies, Italian terms - even transposition as she plays in E flat and her sister, in C. I made sure that I have used the exam terminology when discussing her practise with her. She knew the words 'enharmonic equivalent' a long time before she ever saw it written. When I used to teach I would just say ' the other name for the note'. Now I ensure I use the proper terminology. I am constantly amazed by how quickly my 7 year old has got grips with it all. Mind you, the proof will be in the passing.

I took grade 5 theory at 12 and grade 8 in the same year. But I didn't start playing until I was 9.

DD1 started learning when she was 3, but we are still struggling. Mostly with her attitude, mind you.

Oh:-(
Both of mine have a mindset of getting stuff done. I keep reminding them that I already have mine. Miss 10 occasionally asks why she is carrying on past grade 5, but I just tell her she has to know this stuff anyway - which is true. She wants to get her diplomas and so she needs to be able analyse.

I think attitude to hard work is key. At some stage they realise they are working for themselves. Miss 10 has 'got it'. I don't know whether miss 7 has it or not.

Just got miss 7's exam date. It's far later than we wanted. Why are exam dates never when you want them?

Got it! DD1 squeaked a merit in her Grade 4 singing with 120 marks. Will get comments sheet tomorrow.

It was her first day in Y7 today, and tomorrow she has to negotiate the complexity which is two instrumental lessons during the day! Fingers crossed.

Any other young musicians starting secondary this term?

A few I think, Bramshott. Come on over to the new thread!

Well done to your DD. Lovely mark! I hope she enjoyed her first day at secondary school.