Spring Term Music, Musicians and Music Exams Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hi all, my children go back to school tomorrow, so I thought it was time for a new one. Who's doing what this term, and how is practice going?

Our main focus is the local festival next month - we're all doing loads, as are my pupils! My girls have just started practising for that.

MiniWaffle (9) is doing her well-overdue Grade 4 Flute this term, and hopefully Grade 3 Theory (to keep her on track) in the summer, and Grade 6 Recorder in the autumn. She also has some SWMS and NCO commitments, although not too onerous yet! She plays the trumpet for fun, and dabbles with piano, ukulele and singing.

BabyWaffle (6) will concentrate on repertoire and technique for a while. I think Grade 1 Cello is supposed to be in the summer. She can play a coupe of the pieces and some of the scales. She plays the recorder too, but won't be doing another exam on that for at least a year.

...and breathe.

On the plus side, at least you got the instrument back in time.

Lizs I am sure she'll be fine. We had a similar experience expecting last week and getting the first one. In all honesty I can't wait till it is over. Good luck to your Dd.

ha ha,well, in 10 days ds is doing his first ever (rock) guitar exam, gr 3. And I have no idea what he is playing. I have no idea about his scales. He refuses to play when I'm around and he doesn't use his amplifier at home so I can't hear when/if he plays in his room (door closed).....

Oh, and few weeks he said his strings needed replacing, but apparently not anymore....

earlychristmas what is it about guitarists? I'm rarely allowed to listen to DD. If it's any comfort, guitar scales are easier than on other instruments because you just have to memorise the patterns and know how to find the starting note. Do have him check his strings though! How old is he?

A quick question for the piano teachers/ experts. DD changes school next September and for practical reasons will need to take some of her music lessons at the "conservatoire" (French music school) - definitely theory and probably piano too. She will need to audition for this in order to be accepted as a "cycle 2" (post grade 5) student. I assume she'll need to play a couple of contrasting pieces at audition. She plays Schumann's Traumerei quite well (and I realise this is easily in the right difficulty bracket) - she can also play Bach prelude no 1 in C beautifully, but this looks a bit easy to me (grade 3/4 ish???). She has Scott Joplin's Bethena waltz half-learned so this could be an alternative but it'll be less secure because of all the octaves. Otherwise, her repertoire is probably not terribly suitable (a lot of film music, pop songs and self-compositions). What would you suggest?

Due to other commitments (away for most of March on a language exchange trip, then a residential guitar course over the holidays, then we will be hosting the return exchange trip in May) she will not have much time to prepare new repertoire before May/ June.

Thanks, to her credit she has been practising hard this weekend . Rehearsal with accompanist tomorrow, exam on Thursday. Will be glad when this week is out of the way tbh.

Three days to theory!

DS2 had a tummy bug at the end of the week which put paid to practice and theory past papers for a couple of days.

Yes, with three days to go there was a totally unreasonable suggestion made to mine that he might like to do some revision. I might as well have suggested sky diving from the reaction I got.

I will be thinking of your DS, Raspberry. My pupil is re-sitting his theory this week. Hopefully this time he will read the questions more carefully and spend a bit longer in the room!!

DD's Flute exam is on March 24th. She should sail through, having learnt more than 20 Grade 4 pieces since last summer. Sight reading and scales are sounding good, and we have got her aural up to about 16/18 - she sometimes makes errors with the clapping or time signature. Practice-wise, she's far more interested in her NCO stuff. Practice or not, I think she is going to improve a lot this year.

After barely touching the piano for 2.5 years, she is playing all sorts from Piano Time and a few old Grade 1 books, and improvising, composing and playing by ear. I've learnt not to comment or make suggestions, or she will stop! It's nice to hear her, and good that she has some keyboard skills (no lessons thus far) as she will need them if she decides to take music seriously later on.

Baby is doing very little, and probably needs some sort of performance to work towards.

4 days left here, exam on Thursday. I am starting to freak out as Dd started to do silly mistakes like starting a scale then decided to start again, playing an extra note in one of her pieces and taking to the habit of having a bit of a pause half way on another.

Thanks Wafflenose. His teacher has banned him from leaving the room before the 2 hours are up, at home he is whizzing though a paper in 45 mins and checking it in another 20 tops. And making silly mistakes. So hopefully slowing things down will help him a bit.

His Grade 4 clarinet is the same week as minis flute, but I don't know which day. DS1s Grade 8 trombone is the 25th. It is a school sitting so I don't have to do anything. We did an aural test this evening but DS2 has enough on his plate at present.

We are gearing up for the Festival next week trying to fit in run throughs with accompanists.

DS1 and DD have both decided to apply for County Youth Orchestra so I need to send that off this week. DS2 can't do it because rehearsals are Sundays and they clash with Cathedral commitments.

Its nice Mini is enjoying her music, I'm looking forward for DS2s sake to whenhe has some spare time again!

Ishouldbe DS2 has a list of words he is supposed to be looking at occasionally. I am ignoring his teacher's very kind offer of going round on Tuesday evening to go through anything he is stuck on, I think he just needs to go and do it now. The worst that can happen is he will redo it June instead of doing his Grade 6 piano!

Nice to hear the updates - wishing good luck to Miniwaffle with her impressive grade 4 flute preparation and to everyone with theory exams. Fleur, I totally feel your pain but I think this is absolutely normal and DD will be fine! The main thing in the exam is to keep going come what may - especially on the sight reading!
DS1 has G4 drum kit exam on Friday. Last Thursday he informed me that the lesson/mock exam was a disaster etc etc. (I think this had a lot to do with transport woes!) I offered to cancel the exam. Sunday morning, he practised everything loads of times and looked much happier. He also has 2 drum lessons between now and the exam so he should be OK, though if he hadn't been so complacent early on I think the result would be better. Lots of positives, though - he had a happy experience playing flute at a school recital last week and is motoring through his bass guitar books, so I think his confidence isn't too fragile at the moment!

Well, i have asked Ds several times whether he is sure his guitar strings are OK.
Unfortunetly they don't do rockschoolexams at his school so have to figure out when to pick him up from school, how long it takes to drive, where to park, how long Ds needs to set up his amplifier etc..
Dd wasn't ready for her piano exam at school last month so have to take her out of school the week after as well grrrr

Just popped in to say good luck to the Theory candidates for tomorrow! I have one... and have just texted him with last minute reminders. I hope the questions are kind and that they all take their time - looking forward to positive news in 6 weeks or so.

In local news, I left Mini for 40 minutes earlier while I took Baby to cello - we've been doing it for a while because she's so mature, and she has my number etc - and when I got back, instead of watching videos or playing computer games, she was playing her flute, and had been practising the whole time! She did her 23 scales/arps tongued and then slurred, exam pieces twice, and three of her tough NCO pieces! I don't remember the last time she practised without being asked to, so I was astonished! She is being pleasant and cooperative at the moment, which makes a refreshing change.

Wow! Go Mini!! I think the only thing my DS would be motivated to do without asking is watch tv or play Minecraft. Trumpet and cello would be left neglected in my room.

Yes, good luck to everyone sitting exams in the next few days and weeks, with fingers crossed for positive outcomes.

My DS played his first solo and group piece at a school brass concert yesterday. I was so chuffed for him, as he did pretty well and obviously enjoyed the experience. At 9, he looked so titchy compared to the rest of the brass group (he was all but hidden behind the music stand) - very sweet.

Good luck to all the Dcs taking exams in the next few weeks. Mine is as ready as she can be so roll on tomorrow. She doesn't seem to have any nerves associated with it and thinks it is a concert rather than an exam.

Good luck to all with upcoming exams r&p raspberry lemons ds. Slow down kiddo!

Dd2 has grade 6 piano in about 2 weeks. Not at all optimistic. Practice gone out of the window - my mum died and we have the funeral next week ( and the girls are singing then) and ive been away lots.

Thea - exams can be taken again, when you have a big dose of really important stuff happening in your life you realise how unimportant those other things really are. I am very sorry to hear about your mum, mine keeps soldiering on but I've reached the stage where I have a mad dash over there if she doesn't answer the phone. I hope you get through the next few weeks okay, then the next few, then the few after that.

I have the sticky label in my handbag and have checked the timing to the centre so I'm ready for the exam today. I took DS to his (hopefully) last theory lesson last night, he was told he had to stay for the whole time and that one of her other candidates had been told to watch for him leaving early. I'm not sure that it will do any good - once he's made a mistake he has absolutely no chance of finding it, it doesn't matter how long he sits and looks at his paper. Seeing as he's regularly scoring 90 on past papers I'm confident that he will at least pass.

Sorry to hear about your mum Theas, practice has gone out of the window here the last few weeks as my husband has left and my daughter is obviously taking this very badly. She is not sleeping so has little concentration for practice, even when we get the time. Fortunately no exams coming up although she is performing solo at the school open day the week after next and has her first concert with her wind band 10 days after that, as well as trying to perfect her grade 1 pieces. It's very hard.

Thanks Theas, Waffle and everyone. He is very calm. Having older siblings who have done GCSEs he has insisted on a clear pencil case with all his pencils in and is very organised! Sending positive vibes to Ishouldbe's DS.

Theas I am so sorry to read about your Mum. It does put exams into perspective. Will be thinking of you.

And Woolleybear

Any of us expecting to take G5 theory at Manchester Uni today? It's cancelled, see ABRSM website for details.

Not us thank goodness. Sympathy for anyone it has affected

theas

So sorry for your loss

Theas18 So very sorry to read about your mum. Grief is such a difficult thing - I hope you are given the space and time to come to terms with such a big loss.

Woolleybear I feel for you - hope that friends and family are rallying around for you and your daughter.

Ishouldbe hope you and your DS weren't affected by the cancelled theory exam after all that prep?

Nope - we are nowhere near Manchester. I was on the ABRSM website checking what they could/could not take in to the exam when I saw the notice of the cancellation. We are done and dusted now. Instead of waiting about I dropped DS off and came home, telling him not to bother coming out until 6.20 at the earliest as there would be no-one there to pick him up. It will be the longest he's ever spent sitting in front of an exam paper.