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.

Finally finished! DS2 sang well but is really tired now. However, we had an amazing evening yesterday with the Concert Bands class. The adjudicators almost always think this class is amazing and winning scores is usually an outstanding one.

All three DC play in the local music service band, which won last year, got a distinction this year but wasn't placed. DS1 also plays in a local community band which got an outstanding score and came second, and his school band which got an amazing 95!

The adjudicator pointed out he tends to be on the mean side with marks (which had already been noted throughout the week) but he couldn't not award marks like that in this one.

What really impressed him though, was the sense of community, especially from the Youth Band where he kept recognizing students from different schools who had been competing against each other all week playing together.

It was a lovely night.

Now organising juggled piano lesson for DS2 before a Masterclass next Saturday, and giving him an afternoon off before reminding him he has grade 4 clarinet in 12 days!

DD has had her arm twisted to play in the school musical the week after next, so that means after school rehearsals this week too.

Morethan! You are very close to this music festival, so are other Manchester people:
www.hmyf.org.uk

Can I please ask if your singing Dcs have 1 to 1 lessons?

Dd sings all the time, part of school choir, part of singing lessons group at a local music school where she sings lots of pop music (not my preference but that was all that it was available).

Any point to find a "proper" singing teacher or is it too early?

One more question: anybody knows the level of difficulty for Bach Inventions? Roughly what grade could a child learn to play them?

DD's G2 flute tomorrow and DS2's G2 clarinet in a couple of weeks.

DD has spent most of this week rehearsing for and performing in an orchestral concert, so the exam pieces have been a bit neglected, but she has spent several hours playing her instrument. We shall see...

DS2's has lessons, but they are part of the package of being a Cathedral Chorister, he gets free lessons. His are 1 to 1.

It means they are mostly centred around the Cathedral repertoire of course.

TheFirstofHerName good luck to your DD

TheFirstOfHerName good luck to your dd!

My dd's piano teacher told me that if and when I am ready she can recommend a fantastic singing teacher. Not sure if dd would benefit from one to one singing, she loves the group lessons but being a bit shy I doubt she'll be happy to sing to a stranger for a while.

oh, great! dd has piano exam on Friday, and is actually supposed to be singing in a concert Thursday which doesn't finish till 9.30pm. But she says she won't be tired following day......

earlychristmas our worst piece of planning to date was entering a contest which was on the Saturday after the Whit Friday marches. I picked DS up from the coach home at 2.30am and he was playing at 11. I suspect that it wasn't his best performance ever.

I've already checked that the two don't clash this year.

DD gets home from her Spanish exchange at 7am on Friday after an overnight bus trip - she's supposed to be playing in the wind band at the local music festival that evening. It will go on until late so I am not completely convinced that she will make it (I doubt her presence is essential as she has only been playing 6 months).

Fleurdelise I think the Bach inventions start around grade 4/5, but in my experience how hard something feels depends a lot on your motivation for playing it (DD plays a number of pieces that are way beyond her "grade level").

Re singing, my DD just does choir at school (and sings non-stop at home). I'm not sure about the value of singing lessons for little ones. The pro singer who works with my daughter's jazz guitar teacher will not take students below 14/15.

Thank you Mistigri, dds teacher was talking about starting those with her.

Got the results today, dd got quite a comfortable distinction. She is soooo happy!

Have any of you who are music teachers got any words of wisdom/tricks you can recommend to help overcome performance anxiety that only occurs when the audience is small i.e. in an exam?!

DD1 (Year 5) has been playing the trumpet for 2.5 years and loves it. A few weeks after starting she played 'Oh when the saints' in a full school assembly of 350ish children and staff, she plays in music service ensembles, has performed in local festivals (not competitive music festivals, general community arts concert), plays at church and was invited to play at the local conservatoire having been heard playing in a school concert. I included all of that to demonstrate that she's used to performing and isn't a shy player. However, she is much happier, and therefore gives a much better performance, when the audience has 50+ people in it.

Playing/singing solo in a packed theatre is not a problem for her at all whereas playing to an audience of one or two makes her far more nervous. Beyond suggesting that she pretend next week's examiner is actually 100 people, I'm not sure what else to try. Not that it makes any difference to potential advice but it's G4 she's taking next week, she's taken 2 and 3 previously so knows the set-up.
Thank you for any bright ideas!

Congrats fleur.

SE13 I guess I'd recommend practising that situation more! So rope in granny/baby sitter/ window cleaner/whoever to an individual mini-recital as often as you can?
Also worth going through the AB mark scheme with your DD and showing her how it works - they mark positively not negatively so the more good things she can show off the better. The examiner Wants to give away marks!

Thank you Shedding and mom17!

Congratulations little fleur - it's done with now (until next time)

SE13 - I can see that a 1:1 performance is more personal, how could it not be? I would be roping in friends for a living room recital with coffee and cake. The performances DS had issues with were in school - for their Christmas concert the dress rehearsal was open to pupils (I suspect it was the classes of the organising teachers). He hated it.

Well done little fleur. She worked so hard and deserves her brilliant result.

6 days until MiniWaffle's exam, and she is burying her head in the sand about it. She will then get stressed and start crying and yelling at the weekend, when she realises she's been pratting about. She'll pass though.

Bit late with my congratulations but so pleased for Little Fleur, what a great result! And wishing lots of luck to MiniWaffle.
I was in hospital for a couple of days, came home and was treated to a lovely xylophone performance in his bedroom by DS1! Was a real boost!
DCs are gearing up for local music centre's concert at Albert Hall in April. One Saturday is going to be interesting when they have full day rehearsals but at different schools!

Thank you! Still in the bliss of the result today!

Good luck to MiniWaffle with her exam! I am sure she'll be just fine!

Loose I hope you feel better and there wasn't anything serious.