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.

Feeling much better today, thanks. It all went a bit wrong last week but quickly diagnosed and a small op will put everything right. I know I'm feeling better as I want to play the piano now whereas two days ago I couldn't face my lesson at all! It's a very good sign!

Creaking towards a piano Gd 6 for DS who doesn't really love piano and is playing last years pieces on almost the last possible day in April!
His teacher has infinite patience

A bit late in the day I'm afraid, but many congratulations to little Fleur on such a wonderful result given all her hard work.

Good luck to all the children who have just or are about to sit their exams this term - fingers crossed for strong results all round and a bit of reflected glory for respective parents!

Loose hope you are now feeling much better! The Xylophone performance sounds amazing - points to your DS!

My DS is racing through quite a range of brass repertoire at the moment as he progresses towards the G2 exam, which I'm guessing will take place after the summer hols since he has now been given a number of the syllabus tunes to practice (parents seem to be the last to find out when their kids have been entered at the school he attends). Nicer pieces I think than for G1, and different styles. His cello playing seems to be improving, albeit I don't believe I've recognised / known of any of the pieces he has brought home since picking up the instrument so can't even hum my way through them to help him on the odd occasion when he gets stuck. Thank goodness for Youtube!

Dd çlaims to have passed her grade 5 against all odds! Her teacher is recommending Trinity in future.

Well done little Fleur and Liz's DD!

My DD got home from her Spanish exchange this morning ... Her phone ran out of juice so didn't get a call to pick her up and she turned up on our doorstep at 6.45am (school is only a short walk away). Literally the first thing she did was get out her guitar, apparently she didn't miss her parents at all but she was pining for her "baby" (she has three guitars but her three-quarter sized Taylor acoustic is her special favourite).

Mistigri - I do love the image of your DD pining for her "baby" guitar! I'm glad they are reunited! DS1 spends a lot of spare time in his room on his bass guitar, jamming along to his Rockschool book and things he's downloaded. I notice he's also spending about 15 minutes every morning working on his xylophone pieces - he uses the soft mallets at that time of day but you still get the unmistakable sounds! We all love his xylophone but he's the only one who can actually play it. The rest of the family just coo over it!
I think we're exam-free in this house until around May when there's a drum exam and July when I think there may be grade 2 piano. I think my own grade 3 exam is looking less likely now. Christmas, on the other hand, is starting to look like exam central!

Just found out that dd will be entering her grade 1 clarinet in the summer term which is great. Two pieces sounding good, the third to be worked on, she's performing solo in school concert and in a concert with her wind band next week so we will get those out of the way first.

Other than her pieces, scales, and right reading, what else does she have to do?

The other thing is the date of the exam, apparently we will only find out about three weeks before, is this correct? I looked on the abrsm website and the last week of possible dates is when we are on holiday, I guess we just have to keep our fingers crossed. Is there any pattern to the exams like lower grades earlier, or is it just random? Thank you

Thank you Suspende and Mistigri!

Well done to your dd Lizs!

Mistigri I love the fact your dd missed her baby instrument!

woolley I assume there will be aural also?

Also woolley regarding the dates, the teacher can request her proffered date. Most teachers from what I hear are requesting the last week (more time to prepare) so I would imagine there is little chance to get the last week.

Well done little Fleur and LIZS DD.

Gearing up for exams now here too, DS1 Grade 8 trombone on Wednesday and DS2 Grade 4 clarinet on Thursday. In the meantime DS2 is playing in a piano masterclass tomorrow, and DS1 and DD have their first County Youth Orchestra session on Sunday. I laughed at the letter for this, which said 'if you play an alternate instrument, such as a piccolo, please bring it with you'. Alternate instruments in our case are Tuba and Bari sax!

Woolleybear I think it is fairly random. We have the same problem, DS2 is doing his Grade 6 piano (assuming he has passed theory) and is going on school band trip in July, so we are hoping it will work out, its usually a 2 week session and he is away for 10 days. Friends in similar situations in previous years have usually been able to work something out.

Thanks, I will put a little note to the teacher to see if there is anyway we can possibly avoid that week, hopeful lots of others will want that extra practice time!

Sorry for the silly questions, but what is involved in grade 1 aural, is this something dd will learn about in music lessons or something we need to work on at home? I'm worried this is where she might struggle.

Aural Grade 1 will hopefully link you to to ABRSM Grade 1 aural requirements.

Its varied for us whether teachers have done it with the DC or not. You can buy books and aps to use at home, I am actually more familiar with the Trinity aural tests as we have done more Trinity, and these have tended to be the teachers who like extra practice at home.

Don't get too hung up on it though, its only a small part of the whole thing.

Forgot to take his bloomin' music for his grading... Oh dear...

Thanks for that Raspberry, I've had a quick look and I think we are going to need a bit of help. We have tried with an iPad app before and either we are not doing it right or she is not very good at all, she also doesn't sing particularly well! Will ask about some friends and see if they can help!

I can tell we're running up to the end of term as we have fixture congestion. There's only me that seems to be stressing about the lack of time to slot in homework which is all wrong seeing as it's not MY homework. DS is out for 13 hours today and 13 hours tomorrow, music lesson Monday night, concerts Tuesday and Saturday (the Wednesday one was cancelled and I tried hard to look disappointed). He's very laid back about it but I'm feeling the pressure of concert dress and packed lunches. I am really looking forward to the end of term and I'm very glad that he's not throwing exams into the mix as well.

My thoughts are with you RaspberryLemonPavlova for the G8 trombone this week, is he nervous or does he have the turn up and play approach?

..and the clarinet too. Non-brass instruments tend to fall off my radar, sorry.

Thanks, I should be. Both DS are turn up and play, DD is another story! I have no worries about DS2's clarinet, more about DS1 trombone as it has been a bit of a push for him to be at the required standard for the technical bits, but he wanted to do it before his AS exams and has discovered the benefits of daily practice over the last 3 months! I've told him just to have a go and not worry.

I will be shocked if DS2 doesn't pass, its well within his capability. I'm not expecting Distinction, he simply hasn't had time to prioritise it, and doesn't this week. He was adamant he wanted to do a clarinet exam though.

Easter week is really busy for him too, chorister wise, he has services/practices/concert every day for 8 days. And he needs to finish his some work towards his RSCM silver award ready for the exam in May

I echo the feeling about homework for DS2! DS1 has AS exams in May, which have been missing off my radar, but he is really good at organising himself with academic work (rest of life is a different matter!)

We should know the exam results either Thursday night or Friday, which is good, the theory results are still ages away!

I am in same boat as you Noteventhebestdrummer in that DD is sitting G5 piano this Friday and I have never seen her piano teacher so quiet as last lesson. He was totally speechless at how bad things were in the mock (I am a ranter by nature, but even I was scared!).

Not sure if we have time to turn things around - admittedly things have been busy with music scholarship stuff but that's all over now and I am now embarrassed at her laissez faire attitude, and know she does not love the piano like her violin, though she refuses to give it up.

I know I should 'let her fail' once but the timing is pretty rubbish and I feel like writing to her new school to withdraw her scholarship, as she doesn't seem to want to live up to the expectations (and I know there will be greater demands once she starts!).

I am hoping this is a back lash to having to work hard recently, but know she will kick herself post results and deeply regret the lack of effort....aargh, what to do!!

The early exam years were so much easier...

Ealingwestmum some kids react well to pressure so all is not lost. DD played a solo concert earlier this year for which she was in all honesty not that well prepared - one new song that she had just written, several last minute changes of repertoire - but she was note perfect. She always plays better when the stakes are high and people are watching.

We don't have much coming up right now. It's a school exam year so being careful not to overload, although DD is very organised with school work. She is going to submit some of her music for a festival in early summer - it's a big festival in a nearby city and they are looking for musicians who perform original compositions - just need to check the lower age limit. She also needs to prepare some piano pieces for an audition for the conservatoire but this should not require too much work. And she will have sax and theory tests at her music school but these will be very low key.

Thanks Mistigri, let's hope so - that tends to be the case with the violin but the piano presents more of challenge for her! She'd love to compose like yours though..

Ealingwestmum they have to be really bad to fail, I do think the examiners recognise musicality and reward it greatly so even if there are note blips you're only aiming for the magic pass. DS is not a natural pianist at ALL but has often got exactly 120 and comments like 'sensitively phrased although some note errors today'.
I love that optimistic 'today' that the examiners use - they have no idea!
Good luck for Fri anyway, we have another month thank goodness.

Good luck with the exams coming up.

We got Dds comments and I am impressed. She got a full mark in Aural, almost full mark in scales (20) and one of her pieces had 29 points, one mark deducted due to a tiny slip. Over all amazing comments.

Mistigri can you please tell me more about guitar? We're looking at a second instrument, initially we were thinking about violin but we are all attracted by classic guitar. Is it hard to learn? How long did your dd learn it for? Is it her only instrument?

I had people telling me that guitar is not as "serious" as piano/violin, that secondary schools will not care so much about guitar performances. Is this true? I would really love it to have her learn guitar.

Ealingwestmum I posted a similar response last night and lost it. DS1 got 62 for his piano Grade 5. (Trinity pass mark is 60 and I don't think they give61 as a mark.) I was very proud of him on the day for giving it his best, although at that stage he didn't rate his chances. I think we were more relieved and pleased with his pass than two previous Grade 5s on other instruments with Distinction. He too had comments about his musicality, but needed to work on his accuracy!

Fleurdelise, amongst your other criteria I would think it depends on what your DD wants to do. There will be far more opportunities for ensemble playing with an orchestral instrument at school and elsewhere.

I don't know about the 'seriousness' but in terms of school caring about guitar performance, at Primary we occasionally heard the Y6 guitar players at the summer concert, at Secondary I have heard them once in six years of twice a year concerts, playing just one piece, whereas the DC with orchestral instruments play in multiple groups at all the concerts.

Our Music Service don't offer anything for guitars, but we have Concert Bands and Orchestras.

Thank you Noteven and Raspberry, absolutely agree on if she can get herself to 120 that would be a fab achievement given where she is at. Her bar (not mine) has always been distinctions - this one will be about her recovering her nerves from the last piano exam where she blanked and it's stayed with her since.

Redeemed herself this weekend with some constructive practice so finger's x'd that she goes into it like a performance vs an exam! Rescue Remedy bought for the first time today

Good luck to those still waiting to sit this week and patience to those waiting for theory results!