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.

RaspberryLemonPavlova - I'll join you in ticking off the days until the G5 theory exam. I had thought that mine would have taken it in the last session but his teacher is hoping to get a distinction out of him. I'm sure he's sick of seeing past papers, I know I am.

Good luck with the Theory prep - have finally decided that dd and I will attempt it in the summer sitting; I am really keen to pull back on exams etc from sept (yr 5) so if we don't pass this summer, will have to wait a while. I am already enjoying not having any cello exams planned - dd definitely needs to consolidate technically after progressing fast, and also have a bit of fun with it all.

I can get three (sort of) reasonable notes out of my sax - looking forward to first lesson next week. Dd of course just picked it up and got a great sound. Think my only option is to ban her from touching it :)

Janet41 Good luck with your sax lessons! I have recently taken up guitar classes again (played as a teenager but that was a long time ago) and find it very enjoyable but a real challenge. It can be a bit discouraging when DD sight reads, fluently, pieces that take me weeks to perfect ...

DD has been taking theory classes this year - she doesn't tell me much about what they do in class but apparently her teacher thinks she has caught up with the rest of the group (who have several more years of theory than her). Watching her casually transpose a piano arrangement up one, and then two, semitones this evening I guess she must have a fair grasp of underlying musical principles ... I did grade 5 theory many moons ago but couldn't have come close to that.

Mistigri,

With transposition skills like that wouldn't General Musicianship be a potential runner? Your daughter sounds like she could ace that department.

(And yes, it's good to do the theory, especially up to grade 5, but General Musicianship exams are actually quite fun. Which is weird, for an exam).

We are looking at Grade 5 Theory in June 2016, if we get our act together! I just can't seem to cover it faster than that. We only seem to make time during the school holidays, and she is halfway through the Grade 3 book, having not learned the Grade 2 or 3 Italian yet. So I am hoping Grade 3 this June would be manageable - I'm going to enter her whether she likes it or not. Then we'll do a page a day during the summer holidays to cover Grade 4 (I find that it gets easier again at that point, with melodic minors and complex rhythms already done!), followed by a few months to cover the Grade 5 book, and a few months on past papers.

Luckily she is doing Grade 6 Recorder with Trinity, so no rush. It's Flute which the theory needs to stay one grade behind - so far so good.

JulieMichelle if you're being Evil on the sight-reading, so is my piano teacher! I have to do two pages each week, so a whole stage every two weeks, if you see what I mean.
Janet sounds like a great start with the sax - good luck with the first lesson!
Saturday music centre just started, DS1 looked like a bear with a sore head at 8.20 before his 8.30 flute lesson. However, by the time he finished all his groups at midday he had a big smile on his face! DS2 enjoyed the string orchestra but definitely noticed it's a step up, which is good.

Looseattheseams,

My last exam students all flunked their sightreading tests despite the fact that I make sightreading a big thing in lessons. Only way to remedy it is for them to do more sightreading, plus back-track to slightly easier repertoire so they can demolish more pieces this term. And forcing them to do theory. These are older and/or transfer students - my littles are much stronger in that department compared to their playing level. It's something I find hard to teach as I was always really good at it, but mainly what they do is think "oh, I played a wrong note" and stop and start again. Which, in the exam, means you fail it.

By making all my students do sightreading books this term, I'm not singling out the ones who are really bad at that aspect of music - they're all in the same boat. Some are working at a level below (e.g. the pre-1 book for grade 1 students) and will move up to the 'correct' level once they've mastered the slightly easier material. It gives us plenty of time to work on it and I'm liking making sightreading part of the regular 'course' along with scales and aural skills.

I'm also putting in my first Trinity exam pupils this term, chiefly two Initial Grade students. The Prep Test would be wasting their time as they've passed that level, but they're a long way from grade 1. I'm liking the fact that I can mix and match exams to suit my students - we used to only get ABRSM here in Jersey.

JulieMichelle - I think that is a brilliant idea; dd is def weak on sight reading and being a suzuki kid probably doesn't help, and really hasnt done much practcie at all on lessons. So is now pretty much note pefect but the rhythm can get (very) erratic. She is much stronger in that respect on her wind instrument.

Interesting re practical muscianship - dd moves a piece of music between instruments/clefs constantly without much thought even though she is at ery differnent playing levels, and def without much theory behind it.

juliemichelle I definitely think this pays off. I like the fact that this is now part of my lessons rather than something that used to get done occasionally, although I am finding the grade 3 piano book quite challenging! DS1 got comments about his sight reading in end of year reports last summer. I thought he was ignoring them but he actually did practise a lot in the summer holiday using the flute 1-3 book and is now at a very good grade 3 level. I think I need to push DS2 a little bit more with piano, he does a couple of exercises each week, which is ok but slow. The focus is more on scales at the moment, I think.

Just heard, DS1 passed cello grade 1 with merit! One very happy little boy!

Fab news loose, that lovely feeling when your kids pass their first milestone mega exam on each of their instruments!

Julie, How Sight reading practice is different from learning to play new songs on your own ?

Mom17,

The key difference is that you can't go back over a wrong note - the priority is to maintain the rhythm even if you go wrong. That's where students often lose marks - they want to get the notes correct and sacrifice rhythmic accuracy. I have always been excellent at sight reading simply because I was never afraid to blag my way through things!

janet41 I suspect that for musicians with a good ear transposing is a very natural skill - before she started to learn piano DD would transpose songs that she plays using a capo on guitar into the correct key on a keyboard without any real theoretical knowledge. She's able to tell you what she's doing now but when she actually does it, it's still mostly by ear (although there is less trial and error now).

She's doing a fair bit of piano composition too and that is also still mainly by ear although occasionally if she's not sure of a particular progression she will stop and think about modes etc.

Re sight reading DD is very good on sax and guitar, rubbish on piano - I think this comes mainly from learning a small volume of harder pieces on piano versus a high volume of technically easier ones on her other instruments .. And of course sight reading piano is cognitively harder because of the need to read and play different lines with each hand.

Hi - first time of posting so please excuse me if I'm not sure of the rules!

My twin girls will be taking their grade three flute exam in a few weeks but I'm not sure what to expect? They have been assessed for their grade one and two within lessons so this will be the first time they have taken an exam. Do they take the exam at school ( they are in year 8) where they have their lessons or will it be somewhere else - we haven't been told it's elsewhere and as I work part time I'm hoping it won't be on a work day if I have to get them there! Anyone know? Btw they take lesson through oxfordshire county music.

Thanks in advance xx

Hi Bicestertwinmum

In my experience music service lessons would be at a local centre, not at the school, and you would be responsible for getting them there. My DC do have some exams at school, but the school runs its on exam session (and don't use music service teachers).

Can you e-mail the teacher and ask?

Good luck to your girls.

Hi all, can I crash your lovely thread with a mild note of panic? Ds has a music assessment this week for a school and we dont know what pieces to pick ( very short notice). Do we go down a grade to a serviceable, not understanding but safe piece (clearly only a 'pass" not a distinction)or do the piece he has been doing for a week, not quite there but shows more promise? I.e. if it doesnt go that well he will have he excuse of it being new and the next grade up?

We just dont know and needed to have decided yesterday!

What year is your son doing an assessment for omnishambles? If it's for a scholarship type audition is there further info on the school's website?

It does vary, but as a guide schools in the London region tend to look for grade 4/5 equivalent experience and ask for 2 contrasting pieces within the child's ability that demonstrate musicality aswell as technical skill, and ask to steer clear of pieces 'too showy' if it overstretches them. He needs to be comfortable with his pieces.

Good luck!

Apologies, missed adding for Y7 entry!

Yes those are the exact terms we have been given for year 7, the trouble is, the ' easy' piece isnt that good either! If I am honest I wish we hadnt done it. I only want a full fee place!

Thanks!

Hello all! Loose congratulations to your DS for passing grade 1!

Dd has now been officially entered for grade 1 piano, or at least we payed the exam fee so she will be entered by her teacher this week. She is now focusing on getting all the 3 pieces at the right standard regarding technique and time and sight reading. Teacher says she is not worried about the aural part as dd has a very good musical ear, she will practice the routine with her so she knows what to expect but not the main focus at the moment.

Scales and broken chords done.

I am a bit stressed as from time to time Dd, who plays now the three pieces from memory, will mess up a random bar and gets frustrated. She then needs to isolate that bar and play it on its own but only after she has a proper tantrum about it.

Hi all,congrats to your DS Loose!

I'm so excited,we've just heard that D's has been selected as 1 of 12 children to accompany our local Youth Orchestra on tour for 6 days to Lake Garda in Italy in July!. We are so thrilled. On e of the reasons he was selected was because its his ambition to get into the Youth Orchestra,he has a way to go as he's only just passed his grade 1 and the requirements are grade 4/preferably grade 5. He only just be 9 by the summer so I'm going to go with him (what a hardship). Has anyone else's kids done a similar thing?

Hi all
After the Xmas term 'off' DS1 (10) will be taking G4 cello in March. Pieces going well but my life the scales! And slurring in four notes. Yuck... Had to get teacher to enter him to sort of force us to tackle them.
dS2 (9) will be doing G3 violin also in March. Scales a little easier there!
Hoping both will do their next piano grade in summer (3 & 2 respectively)
DD (7) is getting there piano wise and might make G1 in summer but not sure.

Oh, happyPiglet I do wish your DS good luck in March! The scales sound very difficult so it's good to have a target. And disorganisedmummy that trip sounds fantastic! well done to your DS! Do you get to go as well?
DS2 is now having a great time playing in the string orchestra and learning his grade 2 piano pieces, probably for this summer. His big brother now has a large xylophone in his bedroom and barely any room to move! He doesn't care but I have a plan to make more space, unfortunately, it also involves a trip to IKEA and some furniture shifting, can't say it fills me with joy! Talking of self-assembly, the xylophone was in a different room but DS was full of confidence he could assemble it and had taken the boxes upstairs before I realised what he was doing!

Also good luck to Fleurdelise, the whole grade 1 piano thing was a draining experience for me but all went well on the day! At one point the only way I could get DS2 to admit he was playing something wrong was to record it!
I can't quite remember the issue but I think he slowed right down for 2 bars! He came out beaming from the exam, the little horror!