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.

Just reporting back on the insurance question if anyone is interested. Thanks for all the advice on here.

I called our current general insurers, who confirmed that the instruments are only covered as personal possessions outside of the house whilst they're with us or out of sight in a locked car. That's fine for the instruments belonging to DH and I, but not enough for the 2 that DD1 takes to school, so I'm going to look into a specialist policy.

DD1 is now playing bassoon in the school junior orchestra, having been learning since September !

Dd had her first experience of playing in a group and was not impressed!

It is a wind/brass band for beginners to grade 2 standard. She is a beginner and found it very fast paced, she didn't know all the notes played and wasn't able to keep up, particularly towards the end when she was running out of puff.

The attitude of the people running it seemed excellent, very inclusive, no question of it being a problem that she couldn't keep up etc. There were certainly other children there who were similar. Unfortunately she is a bit of a perfectionist and can't understand that she is not expected to effectively sight read grade 2 level music alongside people who have playing those pieces for months!

Any ideas for encouraging her to return as I think she will really enjoy it if she persists.

Please tell her that everyone finds their first ensemble rehearsal hard! They really do. I remember watching the music go by for a few weeks, every time I attended a new group, or moved up. My DD1 had her first NCO rehearsal at the weekend, and was in tears during the sectional. She told the tutor it was too hard, and was moved on to Flute 2 (slightly easier part) and encouraged to just do what she could. She was the youngest child in the wind and brass section of the South Westerlies and nobody expected her to manage it all!

I think she found it particularly tough, coming from the village primary where she has been the best musician in the school since achieving Grade 4 in Year 2, and really playing a leading role in the orchestra... to a situation where she is one of the youngest and worst! Ensemble playing is a steep learning curve, but has so many benefits with sight reading and rhythm.

Thank you Loose, I do find the grade 1 experience a bit draining, dd is practising ok and still enjoys it, for some reason she loves repetition but I for one feel a bit sick of the three pieces TBH.

She still has half of one of the pieces to put hands together and she is doing really well with it but when she gets frustrated she decides she'd rather play one of the pieces she knows well (Minuet in G) and keeps playing it until I feel like pulling my hair out.

TBH I can't wait until it is all over and she can progress with new pieces and build up more repertoire.

I am happy though that she started the pieces beginning of November so she will work on them for about 5 months in total until exam date (while initially she also did a few more on the side from her method book, it is only now that the teacher only concentrates on the three for grade 1) as my friend's dd worked on the grade 1 pieces for 9 months, I think I would go crazy if that would be us.

IS it just me that feels a bit like exams are wasting time, these 5 months she could have been progressing and learning new things? Not that she isn't learning anything at all but I feel all the good energy and practice goes on these 3 pieces rather than learning new skills. I guess she is learning to prepare pieces at a higher standard...

Woolleybear, we had a wobble this time last year after the first rehearsal with County. It was exactly the same, they'd seen the pieces for months and the new players parachuted right in to sightreading. DS is older so I could be hard hearted and tell him that he had to stick with it until the next round of auditions, it turned out that it was just the first rehearsal that was tricky and after that it was fine.

Can you relate it to another situation that she's familiar with? It's no different to starting guides/brownies/a new school - you are new and feel out of place and it seems that everyone else has been there forever. It's all strange and difficult at the start and then you wonder what all the fuss was about. There has to be a settling in period for everything that's new, it will all be well by the end of term. It is worth sticking with because it will be very good for her playing, she'll learn those notes that she doesn't know and she'll find that one day she has enough puff to see her to the end of rehearsal.

Fleurdelise - we never had that focus on the three pieces, on the run up to an exam he'd be playing lots of different pieces, some from the list, some not and the final three would eventually emerge close to the date. We never had a five month lead in to an exam though so maybe that's the difference.

More generally - there's no school for us today because of the snow so it's half an hour practice on both instruments, a G5 theory paper and all the homework in his planner. He thought he was having a day off - ha!

Ishouldbewaving she did different pieces as well as the grade 1 ones until December before we had the brake for Christmas. Now though she is concentrating on the work she needs to do on the three pieces, sight reading, aural and testing the scales and broken chords now and then. Her teacher didn't confirm she will only do those with her however having just 30 min lessons there doesn't seem to be time to work on non exam related topics. At least it didn't happen in the last two lessons this year.

Which is fine as dd doesn't seem to mind improving the three pieces (she likes routine and repetition) and I would rather have her 100% confident in the exam being her first one.

It's just that talking to my friend also it seems that when exams are taking over progress slows down and the main focus is on the same 3 pieces. I guess she is learning to get repertoire up to performance standard rather than just good enough. And she is also working on sight reading which can only be a good thing.

Hello all, very pleased to report that my 12yo ds came home from his first theory lesson buzzing. His teacher says he should be able to do GR5 theory in the summer. But we are in no rush. He has several friends in the class and really likes the teacher so cross fingers he stays keen. I explained to his teacher that I am completely non-musical so unable to help much, but the teacher said it wasn't a problem, just keep nodding and smiling

He has also joined a flute ensemble, he seemed a little less keen on that (mostly girls!) but I am hoping that his enthusiasm will build over time. Maybe as his hormones kick in!

My 7yo dd is signed up for GR1 recorder in March - bless her, I fear she'll be a nervous wreck. I haven't actually told her yet, she thinks it's "in the summer"....

Hi Waffle hope your DD hasn't been put off; we got the music for the London regionals this weekend and there are some quite pacey pieces so I think DD is going to have quite a challenging time! Last year it all settled down very quickly (although the pieces look a little harder and dd hasn't played in an orchestra on the clarinet).

how is the festival going?

Fleur - not sure this is the place to admit it but I feel a little like you about exams. DD1 has so far not chosen to do any grades on her clarinet - the music service here have 'stages' you can do instead where you are assessed by your teacher, so you know what level you're playing at, but without the stress and expense of exams. She's working on her stage 4 at the moment, and I'm thinking (although she doesn't know this) that maybe Grade 5 would be one to do when we get to that point. Although exams are very useful for certain things, IMHO you don't need to do every one, and they should very much be seen as optional. My stepfather, who examines for the ABRSM, would disagree though !

fleurdelise I feel your pain! There are advantages to the grade 1 exam though. It's different to the usual practice of learning a piece to an OK level and then just moving on. The benefit of the exam is that the candidate not only learns a piece but works on refining it as much as they possibly can. And the exam is the incentive to keep working on scales and sight reading. I think what happens after the exam is important, though. There should be a break to play other pieces before working for another grade. DS1 always has a term of repertoire after finishing a grade on his flute and I think that's healthy.

I think I am happy for her to take the exam and I am sure she is also due to peer pressure. She has a couple of friends that have taken grade 1 already (they did start earlier than her though) and she can't wait to tell them she is grade 1 also. I heard one of them teasing her about it and trying to tell her how much better she is than her because she is now grade 1.

Dd's teacher is great and she doesn't like flying through grades, already told me that she always works on other pieces (to teach her stuff) until she is ready for the grade exam. In fact dd's teacher can't stand the idea of kids only doing exam pieces so I guess that is why I am so happy with her. She is doing just exam pieces in last few lessons though because it kind of was a last minute decision to put her in for March, when she started the pieces initially she thought it will be July but first lesson this year she decided she can do it in March with a bit of extra work.

Bramshott I agree that not all exams need taking so we will see how she feels about the first one, if she likes it she can take them all if she wants, if not we can do every other one.

Loose I agree, she is learning now to bring a piece close to perfection (her version of perfection of course) which can only be positive.

Shedding how old is your dd? I guess I would be pretty unhappy if after gr 1 the teacher would move straight into the next grade. Unless she would somehow convince me that she is ready somehow because of previous skills which I would doubt very much as I have seen the gr 2 pieces and my daughter will be nowhere near that level in March (just after her gr1 exam).

Dd finds it hard to break down music bar by bar also if she finds it hard. The last piece that she is putting hands together now she knows it quite well except one bar that is more difficult and she slows right down and takes ages until she figures it out. Tonight we had a bit of a clash about it because I want her to practice just that bar until she gets it to the same speed as the rest of the piece but she would rather start the whole piece again each time and then slow down again when she gets to that bar. I guess she'll learn, she's only 7.

Good luck with the pieces Shedding. I think we will go through the same thing once the exam will be over and dd will find it hard initially to go back to the frustration of learning something new from scratch. She loves the fact that she is now able to play two of her pieces without the music score as she memorised them.

Interesting discussion - dd's teachers introduce new pieces through the grade exam prep so often she is already working at the grade ahead before she takes the exam she is aiming for. It keeps her interest and progress and means the exam pieces benefit from the higher grade techniques. The exam is then just part of the 'process' not some sort of milestone.

On the piano, dd decided to give up lessons just before she had even taken g1. 8monyhs later she decided to have a lesson and went straight in sight reading g2 pieces easily. Interesting that her progression has been the same without lessons and practice - I think it is prob thst things make sense much more quickly now she is a little older. But I hadn't anticipated a third instrument in our schedule this year....

My DCs find it really hard to focus just on the bars that need work in practice and tbh, so do I when I'm learning a new piece. DS2 's piano teacher is really precise in the practice notes so if he insists on playing the whole piece (like he usually does) I just wait and then tell him to do what his teacher said! I am more 'hands on' with piano practice because I know more about it. With cello, I am very much just the audience!
Incidentally, we are making slow progress with the aural nightmare, DS2 lost 3 marks in the cello G1 aural section but has progressed from wildly inaccurate to approximate in pitch and he had a streaming cold when he went into the exam! I think getting him to sing the scales as he plays them clawed back a mark and I wish I had thought to do it sooner, as it overcame his Hangup about singing. His teacher is going to do some more work with him as she noticed he is sometimes spot on with his singing and other times not! But it is moving in the right direction! And his pitching when he plays is really good so he is hearing the notes (he is not allowed to look at his fingers while he's playing!)

Entries in, I hope -

One piano Prep Test (ABRSM)

Two Trinity Initials (piano)

and a grade 2 Trinity piano who didn't know his third piece at all until yesterday, then learnt it in 15min (I didn't let him choose, just picked one I knew was easy to put together). He didn't do grade 1 but is really at the level if only he can buck up his ideas and practise.

We're also working for two silvers and one gold medal for violin, but they may take until next term for the ensemble and options to come together well.

Some of my Prep-Test-last-year girls aren't anywhere near grade-1-next-term and some are, so we'll see how that goes. It varies a bit with personality and age and how much they actually, you know, practise. Thinking of children I see in school time whose parents don't seem to encourage the routine quite so much. They are all, however, working on scales and sightreading at the moment. :)

Thanks for the reminder JMR - I'm just checking that someone did actually enter DS for G5 theory because when I mentioned it before his lesson earlier this week there was a distinct lack of clarity over whether he'd been entered or not.

I can't bear the thought of more months of G5, he must have done every past paper that there is.

DD entered for G5 AB piano this session, no exams scheduled on violin as audition prep for school entrance auditions has been the main focus...nearly over thankfully!

Good luck to those sitting G5 theory this session, it's made a big difference since DD sat last March re confidence and general music understanding, especially at school.

Meanwhile... I am playing in the Snowman next week. With the composer conducting. Okay, just a local thing, but kind of cool. Two concerts, one full-length in the evening and a shorter, kid-friendly matinee with the film on the big screen.

Huge fee paid and dd2 entered for grade 6 piano.. Goodness knows how it'll go. At the moment, badly! Apparently it's the last time she can enter with these pieces though.

She is doing gcses so I'm not sure why she's doing this as well....piano teacher v exam orientated though.

Newbie here.
Hello all. It's refreshing to see a community of talented budding musicians. I'm new to mumsnet and I'm wondering if these discussion boards are nationwide or if they relate to a particular local area?

Mumsnet does have local pages - there's a tab at the top right of the page for "find your local mumsnet". The main sections (like this one) are not just nationwide but have a global coverage.

Got to cut and run - just seen the time and we need to leave for music centre in 15 minutes. Someone (me) isn't dressed yet...