Summer Term Music, Musicians and Music Exams thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello again everyone! I know not everyone in the UK has gone back to school yet, and some of you are overseas, but term here starts today, so it's time for a new thread. Please post away about your children, your own musical studies or any questions about music exams/ learning an instrument generally. We have a helpful and experienced bunch of people here to answer queries or reassure you.

I have MiniWaffle, who is 9, and BabyWaffle who is 6. Mini has passed Grade 5 Recorder and Grade 4 Flute, and also plays some trumpet, piano and ukulele. Baby has passed Grade 1 Recorder and Initial Cello, and tinkers with the piano (when it's not in the repair shop...)

This term for exams, we have Grade 3 Theory (Mini) - as a warm-up for Grade 5 which will hopefully take place next year - and Grade 1 Cello (Baby). Both in June. I am doing Grade 2 Xylophone for the NCO Parents' Challenge! We have been challenged to learn an instrument unrelated to our proper ones, and I'm really a clarinettist.

Hey morethan, great to hear results!

What Gd 5 songs did she sing?

Hello, how is everybody, enjoying your summer holidays?

Congratulations again for the outstanding results and achievements!

DD is progressing well with her grade 3 piece and also having other pieces and studies on the side. Her music bag is becoming heavier and heavier with about 5 different books to play from plus the scales book.

I love the fact she is not following method books anymore and her teacher is tailoring the teaching to her needs.

We're off to France at the weekend for a couple of weeks break, if the tunnel gets sorted that is.

Have a lovely summer!

Noteven

She did the no 23 (marriage of Figaro) I think.
Unaccompanied was simple gifts.
I could have danced all night was the (c)
and the Schubert's An Silvia.
She got high marks for all of them, she usually does for her pieces.
Exams are not really her strong point tbh but she is young I'm sure the aural will become a bit more consistent in time.
I'm told her school in like boot camp for aural and musicality and we were told it would probably improve dramatically at first before settling into steady progress.

Nice programme - DS did An Sylvia too but not the others!

AB Aural tests are not great tests of musicianship are they? But a necessary hoop to jump through - DS was asked to STOP in his Gd 8 last aural test because he could have talked all day - he's got the hang of it all these days.

As you say, experience and exposure to broad musical education is bound to help.

I can't believe that in a two week gap she was able to go from a fail to distinction, dropping only one mark.
Either the aura tests aren't consistent, dd isn't consistent or a bit of both .

I could be wrong but I think they will probably concentrate on sax and piano for a while and leave singing exams. They all have to sing/ join choir anyway and we are paying for singing as a third instrument as well, so that may be enough for a young voice.

It will be very interesting to see her musical programme as obviously they are determined on an individual basis.
Will let you know in September if you like. I find it really interesting how they do this having only heard and spoken to them briefly.

I think the examiners are not consistent either! Because I enter a lot of kids for exams I notice this sometimes - a whole group will get surprisingly high or low marks for one section of the exam.

Yes! It would be great to know how it goes, no rush for young voices at all though.

DS is singing with his choir tomorrow at the Proms! Heading off to watch

More than really well done to your DD.

noteventhebestdrummer I'm off on a day out tomorrow and meeting up with a lady whose son (possibly sons?) and husband are singing with the Halle. Have a lovely day.

Aural can have quite dramatic differences from week to week - if you just 'click' with a repeated melody you can sometimes get much higher marks than one that doesn't resonate with you. Similarly, with the musical features questions, you can get one that is very easy for you to talk about, or one that you are less familiar with.

It's the section of the exam that I think can be the most surprising in results.

Noteven

Have sent you mail, not sure if it worked though

I never thought some choirs were still performing. Is it the NCO or something similar?
Thankfully we finished around the 16th July and were ready for a nice long break, although dd still has to do some school type of work or they'll wonder what she's done for the past 3 years.

We have been to several Jazz festivals though and got to meet so many big names. I feel as though we were well treated.
Last week LLandudno was amazing and it's taken me until yesterday to come down and dd has a cold after being wet and cold all weekend.

It's Halle Choir and Halle Youth Choir and Trinity Boys I think.

HYC have some separate concerts and fun down here after tonight too - they're watching Matilda tomorrow!

Noteven

dds friend is in HYC and Training HYC, dd was in HCC.
She loved it but as it follows the same formula every year stopped to play in other ensembles.
A great experience though. I hope they like Matilda.

I think the Hallé Youth Ensembles are amazing! As was the Prom last night

Did you get email back Morethan? I loved yours!

Yes, thank you. I sent you one back.
Hope you had a great time.
The ensembles are great, dd loved her time there and has some really good memories. Of course the Victoria Wood production was the highlight for her and what an experience.
She played it so many times, kept freezing the frame and taking photos of bits her mug shot was in we have a nice collection now.
I hope they all enjoyed seeing Matilda.
The person who directs the training choir is in charge of the normal choirs at the school. Our dd gets on with him well, he's lovely.

Well done to all this with results still coming in.

Noteven - wow that must have been special (and Matilda!)

Dd finished an amazing 11 day music course very late last night - parents and children partied well I to the night/morning. Lots of people rushing to get planes and motorways etc this morning, and some children were straight off to other courses.

Wafflenose - how are the purple patches going? Dd found hers mich harder than expected but seems to have got to a sort of relaxed place with them finally.

Hope all those on summer courses have a lot of fun and some rest time too - dd has two weeks of 'nothing' before the nco and I think sleep and trampoline is about the extent of her ambitions. :)

Musicmom1 Glad she had a good time. Both girls have just had an entire week off practice as they've been to stay with my mum, then had a day out once home! Mini is finding some passages really easy, some OK, and hasn't done much on the one or two she thinks are far too hard - she'd rather play the easy ones. Oh well, hopefully she'll sort it out next week!

Ishouldbeweaving - I think he would manage the degree course fine if his playing skills are high and he has grade 7 or 8 theory. There's a lot of work in grade 6 theory which is similar to the beginning of 'A' level. I've taught both GCSE and A level and I find the grade 7 theory stuff similar to my first year honours music degree.

Ahhhh...the proms.... I shall look out for them on TV here. We get some occasionally.

Just a quick question for people in the know, please. We are looking at Trinity piano syllabus, having done everything with Abrsm up to now. I'm really confused because some are "Trinity" and others are "Trinity Guildhall"? They both seem to have exam pieces books? Which one do we need? I'm talking about the one of the two mainstream exam boards. I sort of guess there are 2 separate conservatoires: Trinity Laben and Guildhall...? This all adds to my confusion. Please, could someone help us?

This is the page with the Trinity (College) piano syllabus

www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=1474

The syllabus (including the repertoire list) is on there and there's a shop link at the bottom which is not working for me at the moment.

They were previously "Trinity Guildhall" up to July 2012, after which they rebranded and became Trinity College, London.

Thank you very much Ishouldbe - I managed to find the right book through the online shop from your link. Thanks also for the explanation...

Mini rang in to Classic FM with a request yesterday. She was selected, so was on the radio! 5 minutes of fame.

I think that trumps my husband's request on R3 because he didn't speak. They read out his email probably because it provided some interesting insights into the piece he was nominating for wedding music.

(If you were the groom writing a piece of organ music for your guests to leave to wouldn't it be fun to write it in 11/8 with a bit of 13/8 in the middle?)