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.

chauffeurmummy

great nn.
Do you know what pieces she is doing?
I seem to remember Mallow Fling was popular with dd, not sure what grade it was though. Also, Spanish Town

Good luck to your dd, hope it goes well.

Minor panic earlier this week when DD's clarinet developed a glitch. Thankfully good old Packers were able to tweak it and it is fine now all ready for Grade 7 next week.

DD is suffering with hay fever really badly at the moment and we wish that the exam wasn't this session because of it. Something for us to bear in mind when Grade 8 comes along. She will be dosed up on the day so fingers crossed that it doesn't affect her breathing too much. Just one of those things she has to learn to deal with.

Pieces are sounding good and scales have come on a lot over the last couple of weeks so fingers crossed.

Good luck to everyone else!

It must be the week for instrument repair, DS has had a sticky valve and it was caused by one of the valve guides being mysteriously damaged again. They were replaced as part of the service a few months ago. The mystery was solved when teacher said that if you don't get the valve lined up correctly when you've had it out and then impatiently ram it in (because it won't go in because you didn't line it up properly) then you can damage the plastic valve guide. Who knew? I know now (I'm so glad that I get to sit through that lesson) and DS knows I know so that should be the end of that.

So he replaced the guide, put it all back together and then the valve was stuck, really stuck. It just happens that when I ordered them I looked at a video of how to replace them, there's a dimple on it that fits into a hole but there's two holes so you have to get the right one. When I eventually got it apart we found that he'd got it lined up correctly but the significance of the dimple had escaped him and he'd put it on upside down. I don't know why I bother asking "do you know what you are doing?" and "did you watch the video I found?" because he just leaps in with all the boundless confidence of his age. I would hope that the moment when we thought he'd wrecked a £4k instrument with a £3 part stays with him, it's certainly something I'll not forget in a hurry.

Congratulations to those with results, good wishes to those with exams still to come. Truffle your daughter has my deepest sympathy because I've been sneezing non-stop all day.

Thank you Weaving. She says she feels she would like to put cold spoons behind her eyes.

Truffle

That sounds awful, I hope she is ok.
good luck to your dd.

Some brilliant results, well done to all DC.

Ishouldbe, they always know best, don't they!

Panic and extra lessons here. I timed entries assuming the kids would practise. Clearly a different cohort here! .

Hi all.

we went to dd new school yesterday for visit, to see teachers and paperwork etc.
Wow, it is a different world and by the sounds of their personal programme a music boot camp.
It's lovely to see so many different combinations of first, second and third study instrumentalists and realising how organised they have to be.
I don't think they'll be any exams for a while, they sound too busy

morethanpotatoprints thank you for the advice about mouthpieces.

Good luck to the remaining exam students and (even more so) to the teachers

We have DD's music school prize-giving on Friday at which she will play with the wind ensemble (easy pieces she says, no practice needed ... Hmmm) and sing with the Jazz group. Then solo concert at a local music festival next Sunday, at which she is playing a full set of music she has written herself, and finally a guitar concert the following Saturday. The latter is an organisational nightmare as the venue is an hour away, it will run very late, and DS has to be up at the crack of dawn the following day for a cycle race.

How's the labelling going morethanpotatoprints?

We had a contest recently, I have to say that there was a disappointing amount of practice on the run up by the soloist, accompanist and the pair in the duet competition (all of which are the same two people, DS and DH). There was so much frantic last minute activity in the morning that I found an excuse to go out and leave them to it because otherwise I would have trotted out my standard lecture on getting things ready in advance. They delivered on the day and came away with first prize in the two classes they entered and two £25 cheques.

DD2 has grade 5 theory next weekend. I'm far from convinced she is ready. And then grade 5 flute in July (calmer about that, she's well above standard). Tomorrow is the recital for all the exam passers in the May session at school, so both DD1 and DD2 are playing. I gently suggested that DD2 might want to remind herself of the piano piece she is playing otherwise there might be a very real sense of 'and she got distinction for that!?!?!' In the room! DD1 will be ok (I should jolly well hope).

Finally got back into practice today following the upset of the damaged clarinet, pieces all sounding good and without asking there was a good half hour of sight reading practice!

We also have two concert coming up, one in our local park which should be fun and one as part of a county arts performance which will be dd's first time performing in a theatre. It's also going to be a long evening, the day after her exam as they have to be there at 4pm for a 7pm performance!

Mini has been waaay too busy lately, and is exhausted. We didn't plan it this way, but last weekend she had NCO on Saturday and SWMS on Sunday, then this weekend she's had her SWMS re-audition and a party. She did a final Theory paper on her own today and got 94%, despite losing one mark for leaving the last note off a scale (silly!) and two for not knowing one of the Italian words yet. We went swimming as a reward for her hard work. I wanted her to rest tonight, but she is insisting on going to folk group with me and her sister. Oh well!

I am hoping she can complete the Grade 4 and 5 books by about April, to allow a couple of months to learn the rest of the words (about another 80) and do some past papers, but I've just bought the books, and they're so thick that I'm not sure that's feasible, hmm. School tends to get in the way! It would be good to aim for the Grade 5 in June 2016 though, because that will be well away from any practical exams, I think.

Hope everyone else's preparation is going well for this term. My practical exams start this week - 11 Recorders on Wednesday, and my Xylophone exam. Baby has Grade 1 Cello on Thursday and is fine.

ishouldbeweaving

I too have a standard lecture for being well prepared that also falls on deaf ears.
this had me running up to Greenwoods for a bow tie that dh had lost, the other day. this is 3o mins before he was due to leave.
He found it when he got to the theatre, so had two. oh how we didn't laugh
The labelling is going slowly, even the mattress protector needs to be done, so will continue to do them whilst i watch tv. Even I would get fed up if I had to do them all at once, but over a few months, it's not so bad.

Congratulations on the contest and competition thats fantastic. I think it's great experience for the dc.
We don't have any really round here, just the annual one for everybody, and dd missed the first rounds as they were yesterday. So she said as soon as she starts school she is preparing for Young Musician, no harm in dreaming, I suppose.

DS has an amazingly wonderful 143 for Grade 8 Singing :)
He's waited a while for his voice to settle and sang songs that he loves and that all helped him perform at his very best on the day!

Narvine g5 theory next sat for dd too; we go from a safe merit to below the pass mark. Partly it is confidence - composing is now much better; before she was avoiding it. But She has learnt a lot, and worked harder than she usually does for exams, and it helps to play in every clef and to be fairly used to transposition. But could def go either way on the day.

waffle - I don't know any of our g5 cohort who know all the terms reliably. I have been helping dd find ways to work out any that come up that she can't recall.

Otherwise first big summer concert was today; think we have 7 or so more before summer hols and NCO. Auditioned for a childrens choir yesterday. Have cancelled singing lessons for autumn term - she has enough on, will sing in a good school choir, and we really need to give some focus on yr 5 school work.

Good luck for all the exams and performances. I suspect everyone needs their summer break ( ESP the parents!)

dd1 has grade 2 horn exam this THursday and only this evening at 9pm she decided to practise for the first time this weekend. Hm, scales didn't go to well. Oh, and she didn't finish her homework either, grrr. Not sure what she has done this weekend (well, she did win some gold medals swimming yesterday...)

Noteven - wow wonderful result for you ds; must be a beautiful singer.

Good luck motherwithaheadache - swimming muscles mean strong arms for playing so i am sure those medals count as music practice :)

noteventhebestdrummer wow! That is a fantastic result, well done to your DS!
motherwithheadache my sympathies, DS2 has his piano exam next month and everything is still shaky at the moment! He is practising every day but I have to make him go over the bits he finds difficult, otherwise he tends to just try and thump his way past them! Cue confident phrase followed by awful pause followed by renewed confident playing, followed by second worrying pause. Still I reckon if we can iron those out he can pass it.
wafflenose good luck with the xylophone! And with Baby's cello exam, I am sure you are both going to sail through!
DS1 is suffering from yet another growth spurt at the moment which leads to him coming over all tired and feeble and draping himself over the sofa whenever music practice is mentioned! Or revision. Roll on the summer hols!

Noteven

Terrific result for your ds, you should be very proud.

Well done, Noteven's DS! Amazing mark.

Thanks, Loose. I am ready, but just sooo tired because it's come on top of end of term paperwork, reports, millions of music medals, lots of NCO and SWMS stuff. Still, I have managed to practise quite a bit, and had my 2nd and last lesson today. Baby is OK I think.

Hello All. Does any one know from when the new violin syllabus applies? So if you buy the 2016 syllabus in July can you use the pieces in Autumn 2015 or do you need to wait until 2016?

My understanding is that first session for exam entry is Winter 2016, hopefully a teacher on here will verify...

Apologies, that's supposed to be 'Spring' term (from Jan 2016)!

Hi spring 2016