Autumn Term Music and Musicians Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello everyone!

I know not everyone is in the UK, but my children went back to school today, and I have found that having a new thread every few months works well. The school terms sort-of coincide with music exam sessions here - I will shortly start preparing the pupils that I plan to enter for November/ December.

As there are quite a few people reading/ posting on these threads, I would find it really helpful if people could remind us what children they have, how old they are, and what they play. If you don't mind, of course! Please feel free to ask questions and talk about your own learning too!

I'm Waffle and I'm a teacher of woodwind - mostly recorders these days. I have Mini who is 9 and plays the recorder and flute properly, and a bit of piano, trumpet and ukulele for fun. She is a member of South West Music School and NCO. I also have Baby who is 7 and plays the recorder and cello, and would like to play the piano.

For exams this term, Mini is doing Grade 6 Recorder with Trinity, and Baby is doing Grade 2. Next term, they are doing Theory exams - Grades 5 and 1 respectively. I know Grade 1 is utterly unnecessary, but Mini found it helpful to have a practice run by doing her Grade 3, and I can think of worse ideas than sending Baby in for the first time with her big sister. The next Flute and Cello exams will be Grades 5 and 2, but not yet.

I need to change their names at some point - Mini is not mini any more. She is 4'8" and up to my top lip. Baby is clearly 7, so I need to think again.

icouldbe the ocarina is an instrument of torture in the hands of my DCs. I think I've managed to hide it for now, but I suspect they will find it again. I can't actually get rid of it because it's not mine but I dread its occasional appearances!

Rapidly good luck to your DD. DS2 has had an amazing time as a chorister.

I can't answer your question though, sorry. I can say DS juggles learning three instruments on top of choir, to a decent standard. He passed Grade 6 piano and Grade 4 clarinet this year. Both with distinction, and is currently around Grade 5 on clarinet and trombone. Admittedly he would progress faster with less. HD also manages to play in a music service ensemble as well as school groups They all feed into each other.

Rapidly both my DDs started piano at age 11. DD1 is playing grade 6 standard pieces both classical and jazz syllabus (but she won't take grade6. She waved a happy goodby to piano exams after getting grade 5, which while not a required condition for music degrees in most places is at least implied in some). She has grade 8 distinctions in recorder flute and singing and is doing grade 8ntheory in March. Plus A level music. She found piano a challenge (her dyspraxia is much more of an issue for her if she can see her hands) but ultimately it hasn't held her back. DD2 (who has been learning for slightly more than a year) already has distinctions at grade 1 and 2 and will be doing grade 3 either next term or in the summer (or plans for this year were smashed a bit by her needing an operation which postponed her grade 6 singing exam so now carefully scheduling has been thrown awry - neither her flute nor her piano teacher are wild about her taking 2 exams in one session which is why she normally does singing in tandem with recorders). So there needs to be some negotiation about when she will do her flute exam and when she will do her piano. Singing is this term definitely, in the end it turned out she would have been fine to do it at Xmas but nobody was sure when entries had to go in. Dd2 wants to go as far as she can on piano because she is finding it much easier than DD1 did but she actually has no reason to do it at all, since she doesn't want to do a music degree (well, unless she does MT at a conservatoire) and she doesn't overly want to do music A level either when the time comes (she will do music GCSE though). I think piano does definitely help with the composition aspect of GCSE and A level, though (having said that DS doesn't play piano and he did fine in grade 5 theory and is apparently managing ok at GCSE).

Rapidly I have ( /had lol) 2girls and one boy choristers at a non choir school cathedral. The did lots of music and have continued that at university, though not atudying music. Pm me if I can be any help. It's been a good thing for them on so many ways.

I wrote another post after my earlier one, which I must have lost.

DS is at a non choir school Cathedral so it will be a bit different. Good luck, I'm sure you will enjoy it

Oooooh, very frustrated here…DS's grade 2 trumpet results definitely out (did the exam on 9 Dec), but presumably sent to his school rather than home to us, and of course school will remain closed for the next week or so. Sigh. DS, fortunately, is far more laid back about it all. Separately, I found out via his school report that he will be starting Cello Time Sprinters next term - so presumably heading in to Grade 3 repertoire. On the one hand, his brass teacher seemingly wants to do the exam for each grade, while on the other, his strings teacher doesn't like having her students do any exams at all. The first wants a good 20 minutes of homework completed each day (probably as much to do with building stamina as much as anything else), the second wants five to ten minutes tops. Clearly the school goes with individual teaching styles rather than any particular policy.

Separately, I'm in awe of children (and the parents who ferry them about) who manage to progress with three or four instruments as well as voice. The time dedication, on top of academics / sports / other arts, must be daunting.

Hurrah! Ds2 got 135 for grade 8 violin. He's had a lot to deal with as he had school exams just before it. We knew he'd pass, but he really wanted a distinction. His teacher was very happy and then said.....so a diploma next!

schilke that's great!

Yay for mini-Schilke! (And a quick shudder at the thought of a diploma...)

Wow! Schilke, that's fantastic! Well done to your DS!

Congratulations to schilke junior and commiserations to SuspendedinGaffa for having to wait over Christmas for results.

Brilliant result Schilke!

Icouldbeknitting - thanks. RapidlyOscilating - six weeks….aaaaghh!

Must start learning an instrument myself to obsess over rather than my DS's exam results...

Schilke, wonderful result for start of the year!

We had a very non musical Dec, need to pick things up a little

Congratulations schilke junior

Hurrah hurrah hurrah - according to DS's music teacher he got 128 for G2 trumpet, so a solid merit. Still haven't received formal confirmation but his music teacher was in the know so put me out of my misery.

On a different tack, has anyone here experience of the Worcester music festival? We've had a chat, and DS feels up for experiencing a solo on a public platform, so am trying to find something in the West country that wouldn't overawe a novice.

A-Mx