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.

Sorry for swapping your boys around, I thought he was a bit old for head chorister but as this is an anti-singing household what do I know? The only person who ever sings is me and that's when there's just me and the dog at home. He is a very appreciative audience, I can't sing but he doesn't mind.

We're not yet into the swing of things, music lessons have started but Saturday morning music centre hasn't.

raspberry congrats to your DS!

DD has been accepted at the conservatoire - she will do piano only (plus obligatory theory) - after 10 days at her new school it was clear that starting classical guitar would be too much on top of a very heavy timetable plus external music lessons. It will be difficult enough to fit in theory as it runs from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on a day when she has lessons until 6pm!

Waiting to hear when she will have her piano lesson and what grade they have assessed her at (as this affects lesson length and hence costs).

Still slightly concerned that she is taking on too much - she has 1 hour of jazz guitar, 30 mins of sax, 1.5 hours of wind ensemble, 2 hours theory and probably 45 mins piano - on top of a busy school timetable and weekly boarding (though she can potentially come home on Wed afternoon).

Great news already coming through this term - congratulations raspberry and misti on your DCs' achievements!

DD is certainly very motivated - she has spent hours on the piano this weekend :) She is learning Nyman's theme from the film "the Piano".

She is petrified of the theory class though - she thinks she will struggle, even though last year she managed to catch up quickly enough (and ended up with the best results in the class) despite having done no prior formal study.

Hello, I'm new to these threads but have read them with great interest in the past.

I'm a former musician now music teacher and DS1 (6) is making great progress with piano - working towards grade 1 and a competition this year (not with me as a teacher, that was a disaster), continuing with drumming and singing lessons and has now requested violin, which he starts in a fortnight.

I thought it would be easy having music in common with my son, but actually he's best left alone / with his teacher.

DS2 is only 22 months but likes to take his turn at the piano after his brother and will happily perform for hours I think he will do well in the future.

Hello Ihateigglepiggle. You might find that your musical relationship improves as your son gets older, my son would argue the point with my husband over every little thing and so my husband's attempts to teach theory were doomed from the start. As my son has got older (he's 15 now) things have smoothed out, DH is less dictatorial and DS is more inclined to listen. They can now play duets without picking fault and arguing about tempo.

At 22 months my son was a percussionist, he'd sit for ages with a big saucepan and a wooden spoon. I always knew where he was and what he was doing while I did whatever it was I didn't want him helping with. It was the silence I needed to worry about.

Icouldbeknitting - thanks for your reassurance! I hope I don't have to wait till he's 15 to start enjoying playing together, but you might be right.

DS1 is really trying to do this independently - choosing a string instrument is a definite 'back off mum' statement as I have no knowledge in this area.

Silence in this house also indicates trouble!

I have no choice but to leave DD to get on with it as she is a much better musician than me. However I am familiar with "dictatorial" and "impatient" in the other direction, as I sometimes need to ask her for help with with my own guitar playing, and she has trouble bringing herself down to my level :-/

We have finally got lessons (almost) sorted. She had theory at the conservatoire on Monday which turned out to be less scary than she expected, and she has her first piano lesson tomorrow. Guitar starts next week, she will be in an adult jazz group this year.

I'm sitting here with a cup of coffee and a feeling of total relief. After three months of sitting on his hands the husband has finally dug some numbers out of his phone and found an accompanist. I'm about to submit an exam entry form for DS so it's all starting to get a bit real. There seemed to be only me worried about the lack of a pianist and although "there's plenty of time yet mum" is true I'd rather know that all the arrangements are in place before I book the exam. My threat of a random selection from musicteachers.co.uk (or whatever it is) was enough to spur my husband into action, I only wish I'd done it sooner. Every time he's taken an exam it's been at a different centre with a different accompanist so we don't have a tame one to call on.

Hello everyone, I've enjoyed reading all your posts on here :-) I have DD1, nearly 9, who has played violin for over a year (private lessons), is about to start group brass lessons (at school) and wants me to teach her piano (which I'm not sure is a good idea!); DS, 7, has played violin for a year exactly and is teaching himself guitar; DD2, nearly 5, hasn't started music lessons yet. I play(ed) piano and DH play(ed) brass.

Progress on the violin seems slow - they are on Fiddle Time Joggers - would love advice about which Fiddle Time book equates to around Grade 1 standard. I should prob ask the teacher but I don't want her to think I'm hung up on grades... As the brass lessons are through school I'm not expecting too much but DH can help her and we just want her to enjoy it as she was keen to have a go.

Miss 8 got her results for her sax exam and was delighted with 139.
I'm delighted that there are no more music exams in 2015 for my two. Stress finished!
I will just lurk on here and read about everyone else's stress:-)

Shakyisles, Congratulation! DS starts JD tomorrow and will not take any exam for few years unless forced by teachers.

DS2 (Y9) now singing alto rather than treble in the choir. Doing Grade 3 clarinet at the end of term.

DD just started secondary school and has joined a choir and wind band. Working towards Grade 3 flute; possibly at Easter?

Shakyisles congrats to Miss 8! On another note, what are you doing up at 5am?

Shakyisles is in NZ!

We have a date through for Mini's NCO audition. She is burying her head in the sand at the moment.

Hi all, very sporadic poster and lurker here.
I play piano and double bass and sing in a choir.
DS1 has just started senior school. He is G4 at cello and taking a bit of a break from grades to consolidate his positions and learn vibrato. He has been asked to join the senior school string ensemble and main orchestra which is usually made up of year 9 upwards! Most of the cello section left year 13 at the end of last year and they suddenly realised they were going to have no section! So really in at the deep end. The orchestra piece has some tenor clef which he has never played! Credit to him he just mimed and got on with it.
He also plays piano but seems to have stalled. He is still murdering the G3 pieces and my hoping it all may 'click' seems a bit forlorn at the mo. Might consider giving it up but he likes the lessons so...
DS2 is 10 and is a G3 violinist and will be taking G4 sometime this year. Again he is being made to play position pieces which he is not wild about! Leads the Junior school orchestra and strings group.
Also plays piano passed G2 in summer. We are working on some theory but only out of my head!
DD is just 8 and is slogging through Piano Time 2. She is also a singer. But not formally just enjoys choir!
Both Ds1 and DD find it hard as both are very sporty and there are certainly issues combining the two. DS1 esp had to fight to get out of the second after school rugby training session of the week so he can go to choir. Which he loves. I also live in fear at every rugby match that he may break fingers or an arm and rule himself out of instruments for a while.
Fitting in practice is tricky TBH. we do it before school and alternate days between instruments. This is why at some point I feel they may have to ditch the second instrument (piano in both cases) which is a shame.

Yup - Friday night here. Hence weird times for music exams. The examiners fly over from the UK several times a year. We do get up at 6am usually.

I'm organising a big arts event tomorrow. Miss 8 is playing sax at it - and most people haven't heard her play for a few years. She isn't playing an exam piece but I'm tempted to ask her to change and play the one she got 30/30 for. The examiner wrote some wonderful stuff about her.

Hi Wafflenose!
It's great to hear how your kids are going on. just winding down this evening after lots of last minute prep.

In NZ. Thanks Waffle.

DD had her first piano lesson with her conservatoire teacher yesterday and loved it. I will find out more when she comes home this evening.

Practice will be an issue this year as she is a weekly boarder. There is a piano she can use at school, and she will have to use it if she wants to keep her conservatoire place. But she can't really take her sax; guitar is quieter, so it might be possible for her to have an instrument in the boarding house though I haven't made enquiries yet. She will do a sax lesson and wind band rehearsals on Friday night and this, plus one weekend practice, will probably be enough as I think she is still in her "comfort zone" (took up sax after 6 years of recorder). I don't yet have a feel for how much work she'll need to do for her jazz guitar class.

How do other people get around lack of practice time for older students?

happypiglet I do occasionally ask for DS to miss school sports, I did it this week because he has a big performance tomorrow. I felt vindicated about putting in the special snowflake letter when I found out that one of his group came out of PE this week with a bashed finger. It's not worth the risk of throwing away three months practice for the whole band because of some clown messing around with a bat. (Table tennis was this week's contact sport)

Mistigri I have stopped moaning (well, nearly stopped) about how little time my son spends practicing since I worked out how much time he spends in ensembles playing (with travel time on top). They can't do everything, they have to find the right balance for them. You could ask the head of house what their expectations are regarding practice and how they plan to facilitate that. There will hopefully be something in place that they haven't had time to explain yet.

Shakeyisles congratulations on the result and the exam free year ahead (that sounds good even if there are only three full months left in the year!)

Congratulations to Shakyisles that sounds like a great result and what bliss to be exam free now!
Music centre begins today so DS2 will be reunited with his cello teacher and lessons are before school, starting next week. Finally got his piano report, everything excellent apart from aural! It's not that he can't sing, it's the level of embarrassment, apparently! I wonder if we should switch to Trinity after grade three...
Ds1 is completely obsessed with bass guitar and appears to have gone from zero to grade 4 since January. I have to nag him to practise flute and am wondering if ensemble playing may be better for him. This morning he's playing bass and percussion, flute lesson was cancelled, aargh!!

Not sure who asked but fiddle time sprinters has two of the grade 3 pieces from the current syllabus if that helps?

jem1980, as RapidlyOscillating said above, grade 1 follows Fiddle Time Joggers (saying that our teacher did another book before grade 1 but I think it is just her particular method).

Icouldbeknitting it's a state lycée (sixth form) so music facilities are limited. There is a grand piano in the library, which they can play when the library is shut (which effectively means that except on Wednesday there is only about 1h of practice time/ day available between the 3-4 boarders who are pianists) - but no suitable rehearsal location for loud instruments. I think she will drop sax after this year tbh - it's just not feasible to continue 3 instruments at this point. Fortunately she does sax in a municipal music school with low fees so I don't feel that it's a huge waste of money.