New Year Music and Musicians Thread

[Wafflenose]

Morning all, and Happy New Year. I decided it was time for a new music thread too. I really enjoy hearing about what everyone (and their DCs) are up to each term, and it's great to hear from new posters too.

I have two DDs. Goo (10) - the child previously known as MiniWaffle. She's not very mini any more... she's 4'10" and catching up with me. Anyway, she plays the recorder, flute, piccolo and a bit of piano when it occurs to her. She is doing Grade 5 Theory and possibly Grade 5 Flute (if the new teacher deems her ready) this term. Next recorder exam will be Grade 7, but possibly not for about 18 months! Am hoping the new flute teacher will also do a bit of piano with her... we'll see.

And Rara (7) - previously known as BabyWaffle - plays the recorder and cello. I was thinking of putting her in for Grade 1 Theory, but she's not keen, so we'll wait. She is in the blissfully calm position of no exams this term - yay!

We all have the local music festival next month. I think Goo is doing 11 Classes, and Rara about 7 (plus possibly helping with some percussion parts). I have 27 groups, pairs and individuals entered, so am going to be busy for the next month or so.

Hope it goes well for them both raspberry

Two G8s in a week? My cheque book is moaning in sympathy.

Good luck with the grade 8 exams raspberry!

Green I have the black shiny U1 and it doesn't really match the colour in the room, still admired though. Not sure what other colours the Yamahas come in, the most popular seems to be shiny black bloody hard to keep it shiny though.

I love shiny black too, I need to see how shiny it is, thinking of mahogany too

Icouldbe I had to pay in December too! I refused to let DS2 fo Grade 5 clarinet this session, he's going straight to Grade 6.

Thanks for all the good wishes.

DS1 has passed with Merit, and is very happy. He got Merit for Grade 8 trombone last year. That will certainly be the last Exam I am required to pay for as he his hopefully off to Uni in Sept, it is a nice happy ending for his school music. He's looking forward to a final term of lessons just enjoying playing.

We have shiny black too!

Two gr 8 - oo oh, Raspebrry , let me know the secret of a calm household. The closing date for the first session has been and gone and it looks like both of my two will be sitting theirs at the same time. I've already talked to my elder child and the possibility that younger sister may sit here before she does to try and head off a major problem. She says it's okay and I constantly reiterate that they play different instruments that requires different things.

Do your children get on well? Is there any else I could do to help the home life during the run up?

Good luck to the raspberries!

Haha ShakyIsles. This is just the start, they have GCSEs and A levels between them this year!

They do get on well, but DS is calm and laid back, DD is the opposite. Don't know how I would cope with 2 DDs.

DD is still a year younger than DS1s first Grade 8, but that's never been an issue.

raspberry I have 2 DDs a year apart both very different but with similar interests. It can be "challenging"

Very well done on the grade 8s. Hoping to get there with DD1 by the end of school as she is proving to be a bit (by which I mean massively) target driven. Her sister not so much which is a good and a bad thing.

We have a shiny black Reid-Sohn. Non musical DH got the casting vote on aesthetics. It looks great despite not having been polished in 10 years.

raspberry this is the spray I discovered that helps keeping the piano shiny, I thought I'd share as it took me a while to find it, in fact it was Dd's teacher telling me about it

I have 6 years gap between DS and DD, they adore each other but can also argue really bad. Ds is non musical, tried piano and gave up 2 months later.

I'll have GCSEs and 11+ at the same time next year so I'll probably ask for advice on how to remain sane from you folks.

Mine are only a year and a half apart (13 and 14) though as I have girl and boy in that order, they look and behave as if the gap were more like 6 years!! Fortunately they don't share any interests. DS dabbles with the synth and GarageBand a bit, but he's not really musical. He likes programming, BMX biking and juggling - hard to think of three activities for which his sister has less aptitude! It makes handling sibling envy much simpler.

Luckily, exams here are three rather than two years apart, so we have DS's school leaving diploma in June next year (in the equivalent of Y10), and DD's baccalaureat in 2018.

I have piano envy now - all this talk of shiny black pianos! DD still plays an old Yamaha digital piano. We do have a lot of guitars, though, one of which (DD's Taylor cutaway acoustic) is very beautiful and shiny ;)

Fleur: thank you for sharing, now I think I only want a shiny black and I dont mind to polish it even daily ha ha ha, cant wait to join the shiny black team.

We need to rehair the violin bow too, its seriously in need of rehairing. That task is much smaller however I am also looking forward to it, the local music shop is lovely full of the wonderful "toys"!

Some violin today and it wasnt that out of tune so I am now a little relaxed

Thanks Fleur. So far I've just damp dusted, which I tend to do mostly anyway throughout the house, but I think it might benefit from an occasional polish too.

Misti your DS sounds similar to mine, mine is interested in BMXing, skateboarding, technology. He'll be 15 in the summer.

Green happy shopping! I have to say I am a bit dissapointed we found our piano so quick and shortened the shopping experience.

raspberry that is what I was doing, just dusting but then I admired Dd's piano teacher's piano and complained ours has finger marks that don't seem to disappear easy. The polish above (Amazon) works wonders.

I never dust our piano I'm really bad and it needs tuning before summer holidays.
Good job nobody needs it in tune.
Dh is doing arrangements atm, paper everywhere, some for big band, some for quartet, some 12 piece.

Dd has asked me again for some song ideas, me and her trail youtube, forums, and can't find what she is looking for, I don't think it exists.
I need a competition piece for voice that is showy so not the technical stuff (although this is important), but not modern Theatre that will contrast into the woods medley, opera or classical but not the biggie arias obviously.
Doesn't need to be on the syllabus but at same level as 6-8
All suggestions on a post card because I've failed miserably.

What about a lovely Fauré song?

Mine are 3 1/4 years apart, both like music and computers but elder is dreamy and absent minded and younger is practical and independent. dS2 is emphatic that DS1 must not learn piano as he might overtake him, although I think that's a bit paranoid! Luckily DS1 is obsessed with guitars and percussion.
On the subject of instrument shopping, can anyone recommend a good student 3/4 model and a place in London or nearby that I could get one second hand? When I wasn't looking for 3/4 size I saw quite a few private adverts. Now I want to get one, they've gone. I think stentor II is good but if there's any other advice it will be gratefully received. My budget is about £450 - I'll spend more on the full size. At the moment DS2 looks like a spider monkey wrapped around a 1/2 size!

That's a 3/4 cello, I mean - could have been any stringed instrument from my post!!

Loose I think stringers have some good ones at that price; we just moved to full size and did splurge somewhat and the sound quality is a real step up (as long as DD doesn't play on the finger board!!). We only stayed on 3/4 for 12months to our surprise as DD (10) had a growth spurt and has long back/limbs. So I am glad we didn't go the more expensive route earlier. We also looked at stentor II and they seemed equally good at 3/4 size.

Good luck to your kids Raspberry.. Am very impressed.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a digital piano? Dd plays an old keyboard at home and keyboard /piano at school but it isn't ideal as our keyboard is pretty basic. We can't fit a piano into our house (plus I can't afford one).
We've seen a Yamaha that looks good but tbh I have no idea and wondered if anyone could give me tips

trout we did a rent to buy when DD started piano lessons 2 and a half years ago. Again, Yamahas seem to be the most popular as the quality seems to be quite high, Arius is a really good model. The way it worked for us: we rented the instrument for 6 months and after this period we had the option to purchase the instrument while the first 6 months rent would be taken into account as part of the payment, continue renting or return the instrument.

There are quite a few music shops doing this scheme.

Many thanks! I'll check out Stringers, for sure. DS2 is tall for age 11 so am a bit worried now about growth spurts! I think current rental is a stentor student 1/2 size.