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.

DS has switched to Trinity for piano gr.8 and all this talk is making me doubtful ladies

I'm sure it doesn't make any difference at grade 8. It might be why some university courses specifically ask for a theory grade separately, though, because not all students would have it if they switched to Trinity but as far as I know they don't specify particular boards.
By the way, as a fan of Early Music, I love recorders and vaguely remember the last two woodwind finals of Young Musician of the Year were won by recorder players!

Even ABRSM Grade 8s don't necessarily have theory, they can do jazz or practical musicianship instead.

I have no view on which is 'better' (if indeed one is). one of our local festivals will only accept absrm pieces in the grade class's which I thought was odd, esp since there is quite an overlap of pieces between absrm and trinity!

drummersmum its fine.

Deogratias I am ALSO writing as a classical musician and as the parent of a DD who was offered places at RCM, Guildhall and Birmingham conservatoire, and who will be starting at RCM in September. You don;t know what you're talking about. I suggest you stop.

Drummers - it's fine. Don't worry. DD1 Has 2 grade 8s from ABRSM and one from trinity. They are regarded as equal in quality. The conservatoires certainly don't consider one better than the other.

Loose - universities ask for grade 8 theory as an alternative to A level, not as an alternative to playing. DD1 applied to the top universities for music as a backup plan in case she didn't get a conservatoire offer and not one of them - and no conservatoires - required grade 8 theory. And none of them made any distinction between trinity and ABRSM either. As it happens DD1 is taking grade 8 theory this term but that's purely because she wants to, not because she has to.

When the recorder (not a proper orchestral instrument etc) was written about I laughed out loud - point proven. ABRSM is the better board in general. DeoGratias this is utter rubbish. DD has Trinity gr8 distinction recorder (for the reason given by Uhtred) and ABRSM gr8 distinction on what I expect you would see as a 'proper orchestral instrument'. The standard and preparation required was the same for each board. Both 'bits of paper' (which is all they are at the end of the day) are equally well respected by teachers/audition panels/conductors/adjudicators that she comes across. She did not take the Trinity recorder exam because it was easier (it wasn't) or because she didn't want/couldn't do gr 5 theory (because she had done it anyway). I will not start on how angry it makes me when people refer to the recorder as somehow a 'lesser' instrument than others - as I have had a nice day, am in a good mood and do not want to rant - instead I will go and have a glass of wine and Deo please go and listen to someone who plays the recorder well.

Thanks Loose, Raspberry and Uhtred for the reassurance.

Don['t worry - I am sitting here being subjected to very loud amplified electric guitar as we speak.... punishment enough.

I don't think one board is better than the other. I have used both for recorder, and now veer towards Trinity. I generally start off using ABRSM for clarinet, saxophone and flute, but have moved across at Grade 4/5/6 for certain individuals, because of the flexibility in the supporting tests, and for a couple of kids, the theory issue. Goo has done all her recorder exams with Trinity and all her flute with ABRSM, but her new flute teacher wants her to move over to Trinity now. I'm not bothered - I have no preference, she is booked in for Grade 5 Theory with ABRSM this term anyway, and got 34/35 for the questions she completed yesterday. Universities weight both boards equally, and as long as both of my children (who most likely won't study music at university anyway) are learning and happy, I don't care which they do.

I have found this attitude with my DS flute exams. He took G2 with ABRSM and G6 with Trinity because his teacher feels that Trinity is best for his type of playing and got the same distinction - but people still look down on his achievement because he 'obviously can't do scales, theory or the harder pieces and chose the easier exam'. This makes me soooo cross as it wasn't easy, just different requirements. No-one at his orchestras asked him which board he examined with.....just whether he could play the audition pieces. I shall go and have that glass of wine now

DD started on recorder with a teacher who taught and built traditional instruments (her husband made harpsichords for professional musicians, in a massive workshop behind their house). She played in a local baroque ensemble for a while, mostly with adults - a great experience for her. There are many ways of making music, all perfectly valid and equally important.

We don't have any exams imminent although DD is waiting to be given the pieces she will need to prepare for her end-of-year tests at the conservatoire. She is working on a piano duet written by a contemporary composer which is being given its premiere by a group of students from her conservatoire.

She has also been invited to play one of her songs (guitar + voice) live on radio the week after next - she was contacted out of the blue by a presenter who'd listened to one of her youtube videos.

Rapidly I think with theory it depends a lot on your instrument(s) and teachers and personal approach to music, but some students do seem to pick up theory quite intuitively without much formal tuition. DD played recorder then guitar then piano and by the time she had formal theory lessons (at a French music school where a weekly theory class is obligatory for all students) she was able to skip the first six years of theory class. In her case, playing and composing on the guitar, and having studied with a pro jazz guitarist, gave her a huge advantage in terms of understanding things like transposition, chords and rhythm.

Also fleurdelise - this is going back to a comment you made a couple of pages back - my daughter and I saw Amy (the film) at a music festival this summer. Very moving. She was so dreadfully let down by the people who should have had her best interests at heart :(

Rapidly I'm glad she's enjoying it. There's no way they could learn all the required repertoire by heart!

DC came home with bad news from one of their bands tonight They had been given notice to move out of their rehearsal venue, found a new church hall to go into this month. Sadly it was flooded in December. They were hoping to be allowed to stay longer at their existing venue, but have to be out in a month.

They also had their music service band tonight which rehearses in a school that was badly flooded. It's open, but lots of it is drying out and a building site. She said it felt really cold and damp, and there were huge dehumidifiers running in a blocked off bit with masses of stuff drying. So sad.

Scared exactly. DD! Has distinction gr8 with trinity on recorder and 2 distinctions gr8 ABRSM on an orchestral instrument and voice. She has always done trinity for recorder because it is better regarded (mainly because the majority of teachers (especially at conservatoire) did Trinity because ABRSM didn't offer recorder until relatively recently, but also because trinity forces a student to play both C and F instruments from grade 6 on and allows them to do that earlier (both my girls started mixing it up from grade 4) - which gives a much sounder grounding). There is no qualitative difference between her 3 grade 8 distinctions and she had no problems with either her conservatoire auditions or her university offers. Nor has she had any issues with national ensembles.

Rapidly - I remember when I did grade 5 theory I was 10 and by far the youngest person at the centre doing the exam. I'd never done a formal exam of any type and the atmosphere was extremely intimidating. I scraped a pass, having been expected to get full marks or close to that .... But I was convinced I'd failed because I spent the first half hour being terrified and not even looking at the paper. It's very different today. When DD2 took the exam at 11 she was far from the youngest at the exam centre, and they had two rooms, one for younger kids and one for older ones, which made it less intimidating. The learning resources now are much better too (we didn;t have any workbooks when I was a kid, just one official ABRSM textbook). None of my 3 did any theory exams before grade 5, they were all fine. The workbooks are excellent for preparation.

Rapidly - my kids are all at state school :) However provision is incredibly variable, across the sector as a whole. But then, that's the case for private schools too. :(

Too early for me to get involved into the Trinity vs ABRSM discussion but my Dd's teacher teaches piano and violin and she studied at RCM.

She said she used to take exams in one instrument with ABRSM and the other with Trinity and there is no difference from her point of view on the value of each board. She never regretted taking exams with Trinity as she never had a door shut because of it. Also she said each board can be harder than the other at different grades, this I don't know as DD is only taking grade 3 abrsm.

She prefers abrsm now because of the easier admin part (not sure what that means, maybe trinity is more paperwork) and she prefers to have all pupils taking the same board exams.

Mistigri I felt the same reg Amy. I wasn't a big fan, I liked her voice and style but unfortunately I discovered more of her once she died.

Can somebody more experienced clarify the last section of the aural for grade 3 please. Dd's teacher is playing the music and asks DD to identify minor/major and when it changes into minor from major or the other way around.

I have got the abrsm app for aural and this section is asking for only one answer, if it is a minor or major key, it doesn't give examples of changing from minor to major or the other way around.

Which format is in the exam? Does she need to identify if minor/major or does she need to state if it changes from one to the other?

This example is just if is major or minor
gb.abrsm.org/regions/fileadmin/user_upload/auraltests/3D.mp3

However the syllabus which presumably prevails says identify changes which would include changing from major to minor or vice versa

To identify a change in either pitch or rhythm during a phrase played by the examiner. The phrase will be up to four bars long, in a major or minor key. First the examiner will play the key-chord and the tonic and then count in two bars. The examiner will play the phrase twice, making the change in the second playing, after which the candidate should identify the change by describing it, or singing/ clapping. If necessary, the examiner will play both versions of the phrase again (although this will affect the assessment).
[[http://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/aural-tests/]