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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

Spring/ Summer Music and Musicians Thread

981 replies

Wafflenose · 10/04/2016 11:25

My children go back to school tomorrow, and it's my birthday this week, so it must be properly spring in the UK now, and time for a new thread! Please jump right in by telling us about your DCs' learning (or your own), or by asking any music/ music exam related questions you like. We have lots of experienced music parents and teachers on here, as well as lots of new ones.

I am a music teacher, and mum to Goo (10) and Rara (7). Goo started the recorder and flute when she was tiny (age 3 and 6 respectively), has recently added piccolo, but not very well yet, and is starting piano lessons in a couple of weeks. She has no exams this term, but will probably do Grade 6 Flute in the Autumn and Grade 8 Recorder next Spring. She plays in her school orchestra and recorder groups, South West Music School and NCO, and has her first concert with County Wind Band tonight, after a trial course. She hasn't auditioned to become a member yet, and might not for a few years yet, due to age and time factors.

Rara isn't so musically inclined - she prefers to read and draw, and is also very physically active. However, she is due to take her Grade 2 Cello exam this term, and Grade 3 Recorder in the Autumn - she's currently getting to grips with the treble and loving it!

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Icouldbeknitting · 28/04/2016 20:27

exampanic that gives you a bit of incentive for practising then. She does know that you won't be in the room for all of the exam - just the two accompanied pieces? I'd still find the name and number of the centre accompanist, just in case you suddenly come down with a severe case of a bone in your arm or something.

exampanic · 28/04/2016 21:30

Icouldbeknitting, yes she knows it's just for the 2 pieces. She has done grade 1 and 2 piano before, when I had to take her to the same centre. So she knows about the routine...

Can't wait till she starts second school. now more hassle of taking her for lessons or exams (well, that is strictly speaking not true, as still ended up taking dc1 for rockschool exam, which wasn't done in school, and dc2 for piano exam when she needed an extra term to practise but couldn't wait till school had another exam session as the syllabus would have expired....).

Original poster
Wafflenose · 29/04/2016 09:03

My two were in a big community concert at the local secondary school last night, along with the other feeder schools, and various ensembles from the secondary. It's such a good school for music. The girls got to bed at 10pm, and tonight might be similarly late, as we're going to see Sir James Galway!

Goo is going through a horrible, awful preteen phase. She's always been willful and argumentative, but has taken it to a new level recently. She will NOT take no for an answer, and I never back down, so we end up shouting at each other. She is also rude, and brave, not knowing when it would be wise to stop pushing it, aargh! We fell out last night and she was sooo awful to me... and then she started playing the flute, like an absolute angel!!

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Pradaqueen · 29/04/2016 16:37

Exam panic, I usually get Miniprada to do a rehearsal about 6 weeks before with her accompanist then I record the accompanist playing only at the speed she wants on the iPad which she then uses to practice with. Might be worth trying? Good luck!

NeverEverAnythingEver · 29/04/2016 16:40

I was told that ABRSM has some app that lets you download accompanying tracks and play them at different speed.

Or something.

Original poster
Wafflenose · 30/04/2016 08:26

Thanks for all your help with Goo, everyone. In the end, I spoke to her mentor for advice. He felt the same as me - it's fast, unnecessary etc, but fine if she wants to go ahead. I shared with him the piece of advice that resonated most with me, from Icould : "If teacher is keen and she's keen then it's a different matter but if you're going to have to push it along then life's too short for that." - so true! We decided to leave it until her lesson and see how keen they both were then, while making it clear that I would not be standing over her making her practise - she is going to have to get on with it, because I have 7 exam candidates of my own, plus 15 Music Medals and playing in a show this term. Anyway, the teacher thought she had done astonishingly well in her 3 x 45 minute practices this week, has helped her choose her third piece, and set her off the last set of scales. Goo seemed to be able to just pluck these out of the air, including F# major and Bb melodic minor (shudder) - thanks, theory! She has done all the aural before, and her sight reading is good. So against my better judgement and experience, she's doing her Grade 6 this term. The next steps will be telling - I want her to slow down and do some technical work etc - so I might have to put my foot down. It was clear, though, that she is very ready - I think she was probably way beyond Grade 5 when she went to the new teacher after Christmas.

I now have to try and balance this with the fact Rara ISN'T doing her exam as planned, basically because she threw a (silent) strop about something. It's a maturity issue, not a musical one, but her cello body language is also saying "I can't do this" and "I'm not feeling confident", so her teacher is working on that instead. Never mind, Rara has her sights on her Gold Music Medal for recorder this weekend, and Grade 3 (including a treble piece) at Christmas.

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LooseAtTheSeams · 30/04/2016 09:43

Waffle Good luck to Rara with her music medal, hope she has a great time! I wouldn't worry about the cello exam. she is still very young.
It sounds as though Goo is more than ready - the scales knowledge is impressive!it sounds like you've had your hands full recently with the girls' music activities and all your students - I do hope things calm down a lot for you in the Summer holidays and you can relax then. Wine
Slightly shorter Saturday music centre this morning. Poor DS2 has a cold and sore throat. DS1 was sick last couple of days but as he managed to spend quite a bit of time on the computer with his friends last night I think he can force himself to play!

Fleurdelise · 30/04/2016 10:57

Waffle good to hear you've made a decision. Good luck to both Goo and Rara!

We had the usual lessons, theory and sight reading yesterday and pieces today. Her teacher is doing the right thing by accelerating theory learning and playing but I do wonder if DD will shut down soon as it became very serious lately. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

exampanic · 30/04/2016 17:22

Dd2 had her first piano lesson in 5 weeks. She is envious of you with 1 or 2 lessons a week.
She has also tried out her new treble recorder even though she likes my old one better than her new , both Yamaha's...
But maybe we should hold off treble till we have done her soprano exam...

se22mother · 30/04/2016 18:16

Feeling a little emotional that 3 years and over two Suzuki books later dd is finally giving up the Suzuki repetitive concentrate on her grade 3 violin. Suzuki gave her an initial love of music and confidence in playing in public however for various reasons that would out me in rl we must now focus on the abrsm syllabus. Mixed emotions.

SuspendedinGaffa · 30/04/2016 19:20

Exampanic, might be worth looking at this website to find someone as back up to you should you find it's all too much for you and / or your daughter changes her mind about you having to do it: www.pianoaccompanists.com I have just had to hire someone to accompany DS in an upcoming festival and G3 Trinity exam (trumpet) and found his details here (fortunately, the accompanist I've booked has accompanied my son a few times at school so I knew who I was searching for). Very best of luck to you both!

exampanic · 01/05/2016 01:30

Thanks suspended, got a bit confused initially with the USA addresses. Anyway, as we have always played for fun without formal lessons (unlike piano)she just sees it as some more fun to go to the exam together. Don't think she would be bothered going without me. In fact, her third piece she only saw and played few days ago...

lemanitoba · 02/05/2016 19:57

Dd was at a music competition the other day, and the child playing after her was 11 and had recently passed her diploma with distinction. That was in one of her 5 instruments. She was playing a different instrument in the competition. Apparently at age 8 she already had grade 8 in 2 instruments.
At that stage we graciously accepted that dd would not be winning the competition!!

NeverEverAnythingEver · 02/05/2016 21:16
Shock
Original poster
Wafflenose · 02/05/2016 21:23

I think I know her, lemanitoba! If it's the same girl, she cleaned up at our festival, and my DD was the only person who beat her (only in one class, mind!) all week. Diploma girl played a harder piece, but much to my surprise, they preferred Goo's performance. Girl went on to beat me too... and all of my other students (and everyone else's!)

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Fleurdelise · 03/05/2016 07:54

I have to say I find it hard to understand how can an 8 yo be grade 8 in an instrument. I can understand maybe the playing but what about theory? I can't imagine my DD would have been able to pass theory at 6 or 7.

So I am impressed when I hear about DCs grade 7-8 so early in their music development.

lemanitoba · 03/05/2016 08:44

I was also surprised that an 11 year old could do all the written and viva voce part of the diploma so successfully. And apparently she wasn't hot-housed as a young child and is the only really musical person in her family.
There's always the debate about natural talent versus hard work, but sometimes the natural talent thing is too obvious to be able to discount it.
My dd has more than her fair share of natural talent, but could do with a dollop of hard work to go with it!

Fleurdelise · 03/05/2016 09:16

I don't think many parents would admit to hot-housing their DCs but I agree, no amount of hard work would take you that far without natural talent.

I could probably just about hot-house DD into being grade 8 by 10-11 but that would seriously affect her academic work, I can't imagine I could do both.

I fact this is the question, I wonder how are the highly achieving musical DCs (the ones with grade 8 by 8 years of age) from an academic point of view?

Is it possible to have grade 8 by 8yo, music theory exam completed and be a high academic achiever?

Not saying is impossible, just curious if you can do both as I think it could be a huge risk to concentrate on one area only as such an early age.

howabout · 03/05/2016 09:38

I was thinking about this while watching the young musician section finals. They are used to excelling and being at the very top but the competition is pretty brutal. Also it is surprising what marks out the winner and it isn't really related to technical proficiency from a young age.

exampanic · 03/05/2016 09:58

Well, yes I also think it's very rare but sometimes you you do hear of these "geniuses" in other fields as well.
There is a boy who we know vaguely who did get several grade 8s early secon school, but who also absolute excels at academic stuff (and as dc1 said " is actually a really nice boy so he couldn't really be jealous of him Grin ". I suppose it's that combination of natural musical talent as well as "academic" talent.

But, for us "mere mortals" I often wonder and discuss with my children about concentrating on 1 or 2 things and get "good" at it, or, as as my children prefer, spread them out and do lots of things but be less good at it. They don't seem to have a "real passion for anything (well, maybe reading....) but are keen to try out lots of different things.

Fleurdelise · 03/05/2016 10:16

I think we are currently aiming for concentrating at being good a 2-3 things. DD knows that academics are very much a focus aside piano. She also does dancing and ice skating and while I tell her she can aim high in those also these activities are meant to be "just for fun". I think she is achieving well but she won't be grade 8 any time soon. Hoping to leave primary school with grade 5-6 piano but will not loose sleep on it if not achieved, which is good enough for "mere mortals". Smile

Mistigri · 03/05/2016 10:18

I think a lot of very gifted young musicians are also very academically able, though this isn't always true (and the reverse absolutely doesn't hold).

There is a kid like this in the conservatoire where DD does piano - he is just exceptional. DD is good at theory (she skipped 7 of the 8 compulsory years of theory in the French music school system and graduated top of her class last year) but she says this kid - who must be 9 or 10 - makes her look average. He is also an exceptionally gifted pianist - much better than DD, so I'm guessing easily grade 7-8.

Mistigri · 03/05/2016 10:25

Work ethic matters hugely in music (and most other things), but innate ability does exist and its importance can't be denied.

The closest either of my kids come is not in music but in DD's language ability. She has been doing Spanish at school for 4.5 years - and yet her written Spanish is almost as good as that of an educated native-speaking adult. She has a weird ability to absorb language very quickly just from hearing or reading it.

Fleurdelise · 03/05/2016 10:35

Misti I started to believe in natural ability (I don't like calling it talent as it sounds like you don't need to put in any work) when I managed to learn conversational German in just 2 months at age 18. This was aside being fluent in another two languages besides my mother tongue. I went to Germany for 6 months and two months later I could hold a conversation while natives would ask me how many years of German did I study in school.

This is when I realised that there is such a thing as having an inclination, "talent", towards something and being born with it. Mine was obviously learning foreign languages and I wish it would have been noticed earlier.