Spring/ Summer Music and Musicians Thread

[Wafflenose]

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!

Rue Happy birthday to your DD... and me! My birthday today also so here is some cake

Exampanic I am happy now also, in reception though I wasn't happy when she just started school. You could see the gap between DD having just turned 4 and DC turning 5 throughout Sept-Dec. Now she is doing really well, more in literacy than maths, in maths she is considered above average but not well above average IYSWIM. Her school have well below average, below average, on track, above average, well above average. As she had to play a bit of catch up since reception I am very proud she finished year 3 at above average. Hoping to do the last bit of catch up this year and next to finish at well above.

Saying that DS was well above by end of year 1 (July born) so definitely DD is a bit behind compared to him. But the curriculum changed also so higher expectations.

for you, Fleur - DD is too young for the yet so you'll have to drink hers as well

Quick question - DS is playing in a festival tomorrow and the accompanist annotated his music in places in pencil during their rehearsal last night. Is this permitted in a competition? I have photocopied the two pieces of music that DS will be playing (complete with annotations) so could have DS use these for his practice tonight, erase the pencil marks on the originals and copy again for the adjudicator's use tomorrow. Is this what you would do?

Oh - and just seen the posts above - happy happy birthday to Fleur and Rue's DD! Personally, I think May is an exceptional month to have a birthday.

Happy birthdays all round. My cake is on order for the weekend. Stubborn Tauruses rock

Suspend it is fine to annotate music for exams and I assume the same is true for competitions. My DD has an aversion to defacing books so I had to show her some of Nicola Benedetti's practice notes from her FB page to reassure it was the done thing.

Suspended we give the examiner/adjudicator a copy without breath marks or other scribble (most famously "I am a double bass" written in half inch letters across the top). If they take the line of photocopies being the devil's plaything make sure that you have the original in the room. Don't worry about it though, it will all be fine. All musicians have a pencil in their case. Good luck for tomorrow.

Thanks for the speedy reply Howabout, that's one less thing I need to worry about!

Once you play one instrument, it is much easier to learn a second one.
Once you have learned one foreign language, it is much easier to learn a second one.
You have to take that kind of thing into account, when deciding whether someone has natural ability or not.
My dd has a 16 year old school friend I would love to meet one day. Apparently she comes from a badly off background and is not pushed by her family - she is a self-starter. According to dd, the friend went to a poor state primary, from which she got herself a full academic scholarship to boarding school. She plays a couple of musical instruments at a decent level, and sings. She decided to take up Japanese, and found herself someone to teach her over Skype. After a couple of years of Skype lessons, she can now write long essays in Japanese (a v hard language), and has started Skype lessons in Chinese. That's in addition to her GCSE subjects. She has now won a 6th form boarding place at a specialist maths school, which you can only get into if you are exceptionally good at maths.

Getting back to less extraordinary children, and music. My dd doesn't like spending time on individual practice. I find that annoying. But she has joined loads of music groups, and is making progress in her music by playing with others, and is having a lot of fun with it. It's not the same as working on the hard bits on your own, but I've come to accept that this is probably as good as it gets, and that learning music in that way is still worth doing.

Rue thank you for the wine, I'll take it.

Howabout hahaha your mention of the stubborn Tauruses made me laugh, DH keeps asking who does DD take after being so stubborn.

lemanitoba I love hearing stories of motivated kids, I went to school with a girl similar to what you described, years later I understood why and where the motivation was coming from. The reality is that kids can be gifted academically, musically or any other way, if they don't find the inner drive to support their gift I don't think that parents can do much about it.

Sometimes I wonder if it is better to be average but very driven rather than gifted and "lazy" (in want of a better word). I have met average people achieving much more than naturally able people.

I think this is probably the biggest frustration a parent can get, seeing your child able to achieve in a certain field but not driven to do so.

Thank you for my bday wishes all!

Happy birthday Fleur and MiniRue! what a beautiful day to celebrate!
(I am May girl too and my birthday was last weekend)

I was born in one of an Asian big and busy capital where we normally took things for granted compare to the rural children so we usually were inspired by many stories that many children in the rural areas later became rich and succesful and we were all rotten spoiled and live on our parents wealth( or at least the story my parents were telling us). After more than 10 years living in UK then I found normally there are opposite stories where children from less favoured background have the same/similar opportunity in terms of schools, public facilities however being less motivated and usually not doing well. I learn to blame the benefit system where some people could abuse it and getting benefit too easily then not motivated to work hard and try better while many well off family the children tend to work hard and do well because they learn work ethics from their parents and to keep their family pride.

Hi all,

Just hoping for some advice and shared experience to help my DS(14)
He plays the trumpet and is preparing for his Grade 8 exam some time this year.

Excitingly we've just heard he's through to the second group audition for the Britten Sinfonia Academy. He will spend a day with them in July and needs to prepare the trumpet parts for Schubert's 8th Symphony (unfinished) 1st movement.

Apparently if successful they may offer either full membership or associate membership of the Academy which would involve either 6 or 3 residential weekends away during the year, training with members of Britten Sinfonia Orchestra.

The day itself sounds like it will be a great experience for him but would be even better if he was accepted for the Academy.

Does anyone have any helpful experience to share? How can he best prepare for the audition. I've found some YouTube footage for him to watch but I'm wondering if I should ask a friend of mine who's a professional flute player for advice? The trumpet parts for this piece do not look extremely challenging so that's something!

Also he has to decide whether to take his Grade 8 in July (close to the audition date) or leave it until December. Any thoughts on that? I'm inclined to focus on the audition as it seems a great opportunity. But his instrument teacher seems fairly keen for him to proceed with preparation for that too. Hmmm

Hello all
I am delurking to ask a question: can someone please tell me if it's possible to just get a theory and aural teacher please? DS has just got his G3 cornet: he isn't doing any formal theory lessons yet and didn't do that well on the aural section. He's only 8 and his teacher thinks it will come with age, but I want to see if I can get him a bit of extra help. It's been so long since I did lessons I can't do it myself!

Hello all, and Happy Birthday to all those celebrating today

The 5 minute rule
it means don't practice one thing for more than 5 mins.

If you are trying out a new piece, 5 mins,
a scale 5 mins, sight reading 5 mins.

You can practice for as long as you like but only 5 mins on each thing.

If you are practising one or two bars of sticky bits in a piece, just do it for 5 mins then move onto the next thing.

Oh, forgot to say, for all the none playing parents,
Giving yourself a little concert is harder to stop than we parents appreciate.
Also nothing wrong with this after proper practice as it may help them realise how much they have improved.

I still do it now, I'll start a piece I know I can't play and give myself a little concert, rather than stopping every time. I do know how to practice properly and do usually.
So go easy on them and don't expect them to change overnight, it's another discipline of music practice they need to learn.

NewLife I think that's actually how I practise too. But giving yourself a little concert is pretty hard to resist.

Hello moonbells, yes you can have lessons in theory or aural, or both. I'll do it or recommend for you if you're in the same county (in the South West!)

Juggling the only tips I would offer are on presentation. Don't turn up in t shirt and ripped jeans (don't laugh, I've seen it), don't hide behind the music stand but set it to one side so that they can see you, acknowledge and thank the accompanist if there is one (probably not relevant for you this time). He's expected to do some improvising activities so maybe practise that with his teacher ahead of time. It would be best if you could talk to someone who has actually done it because I'm all for avoiding surprises on the day. As you say, it will be a great experience for him even if he is unsuccessful this time BUT focus on the positive - he got past the first audition round, he has what it takes to get a seat.

I can see both sides with the G8, on balance I'd be tempted to go for it now because it's an awfully long time to December to keep the pieces fresh. If he's going into Y10 next year will his workload increase at school as they really launch into GCSE work - if so it might be handy to have G8 behind him at that stage. It does also depend on what's happening over the next eight weeks, summer term can turn into silly season where the timetable vanishes out of the window and it's disruptive to music lessons and to practice.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do - I hope he gets in.

Ah then, 5 min rule, I think that is how DD does it, not dot on 5 min but she'd do it for a bit, then when she feels she's seen an improvment (even if small) she moves on. Sight reading is exercise based so she does a couple of exercises a night, it probably takes 2-3 min. She's not allowed to play an exercise more than twice. First play then identify the mistakes and then play it again trying to not make the same mistake.

She is giving a mini concert at the end when she plays entire pieces regardless of mistakes, speed, that is what I call playing for "fun". Usually she calls daddy in the room to show off.

I have to say the technique her teacher is asking to practice for Fur Elise is so difficult, the way she needs to float and lift her left hand, now I understand what playing with the whole body means when talking about piano.

moonbells our local music service offers weekly theory lessons. I am sure you can also find a teacher willing to teach only theory and aural. We chose to extend the lessons (well technically add another lesson) with Dd's piano teacher as she could cover it all in one lesson. So now she has a dedicated lesson to theory, sight reading, scales and aural. (Aural not every week).

*couldn't cover it all

Happy birthday to Fleur and MiniRue .

Juggling I can't offer any advice but that sounds like an amazing opportunity! Best of luck to your son!

DD turned 15 yesterday but since she was at school until 6 and we didn't get home from our guitar classes until 9.30pm we didn't get much time for celebrating. I took cakes to guitar though.

Today DD had a meeting with the director of cultural affairs at the local council. I wasn't expecting much tbh - a pat on the head and maybe some help with getting more gigs. Totally misjudged how professional and well-resourced they are. She now has a meeting set up with the county music advisor, who will help her apply for an equipment grant - if her application is accepted (and there is no reason to think it won't be) they will give her up to €750 for sound equipment and studio fees . She will probably apply for funds to buy a loop station so she can make her live show more interesting. They have also offered her a slot at a local music festival in June, and the possibility (no promises yet) of a supporting slot at a much larger event with quite well-known headliners in July.

It's a good thing the school year is practically over here by the end of May as it suddenly looks like we will be a bit busier than we had intended!

And now I need to go and nag her about piano practice

what a lovely outcome Mistigri!

Mistigri lots of great people born in May! What an amazing opportunity your DD has with the local music and art provisions. You must be very proud.

Good luck Juggling! No advice but sounds like a great opportunity!

Mistigri what a fantastic opportunity, she has an exciting time ahead.

So lovely to hear Mistigri! Keep us posted with this exciting summer activities!

Back from work second evening running to lots going on on the best of threads! Will catch up but in meantime sending to Fleur and MiniRue and best birthday wishes!
Have just realised that I am also guilty of mini concert practice despite all the advice - and it is great advice - I get from my teacher! She has this thing about playing the tricky bars about five times but the thing is you have to get the notes right for it to count - so you can never finish the practice unless you've played it correctly! Otherwise your hands remember the wrong notes or something, don't know if that's just piano...