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!

I have almost finished Goo's weeklong diary of musical activities. She does a reasonable amount overall... but prepare to be shocked at the recorder and flute practice!!

Well done to teacher's son for jazz clarinet and good luck with the Jazz group as well. I would love DS1 to get into the Jazz ensemble here but there are two - one he could easily join and the other by invitation. Being annoying,nhe's holding out for the invitation. Hilariously, the guy who runs it thinks DS1 is the brother of one of the saxophonists. I see the resemblance but I think he's been noticed for the wrong reason!
howabout I think I need your wonderful DD to oversee my piano practice!

at howabout and DD.

So funny to see the difference between dd1 and dd2.
When dd2 started choosing some pieces for exams, she chose one that I knew already and I could help her with. She sometimes asks me to play it.
Yesterday I was listening (well, I was ironing) to dd1 playing something and thought I recognised it was something I used to play. So once she finished I played same piece from my old piano book. Was she impressed NO definitely not. Even though over the last few centuries loads of people have played this, someone from her own family playing it, is NOT ON!
I know it's partially age difference with dd1 being a teenager and all that, but it's also a personality difference.

Here are the results from my weeklong survey of Goo's musical activities! It wasn't a particularly heavy week, or a lazy one, but it was a bit of a weird one - she had NCO, so did a lot of playing, but less flute practice than usual. School orchestra and choir have just stopped, in favour of rehearsals for the upcoming production. I suggested that Goo practise this week, but only on one occasion.

Tuesday - Piano 32m, Flute 25m, Recorder group lesson with her friends (who are Grades 1-3) - 30m

Wednesday - Piano 30m, singing rehearsal for production 60m

Thursday - Piano 37m

Friday - Flute 20m, Flute lesson 1 hour

Saturday - Piano 25m, NCO (Flute) 3 hours

Sunday - Piano 25m

Monday - Piano 30m, Piano lesson 40m, Flute 30m

Recorder is being neglected due to the unexpected flute exam next month! But I have told her we'll can do lots over the summer.

So we have 3 hours of piano practice, 1 hour 15 minutes of flute practice, 0 recorder practice, and 6 hours 10 minutes of other musical activities. Total of 10 hours and 25 minutes. Like I said, we'd usually have less orchestral stuff and a bit more practice, but probably the same amount overall. She is liking her piano, and making up for lost time.

Its a very full on musical week and great to hear she enjoys the piano sessions.

Waffle, all, can I pls ask what extra practise for chords, intervals, transpositions for G5 theory I could get her apart from fromtheo practise theory abrsm book. I was told after the lesson today that these are what we need to work on the next few weeks. Our teacher said he will re-explain the basics next week however I am hoping we could have some practice between.
There is another terrible lesson today where she dropped her violin and just ran around(a very active 8 yrs old). After I saw the teacher email then she was told that if it happened again then we will stop all music lessons. Our teacher said he had to tell her to get back and pick the violin up as she was just dancing and running around and she was very distracted

Hmm, not sure... Goo only ever did the examples in the books. But we were very thorough. Perhaps get her to transpose simple famous tunes (or things she is playing) up/ down a major 3nd, minor 3rd or perfect 5th? I can't remember if they have to do any others...

Had some bad news when a colleague announced at the last minute that her exam visit for this month was off. I'd checked several times with her that it was going ahead because I have a Gd 8 candidate with 2015 pieces who needed a venue before the June/July session.
However ABRSM have given him a lovely syllabus extension and he's allowed to do those pieces at his exam in June. I had no idea that would happen, might help someone else!

Noteven: thanks for sharing. We had our exam rebooked for violin last time too as we didnt want piano and violin on the same day and they managed to find us another venue few days later so it could be flexible.
Waffle: sure, thank you. Will check with her teacher as per your advice. She was also told to reread the pink book and couple of pages in the blue book. It wont happen if I am not at home so I might book half day off this week

Waffle it sounds like Goo is enjoying piano and practising hard, good for her. I assume she'll progress really fast having previous music experience.

DD is enjoying her pieces and currently playing pieces that have previously been set for grade 4-5-6. She seems to be doing well, a lot of Beethoven, Bartok, Chopin, Burgmuller. She is now fascinated watching different channels on YouTube of kids playing piano at a high standard. She seems to be thinking about her music future a lot, last night she asked what you can do in life if you are very good at music so we discuss the various jobs you can have music related.

I love the fact she is off exams for the time being and she is enjoying pieces she likes.

Fleur: minifleur is so matured, I hope my daughter will be too, only few moths apart however mine is so not.

Green I think it depends a lot on the teacher. How old is your Dd's teacher? I have to say that if I would get such an email I would be puzzled about what I am expected to do. The time in lesson is the time when the teacher needs to have control over what happens. I sit in Dd's lessons but I don't intervene unless I feel the teacher is stuck (it happened only once and the teacher told me not to intervene in their teacher/pupil relationship) and I can see DD going off track but the teacher is imposing enough to know how to deal with it. Sometimes the teacher brings her back in a firm voice, other times she moves on to something else as it is clear she won't achieve the task at that point if DD lost interest.

So as an example: if the teacher is explaining something and DD decides to play the piano over her talking she closes the piano and says to her something like "I need your attention for 2 min to ensure you understand this". This seems to bring DD back as 2 min doesn't sound like much.

Other times she sees DD starting to play with her hair while working on a difficult part, she then asks her "do you want to stop working on this now? Right, we'll stop but I want you to try working on it by yourself at home and see how you get on".

I don't think there is a point to insist in explaining/doing a task on and on if the attention of the child is lost. You won't achieve much anyway.

Are your Dd's lessons at the weekend? Would you be able to sit in lessons a few times to understand why your DD does that? Is the teacher explaining the same thing for too long? Is the teacher doing anything fun that your DD wants to work on in the lesson? This is something else that Dd's teacher does with her students, one of the pieces working on is a "fun piece" chosen by the student regardless of the difficulty.

What a long post...

One more thing, sometimes when DD seems off and in a mood her teacher also spends time chatting about music, composers interesting facts, concert pianists she recommends DD should listen to, even though there isn't much "piano playing learning" in that lesson I think that the 5-10 min chat when DD is not up to formal teaching adds to her music development.

I think one of the things I wish for is for DD to continue playing the piano for pleasure regardless of her future. I find it sad when I hear people around me saying they had piano lessons as a child, got to grade 8 and then never touched a piano again. So while I want DD to achieve in her music education and work for it I also want her to enjoy it so that maybe she'll keep at it for life. Professionally or as a hobby, it doesn't matter.

I sent him this reply this morning

Thanks so much Fleur for sharing, your teacher sounds great. Our teacher is young, kind and patient however might be less strict and experienced. The lesson is on Monday and after school as I have a rule no study at weekend(except swimming), even extra curri. It might be hard to change to weekends also as he is very busy at weekends. I am now thinking of asking him if we could reschedule it to later on Monday so I could be at home( at least I am at home however very likely I will be with the baby: feed her, put her to bed etc.

Greenleaves,I also seem to remember that her lessons are very long,, was it 1.5 hours? dd2 is a bit older, 9 y, and has only 30 min. I think she would have been OK with 1 hour, but certainly not longer. I think 2 shorter lessons are better. But then I also seem to remember your teacher has to travel quite a bit so may be difficult .

Fleurdelise,; Yes, I am one of "those". I played piano as a child, and although I didn't do any exams (not in this country), I did play some pieces that I have seen in the grade 8 syllabus).. unfortunately I didn't have a piano available for more than 25 years (had to move house a lot for my work) so have completely "lost it".
Now I just about manage to play some nursery rhymes, and christmas songs (and desperately, panicky, not very successfully trying to learn the accompanying part of dd2 recorder exam pieces.....).

I think DD would never be able to concentrate for 1.5 hrs on a school day. While ideally the weekend should be free I do prefer to have her lessons at the weekend (Saturdays) as it is a school free day. She also has an additional 30 min on a school day and while she does concentrate you can see the difference, she is much more "up for it" on Saturdays than on the school days.

Green my feeling is that the teacher is expecting you to somehow deal with it even though I can't see what you could do. I always remind DD before the lesson that she needs to concentrate for the 30 min with the teacher, but ultimately it is the teacher that captures her attention and keeps her on track.

exampanic are you trying to pick it up again? I can see the reason for which you didn't keep at it, would it give you a certain pleasure, life achievement, if you would refresh your knowledge?

I did grade 8 piano about 30 years ago. I've been having lessons these pass 3 years or so - just to play what I like to play. It's great.

NeverEver that sounds great. That is why I am conscious that DD may be put off by playing what she's asked to. Luckily it is a mixture of both at the moment so Dd's teacher is choosing a composer, then gives me a list of what pieces I should get according to Dd's level of playing, then she plays them to DD and asks her to chose which one she likes. I have to say sometimes I use my influence on DD to chose some pieces I like such as a Chopin prelude which I think it is fabulous.

What happens with DS1 is that I just gather a lot of books about the right level and the teacher looks through them and plays some for DS and he chooses one. I sometimes wonder if it's a bit haphazard!

I do that with DS2 but I'm a bad judge at levels - so he'd be playing Piano Lessons Book 2 + some grade 4 pieces because he likes 'em ... Still, he seems to cope...

Back in my day we did as we were told. None of this choosing what you like business.

NeverEver

I think a mixture of both is ideal. I appreciate when DD is asked to do a piece because the teacher "says so" but I appreciate she is explaining to DD the reason behind. But most of the times it's composers. So now her teacher says that even though DD prefers baroque music she'll have to do a mixture of baroque, romantic and modern pieces before thinking of grade 5. She (DD) has a preference for baroque which you can also see in her exam pieces. She always scores the highest in those.

When I was young () I preferred baroque too. I found Bach easy to understand.

Now it's Beethoven or nothing. (OK, maybe a bit of Schubert. Or Brahms. OK - whatever takes my fancy, really. :) )