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!

The really fast bit is not really hard and is the most fun bit to play.

Fleurdelise would be lovely to see your dd playing!

Our music school have free aural classes for pupils taking exams. We practise at home, but the improvement DS1 made in those classes was astounding. The teacher must be very good. I practise with them at home when we remember. But we don't use the app.

NeverEverAnythingEver how do you practice the parts where they have to say what the change was or was music in 2/3/4 times? Do you play yourself or use a cd?

Fleur: please dooooo!!!

Onlymusic: I was too fast and bought the abrsm one. Then saw your text and now we have both yayyy!!!
Loose and all: got home tonight and saw a super grin from some one who had TWO stickers hahaha. Apparently it went well for both violin and theory(or our teacher is being kind!!!)

Greenleave, this is great!

onlymusic I played them myself, which sometimes caused great hilarity. If they are doing another exam I will bloody practise the stuff when they are not around....

I don't know NeverEver looking at the score it looks hard, like he suddenly went hyper after such a sad moment, but I'll keep you all posted. Once that is learnt then the end seems easy (says me who can barely play a Christmas song for preschoolers ).

Green I am so happy to hear the sockets reward works!

onlymusic we had the cd from the abrsm aural book so we could practice a bit at home during the last couple of weeks. There are quite a few samples so unless you play it every day there is no way they can really memorise them.

*the stickers not the bloody sockets

The aural app IS good but I don't think it's a separate skill that should only be practiced for an exam, I teach it in every single lesson I ever teach.

Green so pleased about the stickers! Well done MiniGreen!
Fleur well done to DD and I am sure she will soon get the hang of the fast bits. It sounds like amazing progress!

Fleurdelise I heard Alice Sara Ott play it on the radio once. She said she resisted playing it for years but finally succumbed. It was very beautifully done. She said it was to be played as a gift, a present, to come from nowhere and finally to disappear into nowhere.

Für Elise is coming along very nicely here too Fleur.. It's very romantic but yes I know what you mean about the manic moment !

Thanks for answering my sight reading question. Dd sometimes has to think if I ask her what a note is but her fingers automatically go there. So it's like she doesn't think of them as notes but as a finger shape or something that is located in a certain place iykwim.
Maybe it's a bit like touch typing
She does a few things which (to a non- musical person like myself) seem odd .Another one is that she can't learn a scale by looking at written notes.. (I got her a book of scales a few years back which she couldn't use)
She has to think of the key signature and then find the scale "otherwise it's too confusing"

I would have thought this makes it harder but what do I know .

Never ... Thanks for that quote. I shall pass that on to Dd.. She will love that!

Never what a beautiful way to describe Fur Elise.

trout glad to hear your DD also plays it and it is coming along well, in all honesty I think DD is probably a bit young to seat the emotional side of it but she wanted to learn it so I assume it must trigger some feelings in her.

Waffle is a Buffet Crampton clarinet too heavy for a beginner? A friend has one for sale but not sure if it is a beginner clarinet.

trout with regards to sight reading it sounds like your DD is doing it right, she knows where her fingers go even if she doesn't know the note name immediately. I was told sight reading is like reading, when we read we don't take time to think what the letter name is but we automatically know what is the sound that the letter makes and blend them together to make the word.

Waffle ignore me, I just realised "Crampton" is not the model (I thought it was another model by Buffet, as in B12, Crampton, etc) I looked at the pictures my friend sent and it is a B12 so a beginner clarinet. I am quite excited as it is barely used, my friend's DD gave up after 3 months of using it and it was bought new.

The only question would be does it matter if the instrument is 6 years old? It was kept in its case and never used after three months as I said.

Does it look ok fleur? No splits or cracks? What are the joints/corks like?
I reckon it would be fine. I also think clarinets sometimes sit in a shop for longer than 6 years!
We don't do an awful lot to dd's clarinet apart from clean it . The corks get greased and we've oiled it once with doctors product grenad oil. You could get it serviced?
Sounds good to me anyway

Thanks for your thoughts on sight reading... Makes perfect sense

trout I can't learn scales using the books either - glad it's not just me.

I think piano is the best instrument to learn to read music on because having learned strings first I tend to look at notes and see fingers and finger patterns rather than note names. I am also very wedded to the treble clef.

The DDs both learned piano first and find changing clefs and transposing much more second nature. DD2 even finds it easier to switch between alto clef and tenor clef on her viola than I do.

I am off to play my Fur Elise before everyone else gets ahead of me - I have only just cracked the chord section, so not at the manic bit yet.

trout no marks at all, no cracks, in fact it looks untouched as her DD gave up literally 2-3 months after starting lessons, never took it out of the box since then. I would have bought new, in fact that was the plan but the friend heard me talking about lessons and said she has one that she keeps moving around the house in it's case and she'd like to get rid of it. Glad to hear the age of it shouldn't matter.

So many people learning Fur Elise, I think we should have our own performance concert by posting videos once finished.

Thanks trout re music centres - haha!

I am pretty good at sightreading on the piano (but cannot memorize for toffee) but when I try to read music on the recorder (which I normally play - badly - by ear), I am thinking hmm that's a G that's a C etc. So for me it is v. closely linked the instrument, to where my hands are on the piano, where they go next, the note in context of the lot (will automatically put fingering where it roughly should go etc), and which bits I can fudge without people noticing :)

My DD is just 3 and definitely has a musical bent (sings in tune, makes up songs, loves to bang away on the piano, ukelele, drum etc) but I have no idea how to hone this. I think she's too little for proper lessons. How can I encourage her?

I can't play any instruments myself but come from a musical family and sing in a band/have been a chorister in the past. DH can play the harmonica and has a decent tenor voice (though he denies it).

Really interesting discussion about sight reading- I have learned quite a few interesting things here!

Noteventhebestdrummer I was talking specifically about exam's aural, perhaps I didn't express it clearly. I think our teachers do teach some aural during the lessons, but you see they tend to think that dd will be fine without excessive practicing and put more effort into other areas and she lost marks because of that in the past. Since I have started to use app she had full score in aural test for the last two exams

That clarinet sounds fine. One of my littlies has the same one, but it's about 40 years old. She's going to keep that one until at least Grade 6 - she is going so fast that I don't want her to get a heavy wooden one for a few years.