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!

Marking place as I have my first ever music exam in June, when I'll be turning forty. Nothing like leaving it late!

Neverever: I dont see it coming for her this grade 3 either and I dont know if she is practising on it as she normally picks her violin up when I was upstair with her sister. After that I normally sit down with her to catch up with her day then she goes to bed at 8.30 with some readings(I normally stay in her room till light is out around 9). Last year on grade 1 I had to sit everyday during her 20-30mins practice

Green: it is imo a huge jump from grade 2 to 3 because of the shifting. America is a tough piece due to the speed and the number of shifts. progress is far from linear and maybe she needs a period of consolidation.

For the America in Gd 3 violin you can do lots of good work with phrasing by thinking about appropriate bow speed. Vibrato isn't essential at all for this grade. I have a kid doing a revolting finger vibrato which she is proud of so I'm having to be ultra tactful!

TradGirl good for you - it's not that late though. I had a lady in her 40s take Grade 1 recently, but my oldest beginner is nearly 95.

tradGirl good luck, I want to learn but not enough time in the day.

trad, v impressed. Good luck.
Green 90 min lesson for a young child is quite a lot. IMO I'm not surprised she occasionally switches off out of exhaustion, particularly after a full school day. That's what the teacher's email made me think of (lack of focus etc). I think it could be as simple as that. I'm sill not clear whether that time is split between piano and violin but if that's the case, it again requires a lot from her as she has to change gear while her brain is still storing what she has just learnt on the other instrument. Muscle memory is crucial when playing any instrument and needs consolidation.

I don't think I'd be focussing at the end of a ninety minute lesson, that is long at any age. The only time DS has had a lesson that was longer than an hour was in the last few weeks before taking the diploma and that was to build up his stamina. (I suspect that his teacher knew full well that he wasn't doing the long practices that he was supposed to be doing.) He's dropped back down to an hour again now.

I also think an hour and a half is a lot and my DD wouldn't be able to cope with it. In the few occasions she had an hour lessons you could see that the last 10-15 min she would switch off and it was slightly frustrating for the teacher to try and get her attention back.

Due to her needing longer lessons as she heads towards the higher grades we agreed with the teacher that rather than having an hour long lessons and wasting my money having two half an hour lessons a week it is more effective. This way they can concentrate on different areas in each lesson while still maintaining her focus.

As a rule Dd's teacher said to me once that up to grade 3 level 30 min lessons a week is enough time to cover the requirements. Grade 3-5 she is generally suggesting 45 min and moving to an hour for grade 5+. This obviously applies to young DCs as the majority would be quite young between grade 1-3 and they will be able to increase their focus as they grow.

I do know a DC my Dd's age who was on 1 hour long lessons since she started piano age 6. While it may seem that the DCs would progress faster with longer lessons the DC I am talking about and my DD (on 30 min lessons a week until recently) are roughly the same level, the other DC taking grade 3 in the next exam session. The other DC is more advanced in theory though, on a grade higher than my DD.

DS started 1 hour lessons age 12 although before that DH taught him piano to gr5 and never looked at his watch, so sometimes it went to about 45 min. Past gr6 all teachers said they needed more than 30min.

Another Mum marking her place. Took grade 7 clarinet last year and taking grade 8 clarinet soon at the age of 49! Scared!

Tradgirl and Loubielou lovely to see other mum learners! I survived my grade 3 piano in December and think I have actually improved quite a bit as a result of doing it - really has made me tackle scales properly now! Grade 4 isn't looming until next December so plenty of time to get to grips with it all, I hope.

drummers an hour at age 12 sounds good, DD will probably move to an hour lesson around that age also. At 8 though, even though she needs an hour, two 30 min sessions seem more achievable.

I am full of envy and admiration at all the mothers learning instruments. Maybe this will make me pick up my book and practice.

I used to have a secret longing for bassoon. Now that there's one in the house I realise that it is totally out of my league, when you watch someone play you can see their fingers moving but round the back both thumbs are moving too. Maybe two musicians in the house is enough, I'll stick with being the taxi driver.

DS has had hour long lessons from being 14, that's when we took them out of school and could have longer ones. As long as we had lessons in school time it didn't matter what you needed, what you were going to get was half an hour.

green Ds never practices that long. I think the secret of his success is that he turns it over and over in his head when he's not playing. Certainly he had us all humming America within a week ...

It's true about school lessons, I don't think there's much chance you can get more than half an hour. I have a 45 minute lesson on piano and it goes pretty quickly. I'm thinking that ds2 should switch to 45 minutes in the autumn for piano and if I can get him a 45 minute cello lesson as well, I will.
Icouldbe the bassoon sounds very complicated! Have you considered saxophone?!

Hello all, I've just found this thread. I have DD age 8 (nearly 9) who has been learning clarinet for about a year and apparently will do her grade 1 this summer - I haven't heard from her teacher about it yet, so not sure when! Her lessons are 2:1 with a peri at school, and funded by her FSM pupil premium so at the moment the only cost for us is reeds and books.

Q: how much practise should she be doing, and how regularly? What's an "expected" level of progress, if there is any such thing? I'm completely not musical, although DH plays alto sax to a decent level and has lessons & sax group every week.

Also, DS1, aged 6 and in year 1, is interested in learning piano - maybe. Not sure if it's a "keeping up with big sister" thing! What age is a good age to start, and what costs might there be? We have a Yamaha digital piano at home, I imagine he could start learning on that? How far could that get him before we'd need to look at actual pianos?

Rue in terms of practice we have been asked to ensure DD practises daily or at least 5 times a week. Little and often values more than a long practice session. So rather than practising an hour the day before the lesson 10-20 min every day is more recommended. I have no experience with clarinet (though I hope I'll gain some soon if DD is starting lessons in the near future) but I am sure waffle will be here soon with her great advice.

Regarding piano, DD started a week after turning 6 yo, costs depend on the area where you live in, on average the 1-2-1 lessons seem to be on average between £15-£20 for 30 min slots. Then the cost of books depending on the teacher's chosen method. An Yamaha digital is perfect and from what I gather they are fine till grade 4-5 or even higher, we did buy an acoustic while DD was heading towards grade 3 as our digital wasn't such good quality.

RueDeWakening. DD (10) does half an hour. She's taking her grade 5 violin in the summer. Teacher always recommended 30 minutes and we find we need that to cover everything and be secure in what's she's working on in the lesson. Expected level of progress is going to vary I think according to the musical ability of the child and attitude to practise and, personally, I also think the quality of the teacher. Grade 1 in clarinet after a year is excellent. Well done to your DD!

When we started violin with our current teacher we increased from 30mins to 1 hour. We only increased to 1.5hour recently due to G3 exam in March( gosh, felt like very long time ago) and keep 1.5 hour due to theory exam this Jun. In the ideal way then yes, I know its much better to have 30 mins or max 1 hour each lesson however I felt bad asking him to travel twice to us as he lives on the other side of the city, it takes a long time to get to us. He has a busy schedule too so I dont think I will ask.

Thanks so much for all your tips. I have noted them all. I will be tending the lesson this weekend to see how it goes. She might have had a very tiring day and lost her focus. We were told to practise on every note slowly first, only moving to the next one when its perfect and also play faster or normal tempo when the whole piece was mastered. She might have been too impatient and trying to finish it too fast.

Each child is different, mine can never play 3 pieces for a year, she will be very bored. When she is too bored she is miserable. She is much happier when there are challenges and loads going on. Hopefully joining the orchestra will give her chance of playing more variety and with other companies.

I have checked my calendar and I havent had any concerts, music events until the Beethoven in Oct. I should look around more as the whole summer is a good time.

loubie: please do you mind if I ask how did you find your violin tutor. If its hard for both then I should look for a new violin tutor

The new digital piano came on Monday. It's lovely.
And yes .. I get the dynamics thing now. The pieces sound completely different
Thanks for all your advice up thread.

Rue
Dd (13) plays clarinet . She started at 7 years old. I'm also completely non- musical btw. She also plays piano and guitar.I don't know about expected progress. Dd started on grade 3 because she had already done recorder grades. As long as your dd remains interested and it's still fun then I think that is the main thing. Dd has used lots of books between exams with lots of different types of music.. I think this helped a lot. She liked the ' what else can I play ' books when she was first starting.

Can you lovely people recommend the clarinet makes your DCs play? I am potentially talking to a clarinet teacher at the weekend and I want to run the makes and models past her to see what she's suggesting. I can see the Buffet and Yamaha are popular and expensive but are there any other options for beginners up to let's say grade 5?

trout enjoy the new piano!