May/ June Music and Musicians Thread

[Wafflenose]

Welcome, everyone. I can't believe we need a new thread already, but I'm delighted that they now seem so popular!

I'm Waffle, I'm a music teacher and I have two daughters - Goo (10) who plays the recorder, flute, piccolo (a bit) and started the piano a month ago, and Rara (8) who isn't as musically inclined but plays the cello and recorder. She is plodding (very) slowly towards Grade 3 on both.

We're going on holiday this weekend, so will have to have a good read when I get back. For now, I'll wind the thread up and let it do its stuff.

Excellent, Misti and also Green! I keep meaning to start steel band. It's held at the local secondary (where my girls will eventually go) and is meant to be a real giggle. Hopefully I can rearrange my schedule and start this autumn. I haven't got a clue, but it sounds like fun.

Goo let me film her tonight - she really likes this piece. And also hats. Obviously we've just been away for a week, so it's far from perfect, but a pretty good start. 3 pages from memory!!

Oh, she is adorable! Amazing progress for 6 weeks!

That is amazing, so musical.
Even though the fingers aren't supple technically, this is like kids I know who've been playing up to a year.
Bless her, what a fantastic start, I bet you're proud

Sorry, I hate it too, if people say this. You have every reason to be though.

I'm so disappointed today I was expecting the notes for about 10 pieces by Rameau from my harpsichord teacher today but she turned up with just one page (ONE!), saying that she wasn't comfortable photocopying for me because it's actually illegal. What?

I think she expects me to buy all three keyboard books by Rameau now. That will cost about 100 quid. Is this normal?

Waffle. - wonderful 😀🎶🎶

Well done Goo, its a great progress compare to couple of weeks ago. Goo might be able to catch up us in a month even we started 4 years ago!!!( Surprisingly I heard someone playing Fur Elise last night while I was putting the baby to bed, it was the whole piece, the fast one at the end wasnt great however the beginning was really nice to hear)

CoteDAzur Is it normal that the student buys their own music? Yes it is. Your teacher is right, there are laws protecting copyright. This is why exam boards are so insistent on the original music being in the room (even if you are playing from a much annotated photocopy).

Are the books available second hand?

Waffle Goo found indeed her new love, she is amazing after just 6 weeks!

CoteDAzur Dd's piano teacher has a massive music library however when a new book is required for DD she just shows me the book and I have to buy it. She only suggested photocopying one piece from one of her books as DD only needed one piece but in the end I could see she wasn't comfortable with it and I bought it. I don't mind buying music as DD will keep it in her music library, the only "waste" are the method books as she will not return to them once finished.

Green do you live next door to us maybe? DD is playing the first part of Fur Elise beautiful, the fast part needs bringing up to speed, it is getting there, I didn't think she could do it but I can see she will.

Dd had stage 2 and 3 to practice this week from the clarinet book but last night she decided to move into stage 4 also as it has jingle bells and what is more beautiful than playing it in the middle of the summer.

I find it fascinating to watch how the learning flows so fast on clarinet, she doesn't have to stop for a new note, once she knows where it is she plays the pieces in rythm from the first reading.

Yes, I do know about something called copyright but I didn't expect it to hold for 300 years. I can download Anna Karenina for free on Amazon so expected the same for Rameau, whose book is written a full century before AK. I thought that was why there are websites where you can download sheet music for free, like the one my teacher gave me a link for to download Couperin's l'Art de Toucher le Clavecin.

If it's that old then yes you need to be looking for free downloads:

www.free-scores.com/Download-PDF-Sheet-Music-jean-philippe-rameau.htm

but I'm guessing that you already tried that, came up blank and that's why you want the photocopies.

Project Gutenberg has a sheet music category but it's not that big, presumably because more people read books than dots.

Hello! If anyone is in London this August there is this great music camp in Clapham Common entirely in French, 'French and Music Ensemble'. Ensemble playing and singing, rythmology drumming, tailor-made French workshops and concludes with a final performance in the theatre of the venue.

Waffle Goo has great taste - that piece is delightful and so is her playing!
Thanks for the link to EYMS - I hadn't heard of it but it is something we may well try next Summer.
I'm not sure if this is the best practice strategy but at the moment I have DS2 practising G3 piano every day at expense of cello because he will be away next week. When he gets back there's just over three weeks to the exam so it will be mainly piano again but with cello as light relief!

So a question to the experts.
Still not able to find CD for aural test grade 3, and apps on ARBSM website is for iphone, not laptops/androids. No time to get a new one noline or go to the shop, as exam is next week).
DD1 did grade 4 not long ago (different instrument). If I let her listen to grade 4 CD, would they ask similar things in the grade 3 (dd1 obviously doesn't remember....)?

Cote That's very disappointing. Perhaps your teacher didn't want to photocopy from her published edition... Though most copyrighted material also allow reasonable amount of copying and institutions often have that sort of agreements - something like 10% or something. (They keep telling us and I keep forgetting. )

IMSLP is great for these things but sometimes only certain edition would do. I had to look a bit hard for a good edition of Bach's partita #2 - not too many instructions and not tiny little prints ...

Our local library surprisingly has a big collection of printed music and I borrow them sometimes.

exampanic not sure what grade 4 aural is yet, I think it moves to sight singing also?

From what I remember the grade 3 aural is clapping in time and identify if it is in 2, 3 or 4 times, sing back a short tune, identify where a change in a short piece played twice is and explain if the change is in pitch or rythm, if the change is in pitch she should describe the change (a note lower, higher) and describing a piece of music, the examiner will confirm what the question will be before playing the piece (I will ask about dynamics) than play the piece and then ask such questions as "did the piece stay loud throughout the whole time?" (Staccato, legatto, loud, soft, fast, slow, etc).

I think you can find all the details on the abrsm website.

P.S. I am assuming it is Abrsm.

yes, I have read it before, and yes it's ABRSM. Just wondered if there was something specific in grade 3 that wasn't asked in grade 4. So if she does listen to the grade 4 one again she wasn't left with a gap.
Just so annoying not able to find the CD as dc3 will also be sitting grade 3 after the summer.

Waffle it was a pleasure to listen to her-thank you for posting!
My 12 year old has been learning piano for just less than a year (third instrument) and will sit his Grade 5 exam in three weeks. I'm a bit worried, but to my untrained ear his pieces sound quite good ... Before starting to work on his exam pieces last month he was playing Fur Elise all of it, quite well and musically. Now my 8 year old wants to play the same (he will sit Grade 2 piano shortly), but is not quite there yet.

exampanic

Specimen Aural Tests, Grades 1-3 with 2 CDs: new edition from 2011 (Specimen Aural Tests (ABRSM)) www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1848492561/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_us-vxbV7G3CHS

Wow musicathome grade 5 piano in less than a year! What instruments did he play first?

Fleur: I think it can be done with a 12 years old musical child(playing all the notes correctly and having sense of rythm given the child knows aural, sight reading from the other instruments that they are learning at high level.

The thing with abrsm that its just the test. For example my daughter is grade 3 piano as yours however I can never say she is musical. She can learn to play and pass the test and hopefully will appreciate it more in the future however we dont have musical gene in our family. Can she pass the test, I am sure if she practises she can, for now, thats good enough for me. For a child who pursue music career and/or want to play at a very very high level then the passion like Mitigri's is needed. I have to accept we might never have it(but its ok, we will go to concerts and know what Mistigri's notes are being played :D).

Fleurdelise he started playing horn and guitar when he was 8 (Year 3). He is now Grade 6 on both instruments, but the piano progress has been amazingly fast. But lets see how he does on his Grade 5 exam in couple of weeks :).
At the moment at 12 years old, he sees himself as either a tennis player or a musician when he is older :)

For a child who pursue music career and/or want to play at a very very high level then the passion like Mitigri's is needed

Mine will never play at a high level ;) though it is possible that she will have some sort of amateur musical career as an adult, not in classical music though as she doesn't have the skill level required.

I think it's very difficult to compare the progress of a reasonably motivated older child with prior instrumental experience with a child starting a first instrument at 8.

DD's progress on piano looks rapid (grade 7/8 pieces in under 2 years), but literally all she had to do was learn piano fingering and hand positions. She could already read all the clefs, coming from guitar she's not afraid of key signatures with lots of accidentals, she is extremely rhythmically secure, and she has the musicality of a 15 year old who's been playing music for 10 years. You cannot compare her with a 9 year old who may have been playing piano for longer but who has had to start from scratch, it's just not a fair or sensible comparison. It's like languages - the more you speak already, the easier it is to learn a new one!