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Extra-curricular activities

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Original poster

May/ June Music and Musicians Thread

920 replies

Wafflenose · 24/05/2016 17:48

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. Grin

OP posts:
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7
Musicmom1 · 17/06/2016 08:00

New life - sounds like fun like fine, enjoy the weekend. 😀

LooseAtTheSeams · 17/06/2016 08:02

waffle forgot to ask after Rara - is she having a break from exams?
My view on exams at the moment is that after this term DCs are only going to take any more if they are very comfortably at that level - partly to allow for nerves on the day which seem to come out in the scales (family trait!) and to make sure aural requirements for higher grades are covered properly.

Fleurdelise · 17/06/2016 08:32

onlymusic DD had her usual 30 min lesson the day before the exam, we kept going as normal so as the last lesson was the day before the exam we kept it.

Loose I know what you mean I said the same, Dd's weak point is/was sight reading and because she skipped a grade it became more of a gap. Now I decided with the teacher that we won't put her into an exam unless all areas are that level, she started her after the exam on grade 3 sight reading exercises, she's almost finished the book so hopefully she'll manage to cover grade 4 and 5 by the time she's ready technically for grade 5.

LooseAtTheSeams · 17/06/2016 09:00

New I am jealous- enjoy your weekend!
Fleur that sounds an excellent plan. It is a really good idea to get the sight reading up to the same level not just for the exam but generally. I wasn't too impressed when DS2 brought the cello sight reading exercises home the night before the cello exam! He didn't do too badly considering but forgot the dynamics!

Fleurdelise · 17/06/2016 09:13

Loose DD was doing sight reading before the exam but she developed a fear for it so her teacher was showing me silently how she can do sight reading quite well if she put a random piece in front of her but when she called it sight reading and ask DD to do it DD would freeze literally.

So she decided that once the exam would pass back in March we need to address it by doing constant sight reading exercises and calling them so. I still remember first time DD sat at the piano to do one of the exercises and burst into tears. Now 3 months later not a practice session goes by without at least one exercise and guess what, she picks the book herself and does it without problems so I think we've overcome the fear.

Original poster
Wafflenose · 17/06/2016 09:15

Loose Rara's cello teacher isn't a fan of exams at all, so I think they have decided between them to only do the odd numbers or something! She can play the odd Grade 3 piece, but some of the Grade 2 scales are still wobbly. I imagine she will do Grade 3 next year, but am really not bothered. She has hardly played her recorder lately, except to help with some music medals at school. She's still a reasonable level for her age, but we have no more exams planned right now.

On piano, Goo is working through the Grade 2 sight reading book, has a couple of (non-syllabus) Grade 3 level pieces, and scales from all over the place. I have requested that she doesn't do exams for the foreseeable future.

OP posts:
LooseAtTheSeams · 17/06/2016 10:08

Fleur that's very interesting about the sight reading - I am so glad that she conquered the fear of it, good for her! I fear I am rather similar about the aural even though I can actually do most of it OK. DS2 had slipped grade 2 cello although he had done most of the scales but no sight reading since grade 1! Piano is different as he works, admittedly reluctantly, through the sight reading book.
Waffle Rara's cello teacher sounds very sensible!

Fleurdelise · 17/06/2016 10:32

Waffle I like Rara's cello teacher, she must get to know her students well to make decisions about exams.

Loose I found it interesting, and rather upsetting as I felt we (myself and the teacher) must have done something wrong. Looking back what went wrong was the fact that her teacher's approach to sight reading was not doing structured exercises but practice sight reading through appropriate level new pieces. So she never called it sight reading but put a piece in front of her and got her to play it. Her sight reading progressed but DD didn't acknowledge it because she didn't realise that is what she was doing, does it make sense? That is why she decided to start her on grade 3 sight reading exercises after the grade 3 exam (initially she even gave her grade 2 exercises) so she finds it easy and goes over her fear.

It is quite amazing to see that now she does it so easily, no freezing, no fear and she is excited she is close to the end of the book looking forward to start the grade 4 book. Smile

LooseAtTheSeams · 17/06/2016 11:10

The grade 4 book is quite hard. My teacher has also suggested mixing it up a bit with the specimen exam exercises! That's a bit confusing for me as I like to plod through it!
DS2 is going to have to just do about three from each stage to get to the specimen ones in time but in the exam the actual sight reading tends to be a bit easier. He has been teaching himself to play various tunes he's downloaded the sheet music for so I am hoping that will help a bit, too.

CoteDAzur · 17/06/2016 11:40

NeverEver - Just wanted to say that I got the notes for Les Sauvages, too, and realized that I was confusing it with Les Cyclopes when I expressed Shock and Envy at you finding it fairly easy. You are right - Les Sauvages does look doable.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 17/06/2016 12:20

Phew Cote! I did double check that I didn't inadvertently downloaded the Les Abridged Sauvages version. Grin

It's doable but not easy.

Fleurdelise · 17/06/2016 12:21

Loose DD is using the Paul Harris sight reading books, I love the format of them. They tie up nicely with the abrsm requirements in terms of time signatures, rythms and has plenty of exercises.

LooseAtTheSeams · 17/06/2016 12:23

Fleur we use those, too. I think they're great - DS2 tolerates them! Smile

NeverEverAnythingEver · 17/06/2016 12:29

We use the Paul Harris books for violin. They are good.

CoteDAzur · 17/06/2016 14:38

NeverEver - . I'm pretty sure that I can play Les Sauvages and Le Rappel Des Oiseaux but Les Cyclopes is a distant dream. Sorry for the video's potato quality and I now totally get what you mean by hearing one's playing recorded being very humbling. I've never recorded myself on the piano before and honestly thought I sounded much better than this Blush

Fleurdelise · 17/06/2016 14:47

Has anybody used the "improve your theory" books by Paul Harris? Are they any good? Bear in mind that by good I mean I am after an explanation of the topic and lots of practice, I am determined we will not follow the abrsm's theory books heavy approach.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 17/06/2016 15:31

Cote That was very well played! Very calm and assured. It's lovely. :)

NeverEverAnythingEver · 17/06/2016 15:34

(No! I'm not going to add the prelude to my list too... Cote you are a bad influence! Grin)

onlymusic · 17/06/2016 15:51

Please can anyone recommend a pop/classic pop/soundtrack violin piece grade 3-5 level? Something very recognisable for non-musicians?

onlymusic · 17/06/2016 15:53

Just found this one, can anyone help with regards to the most popular piece and its difficulty? I am not into Star Wars at all unfortunately....
www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Wars-Episode-Phantom-Menace/dp/0769284620/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466175100&sr=1-4&keywords=violin+soundtrack

onlymusic · 17/06/2016 16:19

For those who is not musical parent like myself there is a very good sight reading series for piano, I think someone mentioned it on MN and this is how I know about it. There is CD-so you can get at least some idea if child plays ok....
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sight+reading+success

Fleurdelise · 17/06/2016 16:38

Cote that was very nice, I loved it!

teacherwith2kids · 17/06/2016 17:15

I mentioned a while back - threads runs fast - that DS (15) was auditioning for the senior county jazz band.

He got in!!!!!!

drummersmum · 17/06/2016 17:28

Oh Waffle that's hard for you. She's managing everyone's expectations by literally bringing them to zero. She's telling you not to care so no damage is done. I don't think you have any other choice than walk away from it, give her all the space and act like no exam is coming. Exam? What exam? I think you're already doing that, aren't you? It will soon be over, she'll get a good mark and then she may ask to take another exam soon! But an exam free period I think it's a good plan. We just had an exam free year.

We've just had chats with all teachers regarding next year and it looks rather... ahem.
Autumn: G8 Drum Kit,
Spring: G8 Piano (if ready!) and auditions for JD to join in Sept 2017,
Summer: G8 Orchestral Percussion (on marimba, timpani and snare).
The idea is to start Y11 done with all exams and the thought of it is so sweet. On the other hand, this idea of starting JD the year of his GCSEs suddenly feels me with dread. Sure it's crazy. And he wants to keep 5 school ensembles plus choir. How on earth is he going to manage if Year 9 has already been a challenge? Please give me a Wine.

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