July Music and Musicians Thread

[Wafflenose]

Welcome to wet July (well it's wet here) and a new thread. This is the place where we can talk about all things musical, like music lessons, exams, practice and new instruments. I am a music teacher (woodwind) and have two daughters. Goo is 10 and her first instrument is recorder, although on paper, flute has now caught up. She plays flute in NCO Under 11s, has just received the difficult bits she's meant to work on, so is finally cracking on with sorting out her piccolo. She started piano lessons at Easter and is going fast, currently playing Grade 3 pieces, and working through the Grade 2 sight reading and Dozen a Day books. Rara is 8 and far less keen - we are still currently trying to figure out what she really enjoys so that we can encourage her. But for now, she's learning the recorder and cello, and is between Grade 2 and 3 on both.

Goo did her flute exam on June 23rd, and now won't have any until at least March, or next June if I can push for that. Rara will probably do Grade 3 Recorder at Christmas. I have had a quiet exam term for my pupils - 7 altogether. 4 are already safely through (3 merits and a distinction), we are awaiting results for a Grade 6 Theory, and I have a couple of clarinettists still to go on Monday.

Very nice Only, thank you, just bought one from your link. I have a very enthusiastic composer in my house at the moment

Well, DS1 came back around midnight from his Germany trip, the chattiest he's been for ages! The youth bands were treated like minor celebrities. Apparently he and his marching band friends were recognised in supermarkets, hugged by the elderly and asked to sign the cd covers! Naturally, he wants to go again next year. I am so glad he enjoyed it, glad they got home safely and slightly cynical about whether he was more pleased to see me or his beloved bass guitar! 😄

😁 loose. Lovely to hear when they get so much out of their trips!

Loose, so nice to hear.

Loose: so pleased to hear

only I am going to order the book you linked. I've been looking for something similar since I read this one: Body & Soul by Frank Conroy This book is so beautifully written and overflowing with love of music. Reading it was an amazing experience. I recommend it!

Nice to read all the recent news. I will be back properly soon. It's been a hard few days - my friend's dad died (aged 98!) and the girls and I were asked to play at the funeral. They did really well - Goo can play whatever we put in front of her, which is helpful, and Rara worked hard to play her independent lines. It was a great send off, but so sad. The same day, one of our gerbils became ill, deteriorated, then had to be put down yesterday. I have now come out in a cold and am feeling rotten! Anyway, I started Rara on Grade 1 Theory today. She did 5 or 6 pages, made notes and stuck them to the fireplace to learn (aaw!) and so far seems OK!

LooseAtTheSeams great news! I would sooo love my dd to have same sort of music course but unfortunately it does not seem possible in a nearest future :(

drummersmum, my memory is bad-don't remember what I was posting! Do you mean "To music" book? Hope you enjoy it. And thank you for the recommendation too - put "Body and Soul" in Amazon basket, pity they don't have Kindle format as I a, going away soon and could take it with me...

Wafflenose , so sorry to hear all these sad news, hope everything will be better soon. Your girls are stars-to handle such an event, you should be really proud of them!

I bought a Beginner recorder book in charity shop, it was a huge success! Children constantly fight over the recorder I bought from school and I am thinking of getting another one. I like this one by description, does anyone know anything about recorders, does it look "proper"?
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004SIAOOM/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

We are going to have two violin lessons per week over the summer, teacher said - does not matter if she has time to practice in between - she has plenty to learn (I like this approach!). And he said forget about grade 5 in a foreseeable future
Piano teacher said that if we really want to do grade 4 this year we have to become serious about it (obviously she is fed up with the lack of practice), and we really should as otherwise it is all new pieces to learn....

Btw, I am also looking at this book (not fiction though), did anyone read it?
I know what events provoked the writing of this book but I am more interested in music thoughts, etc - I wonder if there are any? :)
www.amazon.co.uk/Instrumental-James-Rhodes/dp/1782113398/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469570192&sr=1-1&keywords=james+rhodes

onlymusic I wouldn't get those - depends where you are in the world, but they look like they might have German fingering, which is very different. Also hard to do the low C# and D# on those. I'd look at the Aulos yellow bag (Robin?) or if you want a cheaper one, the blue bag (Elite, I think) or Yamaha.

Oh, thank you Wafflenose, I suspected smth like this, out of basket then!
Yamaha is what we get at school actually, looks sooo cute!
How about this one?
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00K8U3RPC/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_12?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
It is mainly for ds to play, not for school, so yes, the cheaper and more fun the better :) But I guess he can always copy dd (he already said he wants proper recorder lessons but dh said - no way :))

Waffle: so sad news about your gerbil(we were heart broken till now when all our tropical fishes died last spring while we were on holiday, the heater broken on the coldest day, I still sometimes have them in my dreams. We now have some gold fishes however the feeling will never be the same to the previous ones). And lovely to hear about the performance, the girls pulled together so well. Good luck on Rara theory, I am sure she is looking up on you and Goo.
Only: we are so hopeless with practising here. I wasnt well yeaterday so had to stay at home and she picked up her violin twice although only to put it back. So we ended up went to the play centre instead. I am now worried about the audition as she refused to play the grade 3 pieces she said they are too boring, she is done with them. She said she doesnt mind to work hard on couple new pieces for the next 4 weeks(we are away for 10 days).
We although have been working on dictation and aural. We were given couple of short pieces to hear then write down what we heard. Here was what she did last night. Our teacher said those are tricky one, she has been enjoying the task

only I love your violin teacher's attitude. There is a big jump to grade 5 and it is also the stage to build technical skills rather than just bashing through the notes with feeling. Two lessons a week with limited practice between is good because it cuts down the opportunity to practice wrongly and form bad habits.

I am helping DD2 to get better at tuning her viola herself and also building DD1's confidence so that she is better at perfecting her tone and tuning rather than taking her errors as an indication of her limitations. We have been playing around with my electronic tuner which gives traffic light signals for tuning accuracy - I think there are similar phone apps. I wanted to recommend for anyone having trouble tuning strings between lessons.

onlymusic; that's how dd2 started off, just for fun, trying out a recorder that ds had from school (lessons at school were only for 1 term....). Now she and I play together, she has had a go at the treble recorder , sat grade 1 exam, and hoping to get lessons next year...

Waffle so sorry to hear your news. I hope you are all ok and that you're feeling better now. Aww to little Rara and her theory notes! That is very cute!
Greeleave I am so impressed with MiniGreen! She's doing so well. I doubt DS2 would know where to start. I think she's going to be a composer or similar one day.
Yes to the traffic light tuner! It's very popular in this house!
Two lessons a week in the holidays is ideal, I reckon! Wish I could do that for myself! Grade 5 is a bit of a mountain to climb I think.
Practice is sort of happening in this house. We'll get the cello out again today. And I need to work on everything! DS1 can do percussion practice and start on his art project - otherwise we'll end up with one of those last-minute panics where everyone in the house ends up a bit shouty!

Life is quiet here. DS + visiting friend are doing a non-residential jazz course each day, DD is off on a residential dance course.

Yes only, it was "To Music". I have already ordered it. You will love "Body & Soul", it was DS drumming teacher who recommended it! I am a bit of a dinosaur and still travel with huge paperback volumes in my cabin bag and suitcase, in fact we all do, no e-books in our house except a nook tablet used for work! It's ok most of the time but right now I'm reading Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" and am struggling to fit it in my handbag...

Waffle, I think it's nice the girls got to play at the funeral and turn mourning into music. It must've given them a real sense of purpose.
DS is having a blast at his course. It's strange at this age, when they just leave out the door in the morning, you just wave goodbye then greet them again in the afternoon - except for two days now he has gone to a friend's house and I haven't seen him till evening! I guess that's London life because there's transport to get anywhere, but I'm more and more redundant...

drummersmum I love OMF - the copy I have is enormous as well so I know what you mean about lugging it around!
I was reading something the other day about drummers' brains - and before the jokes start, the article emphasised how bright they are! Anyway, the bit I found interesting was that their sense of rhythm is so highly developed that they perceive the world slightly differently. The analogy was with having perfect pitch - and the sense of disruption when things are out of time or off pitch is very similar, apparently.

Oh yes Loose that's very interesting - is it on the internet? if so, can you link it?

No need for a link, Loose. I found lots of articles, in fact the internet is full of studies, you're right! Thank you, this will make for interesting conversation over dinner tonight. www.openculture.com/2015/08/the-neuroscience-of-drumming.html

No need for a link, Loose. I found lots of articles, in fact the internet is full of studies, you're right! Thank you, this will make for interesting conversation over dinner tonight. www.openculture.com/2015/08/the-neuroscience-of-drumming.html

That's the one! Was just going to look for the link! Will search out some more later. I know one of my piano teachers claimed pianists have a wider field of vision than everyone else but this may well have been his own personal theory!

Got results today. dd got merit in grade 1 piano and I got a safe pass on grade 7. Pleased for dd and relieved for me!

Happy holidays everyone!

👏👏 CeeBeebee! It's difficult to relax completely with results hanging so hopefully you can enjoy now (thinking of all you GCSE/A level parents too on here)!