Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

July Music and Musicians Thread

827 replies

Wafflenose · 01/07/2016 09:04

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
JugglingFromHereToThere · 28/07/2016 10:25

Thanks drummersmum Thanks

I think I forgot to re-introduce ourselves, but hopefully some of you remember us from previous thread - think I posted back in the spring round about when DS went for his first audition with them.

yay! Quite excited for him!

JugglingFromHereToThere · 28/07/2016 10:28

Oh, and meant to say Waffle's DD making me smile being all fussy about her - very creative selection of - musical acronyms Smile

Greenleave · 28/07/2016 11:46

How: we can never have it all can we? I have the feeling my second one is very opposite, the first spoke fluently when she was just more than 1 yr old, she learnt the numbers, later by just looking at them. The second one is nearly 2.5 yrs old and hardly ever speak not mentioning any other things, she cant make the whole sentence yet( they are although both sharing 1 thing: super duper active).
Drummer: oh I know she will like percussion very much, I dont have a poshed shed though. We are told to also use the metronome. Our teacher said that once we read each music line, we have to close our eyes and immagine the sound first, noted every single tiny details in the rhythm

onlymusic · 28/07/2016 12:11

Greenleave, we started to use metronome (only during grade 4 preparation Grin, never ever before) and I feel it helped a lot

drummersmum · 28/07/2016 14:17

green I must say your teacher seems so thorough and good.
DS doesn't like using the metronome with the piano because he says it interferes with rallentando and all that... But it seems a good thing to use with scales! I remember when DH used to be his piano teacher, he would make him clap a new piece before they started learning it. That doesn't happen anymore but he does listen to the piece played by other people before starting to learn it. With some percussion exercises like with snare technical exercises he uses the metronome all the time. He bought an electronic one which he could pluck into speakers to hear it while drumming.
BTW the one with the posh shed is posh loose Grin I just act like if I have one then stuff the monsters in every corner I can.

LooseAtTheSeams · 28/07/2016 18:06

Ha ha! drummersmum and green be aware the posh shed came after several years of hearing the bass drum on an electric drum kit through the bedroom floor/dining room ceiling! Grin We were very lucky that the neighbours one side seem to like loud music and the neighbours the other side were deaf! The drum kit got moved down there and a xylophone was squeezed into the bedroom!
Really seriously would recommend some percussion lessons or a group for MiniGreen but there are not enough hours in the day, I know.
Waffle I love Rara's approach to acronyms (she sounds very like DS2!) but I can imagine you might be eyeing the gin bottle after much more of that!

LooseAtTheSeams · 28/07/2016 18:07

Whoops, forgot to add huge congratulations to juggler's DS, what fantastic news for him!

LooseAtTheSeams · 28/07/2016 18:08

Juggling even!

gillybeanz · 28/07/2016 18:52

juggling
Well done to your ds I bet you are proud.
I remember your post from springtime, wow the time goes so quickly.

Original poster
Wafflenose · 28/07/2016 22:21

Well done Junior Juggling!

And yes, Rara is absolutely hilarious. She talks all the time and makes my ears bleed at home, but very few other people get to find out how articulate and funny she is, because she's so different in public.

OP posts:
Greenleave · 29/07/2016 07:15

Welldone Jugglingmini!(please can you remind which one was it)
Drummers: not everyone will like his approach especially we dont follow abrsm(well on the face of it). I knew he is good because we had piano g1-3 with him and never learnt theory at all(even heard or thought of it) and in March I bought the practise book 1-3, my daughter just did them in 1 go. She said she knew them all so he must have been teaching her all way long. However he explained it in a Russian way where it is do re mi pha so again my daughter was ok in the sense of linking what she understood and put it into theory. We dont have plan for the next abrsm grade either, our issue is aural and it was a hit last night(she was told to listen to it at least 10 times and I failed to tell her to do it, after 2 times she said she knew what was it and luckily she got it right)

July Music and Musicians Thread
howabout · 29/07/2016 07:55

Juggling my DD plays trumpet as well as piano and violin. Her answer to whatever situation she faces in life is always Play More Trumpet. Being a typical teenager she spends a high proportion of her time in "Kevin" mode. Due to holidays she had been away from band for a couple of weeks. She went back this week and I got my full of beans little girl back, for a while anyway. It was lovely.

Congratulations to your DS.

raspberryrippleicecream · 29/07/2016 09:14

Juggling that's great.

CeeBeeBee well done to you both, and to everyone else with grest results.

Waffle your DDs are such brilliant individuals, it's lovely reading about them.

gillybeanz so glad DD is ok, I read your other thread and was wondering how you were. Would never ask our RL friend's Mum, I see her a bit as the DS is in choir with my DS now.

We are in the waiting for ALevels results and GCSEs now!

Had a lovely end to term, DS2 added to the trophy collection with the attendance cup for choir and a book token for the highest mark in a choir exam. He is at the end of Y8 so should finish as a chorister, but is allowed to continue until his voice changes. He has been excused a lot of practice time though, and has a reduced Sunday service timetable which will mean he can do CountyYouth Orchestra.

DS1 finished school with a bang! He had a great tour (Italy and France). The final concert in school was lovely and he had an amazing featured solo, very funny which involved moving around in the audience and throwing the head out of her seat. He also got a special gift for contribution to the Music Dept!

It was also the last concert for the Dept head and the Woodwind teacher, so will be very different for DD and DS2 in Sept.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 29/07/2016 10:29

Thanks everyone - you are all so lovely Flowers

Just have to get DS to write a paragraph about himself and what music he loves etc. this morning for BSA Smile

It helps that there's not as much pressure as say on the application form as he has his place! (and we sent a short email to accept yesterday which had a friendly reply)

But still a slight challenge to get DS to do some "homework" when he thinks his summer hols have just started! Ah well, when it's done I'm sure he can call round to see his friend.

Pradaqueen · 29/07/2016 14:03

Well done to mini juggling and to mini raspberry! Green - loving the musical dictation! Miniprada has been identifying the notes on the random hotel restaurant 'muzak' much to the amusement of her older sister...Grin

Greenleave · 29/07/2016 16:09

Prada: great she likes it and got it. We still need to work(alot) on it.
Please can can I have questions everyone, we were given few music sheets for etudes practice, I feel like it could be done better. Do you have any etudes books to recommend for either piano or violin( I have heard of Chopin however there are so many version out there)

teacherwith2kids · 29/07/2016 16:12

DS has just finished a lovely 4-day jazz course with his mates. Final concert was fab, and he's been casually invited by the leader to the monthly jazz jam session in the town where the course is held. Perhaps for school holidays only ... as it finishes at 11 pm ... but flattering nevertheless.

LooseAtTheSeams · 29/07/2016 20:08

teacher that is wonderful - what a fantastic experience for him! Lovely to hear about all the DCs holiday courses!

JugglingFromHereToThere · 29/07/2016 20:44

Very encouraging teacher - DS has recently expressed his interest in jazz. We'll maybe have to look out for some interesting jazz opportunities for him.

Keep on enjoying your trumpet playing howabouts DD - a great instrument that I've come to appreciate far more since DS took it up.

Play more trumpet seems the general consensus here!

teacherwith2kids · 29/07/2016 20:49

We're really luck round here - the county has a specific jazz centre with several bands and the music centres also have jazz as part of their programme - so jazz-mad DS is well catered for!

CeeBeeBee · 29/07/2016 21:44

Thank you again for posters who have congratulated dd and me. It's lovely to know that people are positive about musical achievements.

I'm impressed to those who are managing to do theory with their dcs over the holiday! Perhaps I've not looked hard enough, but one of the problems I find with theory is that there does not seem to be a great deal of child friendly resources available. The current ABRSM theory in practice are too dry and repetitive for them. Our teacher uses Lina Ng's books but older ds, now 11, uses the AB ones.

Greenleave · 29/07/2016 22:15

Raspberry, teacher: great performances and wonderful experience. For Raspberry, does it cost a fortune to tour to Italy and France to play, I am sure its a wonderful experience for life
Only: thanks so much, will start with a Dozen a day and ask our teacher if we could use these 3 books as a guide for etudes
We are having guests coming today so I had half day off then a piano concert ( ludovico Einaudi) tomorrow then bbc prom again on Sunday. I will count attending to these ones is ears training

raspberryrippleicecream · 29/07/2016 22:32

Greenleave Dc have used Dozen a day too.

With regard to trips, they usually come in around £650. This is usually minibus/ coach from way up north, ferry, 10 nights full board, and a couple of fun excursions, eg a water park and rope climbing courses. They did 3 concerts.

Original poster
Wafflenose · 29/07/2016 22:37

I just dug out some Grade 1 Theory papers to show Rara, who thinks they sound impossible, and found that one had been completed. I assumed it was done by Goo, until I saw the date, October 2015... and Rara's handwriting. I'd marked it too - 83%, and have no recollection of this! I must have flung it in her direction while grappling with Grade 5 Theory, Goo, and her smart mouth last autumn. Rara had done some of the simple theory sticker books, so presumably this was to assess where we were with it all. Shame I don't actually remember! Anyway, she is now 1/3 of the way through the Grade 1 book, being VERY longwinded and annoying... and that was the easy third! Oh well.

OP posts: