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.

Misti That's so lovely.

Waffle: lovely to hear your update!
Loose: you are so good, I was suppose to start on piano lesson this week however I asked for delay until Sept. I hope the moment I start paying for the lesson then I will force myself to start

Misti - glad the impromptu is coming along. I've decided, for some reason, that I really want to play the 1st Drei Klaverstucke of Schubert. It's in E flat minor ... Than E flat major which is fine. Then B major... It's sharps and flats overload ...

She's a very talented young lady Misti!

Misti

That sounds so beautiful, I love her voice

My dd has a friend over from school for a few days.
They haven't put their saxes down since he arrived. They are trying to find and play as many duets as they can before he goes home.
Neighbours have been fine and keep appearing outside when there's one they like.
Dh got up after his gig last night and gave them a few pointers until he was gone again.
He said it sounds like the place time forgot
I keep hearing a 1,2 a 1234 then a completely different speed to the count in

Green I don't blame you for waiting until Sept. I had a couple of lessons in the holidays but they weren't that great as I really needed to just practise. I am feeling better about scales etc already. To be fair to my teacher, it was a chance to ask a few questions and get some good pointers but I needed to do the work!
gillybeanz love your DH's comment! What fun for DD though - and lucky neighbours, I say!

Misti she's a young female Leonar Cohen!!

Leonardddddd

I loved her song, Misti. She's fab!

Waffle love the flat and natural cows

Green I want to start piano this year but so far this holidays I have hardly managed any practice :( been away for work and then super busy getting work stuff sorted before we go away on holiday (tomorrow).

DD played at a local jazz festival yesterday and then we stayed to watch her teacher's (and mine) band play. I'm not the world's biggest jazz fan but it was pretty impressive. You can see him doing his fancy guitar stuff about 2 minutes in. Usually the scruffiest man on earth so it was funny seeing him all dressed up in a suit :

Hello to all - still away so not on here much but had to log on to say Wow to Misti - your DD is incredible, and DD/I really loved the style , tone and everything! What talent!

Misti your DD really knows how to draw the listener into the music. Lovely

DH and I almost had to take to youtube today to demonstrate unsticking a trumpet mouthpiece. It involved the kettle, the stair rail, a skipping rope and a fair bit of teamwork, which is not our usual forte .

Ah youtube, what would we do without it? It was about an hour after dd got her first guitar that we had to youtube "getting a pick out of a guitar" and I learnt how to change the strings on different types of electric guitar on there too (harder than acoustic because of the different sorts of bridge and the fiddly thin strings).

Ooh Misti thanks for posting the Jazz clip - I'd just made it to the sofa after a day of gardening in the heat and that was just the best antidote to aching limbs! nice guitar solo!

Loose and he seems to play in several different bands. A man of eclectic tastes. If I were 20 years younger I might find myself getting really into jazz ~wink~

Misti
Finally got DS2's G3 piano result and not only did he pass, he beat me by 1 mark! Only fair, his scales really were better than mine at the time!

Loose: yayyy!

Well done mini loose (and loose)!

Well done both!

Ah, mine was back in December - but it's been a bit of a thing with ds2 to make sure he beat me and he only just did it. I am working hard on grade 4 to set him more of a challenge. However, I do want him to take his time with grade 4, mainly so he can get some depth to his practice. I think it might help to do a couple of non-exam pieces and really work at them for a while to get some focus and good habits before moving on to the grade 4 book. His sight reading is pretty good now - aural not so much!
Anyway, that's a discussion for his teacher in the autumn!
Ds1 is happy - his drum teacher is coming here to do a couple of lessons before we go on holiday.

Well done to mini Loose!
He can now :)

Thanks Only
He's having a very nice week - a beginner's sailing course with one of his best friends from school and a load of other kids. They managed not to fall overboard today but it's only a matter of time!