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.

I meant earlier that it might be too late to wait till Nov next year for 11+ tutoring(and going to state school meaning that her school doesnt prepare for 11+). In my family I am the one who organise the kids, my husband supports whatever the decision I make, however I do have moments when I doubt myself whether I am taking too much risk and if I am doing it right.

Green: 1.5 hours a day per instrument is a crazy amount of practice for a primary child not intending to do professional musical studies

DD doesn't do anywhere near that much; she may play the guitar for 1.5 hours or more some days, but most of that time is not "practice". She doesn't even do half an hour a day of piano practice on average; in school term there isn't time. And she is a lot older.

Haha! 1.5 hours practice! One of the music teachers said that but was happy with 10 minutes a day most days. It's what you hope for and what you realistically expect.

(Don't mean to mock. I'd be happy if DC do that. But it's just not going to happen over here ...)

We dont follow ABRSM, he told us what he thinks then ofcourse its up to us to decide whether its doable. From his point of view a quality practice is including things like dictation, 20 mins a day where she could be able to write down music when she hears a note, 15 mins scales and arpeggios, 15 mins sight reading, 15 mins etudes, and the rest of nearly half an hour is for the pieces themself. I thought of doing an exam this term for piano as I find it easier than not having an exam and working toward a quality where I dont have a benchmark to gauge especially I am nonmusical. In real life, I am hoping for 10 mins dictation, 10 mins of sighreading, scales, whatever else for aural and if I am lucky 10 mins for the piece itself. We dont have mornings and we only get back home around 4.30, have a light snack, change then its already 5pm, there isnt enough time aday then there are other clubs: chess, French, swimming and for us music is for pleasure similar to other extra-curr subjects she is doing, we wont be able to aim high. At the moment, it costs the most of our time(however we have been enjoying it the most)

Greenleave - that seems a lot to me! DD (10) does that much on quite a few days but it is exhausting to concentrate that much on tricky studies etc esp on top of 11+. The quality of practice def diminishes. We have diy'd for 11+ as there is no way we could fit two instruments in, homework, Plus tutor time and tutor homework and gave any sanity left....this term is going yo be tough with multiple entrance exams plus music scholarship exams and auditions......

Musicmom: I feel for you, I cant imagine how I could handle it, I will def have to drop activities to prioritise for 11+, hopefully its only for few months. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you, hopefully everything will go according to your plan.

Just to clarify 1.5 hs of practice-it is not non stop practice - it includes various distractions and occasional improvisation and sometimes long practice happens only because of the bribe
Saying that-there are moments where everything goes smoothly, she enjoys playing, not very tired - why not to keep the momentum going? :) 10-15 mins with her attention-we will end up playing one scale per day . In our case-sticking to the same routine is the key, any interruptions - like holidays, missed practicing days - immediately affect her attitude.
And this is why I find it so difficult to keep two instruments-extra 30 mins of practicing on one instrument can make a huge difference, but after it is done there is another one....

Btw, our teacher's requirement is one hr practicing every day... And we are talking about English teacher here...

Green, hope your hols were great. Re: 11+ we started with a tutor group in year 4 which have specific time to do practice books and papers. Then year 5 we had identified specific areas to work on and we hired a specific 11+ tutor for that. This summer we have sat a couple of practice mocks as there are two styles of exams in our area. My advice is starting earlier is better than not but it doesn't have to be onerous.

Re practice 😱 To 1.5 hr per day aged 10. Miniprada does 1hr before school and that's for both instruments.

Wow, if asked, I recommend that my Grade 3 students do 4x 20 minutes per week. But hardly any of them do.

I'm interested in what everyone is saying about practicing 2 instruments. For a nine year old doing drums and guitar, not for exams, sometimes he's really tired after sporting commitments so he will only practice one instrument. He will play drums for 30 mins but usually not more than 10 mins on guitar. He practices 2-3 times a week on each. He's making progress on both instruments and enjoys it. However, I think he should at least play guitar everyday. How do you encourage practice without forcing and taking the enjoyment out of it?

Prada, 1.5hs at 8yo in our case . Not every day though. But this is actual playing, not theory, etc
Honestly, I am shocked how other children manage to get away with so little practicing and get such an excellent result. The only explanation I can find is that dd is playing pieces which are far beyond her actual ability + her age is against her and it does take time to make a nice sound (but this is not my problem, I am not choosing what she is playing :)). For example, what she was doing during her 1.5 hs - 4 scales and 3 arpeggios - detached and slurs (14 all together), then learned half of the new exam piece - this is grade 5. Then I asked her to play couple of pieces for fun-she knows them already. Then she is learning a piece for the concert-and this is 3 pages long and quite fast-so finger fitness is essential. The concert is at autumn and to be able to play the piece at the good speed she needs to spend certain amount of time repeating certain passages again and again.

She was practising about 30 mins every second day few weeks ago and her teacher said that he may need to change the piece as she is not progressing with it at all. Once she started to practice at least one hour every day he was happy that she will be able to play it. Honestly, I don't see how she could possibly manage with the less than one hour practice per instrument on a daily basis... But then children are different... some are more able, some need to put more work.... They all will play at the end ;)

Xantheticus I noticed that in case of my dd she is much better at practicing (no resistance etc) if she is doing it daily and it gets easier and easier. If it is smth she needs to put mental and physical effort into - she will be very reluctant. So the paradox is - the more she practices the less pressure it is from me.

Only 30 mins today
Too long walk in the park :)

Prada: thank you for sharing, I havent found one I think is worth to start early to be honest, I doubt myself now that I might have put her in a disadvantaged place and restrict her to less choice, will keep thinking and open to any solution.(the holiday was nice, we hadnt had one for such a long time before it. The next holiday is until Xmas so I trynot to think about these coming 4 months). And all the best to Prada for her 11+ and music audition, she is such a hard working girl, we admire her so much with all these achievements in music, gcse.
What our teacher asked isnt what we could do ha ha ha, as I said I think we could do max 45 mins a day for each and only on 3 days a week without clubs/other activities and no weekend practice

Only: oh my god, her playing is amazing, amazing!!! I showed it to my daughter and both our jaws dropped, our level is like Zero compare to her. So that answers your question how is the 15-20 mins/day practice player would be. We cant be compared, we are barbarians

Greenleave, oh no! It is not her! I was going to write it but then saw that there was a name of the player under the video and didn't. Sorry for confusing you
Just in case-she is not Suzuki either!

Feel a bit ashamed now...
It is just the piece she is learning for the concert

Dont be silly Only, the playing on your link is exceptional for a 8 yrs old at grade 4-5 level. And I know what you mean(sorry I was reading your post too fast while the other ear listening to someone reading (a book in our native language, we have been having fun learning reading and writing it this summer)

In our case our DC, particularly DS2, accepted progress would be slower overall, but for us it was/ is a marathon not a sprint.

Xantheticus: we truly only practise hard when there is an exam, we have been taking turn between violin and piano the last 2 terms so it means piano exam in Spring meaning little or no violin practice in Spring, violin exam in Summer which means little or no piano practice, this is an 8 yrs old girl. No exam planned meaning we have been lurking on both the last nearly 3 months(and we are bored!)

We have been massive slackers this summer. I'm lucky if I can get Goo to do anything at all at the moment. I actually told her today it's fine if she wants to pack it all in, or just play once a week for fun. She doesn't. So do some actual PRACTICE then, it's not rocket science!! Cue screaming and crying.*

*This is not specific to music. This is Puberty and not wanting to do anything her parents suggest. Sigh. Pass the wine!

Blimey serious amounts of practice going on. We have been very very lax over the summer. All three passed their respective exams (DS1 cello G5 high merit, DS2 G3 piano just a merit, DD G1 piano distinction) and so we have just let it all go to pot!
When on song we manage 15 mins a day for each child max. But we do do it every day religiously. DS1 also does piano and DS2 also does violin so we alternate days. Both boys play in at least two groups at school though and in county orchestras so I guess that counts for a bit strings wise.
To get his G5 cello DS1 stopped piano for a term and did theory in his piano lessons. But we will be back to both now.
They all started piano earlier than their second instrument and they are all lagging behind with piano grades. DS1 is G3 like his brother and DS2 has G4 violin and is preparing for G5.
But piano has massively helped them progress in their strings....
We often toy with giving up piano to allow them to focus on their preferred strings but then DS1 has found it massively useful in his curriculum music lessons in Year 7 to be able to play piano and both boys want to do GCSE music so we will probably keep going.
Not sure how respective teachers will react to lack of practice but I have enjoyed not having to nag!

Only - I thought that was your child until I read the full thread!!. That level of precision I imagine comes from much more than 1.5 hours per day....

Miniprada has been doing an hour across both instruments every day this holiday apart from when we were abroad. She has pretty much got 2 out of the 3 grade 7 violin pieces up to speed but need final polishing for a music festival in November. No scales or arpeggios though - teacher is putting her in for the exam in November/December for a chance of a result before the independent school scholarships are decided. These will also be her audition pieces. Piano teacher is giving it 2 weeks before deciding whether or not to put her in for g6 piano in November as she doesn't want to load her with stress before the exam season begins for the indie schools.

Green - thank you for the kind words. Minigreeen will be fine I'm sure for the 11+ but it is easier to do little and often over a long period than cram everything over the summer of year 5/6. I know a couple of kids who are very stressed out right now because of that. It really depends if Minigreen takes everything in her stride or not. Miniprada is pretty chilled even if she flunks something (grade 5 theory being a great example) as I think it is important to let kids fail at some things. Miniprada knows she is out of catchment so grammar is a long shot but she should have a go. It's all good practice for the indies after Christmas. Roll on Easter in this house!!