September Music and Musicians Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello to all musicians and parents of musicians, both old and new, beginners and advanced! Feel free to share whatever you like, and ask away about anything to do with music, exams, concerts, repertoire, practice, etc.

We are all heading back to school and work this coming Monday. My daughters Goo (10) and Rara (8) will be going into Year 6 and Year 4 respectively. Goo plays the recorder, flute and piano (just took up piano in April) and I have slapped a ban on exams for about a year - she has been doing too many. Rara plays the recorder and cello, and will be doing whole class brass lessons during Year 4. She's taking Grade 3 Recorder this term, and is about two-thirds of the way through the Grade 1 Theory book, doing it in her own sweet time and bloody annoying unique way. Goo's main project will be NCO and county auditions... not that she's busting a gut currently!

I think when the kids are older and has been learning various instruments for long time its very possible to pick up piano fast. Younger kids, even my 9 years old tonight only practice on this note for 20mins to be able to stretch among fingers and press the keys with enough force and as quick. She is only allowed on right hand this week(even its very tempted).

I would say teachers know the best, why worrying about her level, she could be grade 5-6 in few months if she practises, everything is possible, the most important is she loves it now and that will drive improvement
Only: def a child with parents have a right approach and give them the best support then they will have more chances to do better. There are so many evidences among my friends. Have a faith in them is the most important when they will have belief that (any)things can be done with hard work

Forgot to attach the practise piece that I meant earlier

Green, did minigreen choose her grade 5 pieces? What has she chosen?

She did Fleur, we were given books from someone who doesnt want to take this year exam. I know 2 pieces from our teacher notes: Am Abend and a Bach piece( will check downstair tomorrow), she learns some scales and we have been learning aural the last 6 months(still only ok-ish). This was some note from last week, most of the time I have no idea what he is saying and my daughter has to explain it to me

Wafflenose, sounds like teacher knows what she is doing.
May be it is too overwhelming to know that Goo is soooo good at piano too? :)
I would trust the teacher

Fleurdelise is your piano teacher English or a foreigner? Never ever came across to anything like that here, though friend of mine has a Russian teacher and this teacher sounds similar by description

Waffle, I looked at the description of "Hello Mr Gillock! Carl Czerny!" on amazon, looks like it includes typical Czerny etudes, here is the description. And Czerny is considered really good, so teacher is doing well :)

Delightful Piano Pieces for all Occasions. 48 pages. ** Carl Czerny (1791-1857) and William Gillock (1917-1993) unfortunately did not have the opportunity to meet each other personally. But in her witty comic strips, Martina Schneider brings the two men together by means of a trans-Atlantic phone call. Both composers exchange brief comments about their masterpieces, musically demanding "little" etudes and studies. Though they each speak their own language, have no fear: it's all translated! What the 27 "Delightful Piano Pieces for All Occasions" have in common is that they are all ideal both for teaching and recital purposes. CONTENTS: Carl Czerny: Op. 139 No. 24, No. 38, No. 40, No. 59, No. 72, No. 88, Op. 261 No. 69, Op. 481 No. 27, Op. 599 No. 56, No. 73, No. 86, Op. 718 No. 11, Op. 821 No. 88, William Gillock: Capriccietto, Carnival in Rio, Castanets, Flamenco, Mission Bells, Mister Trumpet Man, Moonlight, Sarabande, Summertime Blues, Taking it easy, The Constant Bass, The Juggler, Yo-Yo Tricks.

Green - Miniprada did the Bach. Assuming it's the same book (might not be) It is tricky. She would've done better without the netballl accident and if she had pulled her finger out with the aural (she hates singing). She also did the 60's swing which makes you think you're sitting in a piano bar somewhere posh. Just delightful.

Thanks, only. I do really like the teacher, and know how good she is meant to be. I just thought we'd still be plodding away at Piano Time 2 right now. She seemed to miss out that whole gradual learning of pieces with two hands where the hands move around thing, and jumped straight into difficult pieces, with very little experience. I'm a linear, logical type or person, and so is Goo, so this is somewhat perturbing!

Waffle - I bet it's just that Goo has a real gift for the piano. Teacher sounds amazing!

Waffle My DS's piano teacher does that too and I sometimes feel the same way and worry but he seems to be willing to plod on.

Well, she has had a go this morning - separate hands and slowly - OK apart from a few shaky chords. She then put the first two lines and the last line together, got cross and wandered off!

Only our teacher is English and obsessed with technique! Every piece DD plays needs to fulfill some technique requirements before she is happy to move on. She is usually assigned a Czerny study, a piece from Bartok Mikrokosmos, two/three pieces from different eras and sight reading and scales. Currently she is working on a Beethoven sonatina, a Chopin prelude and Grieg Dance of the Elves. She writes in her practice book what she needs to achieve in each piece/exercise, curved fingers, elbow down, speed and so on. I am very lucky with her I think.

Green I just realised minigreen will still do the current syllabus, we will do the new pieces. Good luck with practice.

Wafflenose but you posted Goo's videos before-she grabbed it all extremely quickly! There was some lack of confidence which is understandable but I am sure it will come with time. Besides if teacher is so experienced, surely she can recognise the potential without being emotionally attached to the child :) I love the teachers who stretch students and Goo responds so well! Besides, being such a musical child Goo may become bored with too simple pieces and teacher may know it from her previous teaching experience.
Scales and Czerny probably cover whatever is missing technically, so really, the situation looks like perfectly under control.

Waffle just a couple of thoughts based on my own lessons: I had a similar situation with one teacher. He gave me a selection of pieces, one grade 3, one grade 4, one grade 5 and a Chopin piece! I was horrified and told him it was impossible and he just laughed. I had to go away and work out the fingering, which I did much better than I thought I would. I found the grade 4 piece difficult ( to put it mildly). I did a bit of the Chopin. At the time I think I might just have got onto the grade 3 sight-reading book but it might have been grade 2. Scales were similar to Goo. I simply don't have Goo's ability and I never will, but I did learn quite a bit about technique from being challenged. Also, it showed me that the piano is about endless breaking down into small pieces and constant working on many details. This might be what the teacher is trying to say to Goo - that actually if it comes easy, you should be playing something harder to understand what it's really like to learn piano.at first it's all impossible, then you manage to do something and it isn't impossible, then you can play the whole piece. Then you refine it. Does that make sense? I can only go on what I have learned. It suits me much more than the flute did when I was little but it can seem frustrating to spend ages on one piece!
Anyway I think Goo is doing brilliantly and I look forward to the next video. And I totally sympathise with getting cross and walking away! She'll be drawn back though, it's irresistable!

Waffle I think Goo really likes the piano and loves to be pushed, for a child to practice an hour to 90 min on a new instrument it is a big thing. I think the teacher sees this and that is why she pushes her.

DD's teacher is the same, she sees that DD is willing to put in the work and never goes back unprepared so she is happy to assign a lot of work when she sees progress.

In other news DD started her first clarinet grade 1 piece which she sight read in one go in lesson, this is after only 6 lessons before the summer break. I would have preferred to skip grade 1 but DD wanted to do it when asked.

Fleurdelise, oh, I love our piano teacher dearly, but yours sounds just... to good to be true! Oh, well, I find it a great comfort that piano is not our main instrument :)

Unfortunately we have been a bit lazy over the summer and it is unlikely we do grade 5 theory in Nov. However teacher still wants to send dd to sit grade 3 or 4 (she is about to complete book 4 and depending on result teacher will decide next week). Does is sound reasonable? To do a theory exam rehearsal?

Only I think that's a good idea! Should be quite motivating as well. I managed to do my theory homework for my lesson last night but must admit it was hard work! Admire all the DCs who are doing theory!
Fleur is right about the length of practice making all the difference in Goo's lightening progress. DS2 needs to up his game a bit but he won't manage that!
Also well done MiniFleur on clarinet, that's amazing!

only I do feel very lucky but bear in mind each teacher has their own teaching method, some may address technique later ours wants to do it from the beginning. Where ours lacks I think (and this isn't any criticism as such) is sight reading, she believes this comes with playing lots of repertoire but after DD's grade 3 where sight reading let her down she introduced sight reading exercises. She can sight read really well if you don't call it sight reading. 😂

Thank you Loose! I think when kids really show passion they need to be kept engaged so I don't think Goo would have liked to play very simplified music when she puts in so much effort.

Only just to say DD's teacher wants her to do grade 3 also before grade 5 theory as a practice of the important exam. So go for it! Less stressful as the result won't matter much.

Loose I really admire you for being so motivated to learn to play and not only that but also do the theory side. I would love to do it but I can't find any time left in my busy life. I feel that the kids have taken over completely but I decided that once GCSEs and 11+ are out of the way I'll try and learn.

Fleur thank you, that's very kind. I quite like the theory but trying to do everything in 45 minutes of lesson time is quite difficult and rather slow!
I know what you mean about finding time and it does affect how often I practise. However, I am going to play one of my grade 4 pieces in a music school concert next month so I will be motivated to practise more!!

Oh, and my teacher is starting to talk about how I should have a 'real' piano. There is an issue about where to put one without annoying our neighbours! Although maybe I could chuck everything else out of posh shed and put a lovely piano in there! (Cackles evilly)
To be fair teacher also suggested just booking some practice time with a real piano at the music school before exams. That probably is the more sensible option at this stage. And better for family harmony!

waffle I would just trust the teacher. An older beginner can learn basic techniques via slightly harder material, because some of the basics that make pieces "harder" or "easier" (like rhythmic difficulties or a key signature with lots of black keys) are simply not an issue for a student who is post-grade 5 in another instrument. The first piano piece DD ever learnt had four sharps and I don't think it even entered her mind that that made it "more difficult".

DD's piano lessons started again last week - she is working towards participating in a competition this year as well as finishing her "second cycle" (roughly grade 8). To do this she also needs to pass a theory exam, but realistically she won't be able to fit in theory classes until we move closer to her school (just put in an offer on a house). She has an extremely heavy workload at school this year, and with 2.5 hours of transport a day there is just no space for anything else right now.

Her recording project has been put on hold - will probably aim for either the Christmas or the February holidays - but she will be doing the odd live show as that doesn't take much rehearsal time.