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!

Fleur: minifluer is so lovely, her play is wonderful to my ears, thats amazing just after few lessons. Well done.
I was alittle nervous when we had violin and piano couple of days apart mainly because violin was for grade 1. Then last June for theory G5 and violin(more worried about violin because we jumped grade while also studied for G5 theory for only more than couple of months). It all turned out ok luckily, however if I could avoid it, a couple of weeks apart would be nicer. I think when they are young its harder too, she is nearly 9 now and after these couple of experiences I dont think she minds to do it again. We were thinking of doing both violin and piano this term then I decided not too and especially we have found a new violin teacher now. You are also so right about aural. Of everything, my daughter is not so good with aural(we fixed sight reading with theory then it seems sorted now as she could sightread well). We tried few things: dictation, go to loads of concerts and still doing these with hope to improve aural in the future, even not for this coming exam

Just love the sound of a clarinet...played so enthusiastically by minifleur!

Oh Fleur what a lovely tune and she sounds very good. I just love the sound of the clarinet. Thanks for posting! One of the most unforgetable concerts I have ever attended (long time ago, before DS was born) was Giora Feidman and I don't think I closed my mouth the whole time.

Now that you're out, please post some piano whenever she's ready!
OK, I'm really enjoying getting to know everyone's sweet children. Anyone else dares?

Fleur : all through the night sounds lovely. enjoy Moscow nights

Thank you ladies! The piece needs polishing of course, and it is only the beginning but I like recording her and tracking her progress on both piano and clarinet.

drummersmum I'll record her on piano doing one of the pieces she has completed, currently working on three other pieces. I'll share those when ready. One is a Chopin prelude which you can learn the notes quite quickly but interpreting it up to a good standard is quite a challenge, more so as it is sad and DD is only 9, maybe I should give her a reason to be sad.

se22mother in all fairness the teacher asked her to listen to all the pieces on the cd and choose another one but DD failed to do so therefore the teacher suggested Moscow nights saying that if she finds it challenging they can change it next week.

Hello all, dd came home from school with more news of a young person losing their life due to fungus from the mouthpiece. He was 24 years old, that's all and otherwise very healthy.
Have looked but can't find the story, but please have a look at this if any of your children play wind or brass.
www.medicaldaily.com/clarinet-player-who-didnt-clean-instrument-30-years-develops-saxophone-lung-allergic-reaction-fungi
Please click on the link at the bottom with further instruction if you haven't been advised how to clean.
Sorry for the sad post today.

Gilly so sad and shocking. This is totally new to me and will let other young wind and brass players I know about it.

Gilly that is heart breaking! I'll make sure DD will always clean the mouthpiece. Thank you for highlighting this to us, I had no idea.

Gilly I have heard about this kind of thing before, but how tragic, and he was so young too. I clean all the mouthpieces personally because I don't trust my kids to do it enough, but will be doing lots of extra cleaning today.

Rara barely does anything apart from Lego these days, but is really getting into her music. I can't say she's practising much, but she likes her recorder and cello, and won't give one up. In spare moments, she has been playing easy, recognisable tunes (e.g. Hot Cross Buns which I showed you the other day) on the trumpet, clarinet and saxophone, and working out more complicated ones on the piano and glockenspiel. She's always progressed at a completely average pace (started her instruments at 4 and 5, now at 8.5 is between Grade 2 and 3, so normal) but is enjoying how transferable it all is. Anyway... Goo reports back, after visiting the high school, that there will be little opportunity to play the recorder, and that if you want to get into any of the good groups, you need to play a different wind or brass instrument. Rara will be welcome in String Group, of course, but that's about it. So she is now on a mission to start something new - I said wait until Year 5 when she is done with whole class trumpet lessons, but she's not planning to practise the trumpet, isn't keen, and isn't willing to wait. I'll let you know what she decides!

Aw, it's all very interesting isn't it.
I'm quite often amazed when it comes down to choosing the serious instruments what they choose.
DD only started sax because her dad plays, I'm sure of it. The progression was quick as not only did she have him on hand when she was H.ed but had played violin and singing before she started.
The violin has truly gone now, she still owns one but she hasn't played anything in over a year now.
She does go to listen during the compulsory visits they have to make to other depts at school. They have up to 2 hours lunch, sometimes it's free other times they have to attend rehearsals. I think we'd call it peer to peer observation

I think with the cleaning it's common sense, but it always surprises me how many teachers/ schools don't clean the instruments they have in cupboards, this must be the worst.
They hand them out to children/ children told to get one out of cupboard and they have no idea if they have been cleaned, or how long ago.
The other obvious one is not allowing others to play and taking extra care when you have a cold or other infection.

Waffle that would be the same at DCs school. There was Junior and Senior Strings, and invitational Orchestra. But strings have declined so much there is only 1 string group and this year no orchestra due to lack of strings

That is very sad, I will go and clean dd's clarinet when she has gone to bed!

That was a terrible story. Glad I made DS1 clean his flute regularly but mine must have been a nightmare as a child (though i did at least clean it so maybe not).
It is interesting what gives. Ds1 never plays flute now but is very focused on bass and percussion.

How fabulous Alexandra. Well done to him!

Was it today Alex? Well done! Its great that he is so chilled isnt it.
I have a small problem, just realised I have a 3pm on Sunday at Royal Albert Hall (09th) and this means my daughter will miss a rehearsal. Will check with the Orchestra if this is allowed as we booked 3-4months ago before we joined

Oh wow! Alexandra that is fantastic! Well done to him!

Still no strong wifi so now I have Waffle's and Fleur's vids to catch up on!

Well done Alexandra's son! Fab.

Going to send the cleaning link to the head of music at school. I did read something last month after hearing something on R4 about bagpipes. How terribly sad for such a young person.

Feel so guilty as I still didn't read everyone's news but need some advice again please...

I am still struggling to optimise music/school from time management point of view... I feel the more music is done at primary school the easier life is going to be at secondary school... Here is my question....
Just to remind-dd8 is moving towards gr5 on violin and was due to do gr4 on piano this term but after speaking to piano teacher we decided to leave all the piano exams in the foreseeable future and just play for fun whilst concentrating on violin.... Few weeks into this plan and I still feel it does not quite work as piano require quite a lot of time which is not always possible...
My new idea is - to stop piano lessons all together (for few years) and to do jazz piano instead. As she will need to start from scratch but she already plays piano presumably it should not be too difficult but this way she will acquire new skills whilst not spending too much time on it. And when either violin or jazz piano is done and she is more mature she can return back to classical piano. My concern that she may struggle to do classical piano again if break is too long, or am I wrong? She is clearly not a classical pianist but she enjoys playing piano...
Does it sound reasonable?

Alexandra you must be so proud! Well done to your son!

only I am not in the situation where a second instrument requires more time, DD can still go by with 15-20 min daily on clarinet due to being a beginner so not sure how we would manage the practice time if both instruments would require a similar amount of time. Saying that I believe I would concentrate DD's efforts on the main instrument while on the other I would make sure she does enough practice to still progress but probably at a slower rate.

Does she have the same teacher for both violin and piano? If so maybe the teacher would understand and assign less practice on piano. Would jazz piano not require a similar amount of practice? if she still enjoys playing the piano would your DD be more intrested to play popular pieces (Disney songs, modern, jazz and a bit of classical here and there) without doing exams just for the fun of it?

only it is perfectly possible to keep piano ticking over on 20-30mins most days. It is DD(12)'s third instrument and she has absolutely never done more practice than this (in fact for her more like some days than than most days!!!) and managed distinction at gr6 a couple of years ago. She has decided not to do any more exams but still has lessons, practices and improves steadily as she realises it is so useful alongside the other instruments. If she decides she wants to do gr8 at some point and is prepared to put in a couple of months solid work on it then she can, but for now she is enjoying some nice repertoire with no exam pressure - in fact she is probably playing much more now that she is not grinding away at exam pieces.

only: ditto *hapsburg" here. We've never increased the 30 mins lesson on piano (during term only), DD practices when she can that is not more than 20mins x week, more at weekends due to time limitations. She's Y8 and is G7 level, does 1 exam a year with most time on non-exam stuff. And really enjoys it now as the pressure is off, and it's her 2nd instrument. No pressure for teacher either...he knows the score.

I hope this reassures you a little that keeping it ticking over may be an option vs giving it a break...

Not good with bold on a phone

I am going to give up after this last attempt. Was meant to add 4 x a week (and that's if I believe she gets that done in school)!

Our turning point was G6. She finds the piano's value adding the other musical things, just like theory knowledge does. So not wasted, even if progress may not be as rigid or obvious as the primary instruments!