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!

My 6 year old has had 2 violin lessons now, he's obviously not really learnt anything yet so is it too early to get him into the routine of practice? If not, how should I start him off?

MyGast I think it's never too early to have routine practice. Find a time in the day that you can do most days and do five minutes a go - that's what we did, and we gradually increase to how ever much time is needed. In the early days we even did sticker charts for practice but they don't care about stickers any more (10+ years old ...)

Love your name.

Welcome, MyGast!

Rara has been trying to show me how desperately keen she is, and how she can cram three lots of practice into one day. Well, well! I need to see if she can keep it up for more than one day. Once she stops chatting and fiddling with things, she actually only needs to do 10 minutes on each. In view of the fact that she spends around 60 minutes on the computer and a further 30-40 watching DVDs some days, this should be very achievable.

I agree, best to get into good habits from the beginning. I remember after the first piano lesson DD had 3 notes to learn for the following week, we sat at the piano every day while she pressed the 3 notes and named them.

Fleur Those were the days.

I had pages of this thread to catch up on, a great way to pass away the evening on a business trip. Loved watching Goo, Rara and minifleur perform!! Very talented and adorable little girls.

Mygast: dd started a few minutes every night open a and e string (she was much younger) but it got into the routine that music practice was non negotiable whatever else was happening

Finally got wifi and time to watch Fleur's and Waffles videos. Wonderful! Very talented young ladies indeed 👏👏👏

MiniFleur and rara looks so cute in their videos with their innocent gestures.
Goo is so mature, I loved watching their videos and infact Mini-fleur somehow reminds me of infant Hope ( in serial Raising Hope), don't know why ??

Thank you all for complimenting my little Fleur. I'll record her on piano when she'll allow me, I tried last night but she was unhappy with her performance.

NeverEver those were indeed the days. She started exactly 3 years ago and I remember when piano (and music) practice wasn't the highlight of the day and wasn't taking over our lives. Back then we thought that she can do something extra as a means of relaxation additional to school work. And here we are three years later with music being up on the priority list, higher than academics I'd say, she has days when she doesn't do any 11+ practice but music practice is a must. I can't pinpoint the exact moment when things have changed.

mom17 I haven't watched Raising Hope but I am off to google it.

I can't remember who recommended the Ying Ying Ng Music Theory for Young Musicians books but they are just so much better than the ABRSM ones!

just packed ds2 off to school staggering under his cello! Not quite sure how lessons at school will work out - he's on a rotation with 3 other boys so sometimes he misses part of a lesson and sometimes some of his lunch hour. It's not so much ds2 I feel sorry for as the cello itself!

I hope he manages it, and that the cello comes home intact!

I am going to pop over to the woodwind shop this afternoon to hire a wind instrument for Rara. She keeps playing mine, and I'd rather she didn't. I have decided to go with it and let her learn a 3rd (or 4th including compulsory school trumpet lessons) because she doesn't do a lot else. Depending on the time of year, school offers activities like netball, football, rugby, cricket, athletics, multi skills, dodgeball, dance and drama... she does NOT want to know, won't try anything sporty at all (except swimming lessons, which I make her go to) and is far more interested in creative pursuits. So she has started having art lessons, and I am going to teach her the new instrument for a while and see how she gets on. If she doesn't practise, it's going back at Christmas. If she loves it and works at it, I'll buy it for Christmas and get the three months' hire money discounted from the purchase price. Anyone like to guess what it is?

Sax?

Clarinet?

NeverEver DD's teacher is using Lina Ng theory books with her pupils which are similar to Ying Ying Ng, she can't digest the Abrsm ones and says they are designed with adults in mind.

We started with the Lina Ng books and then it just got too slow - I think they are better for younger students. The Ying Ying Ng ones seem to have the right pace for my kids (10 & 12). The 12yo could cope with the ABRSM one but I was BORED to tears having to look everything up.

Waffle Where do you get woodwind instruments? DS1 may want a flute, but my knowledge of musical instrument shops are limited to piano and strings...

Waffle I want to guess bassoon but it can't be that! I'm going with sax as my guess!
I hope the cello survives for band practice after school as well! Told DS1 to make sure DS2 feels confident about going to band practice after school too.

NeverEver we have a lovely flute that no one in this house ever plays so I'd be willing to sell it. PM me if interested - it would be third hand though so depends if you're looking for new or not. We bought it from Top Wind near Waterloo Station - fantastic range and they can find you a selection to try out.

Oboe

We have a well known, large woodwind and brass shop VERY nearby! That's lucky, in my line of work.

I am going to keep you all guessing for a little bit longer, but will upload a picture or video later!

Ahhhh Waffle this is cyber cruelty.

French horn?

Slight snigger Loose at the thought of a shop called 'top wind'

Completely off topic, but where I used to live, there was a barber's called 'Avitoff'!