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!

Waffle I am looking forward to the xaphoon video!
howabout your DD is a very good influence! I actually had a good practice session today and I think she would have approved of how much I focused on improving the weak points rather than just playing! Mind you, that was just one piece and some scales and it still took about 45 minutes.

Here is Rara... she is VERY excited! We will wait and see how she copes with three instruments.

Oh bless. Go Rara!

She has a definite goal in mind, so I'll bet she dies really well.

Awww! Go Rara! She does look keen!

Go Rara! She looks very eager to play!

Is that additional to cello and recorder Waffle?

Go Rara!!nail another one!

Yes, Fleur. I don't think she will carry on with recorder at secondary, and wanted to get started on something else that she can play in the various wind and concert bands. She also does trumpet once a week at school, and doesn't like it much.

Waffle When Ds did whole class brass at school he didn't enjoy it either. At the time he had his G4 and he was intensely bored by the whole thing.

I am sure she'll love the clarinet. DD was meant to do brass this year and they postponed it for next year, I think it is a waste of time (in our case). From the feedback I had from other parents they didn't learn much last year and it was mayhem.

I think there are 39 children in her class, possibly 38, so I don't think she'll learn much on the trumpet. She gets it out for five minutes a couple of times a week, but isn't keen. I taught her how to tongue tonight, and the fingering system, and she is reading and playing little tunes with the first five notes. Treble recorder has helped!

Er... the second half of my last post is about the clarinet!!

I managed to record DD playing piano tonight, please be gentle, the piano needs tuning and the tuner keeps postponing the date of the visit and she needs to polish the piece, tie up the rythm, soften the left hand (she hates that, slow practice keeping left hand quiet) and put some nice dynamics to it. All in all this is one of our evening fun pieces.

Well done Rara! I am sure she'll fly through with her previous music experience. Looking forward to see her playing!

Thanks for posting that! I loved it, and she's fab!

Incidentally, I played that piece for an exam once. The main difference is that I was about 16.

Waffle rara looks so excited . My year 4 8 year old loves her clarinet. Good luck to her

Rara is 8 and in Year 4 as well (summer born). She's rather short, but just big enough!

Thank you Waffle as I said lots of work to still be done, after that we had to break it down, I was shouting from the kitchen "don't forget what the teacher said, you need to slow down and keep that left hand soft", I had to come next to her at some point as I could hear she wasn't really doing as asked. I wish I could leave her to it but she'd definitely ignore all that the teacher asked.

In her clarinet practice book it says "tongue" next to "all through the night" she claims she doesn't know what the teacher meant by that.

Waffle: snap this dd is also summer born but talll with it. Loves the clarinet as she chose the instrument herself and is the only clarinetist in her year.... Violin was chosen for her...no practice on either instrument today due to play date.

Lovely playing Fleur!

Its was beautiful and love the cheeky ending, love her smile Fluer, I dare to say she plays way better than mine. Will show her tomorrow to inspire her. Thanks so much for sharing!

Fleur: beautiful playing from mini

I just caught up with MiniFleur - what a lovely start to the day! She plays very well and I particularly like the grin at the end. Thanks so much for posting.
I'm not sure I'll be able to post anything with DS2 as he really hates being filmed but I will see if he's amenable at half term! He managed his cello lesson yesterday, remembered to bring it home, somehow forgot to go to band despite collecting the cello from the rehearsal room (!) and then phoned me to find out why I wasn't at home! However, on the upside he has been asked to play his cello for school founder's service but he doesn't know when it is...

Thank you ladies! Last night we started with piano practice as somebody is developing a preference for the clarinet and tends to do it first and then state she is too tired to practice all her piano work.

We need to take Claire the clarinet with us at piano lesson soon to practice with her teacher's accompaniment as she is the one who will help in the exam. I know it will trigger a lot of "you need to count" which DD hates even though she does it initially until she gets the rythm right. It will be fun.

Loose I am trying to film DD as much as I can now as I know it will be forbidden later on. DS doesn't even allow me to take a picture, it was a challenge during our holiday.