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!

Ah yes, Fleur I know what you mean!
I have a very cute clip of DS2 'singing' his own 'composition' aged about 4, which may be brought out of hiding when he is 16 to the mirth of his friends!

Thank you. Still many years to go and, presumably gradually increasing opportunities to play publicly. I am slightly out of my depth now as my eldest is better than me and has improved rapidly. I sit down with each child for music practice most days - I am not the sort to throw money at lessons and not support my children at home. Whether they would practice as much without my support I don't know, but there are never any complaints - it is just part of our routine. And they tinker around on the piano a lot as a default thing to do when a bit bored.

It sounds like we should look into getting a better instrument than the current one. It is a bit daunting, but manageable as long as we get what we pay for and feel that we have a reasonable chance of being able to sell it on later.

ha, the grin/smile at the end was best! Both Rara's earlier, and minifleur's.
Yes. it's nice at that age, they will still let you film them, will be lovely memories.

Waffle thta's great, loved the pic. Good luck to Rara! Will you teach her?

Fleur thank you so much for posting. DS played this piece for one of his exams, can't remember which! It threw me straight back in time! She's very confident, produces a nice sound, her hands are good. This piece has a huge potential for rubato - holding it just a tiny little bit when you start the first phrase again, like a tease. (Sorry my terms are not very musical) For example around 0:40 of your video. She should really play with it, have fun with rubato, I'm sure the teacher will take her there...

Ah, thank you ladies, it is good to see their satisfaction at the end isn't it? She watched the video after filming it and said "it is amazing seeing it, I can't believe my fingers can do that"

drummersmum I think it is grade 3 or 4 level, she plays it as her "easier piece", not that it is very easy but it can be learnt fairly quickly, now polishing it her teacher told her "it depends how you want to play it, at grade 3/4 level, or higher by adding the right dynamics" to which DD replied "I will play it at grade 3/4 level". The other two she plays are really giving her a head ache. Not hard to learn the notes but hard to actually perfect them. The Chopin one at least it is meant to be sad and DD manages to make it sound quite happy.

Thank you about the rubato advice, she is meant to play like that in a bar (hold it back to create an expectant mood) but she only does it when she fancies so. She currently thinks you are the best at piano the faster you play. Hence the happy Chopin.

I am reading Bounce and I know what we could make up with little practice is by practising effectively(everyone must have known this centuries ago) however it makes so much sense. Sorry just whining out of stupid moments trying to think if there is a way to get away with 30mins practice aday as it has been all I have got(worrying about the violin lesson tomorrow where our new teacher might chuck us out of the door because we havent done any practice suggested 2 weeks ago-well I can just drop her then come back to collect her at the end of the lesson

green just explain to the teacher she has a piano exam and practice will be slower on the violin for a bit. Or you could just squeeze in 10 min practice on violin, she will still progress even if slower.

Fleur I looked it up, and I played it for Grade 2 in 1993. No way would that be set for Grade 2 now, it's more like Grade 3, but as people have said, there's SO much that can be put into it, the level doesn't matter.

Goo's piano teacher wants her to have an acoustic piano, oh dear. One year after we paid £400 to have the electric repaired!!

I am teaching Rara the clarinet, and have a Friday slot just after her BFF's lesson. Maybe they can cross over for five minutes here and there, to play some duets. She has her Grade 3 Recorder exam this term, so I'm trying not to let her get too distracted from that. Losing battle though, I fear.

I can't believe my fingers can do that
That's just pure sweet.

Green what is Bounce? I'm so out of it.

Waffle DD played a Haydn piece for her grade 3 that was previously a grade 5. The Abrsm cd was playing it slower and with less dynamics but DD's teacher wouldn't have it, she wanted it played as it was meant to. She did score 29 points for it to be fair but I think sometimes the grades are randomly assigned however the requirements are lower or higher regarding on the respective grade.

Ooh, I must find out what Rara is planning to call the clarinet. She asked if mine is male or female (!) and I told her it's male - I called it Arthur, because the model number is R13.

Oh and good luck piano shopping Waffle

"She currently thinks you are the best at piano the faster you play."

I think she's not alone in this!

But to be honest it is exhilarating to play fast.

Yes, DS2 would definitely agree that it's better to play fast as well and he won't quite believe me when I tell him it sounds better slowed down a bit!
Another good session with scales, plus the piece I'm going to play in a concert in a few weeks. Trying to train my fingers to be as accurate as possible by memorising certain bits. It seems to be working although I found before if I had a break for a couple of days some mistakes crept back in. Definitely sounds better though - I've eliminated all those pauses that happen when you think oh no! here comes the tricky bit. Now must get some work done!

Well I think her teacher will cure the speed issue, not sure if you listened to Elves's dance (or Elfins dance) by Grieg. That is one of the pieces she's currently learning, she'll never achieve that speed.

Loose you are doing so well, you inspire me!

Drummers: its a book my colleague recommended, I have been reading(carrying) it for 3 months because I was busy on Mumsnet hahaha.
Regarding to speed, we are banned from playing normal tempo until we have mastered(well in our owned term) the piece. We are usually told to play in slow, medium tempo, left hand/or right hand then join both hand before allowed to play in normal tempo. I thought it was because we were punished from learning the pieces too fast(a problem rather than an advantage) and not playing them nicely( she has learnt the Prelude in C and Am Abend, more of sightread them fluently after just more than 2 weeks, 30mins or so aday).
I like my teacher in the sense that I always feel we havent met his requirements. I usually have to find(make up) reason why this task wasnt done, that task hasnt been done. I assume my new violin teacher is the same, to me it means they care

Green I want to read it!

Oh yes it's the famous book about the 10, 000 hours

Oh yes! Have heard of the book - actually might read it!
Fleur honestly, I get so much inspiration from MiniFleur and MiniGreen and Goo and Rara. And particularly mini howabout! Without going into details we had a family tragedy/ies some years back and I had to find positive things to do. I found several but I really do bless the day I plucked up the courage to do a trial piano lesson because I was honestly terrified and thought I wouldn't be able to do it. And of course I loved it from the very first lesson!

Also came back from work late last night to discover drum gate continues! The lesson at school is now a shared lesson with a beginner. DS1 understandably has had enough so I am going to see if music school near us has some slots free -and hopefully for a 45 minute lesson. I've paid the school lessons to half term but they were ridiculously cheap so I should have realised this wasn't going work!

Loose Hope you get something sorted for DS soon. It's a bit painful to be paired up with a beginner if you are raring to go. DS's school lessons are ridiculously cheap too. We've paid for 1-1 which is still REALLY CHEAP and he seems to have a good teacher (who is pleased, I think, because DS already plays other instruments and can make quick progress in the beginning and there's no learning-to-read-notation stage. ).

And it took me years to pluck up enough courage to phone up my teacher to ask if she'd take a very rusty student. I'm so happy I did it too.

Loose good idea to look somewhere else, if the lessons at school are cheap you could still continue and your DS could use them as a practice session.

We started visiting secondary schools with DD, seen one last night and loved it, it has science and performing arts as specialism so strong music department. We would still continue with private music lessons but she could at least join the school orchestra. DD was very impressed, I hope visiting the schools give her the motivation to prepare for the 11+.

That sounds great Fleur - I think they do need to have a real image in their mind of where they might go after primary school to motivate them through all the practice papers! Good luck with all the school visits!
Well, I have booked a trial drum lesson in a couple of weeks, straight after the bass guitar lesson! I also paid for the theory exam and booked the grade 6 bass guitar exam.

Sounds lovely Fleur. The issue with the super selective grammar near me is that the music and arts depts are generally c**p as they are only looks by Friday one sort of girl- one who can beat the clock in a test. Not display any flair for English or maths. The indies we have looked at though take the top % who pass the papers with flying colours then the next cohort is from those who passed well but not exceptionally but who offer the school enrichment via music/art/drama IMO this makes for a more well-rounded school.

By the way miniprada has been made leader of her local orchestra did I mention that already? She is soooooo happy. I might post a vid of her playing her Vivaldi - she is doing it for her NCO audition next Thursday at the RAH. I might need someone to post me an idiots guide as to how to upload to YouTube without the world seeing!