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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

September Music and Musicians Thread

653 replies

Wafflenose · 02/09/2016 20:18

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!

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Greenleave · 04/09/2016 13:13

Thanks Prada, Only: its only an Orchestra however we are very happy as chances of socialising with other kids( we were offered right after the audition, the minimum requirement is grade 4 so they are either desperate or we are very lucky, I glued my ears at the doors and heard the pieces were played better than usual to be honest so def lots of luck here)

onlymusic · 04/09/2016 13:21

Greenleave, ha-ha, don't say "it is only an orchestra" :) - as you said the requirements were high, she played beautifully, so well done to mini green! It is only her first step :)
Btw, I usually keep away from the doors, I am getting so nervous that I cannot listen to her playing :)

MomOfTwoGirls2 · 04/09/2016 13:29

Out teacher also advises practice tricky bar until they can be played perfectly 3 times consecutively.
I haven't been able to persuade either daughter!! So for new pieces we will do tricky bars 5 times, the page or maybe just section with the tricky bar twice and one play through of the entire piece. Once it gets more fluent we often play along with slowed down version of the song, this really highlight areas that need work. (The Suzuki books comes with CDs). Great for working on tricky bits too! I use Amazing Slow Downer app a lot!

LooseAtTheSeams · 04/09/2016 13:47

Green just saw about MiniGreen - well done to her on getting into the orchestra - that sounds like a pretty big deal to me! I bet she is absolutely going to love it! Smile

Icouldbeknitting · 04/09/2016 13:53

I must have shared this pearl of wisdom from our teacher before:

"Amateurs practise until they get it right, a professional practises until they can't get it wrong".

onlymusic · 04/09/2016 13:59

Mistigri, aaah I know that feeling of revenge Grin - when I needed to change dd's teacher at some point in the past, dd auditioned with one lady and she made VERY nasty remarks about dd's music ability, to the point of being rude. Three years already but I still feel a bit annoyed.

onlymusic · 04/09/2016 13:59

Icouldbeknitting I like it!

drummersmum · 04/09/2016 15:58

Congrats to minigreen. She'll love the experience.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 04/09/2016 17:47

I read somewhere that practice is about tightening the nuts and bolts of the plane so that when you take off your wings won't fall off...

This term I'm going to be on DS1's case until he gets the habit of focusing on tricky bars.

But NO EXAMS THIS YEAR. Smile (Though DS1 wants to do an exam in school - I told him I'm not getting involved with stuff from school and he's on his own ... lazy tough parenting ...)

PetraDelphiki · 04/09/2016 17:52

Green - welcome to Stoneleigh! Is that main orchestra or training? Dd is in training orchestra...

Fleurdelise · 04/09/2016 18:02

Well done to minigreen orchestral admission and well done for the A* Icouldbe!

Yes repeating a bar a few times once is corrected is what DD's teacher prescribes, so first practice to get it right and then once is right repeat a few times (her magic number is 5). Not the piece though, if she'd ask for the piece to be repeated 10 times DD would go crazy. To be fair she used to repeat a piece on and on with the same mistakes and that is when her teacher focused on teaching her how to practice for a while to break the habit of playing the same thing without correcting issues.

Fleurdelise · 04/09/2016 18:10

On a positive note today I have asked DD to practice clarinet expecting she would have forgotten everything. I was ready to sit with her from now till next Saturday when she is having the first lesson after the summer holiday and go through each stage again super fast to at least not embarrass the teacher when they meet again.

Well I didn't need to worry, DD picked up the clarinet, skipped straight to stage 9 of the book where she left it and played the pieces through as the last time she practiced 6 weeks or so ago. Not sure how she managed to remember it all considering she forgot a whole piano piece in the two weeks we've been away and she had a whole crying tantrum about it and we had to break it into small chunks to bring it back, but there you go.

Helenluvsrob · 04/09/2016 18:25

Hi all.

Aren't the mini waffles growing up! I love the updates :)

Feeling a bit anxious for youngest this year. She's year 13. It's her year to shine and enjoy her music at the top of her game as it were in the " school age phase". She so self critical though.

She'll be joint head chorister which will be grand , except for a personality clash with the divaesque other person.

School orchestras and bands should be good and school chamber choir too. I'm still v proud that they went on tour and she sang the solo in " the bluebird" which was the perfect solo for her voice ( she's trained like a boy treble so very pure sound at the moment".

There are thoughts of sending her music performance AS back for a remark as the teacher doesn't think the mark was fair. She got an A but as its one of the last AS exams that contributes to A2 it might be worth it.

As regards " practice " um yep. She does some sometimes lol. However she does so much musically anyway she still progresses.

We wait eagerly for her to decide what she's doing at uni. It's getting a but tight !

drummersmum · 04/09/2016 19:57

Had discussion with DS about starting with what need work. He says he knows what still needs work by starting to play the piece from the beginning and then seeing where he makes a mistake and stumbles. Then he stops there and repeats several times...

Original poster
Wafflenose · 04/09/2016 19:57

Aww, yours are getting so grown up too, Helen! And I'm sure your DD will be fine. Congratulations to her on the solo and the A grade, and anyone else I've missed. I am reading, but the thread is progressing fast!

Yes, Goo is growing up so fast. I'm quite short, but she is tall, and is up to my eyebrows now. She's still 10! I applied for secondary school yesterday. That felt weird, because she doesn't start Year 6 until tomorrow. I had a wobble about whether I'm doing the right thing for her (rather than trying for something like Wells - which would have to be fully funded, and I know those places are very competitive) but I think I am. She will go with all her friends, should end up in good sets and get a very broad education, which is best right now because she has no idea what she wants to do. We'll look at music school when she's 16, if that is what she wants.

OP posts:
Greenleave · 05/09/2016 08:04

Icould: amazing with A* in music, massive congrats!
Petra: thank you, we are on training, hopefully to start learning from everyone else, very excited. Although it looks like we are loosing 3 hours every Sunday awhhh! I know its only a beginning, we will have to sacrify weekends, just wanted to delay it as long as possible

PetraDelphiki · 05/09/2016 08:17

Tell me about it!!! We now have no free time any weekend! What does yours play?

AlexandraLeaving · 05/09/2016 08:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 05/09/2016 08:17

drummers That's what DS1 says too. But it becomes infeasible when the pieces are long and you only have 20 minutes before going to school, 10 of which you spend looking for your shoes ...

hapsburg · 05/09/2016 13:07

waffle I have had a 2/3yr wobble about whether we are doing the right things re school for DD! I have now come out the other side and am happy with decision not to send to a specialist school. DD is not the most enthusiastic about academic lessons, but even she (after looking round one specialist school with her friend who is there) asked how they ever learn anything - and what would happen if she ultimately wasn't good enough/was injured/decided against a performing career. As keen as she is on music at the moment, she could see that a more rounded education would be better for her. She also loves all the sport she gets to do at the moment and was horrified at the thought of all that stopping completely. She was also not keen on being surrounded by other musicians all the time - she does a lot of music anyway and finds time spent with school friends with very different interests and priorities provides a good balance. Like you waffle we would reconsider for 6th form but only if she asks us to.

Original poster
Wafflenose · 05/09/2016 13:14

Thanks for your perspective, hapsburg, and also the people who have messaged me. For some reason, my inbox isn't working properly, and won't let me send messages back, but I did try!

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drummersmum · 05/09/2016 13:29

NeverEver LOL at looking for shoes. Here the shoes are found quite quickly but somehow take ages to be "fitted" and reach the ideal tightness... I agree with you re their method, not feasible in a 20min practice. But to be fair to DS, he never spends less than 1 hour at the piano, usually more, so I can't throw that argument back at him. Ultimately I have to let him do what he feels helps him best as he's 14 and often very convinced of his own arguments! I?ve decided to keep my mouth shut for a long while.
I think it's a blessing in disguise that we can't do any practice in the morning (terraced house), as that would inevitably become a shorter one. (Unless of course we wake up at 5am and that ain't gonna happen while I'm alive) Wink
hapsburg thank you for your post to waffle. I've had wobbles in the past and the more DS gets into music and the more difficult it becomes to fit academic work into it, the more I wonder. But your post hits on so many issues which are important to him and us. Very encouraging.

drummersmum · 05/09/2016 13:37

On another note, I wanted to share that DS is now mastering Flight of the Bumblebee on the marimba at such pace and the notes resonate so close to each other, he creates an almost seamless flow and the marimba sounds closer to a string instrument than a percussive one! It's so haunting and beautiful!!! The fact that I cried during his last practice could be due to the onion I was cooking with, though

Musicmom1 · 05/09/2016 13:57

Drummer - that sounds wonderful!

Waffle - it's a hard one and we are very torn; there were quite a few specialist school kids in August and DD came back enthusiastic to see the schools - I think she is finding the time for academic/music a big challenge at moment. I think it will settle down after Dec but I can see why many go specialist.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 05/09/2016 15:49

drummer DS1 does wake up at the crack of dawn but I'm not allowing practice until 8 because we have lovely neighbours and I don't want to piss them off. But maybe we'll have to start earlier. Would 7.45 be unreasonably early for music practice? We do have a silent piano but I don't think he should go silent for practice. It's just not the same.... Or we may have to do another time. But evening is for another instrument. I don't have enough mental space for the third instrument so he's on his own with that one.