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!

hapsburg yes, summer hols were so great to do focused practice, and he put in so many hours (when we were not away). Now it's back to school, homework, etc... Insane.

ealing big hug to your DD. thank you for having a kind word for the musical boys

prada what schools is your DD sitting the 11plus? Do you mind me asking?

Aww Ealing, that's crap for her. Big hugs. Kids are just so mean. When she is rich and famous with all of that talent, they'll be kicking themselves. A bit like the women who wouldn't consider dating mark zuckerberg at uni and were the inspiration for Facebook, who funnily enough were very keen to date him when he was rich...,

Ps Fleur - Spanish teacher says sorry but no new students at the mo.

Fleur is the Spanish for your DS? I really recommend getting hold of a Spanish TV series or two. DD watched Gran Hotel (classic Spanish language TV series) before she started her bilingual course last year, with spanish subtitles at first then without. Great for vocab, listening skills and accent. I order spanish language DVDs and books direct from Spanish Amazon.

ealing I'm sorry to hear about your DD, but please reassure her that the problem is them not her! I have a 13 year old DS and let's say his social skills aren't up there with the best. (He is at least fastidious about personal hygiene, so I am counting my blessings.)

Greenleave, go ahead for gr 5 if your teachers reckons it is doable!

Fleurdelise from what you wrote about your dd's piano teacher so far - looks like she is very competent and I like her approach! I personally think it is a good idea to play a number of certain pieces before taking piano exam. It is different with Greenleave though as her dd has a Russian teacher (is it right?) and it is different approach all together :)

On a subject of exams. Dd used to have teachers who were adamant to stick to their program and she had some more flexible ones. Some of them just prepared for exams and some introduced her to a wider playing experience. As she has two different instruments and different abilities for each of them I think it really depends on a number of factors. I would prefer her to take piano exams if teacher is confident she passes it but I would not agree to send her to violin exam if she is not prepared to distinction level - and even if she does not get a distinction - I would know it is her on a day and not because she is not capable of doing it. What I would probably take into consideration is how long it takes to prepare for the desired outcome. I mean if it takes three years to get a distinction - I would rather do it in one year but with a pass. And if to get a distinction takes one year I would rather wait that year or even 15 months and try her to get a distinction.
I hope I don't sound like a tiger mum...

Pradaqueen love that "rich and famous bit"!

After trying out lots of different pieces all summer (to go with Chanson de Matin, which she got full marks for in Grade 6), Goo has finally found one that she LOVES, and I do too! She started it yesterday and has it nailed, apart from one pesky bar, which is going to take weeks to learn properly. She's auditioning for NCO, County Youth Concert Band (had a trial in April) and County Youth Orchestra. She'll only be able to do one, but the county auditions are a few days before the NCO one, so should give her a useful warm-up.

Hugs for mini ealing from me too

Mistigri do you have any advice for French language too please?....
For an 8yo and two years of private lessons with native speaker. Unfortunately we stopped now and I would rather not to have any formal teaching at the moment but smth to watch to would be useful...

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Drummers we are doing Essex 11+ then London indies. Miniprada would prefer London but we are giving grammars a shot as we are equidistant from both. I.e both would require a train same distance but in different directions. Out of catchment for grammar though so it requires an exceptional performance on the day...,

We are in a circle of defending our teacher I have to say that our Russian teacher has never suggested exam(might be because I am overly aggressive) as I mentioned in the past, he doesn't have alot of students, he still plays at weekends and teach in a music school, he isnt most familiar with abrsm. I love exams( just dont want to pay for them but hey hoo), going to state school there isn't exam at all, I am lost of how my daughter is doing, the report at end of the year is all we have, we even hardly have homework. We are so bored, even bored of playing, she even refused playdates at one point, she loves being challenged. I was told tonight that everyday is count for the next coming 2 months as we havent chosen the pieces yet. There isnt anything to loose is the best bit I love about the abrsm exams.
Waffle: good luck to Goo!

Greenleave I think it is a good idea to take exams, I hope I didnt' sound like I don't

And I see what you mean by challenge.... This is the problem with our school too...

Thank you all. We had a laugh about the less fairer sex tonight. And prompted by misti (inadvertently of course) to make DD shower a little more..I think DD thinks 3 hours submerged in water is the same thing...

And I have been secretly placing bets on the talented offspring on here making the cut on future YMoYs, there are lots of contenders for rich and !

only with a younger child with not having formal lessons it's a bit more difficult, but as a general rule I'd say that putting a French children's channel on the TV won't hurt and might help. Most of it is rubbish of course, but I don't think that really matters, it's about ear training. When we moved to France, we listened to the local equivalent of a Radio 4 every morning. For the first month or so, despite A level french, I understood perhaps 25% of what was said - not because I didn't have enough vocab but because my ear couldn't separate the words properly. After about 3 months, my ear suddenly "tuned in" and I could understand 90% of it.

Also, depending on her level, you could look at a subscription to a French language children's magazine, which tend to be excellent.

Unfortunately, solo language learning is hard for motivated adults, and practically impossible for young kids, whose language acquisition tends to be based mainly on interaction not abstract learning. I'd have a look for a French club or similar.

Waffle good luck to Goo!

Misti it was for DD I was looking for Spanish lessons (thank you prada no problem), I have a Spanish course with CDs and all but no time in the day for it. Skype lessons were an idea but tv in Spanish is not a bad idea. DS is taking French for GCSEs.

only I generally like our teacher's approach too, I know that I could push for exams but I am not necessarily that bothered. DD on the other hand seems to think you just do exam after exam so I (and the teacher) had to explain to her that playing non exam pieces will take you to the same result, more so as she only did grade 1, grade 3 and now will do grade 5 next so she needed to understand that skipping the exam is ok but the teacher didn't want to miss the repertoire at every level. I said before DD is leaning towards baroque style generally and her teacher wants to ensure that she covers all the different styles, romantic, modern and so on. She is now playing one of Chopin's preludes and loves it even if it is sad. She loves her Grieg piece the most though, Dance of the Elves, her eyes light up when she puts the hands together and thinks it's wonderful. As you said different approach from different teachers, not wrong as long as it suits the pupil.

Fleur if she's a beginner, then you could do a lot worse than the duolingo app, which is free and fairly child friendly and goes up to European level A2 (advanced beginner). For older kids and adults, having used it myself, I would say that Babbel is worth a look, but it's paying (still cheap tho') and less child-friendly.

Mistigri, thank you! She is actually not a communicative type, rather self-absorbing in books in theory one, so abstract learning is actually what suits her the best... I could not find French club around, even private teaching was a problem! Agreed about listening, no matter how well you know languages, ear has to be trained....

Fleur, Muzzy course is also good, they do Spanish, but depends on level of course

Thank you ladies, I'll have a look. She does a Spanish club at school with a native Spanish teacher and she seems to pick things up quite quick but it is very basic, I'd like her to be able to hold a conversation after a while, more than "my name is... and I am 9 years old"

ealing hope miniealing is sorting out those rotten boys (she can silently say to herself 'boys are horrid and they smell' but in my experience some of them are actually quite sweet once they've stopped showing off to their friends!) totally agree about musical boys - the art ones are friendly too! dS1's friends all like music and/or art and computers so they are very low maintenance!
Completely agree with everything Mistigri says about language learning and DS1's Japanese teacher says she finds the DCs have unknowingly picked up quite a bit from manga and anime! She sets watching films in Japanese as homework sometimes!
On exams, it's totally horses for courses. Some people really prefer them as Green says, they want to rise to the challenge or they get bored. Other people find them stressful and don't show the best they can do. And sometimes it is useful just for highlighting what needs work - scales come to mind in this household!

Oh- just to add about Duolingo Spanish. I've been using it to try and refresh my rusty Spanish skills. I think it's pretty good for that but be aware the pronunciation tends to be Latin American, just in case that causes any confusion at first! What Inthink is great about it is that you can keep practising skills to stop them going rusty so the repetition is good - but it's not enough to get you speaking fluently without also having a conversation class or chatting with someone on Skype.

Fleur - that is exactly how we started - the Spanish teacher at school who became the teacher. Then she worked through the La Pandilla books with the teacher via Skype. The GCSE was a bit like music exams - a marker for progress and achievement. Her spoken Spanish is excellent (albeit with an Argentian accent ) neither her Dad or I speak much beyond 'dos cervecas por favor' so it had to be led by miniprada and the teacher. For kids who need an extra challenge beyond school it has been great and the fact we use Skype does not eat into any of the time available after school and our school definitely love me homework (1hr per night plus 20mins reading aloud which has to be handed in the next day).

We are quite hopeless with languages and that gene is very strongly flown through my two children. I have hired private tutor, send her to clubs, class. I wont give up, taking notes here all your experiences and advice
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