October Music and Musicians Thread

[Wafflenose]

I thought I would start a new thread, as September's is looking unlikely to last for another month.

The music threads are open to all musicians and parents of musicians, no matter what their age or level might be. We have quite a few kids on here who are very serious about music, and plenty who do it as one of many hobbies.

For anyone who's new, I am a teacher of woodwind, and mum to two girls. Goo (10) plays the flute and recorder to a similar level (Grade 7 on both), and started the piano in April - she won't be doing exams on that. She is hardworking, committed, highly strung, and a stubborn little madam. Rara is 8 and far more laid back. She is taking Grade 3 Recorder this term, is a little behind that on the cello, and just this week started learning the clarinet. I don't suppose she will carry on with three instruments in the long term, but we'll wait and see which she loves!

Hello all.

so sorry about Goo's wrist, such bad timing.
Well done MiniPrada

I'm sure none of you are around this area, but just thought I'd link to open day on Saturday and Chorister Day. chethamsschoolofmusic.com/whats-on/chethams-open-day-2/

Thank you ladies. She has sat 2 x grammar as one school decided to create their own exam just to complicate matters! The CEM one is supposedly better but the feel is not as varied as the other - mainly because with a CEM style test you have kids who can beat the clock not write a beautiful sentence.... Music is not great there either.

She is then doing 2 x London indie and 2 x boarding towards the end of the year/start of next with these 4 being her favourites and with very strong music depts. the other music audition the other day was a faith based girls school (state) where she is out of catchment like the grammars but she has one of the 17 music places on offer. It does sound like a lot but she isn't a worrier and has a high capacity for work. It really is a numbers game these days as parents have gone from 2/3 schools to 5/6 so everyone follows suit. 😞

Waffle: that is great that Goo's wrist is recovering fast, and its even better that ths stress is offloaded.
Prada: Many congratulations to miniPrada, that is a wonderful news, best of luck for another school's news in couple of day. She deserves to be showered with treats!!!
Fleur: but you still have an option to send miniFleur to your son's gramnar school based on sinling policy? Best of luck with the preparation, it is ...tough!!! I have designed a schedule for the whole family now, cant believe I have never done it. It shows me where I am behind and what should be expected.
Finished mindset now which drummers recommended, great book!!! I although think we do have phases in live where could be in tempo fixed mindset because growing all the time is tiring, or at least slowing down in growing terms. I did have few moments where I find I have a spurt in my mindset where by end of reception my daughter couldnt read much. My husband was saying we are foreigner and we speak dual languages in our family which could slow her down than usual. I didnt agree, I thought I just havent been helping her at all. Then starting my maternity leave with my second child around mid yr 1 I started reading with her. She hated it at first. Couldnt read more than 2 full sentences. Then just 4 months later she finished the whole Harry Porter series(end of yr1). She is a book worm now, I do still save some of her book reviews for memory, an example one is attached when she read Hobbit(she started Lord of the ring series, I dont know where she is). I also think we have a fixed mindset in certain thing and growth in others. I think at the moment I have a fixed mindset of thinking that I could never play an instrument!!!

Pravda, well done to miniPrada on the 11+!

First bassoon lesson went well, we can put it together and take it apart now, lol! The teacher seemed good, very approachable with both mine and dd's questions, and one of the other people in the lesson helped dd put it together.

I am so stupid that I hadn't even realised it would be bass clef, dd is pleased, firstly it means she has as much to learn about reading music as the others in her class, and secondly she thinks it will stop any thoughts of having to play a bit of piano in future...

Good level of practice suggested, myself and dd are going to draw up a practice plus homework timetable and try and stick to it. I'm going to try and be strict on the homework time, she is meant to get 40 mins plus 25 mins reading book but often the homework itself takes well over an hour.

That's brilliant Prada. Congratulations.

Good to hear Goo is on the mend.

DS1 just started uni and trotted off to uni wind band tonight and had a great time. Another band tomorrow, socials and concert (free pizza) lined up. He says everyone was really nice, lovely to walk into such a welcoming atmosphere and having a skill to take with him!

Other news, DS2 is having on introductory session on organ on Saturday. I have a feeling this is the start of yet another slippery slope!

Big congratulations to Miniprada and glad to hear Goo is better and that the audition was rescheduled.
Ds2 is playing his cello on Friday in the local church as part of the school founder's day. He has been perfecting an old grade 3 piece, which I think is a really good thing as he's definitely finding more in the music than he did for the exam and he can enjoy it in its own right.
DS2 has bass guitar lesson followed by drum lesson tonight - literally just changes rooms. It'll be interesting to see if it works but I have just booked one drum lesson so far to make sure he is happy with the new teacher.

Obviously second DS is DS1 - not sure I could cope with both of them playing the same instruments!!

raspberry sorry, meant to say that sounds like a brilliant start to uni for your DS!
And I definitely want to hear about the organ lessons - sounds like a great opportunity!

Hi! I really need help, please.

I have posted before about my ds(started piano in Feb.) and lost teacher in September. School appointed new piano teacher, who formerly only taught guitar and drums.
He seemed happy with new teacher, but I just found out this morning that he only play along cd(came with book), and teacher make him play on keyboard rather than piano. (There is piano in music room.)
I knew this teacher uses "how to play piano" kind of book rather than piano tuition book to teach, since we are asked to purchase it.
His former teacher made him practice scales at the beginning of lesson, but ds told me he hasn't done any since the start.

Before summer, his former teacher asked him to choose and practice songs from grade1 exam book. I emailed the new teacher and told him ds was working really hard and done a quite good job. He emailed back to bring the book, but ds told me he never asked him to play them.

Does this sound like good piano teacher to you? Should I find another teacher outside of school? Problem is, he seems to like him. Our aim is not grade/exams, more for him to enjoy playing musical instrument.
So is this teacher sound like good one for the purpose? But I would like him to learn the basics in the first place.

irvine these are two different things! The school seems to have replaced a piano teacher with a keyboard teacher. It that's the case, and parents think their children are preparing for piano exams, then it is misleading. And he should be using the piano for piano syllabus anyway!
But it depends what you and your DS want. I suppose my view would be change teacher, learn piano and transfer the skills to keyboard. But if your DS really enjoys keyboard and isn't bothered about piano, then that's another story and he should do what he really enjoys.
I wonder if the teacher is working towards rockschool grade one keyboard? Those books come with CDs to play along to and you use them for guitar and drums in the exams. Not sure about keyboards but I do know at my music school more advanced keyboard grades involve improvisation which isn't in the piano syllabus and in fact not all piano teachers can teach it!

Great news for miniprada's confidence leading into the next tranche of exams, well done her!

And lovely to hear that there is a vibrant music life scene (with new friendship prospects) after school raspberry - what a great start to uni life! Learning the organ is an awesome supplementary instrument for your DS2 too, he's tasted the fruit now...

irivine, exactly what loose said. It seems this new teacher is teaching your son keyboard. The syllabus and pieces will be different, keyboard focusing more on chords and also improv. But it's not classical piano studies. The thing is, he may be enjoying it because it will be more geared to popular music which he may be more familiar with. His last teacher had him on a good track and if he was doing scales in every lesson, he seemed to want your DS to develop a good technical base. It really depends on what you prefer your DS focuses on. If it was me, I would find a teacher outside for piano because I believe it's a better foundation and can be transferred to keyboard, but not the other way around. If you can afford it he could actually do both by the way. My DS has two different piano teachers: classical and jazz. Another thing to consider is that if keyboard is not the new teacher's main instrument (you mention he used to teach guitar and drums), then he will only be able to teach your son to a certain level. DS' first drums teacher was mainly a guitarist and she stopped after Grade 4 saying she could no longer teach him. We then hired a drummer.

raspberry so glas to hear of your DS musical activities at uni!

Raspberry - that is what i hope for DD - music as a life long pleasure, finding others to play with. Brilliant for your DS!

Prada - very well done!

Waffle - Goo must be relieved; glad the audition is re-fixed and I hope rest of the recovery goes smoothly

Good luck loose to your son in the upcoming concert!

Raspberry, that sounds like a fab start to uni!

Green - I think you might be worried over nothing re:11+ if your daughter already has that level of vocabulary! Lovely book review!

Waffle - will be thinking of Goo over the next couple of weeks!

green I just saw the book review. Very good writing! I'm glad you enjoyed Mindset. I am enjoying Bounce and in fact DS has taken it from me after he heard me mentioning aloud: "I wish I had read this when I was young". He's currently at home reading it, with a high fever, worrying he won't make Friday's concert. He will insist on going even if it involves lots of paracetamol.

Raspberry: echoing what stringchild said, that is all I am aiming for with our music. Hopefully we will be there one day( more likely another 10 yrs which feels like ...longgg)

Did I say we didnt get 1 scale correct in our last lesson check, scale is now our nightmare(and we skipped this week lesson because there was some misarrangment). I am actually worried about the piano exam the first time. The good thing is the person who actually taking the exam doesnt show any sign of anxiety at all, which in a sense is good. I have been following my schedule and its very helpful, I am even being ambitious and thinking I could stretch it a little bit more(some academic stuffs)

Well, just reporting back that ds1 enjoyed session with new drum teacher who says they will do a bit more grade 5 technique (heel on bass drum) but his sight reading is very good and ds1 is happy to do drums straight after bass. Result!
Green if the person doing the scales isn't stressed that is a good thing with piano scales! Just keep going and don't let her switch scales until she's played one correctly three times! It's actually better to focus on one per day but really do it well than try to run through them and keep playing wrong.
Says she who knows nothing. My scales are only grade 4 I am just quoting my teacher!

Oh, and I hate to quote the mindset thing but scales are totally mindset. I changed mine after grade 3 nightmare and went into a lesson with the attitude 'I will conquer the scales. They will not conquer me. I have decided to be good at scales.'
Rather embarrassingly, this actually works! Particularly with scales!

Thank you for advice, Loose and drummersmum.
We'll see how it goes, but also start looking for piano teacher as well.

I would def change Irvine, using this opportunity to look for a private one or someone you can have a 1-2-1 lesson with.

Loose: that is great advice, we didnt follow it and jumped straight to the jar and it turns out she didnt get them right at all(I dont even know if she gets it at all so I am no help). We save time with our teacher that she doesnt neec him to show her on scale at all, only to check

Thanks everyone. I am so happy for him, (and relieved the 18th birthday present trombone isn't wasted!). He went to brass band tonight and is now playing in two separate concerts on Sunday. And I don't have to worry about the logistics!

Loose that's brilliant advice.

Rasberry that's lovely to hear. When my husband went on his work placement from uni he took his cornet with him, found the local band and had a ready made social circle from day 1 If you have a shared interest then you have something to talk about.

Re: practice, when I was young I used to do the mind-practice thing - you just play your pieces in your head, being very clear about which fingers are supposed to do what. It worked a treat, and you are never bored even when you are sitting in the dullest lesson in school ... I heard a radio programme about this years later, that this is actually more effective than sitting at the piano practising. And it makes your neighbours happier.