November Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Let's have a new thread for November... I'm not sure if the old one will last long enough. This is a place to talk about music lessons, practice, exams and anything to do with learning instruments/ singing. We have beginners and advanced players of all ages.

I am mum to two girls - Goo (newly 11) - Flute, Recorder and Piano, and Rara (8) - Cello, Recorder, and one month of Clarinet so far. She won't put the clarinet down, so I think we've found The One.

Haha Loose- I won't say a word

Drummersmum - insane, but worth it.
They are her new fav instrument and I can see why- they sound great!

Paul Weller - think you need to hook up DD with a Steve White class :)

That would be amazing!

Hi Alex, I am sorry and feel very sad too. Just 3 years ago or something we watched him live in O2 and he was in a good form and still sang beautifully. We like him very much too. Such a big loss!

Alexandra very sorry, we had dinner today listening to his songs.
There are three names I cannot imagine my teenage years without: Lou Reed, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. Now they're all suddenly gone

PaulWeller wondering where are you putting the timpani. As bedside tables?

Sympathies here too Alexandra.

Drummersmum
They are in, what should be, the study......but is now a music room
Not sure we'd squeeze in 4th though

Alexandra It's very sad and it's been a terrible year for music losses.
Paulweller I now have a vision of a small room filled with tympani and an exultant small child crammed in!

Loose- haha that's it pretty much, although there is also a drum kit in there too and a table of Lego/playmobil.

PaulWeller you are clearly a very cool parent! If you had room for a marimba in there you would have achieved percussion heaven!

Loose- she has a xylophone, but that's in the living room.
She played on a xylophone at her NCO audition, I think it was an adams one, it sounded amazing! Hers sounds rubbish compared to that one- so will think of an upgrade once she's been playing a little longer.
Marimba's sound really nice too, but they are quite big aren't they?

We have an Adams xylophone and it is lovely. They aren't cheap (but neither is a marimba) but I don't ever regret getting it. It lives in DS1's room so he has no excuse for not practising it! The electric drum kit in the shed is far less impressive, but he also plays a decent kit at school. That reminds me - pleased to report all is going very well with the new drum teacher, so it was worth making the switch!

Hello all! I am losing track of the thread so apologies if I missed stuff.

Congrats Shaky for your DD's great results!

DD is currently doing her clarinet lesson and learning Christmas carols and it sounds so great! It really puts me into the mood and I ended up ordering her presents while waiting.

Nothing new on our our side except the exam is in two weeks time and to be fair there is no stress about which makes me feel great. She actually moved on and didn't even played her pieces in her lesson today.

Piano going on ok also, I need to enter her for the festival next week, she'll go for the sonatina class and grade 4 class.

Good luck to MiniFleur although it doesn't sound as though she'll need it!
Can't believe Christmas is advancing on us so quickly!
Could be another expensive purchase coming up. Cello teacher says she had a student who had an Eastman cello and was very happy with it. Ideally, we'd find somewhere where we could compare one of those with 1 or 2 others.

Actually, looking at prices, I think we can realistically visit Stringers in London now - DS2 could have a very nice time trying out a couple of cellos and the service would be good. It looks as though you can try on approval for a couple of weeks before a final decision. Has anyone done this?

Thank you loose! Happy cello shopping! I know nothing about cellos! Except that they are huge violins that make a beautiful sound!

Christmas is officially here in this house, DD has spent the last hour sight reading Christmas carols on the clarinet followed by digging out an old piano Christmas Carol book and sight reading that, while I was singing and also trying a bit of piano, we had a great laugh but didn't do any actual music practice. Oh well, for the benefit of sight reading and seeing what enjoyment playing an instrument brings I think it was a pretty productive evening.

PaulWeller yes, pretty big, our marimba is 2 m x 86 cm at its deepest point. It's 4,3 octaves.
Fleur how nice to have some stress free fun music.

Drummers mum- I'll get the measuring tape out

Dd has a dilemma at the band she plays in, they would really like her to start playing the bassoon there from after Christmas as they don't have one currently. She is really happy to do this but both of us don't want her to lose the opportunity to play her clarinet. She has two "tune" bits in their upcoming concert and is really enjoying her playing there at the moment.

Dd would like to do alternate weeks with each instrument but I'm not sure how that will work out.

Or do I come over all pushy mother and ask if she is able to move up to the senior band with her clarinet? She is bordering on the standard they need and would be back to being the least able rather than the most able and she is also concerned about being amongst lots of older kids.

Wolley - yes i would ask about being in both bands if DD can manage the time etc; i can understand why they want her to play bassoon (and well done her so soon!) and i think that would work better for the bands than alternate weeks esp if they aim for concerts etc? i think there is much to be said for mixing being 'most able' with 'least able' times - dd learns so much from watching and being with more advanced players in some groups; as long as she can keep up then it will be fine (and i assume they have differentiated clarinet parts so hers would be more straightforward?)

Woolley you can do this without being pushy, all you need to do is when you agree to the swap to bassoon is to ask if there is another group she can play clarinet with as it would be a shame for her to miss out on the opportunity to play her first instrument. Leave it to them to come up with a solution.

It can be difficult socially if there isn't a mix of ages in the group and you have the youngest one there but if they aren't going on tour/residential then I shouldn't worry about it.