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.

Thanks fleur

Prada what a marathon for both you and miniprada. Glad she did well and it's over and now you can really enjoy the 11plus
gillybeanz do you have any advice for eliphant ?

Did anyone watch the Sheku Kanneh-Mason documentary yesterday?

I watched it drummersmum- very good.
Clearly a talented family, or children who practice a lot or a bit of both.
Also rather clever too.
I'm sure he'll be fine, he seems like he has his head screwed on.

drummers I was thinking about Play it again on my way to work - I was just remembering how funny it was that he would turn up at a party and Alfred Brendel would be there, and how he could build a sound-proof shed for his piano. Unlike mere mortals such as us!

Suspect Play it Again is going to give me an inferiority complex!! Though I do have a shed (but not a sound-proof one!)
The Sheku programme was very interesting - the key thing appears to be that the kids all want to practise and don't have to be reminded! Also how cool was it that when his youngest sister was practising cello he wandered in, fixed her bow hold and she was transformed!

Loose I don't know if it would give you an inferiority complex! It was quite funny to read about all the different people he talked to, like I could just go and ask Murray Perahia what he thinks about the interpretation of these bars of music. But I thought it was very encouraging that such a busy person manages to find time to play quite a difficult piece, and how much fun people seems to have playing music together.

I will read it then, sounds like it could be quite inspiring in a way! Maybe if I tackle grade 5 I should keep a diary of the ups, downs and excuses for not practising. I can imagine entries such as ''Feeble efforts met with mocking stare from cat'. Mind you, it's more fun to post here! Or at least fun for me, it's possibly quite tedious for everyone else!
Waffle I felt really sorry for DS2's piano teacher on Friday. His cold just escalated once we got there and he spent most of the lesson alternately playing and blowing his nose.

Loose We could start a practice diary thread?

I am "enjoying" my (very rare) sick day today too, whats a flu season! We have a whole choir(with coughing) in this household at the moment-gosh, none stop!
Only good thing about it is, I will be sitting in today lessson which hasnt happened for a very long time, so looking forward to it.

About flute, very tempting here, might not go there for now though until we are slightly settled with the two instruments

Never that's an idea! I think there are a few of us...
Oh poor Green I hope you feel better soon - but enjoy the lesson today, will be interesting to hear how it goes!

Get well soon Green!

Thank you to whoever recommended the BBC4 Sheku documentary, it was really great. Very inspiring.

neverever I had no idea that the book inspired you so much. I'm really enjoying it. Thanks to it I had a truly lovely moment with DS attention on me! There's a chapter whaere he analyses the Ballade almost bar by bar. I asked DS help to understand what he was saying. We listened to the piece together following the text and DS would go to the piano to show me things, like what a Neopolitan sixth...

...is.

Thanks for recommendation, I will play it back this week to watch too.

I am now in bed with my mint tea( for blocked nose) and the second of this(for sickness or/and stress). I am feeling much better now.

Report back regarding to scales, someone really try to memorise ALL the scales (well) for now. She was being able to play them mostly. We need to revise few each day till the day. Prelude and Am Abend are beautiful(I rarely said it), mainly because the two pieces are truly beautiful, I was paralysed when I hear the whole of them at once as we usually play a little bits and try to perfect them each time rather than play the whole piece. There are still much to improve, pedal here and there, legato bits in the second page of Am Abend can be done better. 60s swing needs work, its suppose to be fun and still light, its now more like jumping on the trampoline.

Thats all from me now, I am munching a bit more, finishing my mint tea and hope for some 60s swing practice tomorrow.

green I have been three weeks with the bug and it won't go away. I do hope yours is shorter. I am amazed and happy that minigreen may actually be ready for it in spite of all the doubts!

Yes, the documentary was enjoyable but I did not buy the thing about the children never, even when they were very little, needing to be reminded to practice. She even told the older brother when Sheku was practicing during the holidays to get him to do the same. The mum is the one with magical powers. Seven children, Jesus. I know she doesn't work outside the house but still... and that 4:30 wake up on Saturdays to go down to RAM? omg.

I imagine she had to remind them to practise when they were younger and probably still does.
Going to RAM at 430 every Saturday is dedication- I wondered why they didn't opt for RNCM, as surely it would be closer?

I had 3 days off last week Green, hope you are feeling better.

I hope all the other poorly DC and parents are improving too.

How is Goo Waffle? DS2, with Grade7 piano in a week, announced tonight he thought he would try unicycle club at school this week. He was dissuaded from that idea fairly promptly!

Our piano teacher is related to Sheku and his family. I must watch the documentary this week.

raspberry unicycle club 1 week before grade 7. That's a classic

Finger is swollen and green, but she can move it a bit more. She had a piano lesson with one hand last night!

The rest of the family has now recovered, but I have a horrible cold and nasty chest - I can't walk or cycle far, so I am going to drive to work today!

at unicycle club. Sometimes I want to get in the heads of teenagers....

Unicycle club before the exam

Green I knew minigreen can pull it out of the bag, no need to worry, I am happy to hear your worries were unfounded. I hope you're feeling better today!

Waffle has Goo been seen by a doctor? I hope the finger isn't broken (don't mean to scare you). I hope you're feeling better soon.

Where can I see the Sheku programme? Sounds interesting.

Bbc4 catch up fleur. It's great. I do agree with the comments on here about the fact that the parents have had far more musical input than they profess to have had provided. Watching the mother sit patiently next to the child doing G5 scales and correcting fingering I thought was a bit of a giveaway!

Thank you Prada I'll give it a go. What is the full name of the show? Sorry if I have missed it.

Waffle I hope goo's finger starts to get better soon. I must watch that documentary on catch up. Funnily enough i was talking about parental input with ds's teacher last night. While I'm not going to get into any arguments with my two about whether they practice or not ( and I have never had to ask ds to practise , dd is another matter !!) but we decided that ( especially when they are younger) a certain amount of parental input is the key to helping them be successful. I'm not much help to ds now as I can't play a brass instrument, but I can find him lots of playing opportunities, help him with his sight reading etc