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.

Prada , we need many wines for the coming months dont we, until the 11+ madness is over!

Shaky: amazing score, many congratulations!

Oh gosh, it's been a long day and lots to catch up on here! But must quickly say congratulations to both Shaky's DDs - fantastic result and fantastic both exams are out the way!
Fleur have totally been there regarding practice!

drummers your DS sounds just like mine, he wasn't interested in pen licence or any rewards as such. DD can shout about it at the top of her voice. She became a free reader and got a pen licence in year 3 and she still has moments now in year 5 when she is looking for her pen licence to show it to us. Again!

I'll let the piano teacher know that she has got an admirer drummers. When I want to mention something I found about here I start with: "I have a friend who's DD/DS does music and they do..."

I am now feeling rather annoyed about Goo and her lack of pen! She's been allowed it three times, only to be told every September, "Ha ha! Not really!" (Sorry... non-music related rant! As you were...)

Lively to hear about the music successes. Music wise the kids are all happy. Ds played in a halloween drum concert at the park, which went very well, dd2 is practising like crazy for Christmas 😁 and to a slightly lesser degree for a concert in a weeks time! Dd1 is thrilled that her teacher has said she will let her start learning fight of the bumblebee next weekends (she has been asking for ages) i suspect this is a teacher tactic to force her to SLOW DOWN but i havent told dd1 this 😁

Gosh waffle - I assumed all year 4/5/6 teachers had a side deal with the makers of Lamy or Frixon pens (the bane of my life, I think I am the supplier of refills to the whole class). She'll do well at big school anyway, so who cares?!

Shaky - what a score! Wow!

Green/fleur thanks for the good wishes, sadly on a diet as I have had too much lately!!

Orchestra tonight, music festival next week, some pieces aren't ready in my opinion so we might reduce our 6 violin and 6 piano entries....have a great weekend everyone!

Drummers - by DD would be a very good character for you book...obsessions are paper, paper, books, and paper....

Shakey - wonderful and well done!

Prada - whats next for your DD? ours is tomorrow.....and its dd's favourite so the pressure is on...

Disorganised - when is the audition? sometimes we put pieces away for a month or two if there is time (not often the case) and dd comes back with a new spark/perspective

Waffle - you are going to be busy!

Gillybeanz - does you DD do the NYJC? DD did a 'girls' day with them recently and was excellent; we will return at some point

I didn't know pen licences existed either greenleave, although to be fair, both the DDs have pretty bad handwriting so if such a thing exists here I fully expect not to see one until DS gets to that stage
no 11+ or music schools here, and no school choice either for that matter, so all my 3 are at the local (tiny) primary school, it certainly means we avoid the stress of exams etc. but at the same time I wonder if we are limiting the kids opportunities. Although they get plenty of opportunity to take center stage, there's not much chance of being a tree or the back end of a cow in the Christmas production when the whole school has less than 30 kids......

DS1 has gone to school in very good mood as it's his birthday and he has a new laptop! And a Mr Men Bass guitarist T shirt that I couldn't resist.
He has terrible handwriting and I am surprised he's even allowed a pen at secondary school, although DS2 has rather nice writing.
I'm a case study for your book Drummers - I love stationery! I have to be a bit careful going into Paperchase etc.

Stringchild,the audition is not until the Spring. They run between Feb-April. So we have plenty of time but I'm stressing out that there are gaps in his knowledge. I really need to sit down and work out a schedule for him.
When we look round Guildhall tomorrow we will ask about a pre audition assessment as they may feel he's not at the right standard yet anyway. I'm trying to prep him for any questions hey make ask him tomorrow but due to his Aspergers he just looked horrified! They know to expect this though so hopefully they won't push it.

I'm in awe of all your kids doing music festivals. We have asked ds if he'd like to do this to raise his performance platform but he doesn't want to do it yet so we'll leave it for now.

Happy birthday mini loose!

Stringchild - good luck to your DD! prelim exam for back up school next week then prelim exam for 1st/2nd choice later in the month. Next stage exams for the main contenders (depending upon prelim performance) in January. Fingers crossed for us all!

Had a proud mummy moment just now when miniprada was rehearsing with her school strings teacher (for political reasons she keeps her lesson at school although the teacher knows about the Russian teacher) and a couple of teachers came out of their classrooms to find out who was paying in the hall as miniprada was playing the G7 Mozart. They were stunned (good sign I think)

Stringchild,the audition is not until the Spring. They run between Feb-April. So we have plenty of time but I'm stressing out that there are gaps in his knowledge. I really need to sit down and work out a schedule for him.
When we look round Guildhall tomorrow we will ask about a pre audition assessment as they may feel he's not at the right standard yet anyway. I'm trying to prep him for any questions hey make ask him tomorrow but due to his Aspergers he just looked horrified! They know to expect this though so hopefully they won't push it.

I'm in awe of all your kids doing music festivals. We have asked ds if he'd like to do this to raise his performance platform but he doesn't want to do it yet so we'll leave it for now.

Arrgghhh,sorry posted twice!!

Great result, congratulations to minishakyisles!

Happy birthday to miniloose!

Mourning the days of the lovely Lamy pen...now abandoned for industrial packs of Bic pens. This is no daughter of mine

DD (14yo) has her G5 Theory next week and despite a wobble over Half Term seems happy with the way things are going.

Next term is G4 Piano and a singing exam. Not sure what grade this will be as she's only been having lessons for a term. I think her teacher is thinking of G3. Does that seem about right?

DS has decided on no more exams having moved up to high school and , changed piano teacher. Am happy to go along with him as he's progressing well.

Both my DC had Lamy pens at Primary but they're stuck in the drawer now

Good luck WhatHave - we've got theory as well. Honestly don't know if DS1 ready or not but he seems to think he is!
Thanks for his birthday wishes - he isn't exactly mini as he looms over me! It's a good job we have to be nice to him today - yesterday he vowed he couldn't find his Oyster card anywhere at all and today I walked into his room and it was on his bedside table, just slightly obscured by a plate covered in empty snack wrappers!!

DS was not a Lamy fan (scratchy nib and didn't hold enough ink) but is a fountain pen convert with a TWSBI mini. It has proved to be one of my better purchase decisions following from a school project on reducing waste. Gone are the days of doing the shopping to have to go out again two days later for a £6 pack of whatever pen he's on this month. I buy a large bottle of ink every two years and that's it done. DS says that a fountain pen is easier to write with because you don't have to push it as hard and he's never had any problems despite being a leftie.

I was a bit disappointed with the shimmering sparkly ink though (yes, I am 12) as it clogged the feed.

Musical content - DH has G2 jazz piano in the next couple of weeks. It's been lovely to listen to him play (unlike G8 which was an exercise in frustration)

Loose In our house this is known as "man looking". If something is under or behind something it renders it invisible to the male of the species.

Icouldbe oh how true! Normally I ration them to one 'have you seen my...' per day.
I'm really impressed with your DH doing jazz piano grades. I think DS2 would enjoy that at some stage but we'll plough on with the usual grades until he's older!

icouldbe

In this house we refer to it as 'shall we have a girl's look' or 'shall I use mummy eyes' when things are draaaaaaamatically lost!

Icould

Loose: happy birthday to your elder son. Its wonderful starting a birthday in good mood. Hopefully he is spoiled by everyone today!

Prada: that is a great feeling isnt it even for just that 4mins or something performance it has taken days/years of hardwork and dedication(forgetting about the cost)

Sent too fast!

I didnt even notice that she was still on pencil even the other day I just sharpened a whole box for her. It is similar to cleaning/cooking/tidying things that we do routinely and dont question why we are doing it(hopefully it wasnt translated as if she was being neglected ). Eventually they will use computer(or what ever in their generation) anyway. About stationery, everyone here has now inspired me and I made a decision of getting her some ink pens from JL today(in Canarywharf there isnt other stationery shop). And her hand writting isnt the neatest(although better than mine so I dont complain for a change)