December Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

A new thread for December! Musicians and parents of musicians of ALL ages and standards are very welcome! I do try to keep up with the threads, but am struggling to remember who plays what sometimes. Might it be helpful to have a different thread where we could list them all (for people that want to?)

I am Waffle, teacher of woodwind, and mum to Goo (11) - flute, recorder and piano, and Rara (8) cello, recorder and clarinet. Rara has her Grade 3 Recorder exam on Monday, and I have quite a few other pupils entered, but no other exams for us this term. Goo has had a crap time recently, with a wrist injury, mangled fingers and now new braces, so I've pretty much written off any musical progress this term. We have the music festival at the end of January, so maybe she'll be all healed and ready to move forwards in time for that!

Wow great news from "stringchild", Prada, paulweller 's violinist....And anyone else I've forgotten about apologies. After all the work and sacrifices I'd like to mention everyone but it's virtually impossible.
Prada this is the beginning of your DD´s adolescence, which is basically proving you wrong all the time

miniprada!

And of course for everyone else who has shared their good news recently...but I do so love a success story of a feisty child being able to raise their own bar with such determination! Onwards and upwards for those 'trial testing' the NCO process too...

Fantastic news stringchild, paulweller and Prada!!!

I hope I haven't forgotten anybody, but well done to all the hard working and achieving DCs!

vdrummersmum she has 3 older siblings so this I know...

How old are your other DCs Prada? Just curious if we can share teenage pain.

Haha! And well done Miniprada!

DS is a Chorister which means sight-reading becomes a superpower. He been called in twice this week as a last minute alto to sight read in performances. Tonight he was going to arrive in the middle of Evensong to sing the anthem, I'm waiting to hear how it's gone.

Having said that, he says he messed up the dynamics of the sight-reading in his piano exam, looking forward to seeing if he is right!

Congratulations to anyone who's results or good news I've missed out on.

Yesterday was a nice news day, we got the information for his NYO Inspire residential, the information for the CD recording he is doing in January, and a last minute request to sing at a carol service, a fee paying one so earned £16!

Yes! to mini Prada for theory result !!

Fleur : 14;16;18 I have the T shirt for EVERY PHASE

Thanks everyone for the lovely wishes.

Prada my 15 yo DS would fit just perfect with your teenagers, do you want him? Just joking, he's a good kid most of the time

Morning all. I've lost track of everyone's brilliant children's progress/exam results and all so I'll say well done to all!
I thought I'd update you with some great news we had from Guildhall. We went up last Saturday for a pre audition assessment with the Head Of Strings. He is an absolutely lovely man. In a nutshell he said that ds is very gifted aurally and definitely has perfect pitch. He was very impressed with his playing but isn't quite upto their standard yet. He was amazed that he could play the pieces so well on only 20 mins practise a day. He wants to see him again late spring for an audition but he has to up his pratise to an hour a day. He said he has enormous potential and could be exceptional. However he also said that we may want to leave his start date till he's 12 (10 and a half now) as the pressure is immense but he will take a view when he comes back next year. He said he has a very unique set of talents that will need to right teacher.
All in all very positive and ds is even more desperate to get there now. He has been practising for 45 mins a day and wie will build up to an hour.
Very proud of him.

Disorganised that sounds really positive! Sounds like the head of strings is thinking laterally too.

Sounds great disorganised and well done to your ds. More practice does make a massive difference though I'm not sure what my neighbours make of an hour plus a day on the trumpet it's not exactly quiet !! I'm putting off the decision about junior departments for a bit longer such a long day especially when you don't live in London

That sounds really good disorganisedmummy! Well done to your DS and good luck when you go back in spring.

DD does about 45 min to 1 hour on piano and 15 min on clarinet, I am sure my neighbours are ok with the piano (they told us it sounds lovely), not sure what they make of the high clarinet notes at the moment though.

Ds now does quite a lot of practice in the utility room as it doesn't have any adjoining walls !! And a high ceiling so good acoustics - well that's how I try and justify it to him. Both ds and ds also play the piano and often practice before school though they are supposed to wear headphone for that.

Rara had a go at the high notes too yesterday, much to my disgust. I have told her she can't, she's just too tiny at the moment. I'm going to have to dig out a few fun 'Below the Break' books to keep her going until Easter-ish.

That's great news 2nd sopranos

Trumpet DH was suggesting the conservatory for practising the clarinet but no way I want to terrorise the entire estate. Piano hasn't got a silence system so no way to practice with headphones.

Well done to your DD 2ndSopranos, fantastic result!

Waffle any tips to make the high notes sound more digestible? She currently does that thing starting with the low note moving to the high one but the sqeaking, OMG!

Alex: My mother in law stayed few months to help with our newborns in the past and I am not the easiest on this planet. I'd love a short visit though, unfortunately she cant travel that far too often any more.

2nd sopranos: brilliant news, great results. To me grade 1 was the most nervous as everything was the first time.

Disorganised: Brilliant feed back! Regarding to practise time each day, I have been thinking about it too. Only has mentioned sometimes ago that miniOnly has to slow down piano to pursue high level violin playing. I think I need to think about it too. In the past I was only thinking of trying to maintain 2 instruments and prioritise one with exam however preparing for high grade exam is intense and could eat all the music practise allowance a day. An hour a day is quite alot for a year 4.

That's loads for year 4 I'm sure there are some that do that much at the age but I was lucky if ds did 15 minutes in year 4 and dd ( now in year 4) will only do 30 minutes on the piano if I sit with her . I guess it depends on whether they can concentrate for that long and how much time you have to supervise

Well done to your DD 2ndsopranos. What date was her exam? Waiting for results here too!