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!

Green I think that is an amazing result given that she only took grade 3 in March and had a break from piano in favour of violin also if I remember right? That is amazing honestly! You should be proud! I think she's very motivated!

Well done minigreen I must say I'm impressed, I know it was all a bit of a rush!! imo the pieces is what matters most.

That is a truly fantastic result for minigreen! The pieces must have been played very well indeed.
As far as I know the theory result still hasn't come through but it's lovely to read everyone else's news!
I'm really looking forward to DS2 playing in the carol concert at school - it's his first concert at secondary school!

Fleurdelise, DD is 14 and grade 8 level. We upgraded a few years back from a student Yamaha to a wooden Leblanc Bliss.

She adores the Bliss as it is a bit different and it was a good choice when she was 10 as it is a bit lighter than most wooden clarinets. She is very slightly built so a wooden clarinet was heavy for her back then.

As she has grown in physical size and has advanced in standard, we are now looking at another step up to a more professional quality instrument. The Bliss, we have found, is not quite so reliable at the higher notes but it has been a great intermediate instrument for her.

We are meeting her teacher to help with the choices. No idea what make it will be. It was a bit of a Harry Potter's wand moment with the previous one!

Fleur, yes, (you have better memory than mine) grade 2 last Autumn term, grade 3 end March then stop completely until June with dictation and etudes(stopped for 3 months for theory and violin for summer term). Then our teacher by beg of Sept said she should try G5 this term as she did really well with etudes he doesnt think she has any issue with the pieces(he didnt think of scales by then I think). It took us maybe 1.5months for the 3 pieces however the scales are killer. Or its just my child who loves being challenged and doesnt like anything repetitive (thats why I get her to try music at first). She memorised them very quick then when she had to play them again she just played 2 octaves instead of 3 for example or either too fast or too slow. And we missed the arpegios marks by not being able to play at a required speed simply because we never practised playing hands separated

So far we could get away with little practice and being laid back. However since failing the NCO I realise that we need to do more if we want to be better. Just being lazy and thinking if we wants to give up more time for music(question asked in a wrong place I know).

Another couple news I had for her were a medal in the Olympia yesterday for chess and asked to join the council swimming squad(just finished stage 9 equivalent). However to me music is more important, more a long term thing and something bothers me which I think I need to support her better.

Loose: hats off to your patience! Please let us know how does the carol concert go.

Well done minigreen! We had the opposite, missed a merit by 1 on G5 piano but we took a pass given the short time also....

We also got a medal (and team trophy) last week in the London chess classic and miniprada was invited to play with the world's top 10/11 chess players the day before at a swanky club! It was great fun.

Well done minifleur! Good luck to loose an the concerts.

In other news here, I've bought an electric violin for miniprada for fun for Xmas (she never asks for anything) think Escala -style thing. As luck would have it someone was playing a similar thing on Strictly/X factor at the weekend and she sad 'mummy that would be awesome to play that sort of instrument'. Cue verrrry smug mummy and daddy was like 🙄 I haven't told him we need to get the 4/4 size violin yet at Woodbridge violins... I'm waiting for the indie exams to be over first...

Still no exam result for us. However DS2's voice is much improved and back up the octave. Such a shame he missed out on the treble Once in Royal solo as it will be his last opportunity.

He's actually singing alto most of the time at the Cathedral as they have gaps at present, and he is 14 so we are on borrowed time. We just need to get to the beginning of January which is the last treble event planned.

Tonight was the school Presentation evening, which is held in the Cathedral. Older 2 DCs received their Alevel and GCSE certificates. DS2 played in brass group and sang in school choir, after first singing Evensong, so pretty much on the mend. School music concert tomorrow night!

Forgot to say thank you for all the good wishes!

Well done mini Green! I am amazed how well she did with her "shift" practicing .
We ordered 3/4 violin which is expected in January, it as Gliga again, but better model. How tall is mini Green? Mine is 135.

truffle good luck clarinet shopping, exciting! I have a long time till DD needs an upgrade but I am making notes🙂

Loose good luck with the carol concert.

Prada an electric violin! How exciting!!!

Lovely lovely updates for the end of year from all. We've just got the violin teacher's concert tomorrow and choir concert on Thurs (with her supporting in orchestra - she's not managed to squeeze in choir as one of her activities in secondary school).

She came home today and said she can't wait for the holidays. I asked if it was because she needed a rest. No, she said, it's because she's really looking forward to practising her instruments. I did feel her temperature at this stage .

So excited that I've just noticed these, I've got to use another one

Congrats MiniGreen, its really amazing seeing the time she moved from Gr-2 to Gr-5, can't fathom DS doing it.

Drummersmum

DS is only 6, so I do appreciate not every teacher is going to want to take on a little one, but its hugely frustrating when he's done so well. When he started in september last year his teacher was very honest and said he expected to basically be working on rhythm games with him for a good while and not to expect much in the way of drumming, so no need for any kit at home..... DS however took to it like a duck to water and by Christmas his teacher had helped us source a second hand drum kit....

I havent got an answer from DS about whether he'd like to try piano, just dark mutterings along the lines of 'I understand he (culture school head) is trying to say sorry but I do drums mutter mutter mutter'

As a junior Orchestra we got to play 10mins this Sunday for Xmas concert, still I am very excited. We are away from next week until 04th and I havent had a holiday since August so its much much needed.

Only, mine is just 9 couple of weeks ago and 1.4m. So we might just get one this weekend.

Will look into festivals next year where she can play pieces more to build up her musicianship for aural. Also joining the school choir for fun.

Prada, we had max mark for prelude and nearly for Am Abend while 60s swing was only 27. In the waiting room we played 60s swing and she just couldnt get over bar 13 as well as usual. The other day I was messing with youtube as I tried to post her playing 60s swing here

I measured Rara the other day, because she is growing out of everything. She was 8 back in May, and is now a massive... 128cm!

I forgot to say, she currently plays a 1/4 size cello.

Green where in London are you? There is the North London festival sometimes in May, I was looking at it but DD is doing another one in February so after that she'll focus on grade 5 prep as she plays different pieces in her exam than the ones for the festival so currently working on 5 pieces (3 for the festival, 2 for exam just started) besides studies plus will start the 3rd piece for the exam after Christmas. But you can enter your DD with whichever pieces you have ready so you could maintain the grade 5 ones? Still waiting to see minigreen playing, do sort out YouTube

DD is petite (like her mum) so at the mighty age of 9 she only slightly over 130cm I haven't measured her for a while though.

Battling Summertime in our house, DD loves it but it isn't an easy piece, some octave stretches which she's just about reaching but it doesn't sound clean so waiting to see what her teacher thinks of it.

Oh and a great succes last night with the clarinet high notes, she managed to hit them in a Christmas Carol without the horrible sqeak so I am hoping they will be sorted by the time she'll join the junior wind band and going back to lessons in January.

Well done with those marks Green... We did not fare as well in the aural or sight reading which were the areas that let her down. We're not skipping any piano grades from now on and will do G6 in March.

Concert sounds lovely Fleur. Loose, any news on the G5 theory? I'd be going mad by now!!

Green - well done to Mini - pieces must have been really good to get some max marks

Prada - electric violin is a great idea; sounds like she will be very excited

Loose- you have much patience!

Three more rehearsals and two more concerts to go and then a rest - dd has a really heavy cold today so will be touch and go on the singing; i do feel for the serious choristers on here when they get colds etc

fleur wind band will be so much fun for your DD. Congratulations!
mending any private teachers around? At school maybe? 6 is the age DS started drumming lessons. It's not too young brrrrrrrr mutter mutter.
3 children in y7 at DS school got into NCO this time. Impressed.
ealing good luck with concert.

Wafflenose Rara is doing well with her height I am sure there are smaller girls in dd's class, and dd is winter born, so... Rara is definitely taller than I thought based on your description of her height some time ago! Cello wise-I cannot comment as I have no idea how it works with cellos :)

Fleurdelise I know my dd's height because she informs me of it regularly - she wants to get rid of her car seat and I believe child is allowed not to use it once they are over 135cm

We just took part in local festival, got top places in both categories, not first though.

For no particular reason, just one of my silly questions-do you reckon that extra lessons with teacher can make a difference in progress? Or one lesson/week is perfectly all right? I am just seeing so many examples of various attitudes to lessons and a bit puzzled that some opposite approaches may bring very similar results....

I would also love to see mini Green's video!
*Fleur" can send you ours whilst it is still not passworded

Prada great idea - electric violin. I was thinking of it at some point but decided that it would put at risk her desire to play conventional violin

And dd started to lean Bach double violin concerto with her teacher - my long term dream, teacher obviously decided that it is easier to go ahead with my wishes than to look for reasons why not to every lessons.... - still no one to play it with though