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!

Fleurdelise he's 14. He is smaller than average, so his hands don't yet have as much reach as he'd like.

I went out last night so didnt have a chance to try with the video, sorry ladies, will try again.
Fleur: sometimes I wonder whether my daughter and my husband value the certificates more, hahaha. However they have to work for it and if it motivates her then I have no problem at all. I like the playing dumb card though, I usually tell less of my daughter while my husband is opposite. The other day I said if she likes to try some "festivals", then she asked, what's in the festivals, I said there are trophies, then of course I have a thousand nodes.(thanks for your kind wishes)

TheSecond I suspect he'll do great in his theory exam, at 14 he can be trusted to have known when he finished. DD would probably rush through it and leave early without checking anything so I hope we'll manage to postpone theory till she's closer to 11 (now 9). I am hoping that if she takes grade 5 piano next summer she can then start preparing for both grade 5 theory and grade 6 piano at the same time and take the theory exam a session before the grade 6 practical. By then the 11+ is out of the way which would help.

Good luck today minigreen!

Serial framer here I'm afraid. What with three styles of dancing, two instruments , theory plus recorder and musical theatre and lamda at school and then the festivals, I'm running out of wall space!

Thinking about buying miniprada a skeleton style electric violin for Xmas (nothing fancy) as a fun thing but maybe the Harley Benton brand? Anyone had any experience of them at all?

Well have you thought about making them into wallpaper Prada? We were discussing this last night as DD is still staring at her empty frame and asking if she can frame the rest of her certificates. Big fat no from me.

Following our discussion on the last thread about nasty comments and friendship, I thought I had a vent and that was all. It all escalated yesterday in real life and I am afraid both DD and I have lost friends and while I am really sad as it was a long lasting friendship I feel there was no other way to conclude . I do hope there is some food for thought on all sides though and maybe as time goes by we'll find ourselves again. But it is bloody hurting to keep questioning if I should have kept my mouth shut with the latest developments and take it in the chin, it was just that my DD was vehement she can't put up with it and I felt I needed to stand up for her.

As I said I am sure DD is not an angel so the other child may feel the same, I don't know, it is just not my doing to put them in these situations where they end up measuring themselves against each other.

sorry to hear it escalated unacceptably Fleur - take comfort from your instincts being right, and that there comes a point where we have to show our children that some behaviour has to be called out. And you never know, may make the other party reflect....

good luck miniGreen!

Waffle - how are the braces now?

She isn't very happy, stringchild, speech a bit weird, lips look a bit weird, and she can't bear anything any near her teeth. Flute lesson is going to be interesting. I hope she can do some aural tests and maybe have a go at some of the techniques for either doctoring the flute temporarily to help, or learning to adjust her blowing. Still on soft food too - she couldn't even manage raisins yesterday.

Dd (almost 10) has G3 piano next Wednesday...so has done almost no violin, cornet or theory this term (can only really focus on one thing)...then G4 cornet and G5 theory next term, prob g5 violin in a year...teacher wants to get her to well above that standard first! Such a pain there aren't September exams! Unless we have to do it in the summer to make sure she will lead her school orchestra - head of music likely to give it to the girl with the highest certificate not the best player...

Poor Goo. I've had 3 older ones go through braces. It's no fun and apples are left in the fruit bowl....

Fleur I'm sorry to hear that it all blew up but perhaps it's better than it irritating you on a daily basis from now to whenever.

DS has his latest certificate in a frame with the theory hidden underneath it. DH has his theory certificate framed, after the performance of asking ABRSM to attempt to find it (after they tracked it down we found he'd given them the wrong year, the wrong centre and the wrong teacher) I don't want to go through that again. You never know when they will need the theory certificate for something other than the G6 exam, DH wanted it after a gap of 40 years for piano, DS wanted it to blag his way onto an additional A level course. If you make a note somewhere of where and when they took it then you can get a copy decades down the line.

I am sorry about the continuing brace misery Waffle but it's a long term benefit and it will be worth it in the end.

ah Waffle - we feel Goo's pain; DD needs another adjustment now exams etc are done, and i am rather dreading the aftermath :(

Feeling for Goo here.
On anotehr note, I think DS is going to need a new bag soon...

Thank you ladies, I am sure the situation will resolve itself somehow.

Poor Goo! I hope it will all get better soon.

drummers definitely a new bag needed.

drummersmum. Admiring how orderly he keeps them!

Oh apples - my DD used to reluctantly eat them, then recently claimed she dreams of them, she has missed them so much! 2 ortho visits left we reckon (that equates to another long 4 months) after over 2 years of food envy though we've not been affected music-wise (aagh...effected or affected?)

It will be all worth it though waffle, it has to be...

Fleur: hugs sending to you and miniFleur. I had a friend ended our friendship(known her for a year) after she found out that I categorised her as "restricted" in my fb friendship. I have never regretted that the friendship was ended, we hardly knew each other and I wasnt ready to be her friend anyway. I did end one special friendship which still hurts now as we went through together so much in the past when we were poor and young. We grew apart in many ways and some jealousy grew up unnecessarily( curiousy about our second home deposit, our investments, about our incomes, about the kids growing up). It went as much as asking my parents and my parents in law in privacy whether they gave us money, if it is true that we earned the deposit ourself, how did I coach my daughter in academics/activities. (Competitions among immigrants are fierce I tell you especially if they thought you have done(slightly) better, some think their friends hiding special secrets which are keys to success and wealth). We still speak to each other when we meet at any mutual friends places/parties but it will never be the same.

Sorry to hear braces news, we are doing it too, I am thinking of postponing it till she is 12. Will double check with our dentist in our next visit.

Drummers: how nice!!!

Petra: wave, wave, wink wink!

That's a lovely picture drummersmum!
Fleur I am sorry there were ructions but I think your instincts were right. Hopefully, things will calm down.
As for Goo, I hope everything settles down soon with the new braces. I would be pretty miserable under the circumstances!

Petra good luck next Wednesday!

Green thank you for sharing your experience, all I can say is wow, some people are entitled... I've put my sadness at the back of my mind and moved on. Not completely so I still feel something is bothering me constantly and then I remember what but you know what, I had many years of ignoring inappropriate comments and letting them go thinking it wasn't worth it. DD deserves better.

I other news we had a great piano lesson today, DD has been praised on her hard practice (when in fact she only did app 30 min a night last week lol) she's been told she is in an amazing place, the teacher may try to push for grade 5 in March but only if she believes she's ready for a distinction. DD has a habit of being unpredictable on exam days so she wants to ensure she is over prepared. She's doing the festival in February first with different pieces than the exam ones though so I guess we'll see where we are closer to the entry.

Personally I'd rather prefer concentrating on the festival now and do grade 5 next summer so she can take her time rather than push to perfect 6 piece (3 for the festival and 3 for the exam) at the same time plus the additional work (scales, arpeggios, sight reading).

It is a pity that the exam boards don't cover adding Christmas decorations to your instrument. They could do it as a timed activity with marks given for artistic interpretation and deducted for rattling, falling off or interfering with playing. I am watching Christmas lights being wound round a brass instrument (ten minutes until we leave, it could have been done hours ago) and I did comment right at the start that it would be a good idea to check that they worked BEFORE faffing about. I am keeping my mouth shut and it is killing me.

Cross post - thank you Loose! The weird but is that I feel guilty because I didn't talk about past issues, one thing happen that made me react and asking them to back off and it looks like I probably over reacted without the full context IYSWIM. Anyway, maybe we'll discuss it one day when we're ready.

Icouldbe

Frame of the most recent one...in the kitchen hahaha...

Greenleave good luck with the exam!

For braces, they need to have all their adult teeth in - Goo has had hers since age 9, and her 12yr old molars came through at 10. 13 seems to be the usual age to start.

I'm pleased to report that Goo is feeling a bit better, and coming out of her emotional slump a bit. She had a fun flute lesson, and the teacher really cheered her up. After 10-15 minutes of not being able to get a note out of the flute at all (and playing silly games where the teacher blew and Goo did the fingers) she managed a tentative B, so the teacher told her to try playing something else. Goo duly did so, leading to the quote of the night from her teacher, "I meant bloody Hot Cross Buns, not bloody Rondeau by Rutter, you don't even know how to play that one yet. Oh... or maybe you do!" Her tone was that of someone who'd never picked up a flute before (all air, no actual notes) but 40 minutes later would have been acceptable at Grade 2, so she's on her way back. I have never met anyone as driven as she is.

On the bad side, her green swollen finger has gone down and is almost back to its normal colour, but her teacher fears it's dislocated right at the base, where it meets the hand. We were keeping an eye on the part in the middle where it was swollen and painful, and are confident nothing was broken, because it got steadily better from Day 2 and she wasn't in distress or anything. Looks like we might have to get X-rays after all. She has had a spectacularly crap time this term.

Hi!

Haven't posted on this thread yet! No practice this week due to ridiculous school concert activities, and due to everyone being completely exhausted. We just watched two episodes of Planet Earth II and discussed the role of the music, so maybe that counts a bit ...

Oh waffle I hope her finger improves soon and that she continues to make progress playing with the braces she sounds very determined which is a good thing I think !

Determined doesn't even begin to cover it, Trumpet! I'm super determined, but she has an iron will, and we clash quite a bit. She still has to know the whys and wherefores of every instruction we give her, argues the toss at every opportunity and HAS to be right. I'm sure it will stand her in good stead later in life... if she survives the teen years!