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!

[Grin] yes Green in the fancy shed! I better go down this morning and check for the remains of snacks if his room is anything to go by!

Double up:

Goodbye: there are many talented musical children in here and they are all being supported at most. She is definitely very advanced. She needs to build musicianship around her as well although that is a fun/enjoyable bit. We were told on here about www.federationoffestivals.org.uk where there are small competitions in your area for all instruments at all age(yes, including piano!!). We were so lonely with piano in the first couple of years as we didnt know about these. However it was by then mine started with violin.

I have nerver had someone threaten to drop anything rather than just not practise or make any improvement. I guess, its the same thing.

Kitrymum the only advice I would give now to musicians with good memory is that, while good memory is a fantastic asset to have, make sure the sight reading is not suffering because of it and do daily exercises for it.

DD has a fantastic memory and her teacher is amazed how quickly she memorises all her music, she's capable to see it once and then reproduce without even glancing at the music. Further more in one of her exam pieces for grade 3 she listened to the cd and then worked out the last line of music by ear without reading one note. However her sight reading has suffered quite badly and needed addressing as she failed that part of the exam. She now does 3-4 sight reading exercises in every practice session and she has massively improved.

So my advice would be to make sure you keep it up from the beginning more so with good memorisers as it works against them.

Ha, thanks Greenleave for the link. After reading about festivals I tried to find something in my county but no luck. However I have found something now. Ha, let's not mention it to dc3 just yet. She is auditioning for a scholarship in the new year already and this is not till Nov.

Hi all,
Does anyone know of a good scale system for piano? My DD has been looking for one as her teacher has asked her to play scales everyday but nothing more than that. DD would like a bit more structure in her practice so is looking for a book or system. She is around ATCL/LTCL level so wants harder scales than grade 8 eg. Scales in fifths, fourths etc. Thanks in advance for any help

musical does she have the full Hanon exercises book? We printed the 115 pages from the web and made a book, they are available. Rumour is Horowitz used to play all pf them everyday. DS likes them a lot.

Does your child do music practice then written homework or vice versa? Dd traditionally does music followed by written homework. Thus was she is alert to concentrate on what the teachers have told her to work on. However tonight my df was persistently telling me that this was wrong as she needed to do the maths and English sheets first.niw I'm doubting my routine

se22 - we have found that if we have time, some music first def helps both to relax and to refocus before homework; i think there is a theory/study demonstrating that music before studies improves the concentration etc.There is probably one proving the opposite too :) however this term we have had to do homework first just to make sure we had enough time for it. I am not sure if there is a right or wrong really...?

A bit of both it depends on ds's mood if he's got to revise for tests he does that first if it's just homework then he practices first I like him to practice fairly early in the evening as the trumpet isn't exactly quiet
First high school concert tonight great fun lots of amazing musicians and ds's first solo in front of an audience of 400 went well ( it was only a very short solo thankfully I don't think my nerves could have stood more!!)

Good to hear that, Trumpetboys! We had the Carol service tonight, too. DS2 played his solo very well, lots of nice vibrato on the cello! I do wish he'd smile at the end though, he looked soooo serious!

Thank you Loose glad the carol service went well too and now to relax for a couple of weeks the start of next year is looking VERY busy

Well done trumpetboy and loose! We have school choir concert tonight no solo for DD as she didn't want to audition for the solo parts.

DD always practises after dinner, homework or any academic work before dinner or while I am preparing it, not because of any special algorithm, but because it is what works for us. I don't personally think it matters. There have been days in the past where I could see her level of concentration in music practice was low due to being late and she did only the key things but generally it works fine.

We have no set order for practice and homework, it varies depending on after school and evening activities, amount of homework, music events approaching.

This year I have been picking DC up from school rather than them getting the bus, but they have at least 45 minutes to wait. DS2 (y9) works in the school library 3 nights a week (when no band rehearsals) and seems to get a lot done.

School finished last Friday here, which means I am also on holiday. The music madness continues though. We have had Cathedral Choir Concert and the first of the Carol Services. Turned out DS2 has a couple of solo verses in one if the carols he hadn't told me about, so I'm enjoying that. Very glad I didn't know about the solo last week when he had his sore throat for the school carol service. Trombone lesson last night as he has missed the last 2 with concerts.

He also has some outdoor playing today with a local group, a Farmer's Market, then a resort type place , (which pays them!).

Lots of choir rehearsals still, another Carol Service and the Cathedral Christmas Services. Midday on Christmas Day is our finish time.

Piano teacher is back with today or tomorrow so hopeful for piano result before Christmas.

Congratulations to those who have had results recently and in the lovely Christmas performances.

Waffle hope your household is on the mend.

I think routine works really well whichever order you do things in. I am a big fan of playing music before doing other intellectual activities! I work from home quite a lot and, if I can, I do some music practice first. I was always a fan of having music on while I revised as a student, though.
Sadly, my DCs are not creatures of routine but they've both upped their practice! I can hear a big improvement with both of them this term.

Raspberry: best of luck with the result
Loose, trumpet: great to hear the solos went well, I know what you mean about the face as mine was the same on the last Sunday concert. Usually when she plays and her concentration is high then I really wish she doesnt twist her lips that way. Wont ever tell her about it though!
We have a 2mins violin soloist tonight as well, fingers crossed.

Green yes! That's exactly the sort of thing DS2 does! to be fair, this morning, his dad asked him if he'd been nervous of the audience and he said no, because he made sure only to look at the music. So I think on balance interaction with his audience will have to come later! Concentration is more important! Also he can relax now as it's almost the holidays - we break up tomorrow.

Thanks Greenleaves we found out too late about a local piano one that took place in the summer, but she has played at 2 Christmas concerts and a small performance in front of the infant children at school just last week.
Fleurdelise her sight reading seems ok so just waiting for her results to come back to see how well she has done on that section.
Her teacher is very big on sight reading and rhythm so hopefully will keep her on course with that.

My DD does practice/homework in a random order depending on how tired she is (eg. Homework first if tired because it is easier and you don't have to think so much apparently ) but she always makes sure thanks to a handy app called MusicJournal that she is covering everything and is practicing between 1 and 2 hours on each instrument. Singing practice happens as and when she has a lesson the next day or I remind her.....

drummers just seen your post and found the exercises on imslp. That's just the thing we were looking for, thank you! It will be a good addition to give her piano technique practice a bit more structure

Greenleave very pretty half of the face! (and huge violin too :))

Only: hopefully we wont have to return and change back to 3/4, some one has been practising a little bit harder the last couple of days. And the lips twitching is getting worse the more concentrated she becomes. I got all my calendar wrong, nearly missed the Sunday concert( late and missed the rehearsals, wrong dress code) and didn’t know she has to perform tonight so we had to change all our holiday plan at the very last minute. Such an armature, will get better next time.

GReen - DD frowns when she plays or looks sad; it was mentioned once at a festival!

drummersmum Sun 18-Dec-16 17:15:33
The Percussion Academy at Purcell looks great "PaulWeller*. But for us it'd have to be one of two because of cost.
_
Just to say that the Percussion Academy course at Purcell was great last easter (although nothing to do with Purcell really apart from use of facilities). They were very busy every day covering the full range and had some great external in apart from the guy running it.

musical glad that worked out!
herts thanks re percussion academy. We'll consider, but I think DS is feeling more attracted towards the NYJC summer school right now and we´re proposing it to his two jazz mates. It´s difficult to separate when you're 15 and have something very strong going on with some musicians, they've become a real rat pack But it may happen if one of them doesn't get in, of course.
green great pic, I love that concentrated stubborn expression!
DS is having a lesson with a jazz drummer tomorrow which was one of his birthday presents from a grandparent. He's using the free time to battle the Mozart piano sonata movement which is the piece that most needs work from the three g8 pieces, the other two are in a good shape. Apart from that, I'm having my parents staying with us, the Full Seasonal Monty Not sure how much I'll be able to hang out here...

NYJC looks like fun - very different to Perc Academy! Not sure we will do either actually as saving time/money for the Universal marimba/percussion competition in Belgium in August.