January Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Happy New Year!

Sorry I'm a bit late starting this thread - I've been away for a few days without internet access. Anyway, this is our monthly thread for musicians and parents of musicians of all ages and all abilities. It's a great place to chat, or to ask questions about lessons, practice, exams, auditions or anything music-related.

I have two DDs: Goo (11 and in Year 6) who plays the flute, recorder and piano, and Rara (8 and in Year 4) who plays the cello, recorder and clarinet. I think we have Grade 7 Flute and Grade 1 Clarinet coming up this term, and also the local music festival and Junior Young Musician competition for Goo. Grade 7 Recorder and Grade 3 Cello are tentatively pencilled in for the summer, but we'll think about those nearer the time. Goo is also in NCO, and lives for it... it's all she talks about, she loves writing to and texting all the friends she's made there, and she is in Under 12s this year. I am a teacher of woodwind and have a little clarinetist who's just got into Under 10s. I hope to have a few more trying out next time.

Fellow percussionist parents.
Dd has '1st recital series for timpani', done quite a lot of the pieces except maple leaf rag. Any other suggestions for pieces around the same level or a little above?
As always thanks.

Waffle/Fleur, it is interesting to read your discussion above about reed strengths.

Dd progressed from 1.5 to 2 shortly after starting playing and has stuck there ever since.

She is still at times struggling for the high D at the end of the two octave D minor scale, do you think a stronger reed would help any?

So... Stringers is nice but pricey then... I haven't visited the shop yet but now I am starting to hesitate.... I guess cello is much more expensive than violin though. The mother of last year's YM was talking about the constant financial struggle to meet the children's needs in a documentary and I remember she said a set of the strings alone cost £85 or so.

Kutik that sounds about right for strings - and it goes higher! It's worth looking on the website first to get an idea of violins they have available because they certainly have packages for students and you can take instruments away on approval.

Waffle good luck with your busy week, I hope your students make you proud!

Woolley I think your teacher may be able to advise (and Waffle) but you could buy a stronger reed and see if there is any improvement? Which make is your DD using? Because they don't match across all makes.

Loose - dd has the solo; she chose a more expensive one originally, but just didn't get on with it and had some mishaps with a collapsing spike which really rocked her. So we traded back to the Solo (which we took on approval first). It has a wonderful sound that really suits DD. As a non musician i am really surprised at the variety of sounds and how much people's tastes vary - even down to string preferences! we did upgrade the bow after i while but otherwise it has been fantastic and i can't see any reason to move on anytime.

We changed the strings for DS's violin only once so we are yet to discover which bland suits to DS's taste/DS's violin. A set of the strings cost £40 or so much cheaper than cello (however I understand there are more expensive choices).

We haven't done any re-hair neither. How often should we do these things? I heard it would be 3 months to a year depending on how much they are used. My DS plays an hour or so 5 - 6 days a week. Maybe I should take his violin to a shop for a check-up....

Kutik - I've not been to stringers but some of us go to Woodbridge Violins in Woodbridge Suffolk. Excellent service also.

@paulwellar11

We are using this www.boosey.com/shop/prod/Various-Percussion-World-Timpani/910799 as well as the G5-8 piecesbook. It has timp pieces, exercises and studies from G2-G8.

HTH

Pradaqueen - I just peeped their website. They look amazing. However my navi tells me it will take me more than 2 hours drive! Thank you anyway for the information. It may cross my way one day!

Thanks superhagbag x

stringchild that's so interesting, because DS2 really liked it, too! Funnily enough there was a more expensive bow that we preferred. Very glad to hear your dd has got on so well with the solo - it's certainly given DS2 a benchmark to judge anything else by!

paulweller yes, that looks good, there's also this: southernpercussion.com/timpani/10338-solos-for-the-developing-timpanist.html

waffle what you need this week is some meditation

Thanks Drummersmum, will have a look at this one aswell. Thanks for your help, much appreciated : )

Fleur, we use Vandoren reeds now, started off with Rico and dd gets on better with the Vandoren.

I'm thankful she is not yet as fussy with the bassoon reeds as she is with the clarinet ones!

Kutik woodbridge violins is amazing ( and in a lovely part of the world if you fancy a day out)good luck with your week waffle
V excited here as ds has potentially got the opportunity to take part in a workshop with Alison Balsom ( if school will let him have the day off)
We just need to fix his ear first ( we are off for a visit to ENT tomorrow so fingers crossed )

Hello everyone - am reading the thread but very little time to post. Both kids have mock exams this week and we just got home from DD's piano recital. Tendon injury cleared up (thank you for the advice) so she was able to start playing again this weekend, not ideal preparation but that's life! It was all right on the night - the odd mistake but she is good at carrying on and covering up.

She was the most advanced student, last on, and her piano teacher did little speech before she played about inspiring the newer students. No pressure then LOL! But she was a bit less nervous than last time, though still more nervous about playing the piano in front of 50 parents/students than singing and playing guitar in front of a thousand paying customers.

They have a new piano in the auditorium that is an early 1900s grand that may have been played by Fauré (allegedly). DD didn't play it tonight because it hasn't yet been fully restored and you have to play it quite hard to bring out the high notes (she played the Yamaha grand instead), but one of the students played a lovely Mendelssohn piece on it and it has a beautiful tone. You wouldn't know that it had spent 15 years on its side in a garage before it was rescued!

oh wow Mistigiri how I'd love to hear it. How many great instruments lie in waiting in attics, garages and basements in the world I wonder?
Glad she's not in pain anymore.

Kutik my dd practices around the same amount of time as your ds, I never re-haired the bow, but to be honest, from what I have heard it is just cheaper to buy a new bow than to do a re-hearing (assuming it is a standard bow and not smth antique of course)

drummersmum it is certainly a very handsome instrument, a very dark chestnut colour. DD didn't want to play it because the Schubert impromptu she played (this one: needs tinkly waterfalls of descending high notes and she couldn't get it to sound right.

woolley I certainly wouldn't be trying to do that on a no. 2 reed. Use a 2.5! I try to get them on a no. 2 before Grade 1, a no. 2.5 before Grade 3 and a no. 3 before Grade 5, with odd exceptions depending on their age and size.

Goo has gone to bed in floods of tears, and I'm not too proud of myself. I am beyond frustrated from YEARS of daily ego massaging, e.g. "Is it good enough?" "Do you think I'll be OK?" "What if I don't get a distinction?" "What if someone else is better than me?" "What if I mess up?" over and over and OVER! Tonight Rara practised her piece for the morning, and Goo asked if I thought she should practise hers, or whether it was OK. I said she should give it a quick run through. "But that means you think it's not good enough!" she wailed, "What's wrong with it?" I suggested that she have a few goes at the quick run. Cue crying, wailing, silent treatment, stropping off to her room, cajoling, refusing to try and not actually practising. AARGH! Why on earth is she so fragile?

drummer Meditation sounds good, but what I really need is a bottle of wine! Or something stronger.

Ooh lovely mistigris!

We stayed last Christmas at the Aman hotel in Venice. They had Chopin's piano there that miniprada was allowed to play her G3 pieces on 😂 I don't think she quite did it the justice your DD would've done!

Good luck with the festival waffle!

Alison Balsom masterclass Trumpetmum! How wonderful!

LooseAtTheSeams - OK if two parents on this forum say it's amazing then I must go! A family day out in a lovely part of the world sounds very appealing.

onlymusic - I stupidly counted including piano practice so my ds plays violin much less than an hour/5-6 days, so it seems we can get away without any re-hair (yet).

We bought ds's bow last summer. It's a second hand carbon one which cost just less than £100. I thought it must be fairly good one for 3/4 so prepared to have it re-haired one day. But since then I've learnt people spend quite a lot on a bow. So as onlymusic says we might have to buy a new one instead (when the time comes)....

Trumpetmum - I m a huge fan of Alison Balsom (she plays violin part so delicately and wonderfully with trumpet). What's an amazing opportunity.

Woolley how is the bassoon coming along? If you are having to buy your own reeds, let me know and I can recommend someone who makes them to order. £4 each last time I got some. Recommended by DD2's teacher.