February Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Overdue again, this time due to our local music festival. I put in 32 entries, and am now finished for this year, but haven't had a lot of sleep recently!

I am a teacher of woodwind - mostly recorder and clarinet at the moment - and have two DDs. Goo (short for Kajagoogoo in case anyone was wondering - and no, that isn't her actual name!!) is 11 and plays the flute, recorder and piano. Rara is 8 and plays the cello, recorder and clarinet. We are heading towards a half size cello soon, and I think we might have found a suitable one. We're going to try it out this weekend.

The girls have been entered for Grade 7 Flute and Grade 1 Clarinet this term, and I am really regretting it, as they are so under-prepared. But hopefully after a slightly quieter weekend, we can all get back on track.

Please jump right in, ask questions, moan about practice/ scales/ attitude, tell us about your DCs or your own learning... and new members/ beginners are always welcome!

His way of teaching doesn't follow exam syllabus so if one wants to take any she/he has to fill quite a lot of gaps!

Or, actually not. Only the area to fill up would be the scale requirement (as ds's teacher teaches only one scale). But I realised my ds can play other scales quite easily (during the orchestra workshop he had to have a go). As some said on this forum when I brought up my concerns about learning only one scale, it seems like the same techniques ds is gaining from the one scale method can be applied to other scales.

Saving time on scales is great. We do so dislike scales, most of time for g5 piano were on scales, skipping grades and not have to memorise all scales again and again could be a great idea(however if you do abrsm exams later on it could be quite alot to learn at once if you never learnt it before, it might be no prob if your child is 10+. Mine skipped g4 and never did any g4 scales hence the hard time with g5 scales. It although isnt too bad for the other instrument when you have done one. We find violin g5 scale isnt as bad.

I did have a nice, relaxed, productive day today for a change! Its must be because its raining, we were only in the park for 45 mins.

Fleur Surely it must be the teacher's job to tell the other parent, not you!

Not much scales done on the piano. I made it clear to the teachers that I will not be the one to suggest exams. If exams were to be done it will come from the pupil and the teacher, in that order ...

Green Unfortunately I am not sure if this one scale method is saving us any time. Even though ds works on just one scale, he is expected to (and really has to) spend a good deal on scale practice. The list for the programme is quite long (you will be surprised how much exercises you can do out of just one scale..).

My ds also skipped g4 piano so he had a hard time for g5 scales (he was also practising in a wrong speed for a long time, so he had to gear up nearer to the exam). But now he is learning g7 scales. He says it's not as hard as g5. I mean surely it's harder, but he says he already learnt quite a few from g5 so not such a huge jump he had to make from g3 to g5. The same thing may happen to your dd.

Hope so too Kutik!

Fleur, I feel for you, luckily mine doesnt have a close musical friend. She makes friends from her Orchestra however they were mostly talking about the biscuits I am sure. A little competition is great, it will encourage them to practise...just a healthy dose though. My problem is all my close friends circle children do so so so well academically...Its a (not so silent any more) competition among us, this including not sharing and lieing...we must have a good laugh when we are old I think, for sure in 10 yrs time we will find ourself were so silly.

dc2 and dc3 have same teacher in one of the 2 instruments they play. dc2 was the one who asked her teacher to do exam. I also think that dc2 practices so little that she "hasn't got the time" to do anything else if she wants to do exam as well. (Having said this, I think she now does want a break from it).
dc3 who had already a secure place at her school, auditioned for a musical scholarship but didn't need to do any extra work as she had already plenty of differnt pieces she could play to choose from.

NeverEver I think the teacher thought that we are good enough friends that I can pass the feedback seeing that I brought both girls to lessons. She said she wanted to write it in the other girl's practice book but realised the girl will read it and she doesn't want to appear she doesn't encourage progress. It is just she wants her to focus more on what she needs to learn now even though she is trying to speed ahead. She understands why she does it, to catch up with dd but she feels she is not focusing on what she needs to do now (the puffed cheeks for example). I think I won't say anything, she will probably address it next week if the other dd continues to present work she hasn't been asked to do rather than the "now" assignment.

I don't ask for exams, dds teachers decide when to do one, I may be asked my opinion such as "she needs to up her game if she wants the exam in session X, do you think she has the time available?". I never suggested or push for them as it isn't my job to decide when she is ready. But I do know parents who do tell the teachers when they wish their dcs to take the exams, some teachers accept it some are not very happy with it.

I am in the fortunate position where I see more work put in repertoire outside the Abrsm exams than the syllabus with our teachers.

Fleur I'm sure no one is good enough friends to say things like that! But I guess the thing can be phrased such that your DD is not mentioned at all...

Green I know what you mean, I do have similar conversations regarding academics, I decided not to share anymore as it makes the friendships easier. I will answer a question if it helps such as what materials I am using to get dd to do some extra at home but I wont discuss where she is situated in her class, you know, the "mine is top of her class in maths" conversation. I feel for you, it is silly to have these conversations seeing that in 20 years time we are left with our friends and surely something else should be part of our friendships rather than how clever are our kids.

Never I think she was going to write something on the lines of "please focus on the work assigned rather than zooming ahead as you are skipping important steps" in the practice book but when she changed her mind and decided to talk to me she got into the detail of her impression.

I guess I could pass a similar message avoiding mentioning the competition part but it is a bit impossible seeing that we had a conversation in the past about it with regards to piano. (Long story, dd caught up with her dd on piano exams and her dd was not happy, not sure what I was meant to do about it) It would sound like I am saying it out of spite that her dd taught herself something to my dd's level. So rather than stress myself with it I will allow the teacher to address it in the future if needed.

I am just happy to hear she'll ensure the work is from different materials, I haven't got a problem with the other girl catching up, which I am sure will happen, just I don't want the tracking of "what page are you on from book X" as dd loses motivation.

Alexandra Thank you for checking the datebase. It's kinda make sense now. The other day I found my ds's old concert programme and it's shown that he played Arabesque. It's dated just a couple of month after g3 exam and a year before g5 exam. As I thought it was more like g2 piece, I just wondered why he studied the piece after g3 exam (and he comfortably passed g3 with high distinction for two months preparation so he was more likely toward g4 standard at the time). But the teacher chose the piece for a reason and probably he played it very well (I'm afraid I don't remember the concert...).

My ds loved playing Pirates of The Caribbeans during the half term, and kept humming the tune. We had a dvd so we decided to have a movie night tonight. Oh dear, I shouldn't have done this. I'd forgotten all the scary parts. It was much scarier than I remembered (visually). My 9 yo couldn't sleep for a long time (he is not a tough guy type, yet..). I feel I am a bad mother not to check before hand!

knitting 's video? Where? Can I have it please

Me too, please, Knitting!

Kutik My DC haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean yet. We've been indulging in Sherlock ...

We love Sherlock in this house.

I want the video too!

Please can I see yours all too, I promise I will have something in return(later).

Video from knitting? Would love to see it if possible please.

Oh fabulous another video? Me too knitting please!

Ds watched all the Harry Potter and Star Wars movies so I thought Pirates was OK. But it was much worse visually and we were not prepared for the horrible battling and ghosty scenes. I had to cover his eyes a lot. He is watching Match of the Day happily now...

Me too Knitting please!

Anyone else at the NCO London Seniors Rehearsal today? dC v excited that it is in RAH