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Extra-curricular activities

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March Music Thread

999 replies

Wafflenose · 01/03/2017 07:36

Here you are - a new thread for March! I can't believe we are now up to 700+ posts each month. Thank you all.

I am Waffle, Mum to two girls. I have Goo (11), short for Kajagoogoo, which is 'short' for Kaj, which means... well, that would be telling! Her younger sister is Rara (8) - Rara is what she used to call herself when she was learning to speak. Goo plays the flute, recorder and piano. Rara plays the cello, recorder and clarinet. We have Grade 7 Flute and Grade 1 Clarinet booked for the end of this month. I think we might have Grade 3 Cello and Grade 4 Piano coming up next term. Goo is off to secondary in a few months, and I really don't know if she will ever manage to fit in her last couple of recorder exams. I'm all for saving money though.

I will try my best to read everything and follow this month. Last month's thread moved so fast!!

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Greenleave · 12/03/2017 14:39

Yayyy Loose!

We started around 4.5 yrs old sharing the lesson with our neighbors and for more than a year it was more like singing nursery songs, hsving fun dancing around the piano, then our neighbor lost interest and we had to progress to keep her interest and carry on. Both my children raised bilingual (we speak to each other in our language and they are not allowed to speak English to each other. I teach my 9yrs old read and write in our language). My 9 yrs old didnt read very well in reception mainly because of this, however summer term year 1 she finished all Harry porter books. I dont think mine can ever understand music, understand what the teacher is trying to tell them or be able to read a note at young age. Right now, my 2nd daughter is still confused between the 2 languages(she feels more comfortable with English as she spends 10hours in the nursery in English). I am not concerned or rushing her to anything yet. We might start her when she is 5 if she likes it. However violin and piano together.

We skipped a festival class today as we couldnt afford to miss the last rehearsal with our Orchestra for the next week concert. Its a shame!

Kutik, we only bought our piano early last year too.

I am making myself some green tea and have my music on with some left over cake from the party yesterday. Its raining however it doesnt feel too bad. Loving the £3 M&S daffodils.

March Music Thread
Mendingfences · 12/03/2017 14:39

Loose, my DS was obsessed as a 2- 3 year old that he wanted to learn the tuba....I tried hard to interest him in smaller brass instruments, let him 'play' my cornet etc. but no 'I want play TUBA'. Eventually as a (more eloquent) 4 year old he admitted (partial) defeat 'well if I can't play tuba I'll play double bass' ! Not my idea of an improvement.....

he's ended up with drums and piano - clearly BIG instruments are the way to go for him

Mendingfences · 12/03/2017 14:44

greenleave, my kids are bilingual too, although their english is the weakest language, I've booked them all onto a summer music course in england, music and english, two birds with one stone Grin

woolleybear · 12/03/2017 15:00

We are in the calm before a busy week today starting with grade 3 clarinet tomorrow. Unfortunately I think dd has been playing the pieces for too long and has had enough of them but hopefully can pull it out of the bag. She is being accompanied by her school music teacher rather than her clarinet teacher this time which originally worried me but she did one of her pieces with her at a school concert a few weeks ago and it was really amazing.

Wednesday her school choir is singing up in London at the concert of a local secondary school so that will be a good experience especially as it is the school we have decided to apply for next year.

Thursday is another school concert and then Saturday with the choir at a local music festival.

Clarinet teacher has discussed post grade 3 with dd and they are going to work on some Scott Joplin and similar music for a while.

Bassoon is getting a little ignored though gets a good practice once a week at band. It will come more into focus next term when I think we are going to do grade 1.

onlymusic · 12/03/2017 15:04

Green, is it your back garden?? How does it feel to have it 'half' paved? We struggle with ours - it is in shadow and never dries out (clay underneath the grass). I feel that we need to pave it otherwise we can never use it as it is muddy all year round. But it worries me as I am afraid it can affect selling price

onlymusic · 12/03/2017 15:09

Music periods.... Is she getting dumb? I play her Mozart and she says it is 20th century....😱😱😱 Her teacher will be shocked

Kutik73 · 12/03/2017 16:03

Green & Mending, mine too bilingual. He spent half his time in my country before school started, and now spends 6 weeks there every summer (hence no music during summer). He goes to a Saturday school also where he can meet kids like him. He has been learning French at his local school too. At first I worried it may confuse him, but it seems working fine. He thinks he is trilingual (but no, his French is no where near his two other languages). Grin

Greenleave · 12/03/2017 16:19

Mending: summer time in England is the best time to visit. Many of my friends were disappointed when they visited England on cold (very) windy and rainy days, I told them England is in fact very pretty(with some sunshine-which could be rare).

Woolley: mine is the same, we postpone our g5 violin although wont practise on the 3 pieces(they are done to a"merit" level according to our teacher). Mine would kill the pieces if she has to learn them for too long. 3 months for 3 pieces is what we do. For piano we are in a book(in a coffee shop now so will check tonight) which has Monday practice etc...similar to etudes. We are thinking of doing a festival in the summer for piano however havent chosen anything. Loads of pedalling techniques to work on along with etudes for fingerings.
Only: its a small garden however has a summer house, a doll summer house, a sunken trampoline, swings, a vegetable patch(for couple of bean dens in the summer) and ...a small pavement area for bbq...after the decking which has a pool(a setting pool with heater etc for the summer). I wish it was ten times bigger, my dream is having a chicken den, however I might need a live in nanny to feed and change them :).

onlymusic · 12/03/2017 16:52

Green, your garden looks very pretty and ours is hardly larger (though I cannot quite see how wide is yours). It is perfect size for me though as there are no people in our household who would be keen on keeping it tidy :)

Kutik73 · 12/03/2017 16:53

My ds's audition for his dream orchestra was originally scheduled near the end of this month but it had to change as other commitment came alone on the same date. It's now moved forward and scheduled on this Wednesday. Ds is out for a football match on Mon and Tue evenings, and I have a parent meeting at school on Wednesday so have to dash to the audition straight after the meeting. Not very ideal since he has to learn three set pieces, new scales and arpeggios (separate and slur). He also has to play a piece of his choice which he can play whatever he can play so fine, but the set pieces and scales are no good without proper practice... He is out with his dad and friends today so doesn't know his audition date has been moved forward yet!

Fleurdelise · 12/03/2017 18:23

Woolley good luck with a busy week! Which pieces is your dd playing? Dd doesn't have any clue of what to chose as her C piece, any suggestions?

Trumpetboysmum · 12/03/2017 18:49

Good luck everyone who's got a busy week Smile

woolleybear · 12/03/2017 22:39

Dd is playing Shepherds Song for her C piece. It's the one out of the three that has caused her the most trouble but it sounds really good now.

woolleybear · 12/03/2017 22:43

Forgot to add, she is doing Lefevre "Melody" and Finzi "Carol" for her other pieces. The latter she is playing at school on Thursday also. Have to decide on one of these to keep going with for music festival in May I think as well though it will definitely be having a rest before then.

onlymusic · 13/03/2017 07:45

This came on fb, music course
laurenceperkins.com/orchestral-courses/

Fleurdelise · 13/03/2017 08:18

Woolley good luck with the exam. Dd wants to play Gavotte, Mr Benn and no clue for her third piece just yet. I was just looking at the scales, her teacher is still covering all of them even if she's skipping grade 2, I am not sure dd will make it to the June session for grade 3 now, while we do the clarinet practice as required the focus is now on piano grade 5 as I don't want to hear 3 piano pieces till November and there is more work to do in piano with all the scales and so on.

I guess we'll see how it goes by the entry date.

AlexandraLeaving · 13/03/2017 08:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Fleurdelise · 13/03/2017 08:41

Alexandra dd loved the sound of Mr Benn and decided to play it, we found an episode on YouTube and got her to watch it and she dismissed it after a couple of minutes as boring. Grin

Nevertheless we all love the piece so hopefully we can put up with it for however long until the exam.

Kutik73 · 13/03/2017 12:03

Hello all, just a quick question... When/if your dc has an important audition/exam in an evening during weekdays, what do you normally do with school? We have a few auditions lined up in the next two weeks. All are schedules at a tricky time. Ds can make them without missing any lesson at school, however he has to leave the school on dot and dash to the place. Ds's school is very strict with attendance so I have never really thought about taking him early to give him a rest before. But I know he won't be his best after a long day at school + journey.... Not sure what to do.

Greenleave · 13/03/2017 12:49

We did disappeared for 1-2 hours for some grade exams in the past, I wrote to her school before hand. It was ok, the cook was really kind, he saved her her lunch both times. I think it should be ok if you let them know early. Best of luck to miniKutik!

Fleurdelise · 13/03/2017 13:06

Kutik when dd had an exam during the school day I picked her up from school telling the school in advance she has a music exam. The absence goes down as "education off site", they didn't ask me the time for the exam. Dd's exam was 3,45pm and we would have made it at a stretch however I preferred to pick her up at 2pm, go home and change and not make it into a stressful "let's run!" experience as dd doesn't cope well with that kind of pressure.

Kutik73 · 13/03/2017 13:11

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Green and Fleur. Yes I may ask school if I could take him out a bit early. However..., it's not only one time. Not sure if school will be happy about me taking him early a couple of times within two weeks. Why did I arrange them all now. I should have planned his schedule more carefully!

Fleurdelise · 13/03/2017 13:13

Good luck to your DS with the auditions. I don't suggest you should lie but maybe explain to the teacher/head teacher that you are very tight on time and you need to take him out at 2pm or 2,30pm if that helps. I am sure they'll understand more so as music is part of the curriculum and a lot of primary schools (ours for example) don't do much except offering a choir or a little music workshop just to tick a box.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 13/03/2017 13:42

We've done that plenty of time in primary school - just leave early and don't come back even if we could. Grin I tell them there's an exam and I'm picking up whoever at whatever time. Certainly did not ask permission. Haven't done anything like that in secondary though.

drummersmum · 13/03/2017 14:19

Kutik no need to tell them at what time the exam or audition is. You decide what your child needs, and if it's a little rest before, then that's part of the audition requirement. Also, being an exam or audition they should definitely not put any problems. In Year 6 we took DS out to visit schools, several 11plus exams, several interviews and for the same amount of music auditions! This mounted to an awful lot. They couldn't have said not even if they wanted.