March Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

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!!

By the way, the conductor who auditioned ds asked him if he was in any orchestra. Ds could tell him about NCO but he completely forgot about it and said 'no, but I'm auditioning for jds' - how could he forget about NCO, and anyway jds are not even orchestra! Anyway, the conductor then told him jd panels would know within a few minutes of listening if the child should be in or not, and said 'good luck'. I got a bit nervous with this 'within a few minutes' comment...

Kutik and Raspberry, congratulations! Very well done!

Today we went to see Russian piano teacher for my dd ;) She is very sweet (and young, so not as scary as other Russian teachers :)) and we will start with her after violin exam is done. She immediately started to correct dd's technique, so fingers crossed there will be some good student-teacher match.
So-ds will go to English teacher and dd will go to Russian teacher-life can be big fun at times :) To be honest as much as I am happy with our violin teacher I feel he is not the perfect match for my ds, but he is so good that I cannot risk trying different teacher (nor that I have time for that)

Fleur I will pm you.

Has anyone heard of 'violin hickey'? Has any of your dcs have one??

Green I feel so unbelievably lucky that ds got to that piano teacher that I feel a bit scared that smth may happen and she will turn us down!
But as it is such a struggle to find a good teacher (not necessarily good in terms of special qualities but rather good as a perfect match for a particular child) I feel your pain and is very sympathetic with your searches, esp you don't have opportunity to commute to music lessons as I do. The teacher I found for my dd lives about 20-25 mins from us, depends on traffic, therefore if it works we will have double luck with our teachers!

Kutik, oh, fortunately we don't but our teacher does. If you ds have it I would use sudocrem for this - it usually helps perfectly for smth like that

None of my children hold violin properly-this is why they don't have it

only, your dcs hold violin properly - that's why they don't have it. I read somewhere that it's caused by bad posture or bad set up. It could also be allergic reactions. My ds has sensitive skin - he gets red marks by touching his own hair! I noticed small mark on his neck recently. He is not in pain. He didn't know until I pointed it out (but now he keeps touching as I made him aware so I shouldn't have mentioned it). I just wonder if I should do something about it....

Oh Kutik they don't - trust me! Anyway, their teacher has the most perfect violin and bow hold I have ever seen in RL-and he still has it!
But yes, may be it is sensitivity of skin that causes it....

I also noticed there are people who have it proudly, like a badge of honor... But I guess it's due to sensitiveness in ds's case. I clean the chin rest, and asked ds to use cloth (but he hate it). I'll get sudocrem...

Just ordered a chin rest cover which covers the metal parts. It has a built in band so won't slip or move (that irritated ds when used normal cloth). Hope it works and reduces the allergy reaction.

Kutik thank you for the good luck wishes for ds yes his audition is today. He seems more excited about it than anything so that's good. Well done to your ds for getting into the orchestra and whatever he decides to do will be the right decision for him (in a way you can only be in cubs once and there will be lots of orchestra opportunities in the future I'm sure). Ds loves Cubs but hated the camps with no sleep and so stopped at the end of year 5
Great results raspberry. Drummers I totally get what you mean i will just be so relieved when today's over so at least ds ( and me) can relax a bit

Drummers: best of luck with everything coming, minidrummer and miniPrada have determination and great work ethics that I would love mine to copy.
Trumpet: all the best for the audition today!!!
Only: the reason I cancelled this term violin exam was on the other day I heard my teacher shout alittle, I could hear her frustration ...with the way my daughter hold the violin and the bow. In all of our lessons, it was always 1/2 of it on bow holding or violin holding. I was so in verse of cancelling her lesson last night when I over heard she said "how many time I showed you holding the bold this way, do you understand me??!!". We respect all teacher and listen to them and follow their instruction, order, however I do feel mine doesnt handle my daughter very well. The thing is she plays ok, the 3 pieces she learnt in 3 months werent as bad, the scales are all learnt. Its so frustrated.

Good luck with the audition today Trumpet!

Green I obviously didn't pay attention, was your dd not doing violin and piano with the same teacher, then you changed to a very good violin teacher, is that the one shouting? I would have been disappointed also, I think shouting would put my dd off music completely. Her piano teacher did make her cry twice but she never shouts, it was all about insisting she does something on repeat that dd found hard.

Just managed a quick catch up - very well done to mini kutik on orchestral acceptance and raspberry on a fine festival medal tally (up to yesterday)!
drummers, the unexpected exam delay must have been tough if he'd been physced up to get it done before easter. Good luck with both exam and further auditions.

Permanent violin hickey in our household for years now kutik. Turns into a real red bruise on pre-concert weeks fading to a brownish tinge on normal days, but it most certainly is worn as a badge of honour amongst the violinists. Until...a few weeks ago when the immature kids at school who had noticed it for the first time with their adolescent minds now starting to wander. DD was still clueless as to what a hickey was, and still can't really understand it after I explained it to her. Bless.

so sorry trumpet, missed you on audition too...hope it all went well!

Talking about violin chinrests, what do people use?

We have kinder chinder.

Never: thanks so much for prompting me on this. DD's always used either FOM or KUN rests, but teacher has been saying for a while she needs one that helps with her height but I had no clue as to what type to order. I'm going to try a Bonmusica from your link. It looks a little scary though, so if anyone has 1st hand experience on here that would be great before I order it!

I had no idea there are so many different types. DS2's old teacher gave him the kinder chinder and we've used that ever since.

Kutik DS2's old teacher made him play walking about, like one of those serenading violinists in restaurants during Valentine's Day. That seemed to have sorted the problem of being too tense. Though yesterday he played sitting on a bean bag. I think that's one step too far ...

Never!

Never I once spotted ds playing violin lying on the sofa!!!!! He can relax in the way he shouldn't!!!! Letting him walk about needs a huge courage - he is the clumsiest human being....