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!!

No more hickeys...

Haha! You are an internet demon drummers!

Ha ha ealing, it's usually a sign that I am blocked and can't produce any good work. But I have learnt not to panic.

Fleur: we started at school then with my piano teacher who played violin in the past but not anymore so it was ok till g3. Then we were recommended a very good one however I couldnt bring her to the teacher place during week days so we had to stop. Then we found our current teacher. We started with her around end Nov. I was very upset the other day I heard it(I heard her raising her voice earlier however not as bad) so much that I came in and said if we could end the lesson earlier than usual and later on decided to postpone the exam as I thought our teacher might be stressed with the exam date looming. When I told her that we'd like to postpone it till next term and she mentioned that we will be ok if we still go ahead with it, my daughter only need to change bowing position and the way she holds her violin. Yesterday lesson was all about how to hold the violin and the bow etc. We were told the next 4 weeks we will focus on that only. We are desperately looking for a new one. I am making an arrangement with work so I hope I can bring her to the previous teacher who we have to come to her place again. Seriously, I am quite stuck with finding violin teacher now. I feel for my daughter too and trying hard not to fire my current teacher yet(which means no violin lesson as we dont have anyone else until the new arrangement).

I will be very happy if the teacher observed what my DS should improve and insists on that. DS is G8 standard on violin and sometimes his teacher might spend hours and hours on bow hold, open string exercises etc basic staff.

Better One of DS's teachers said that when she went to the conservatoire to study with a famous violinist she spent months just making sure her posture and bow hold were correct. I think you don't stop learning these things and they are not necessarily the "basic" stuff.

Never, that depends on who you are start with. If you start with the Russian way, it is the basic stuff and usually take years for open string, posture exercise. If you start with an English teacher, mostly will end up with starting again when you get to conservatoire with a famous violinist teacher like you mentioned, usually has grown up with Russian method.

I am happy with dd being corrected all the time, she gets corrected a lot at the piano (I know it isn't the same as violin) and I did say she ended up in tears twice due to her teacher insisting on tasks that she found really hard. I haven't got a problem with that as I feel it is the teacher's job to be strict on important tasks and our teacher is very strict from that point of view.

But she also respects her pupils and she never shouts, I don't tolerate shouting as I find it humiliating on top of the child already struggling to do a hard task, so I empathise with Green and I am glad to hear she interrupted the lesson. There is no reason to really shout on 1-2-1 lessons. You can warn the child you'll work on a hard task and then work on it as long as it takes, respect the child's feeling who is already frustrated by not being able to do/remember something.

That is my opinion at least.

Green I hope you can go back to the other teacher, it does sound like you liked her more and she was better at teaching.

Kutik we have the same with piano, dd's teacher sometimes asks dd to just play 2-3 notes on and on in a certain way. Last week it was the flexible wrist on some chords, she spent 20 min I think on it and this week she has to do that at least 10 times per practice session.

FLEXIBLE WRIST I wanted to engrave those words in gold on our piano instead of Yamaha.

Yes, me too. I will engrave the words on the music stand for violin too. I have a boy made from metal.

Dd finds the piano teacher scary more so when she's on a mission. Don't get me wrong her tone of voice does change and she does sound annoyed so dd knows very well where she stands in those situations but she doesn't shout, not sure if it is just to my dd as she knows her very well and she knows dd would freeze and probably want to give up piano lessons if she'd be shouted at.

Drummers I had not known flexible wrists are a thing, I've spent three years shouting "wrist up, WRISTS!" and in the last few weeks it is all about flexible wrists. I am developing a fetish for wrists.

I just published BBC Young Dancer's schedule in a new thread.
We've been looking forward to it.

Yes I do expect to forever learn and improve on bowing, moving positions etc. However, its more she was very frustrated and it reflected in the tone of her voice that my daughter didn’t get it right ( to be honest mine does have very funny way to hold things including pen holdings, she got away with it as she writes very fast and quite neat compare to her age, similar to piano fingerings, she doesn’t have an “artistic” curbing fingerings however for some reason still manages to learn the pieces fast and to an ok standard. Or even small thing like her holding knife and folks is also funny, she does have her own way.). We are told off many times by our Russian piano teacher however I can feel his care, his hope for her to get better, his willing to work with her, to help her I didn’t see it that way from our current violin teacher. She is an young lovely girl otherwise though, it may be just us. I am arranging my work and childcare so I could bring my daughter to the previous teacher that we couldn’t make an arrangement in the past.

Ds's teacher is really hot on technique he always seems to know how to fix problems though ds will often hate what he gets him to do and moans a lot !! He will be quite upfront and honest if things aren't going quite right ( now the audition is done I think ds is working on breath control which apparently is the next thing to fix ) but he would never get cross about it. Green I hope you find a new teacher soon

Well i have just dropped dd1 at her first lesson with the temporary violin teacher. She was nervous but has gone into the teaching studio alone and I'm sitting in the waiting area. It sounded like the previous pupil was playing a single note for the last 10 minutes of the lesson do we'll see what dd has to report when she's finished. She was worried he wouldnt like her playing which i think is probably a good thing because it means she cares (something that isnt always obvious when she practices)

Green you were absolutely right to stop that lesson and good luck in arranging something with the other teacher. Definitely the right move.
Drummers oh, how frustrating on rescheduling but hope auditions go brilliantly as deserved!! Good luck to everyone with auditions and exams.
DS1 (and his teacher) wants to do grade 8 bass guitar next term. Have decided to go with it and just see how he does!

Good luck with it miniloose

Good luck loose!

On the "Russian technique" thing we have found similar with British teachers when we have jumped up a level in teacher (basically from good amateurs/semi-pro to serious professional musicians) on piano and with drums/percussion. They just have a meticulous attention to detail on technique and are quite happy to go back several grades or focus for weeks/months on an aspect of technique in the knowledge that it will in the end enable them to become much better post-grade 8.

Green, oh, this sounds awful! We had a piano teacher (fortunately for one month only) who didn't get my dd and was very rude to her, I decided we are not that desperate and have plenty to offer too to stay with someone like him. His loss. Very funny but he suggested come back to him since then, but I am not doing the same mistake twice.

As I don't read everything seems like I missed some parts-so your dd is not taking violin exam because new violin teacher is not happy about her technique? Is it right? It is not another Russian teacher by any chance? Could be by your description....
I think this teacher just not a good match to your dd. Problem is that she is so bright but still very young that her physical side is probably still to catch up with her quick mind and slowing her down trying to polish technique is probably not a very good idea....
Saying that I feel that my dd is totally not ready for this exam (well, there is no doubt she will pass, but I would rather her to keep up to her own previous standard) but teacher insisted we do it (he could withdraw dd because of his illness and recover full fee for the exam). Oh, well.... I learned to trust him.... He reckons that marks are not important, they will not make child more or less able... they are just ... marks....

Loose, next term it is, good luck to your ds1!

I am really torn between, I am trying very hard for it to work as I understand that we need time to know each other. Changing music teacher especially violin teacher wasting loads of time and cost to adjust to the new bowing style etc before even carry on learning. I have never asked where my teacher comes from, judging on her name I think she must be Eastern Europe. Last time before any exam we were certained that a minimum is merit(we had the minimum mostly). For my teacher, she doesnt have time for email(I asked her and she said she already writes notes during lesson, writting emails take alot of time) and doesnt want any call. The discussion at the end of the lesson always in a very rush(2mins max). I didnt have a confidence where we were and when I got home the other day they were still working on where to put the fingers a judging my teacher tone of voice I think she wasnt happy. I thougt we could stop having lesson with her and not doing exam this term. Unfortunately this week lesson is still similar. Question like why you are so tensed, why can't you relax you hands, do you understand what I am saying". I really wish she just tells me "Greenleave, I cant teach your child, I am leaving!" It would be easier for me then. On another thought I think it might be just us, clumsy and not being able to hold anything probably which is partially true.