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!!

That book looks very interesting Fleur - I have ordered for my kindle!
Most lessons have finished here but DS1 has a morning of rehearsals for bands, then a drum rehearsal on Monday and another one on Wednesday evening. The borough does a concert at the Albert Hall every two years (I think a lot of London boroughs do similar) and the next one is In May. So, the rehearsals are important but annoyingly DS1 also has school exams so this eats into his revision time a bit.
So far the maths exams have had quite a bit of content he hasn't done, which makes me suspect that year 10 have been given some kind of mock GCSE paper in the new format just to scare them! DH wants to see the papers when they come back so he can have a go!

Enormous my older DS was exactly the same with regards to his instrument lessons.

DS picked up a beginer's book and start to sing and play with piano this morning. He used to play back the songs he learnt from school with piano and with the correct chords. It was so joyful. DS started piano when he was five and was able to play all the major and minor scales, arpeggios within two months of study. We almost forget why learning the music. Fortunately, we haven't entered him any competations except the only one entered by his teacher in JD which almost compulsory for anyone in JD. I reported two years ago here that DS got 142 in his violin G7 exam. He will do his G8 exam next week. Will he give us another surprise? We just did our 11+. There nothing wrong to prepare your kid if you want to get into Grammer or super selected indies. It did help most kids in this highly competitive markets. But what I don't agree is that everyone must prepare for a perticular school's exam format. DS didn't prepare for a particular school, for all the results diclosed, he got 100% for all the maths test because he is jusy good at it.

a music aptitude place at a local comprehensive

Not entirely 'comprehensive' then. There are a few like that in this county and we're just inside the large catchment for a quite shiny partially super-selective comp, but the commutes would have been over three hours per day so we decided to ignore them and keep the quite care-free, younger summer-born child for a little while longer.

There are things to grumble about, but the good news here at now 13yo DD’s more conventional nearby comp is that instead of it being the usual teacher they are getting her and an upper-sixth former to split playing with the orchestra for this year’s big musical. This is the first time they have found a way for her to join in to do her thing, and that rare school-side recognition has revitalised the enthusiasm that had recently declined a little because of ‘teenager’. Parents, relatives, friends, piano teachers, board examiners and the like seem to have a lot less influence than a little pat on the head from those curiously authoritative school-side teachers.

I am also reliably told that the above shiny super-selective (which has some fiercely contended music places) would never let one of their children do this lest they stumble and break the string of polished performances, so perhaps this comp is not quite so bad after all…

I'm sorry I'm not keeping up in here very well. We have had a non musical week here following a busy one the one before.

I have a query, or I'm airing an annoyance, not sure which.

Dd had her last clarinet lesson of term yesterday. Bearing in mind it's only two weeks since her grade 3, her teacher has gone through two possible grade 4 pieces with her, asked her to get the grade 4 book and suggested to her that she does the exam in the autumn term.

I just sort of would have liked to have had this discussion to involve me? We have decided not to go for a music scholarship probably, and the Autumn term will be very busy with school exam preparation. Now of course dd is very excited at the prospect as she actually enjoys exams...

woolley, probably okay to do both. I think it can be a nice change frmo preparation for academic exams to have a music exam to work at - it is grade 4 so probably not vast amount of work either. it can be worth keeping up the music exam momentum particularly as your daughter likes it. My older daughter played the clarinet and interestingly recently made it clear I must still keep it at home for her (so perhaps she will come back to it later).

Se22: how long has he been with you? Has his teaching/commenting style changed recently? I had sometimes in the past when I doubt very much my piano teacher could handle my (very active) daughter, almost everytime when I got home and catch the very end of the lesson I saw her rolling on the floor while my teacher was desperately tried to teach her. I like what Kutik said: teacher is also human, there could be many things(temporary stressful period for him, broken personal relationship, pressurised with exams/performance etc). My previous violin teacher who I had to let go last week was always saying: why I tell you a hundred times, why your fingers are this way, why cant you relax, do you understand me? She didnt really show how to do it instead of confusing her more when asking all these "why" questions and showing her disappointment, frustration I feel like she really cant handle my child. Besides, I tried to tell her about my daughter habit, style, try to understand her progress however my teacher just said: she is too busy to write email(and she doesnt like answering phone calls). Really, I feel almost glad that I was told here to let her go as I found that decision very hard to take.

Last week we created a list of schools that we'd like to try and potentially be able to get a place. We went for a test a month ago with a potential tutor and as expected her maths and writting are ok however below average on VR, NVR and Comprehension. Only 1 school we like is asking for NVR so maths and English are still core along with be able to answer comprehensive questions and learn new words. I love the reading news papers daily idea. We only have First news weekly. Will allow her to read online news too. I have found a potential good teacher who I was recommended however she only starts from yr5. We will have to take a test first then if we pass her minimum requirement then we could get a place for 1 hr/week. I learnt (or watched) my friend who taught/spent time with their children and I think its the key. The tutor teaches the technique however practice is key and at 10 yrs old, parental inputs are key. I feel like I know roughly what is it now, I will only need to know the exam/test/interview requirements. Thanks so much for your honest sharing!!!

You're right PiqueABoo - the music aptitude places do make DD's school less comprehensive than some but there are only 12 places for music and the academic performance of those children varies (as does the level they've reached on their instrument - DD is one of the higher ones this year). The LA has used a banding system for admissions for years so the intake is still pretty comprehensive. There's nothing shiny about this school but it's lovely and is a 25 minute walk from home. That's what spun it in the end; the additional time DD would have to do things other than school.

By the way one of two boys who got a place at the best boys school in this country hadn't been tutored - he did a bit of Bond prior to the exam but that's all (according to his mum). But then he is truly gifted, like he was so different since he was a baby. So he is not a good role model! I don't know much about other one. To my eyes, he seems very able naturally too, but his parent is a teacher at an academic prep-school so that probably helped quite a lot. As Green said, parental inputs may be the key, but on the other hand, kids don't listen to the parents, do they? My DS, for example, he seems to do very well when I'm not around and totally opposite when I am involved... So I may need to hire someone at some points!

To be honest, it's DS who wants to do 11+ (though he is unaware of how much efforts he has to put in). I am quite happy for him to go to a fairly local comp with music place. It's not very academic, but great for DCs who love music, and it's less than half an hour from us - distance is quite important to me as I don't like wasting precious time for daily journey.

woolley, DS and his piano teacher were discussing G7 piano exam in the autumn term. DS is thinking to sit 11+ in Jan. He may also wants to do NCO and other stuff on top... I am worried if he can cope all. Like you DD, DS likes exams, but it doesn't mean he likes the preparation!

Green, you are right it is quite a recent frustration so may be personal, or that my daughter has had so much on this term that she cannot listen well. Either way I need to be brace and talk to him. Will try on Monday.

Green I also think too many why questions for 8 year old rather than active showing

the additional time DD would have to do things other than school.

Same significant factor here. DD is another child who has lots of not-school things she wants to do and I couldn't imagine her being happy without sufficient time for that.

It's interesting to hear that your school apparently does more honest selection by musical aptitude, because I get the impression it's often a kind of stealth academic selection and/or they go for the higher levels.

For a while I didn't really get musicality/aptitude because most music I hear tends to have that, but in recent years I've seen some of DD's piano teacher's pupils (and others) play those ubiquitous exam board pieces and it makes a lot more sense now. That teacher is a very good one and I think we're lucky to have them, but I'm now attributing a bit less to the teacher and bit more to the pupil.

I suppose I might disagree with someone else's assessment of musicality/aptitude, but I can easily see why someone would pick a lower level child over a higher one.

The aptitude test takes the form of an aural test using electronic sounds and requiring the children to identify if a tone is higher/lower, which number note in a passage has changed, that sort of thing. It's nothing like ABRSM aural but is used to select the top 40 or so scorers who are then invited to audition. DD played a favourite piece she'd learnt by ear from listening to a CD and played an old exam piece. She had to explain why she'd chosen them and talk about the sort of music she liked to listen to. Of her new friends, one of them was self-taught and about G1, another was G2 ish at the time and I think the other one did a G3 piece at the audition. In previous years, they've given music places to children whose only music training has been singing in the church choir with their grandma so it doesn't feel as though it's being used to secure the children who are already accomplished players.

That sounds like a good way of doing it ( do they get to do extra music when they are st school SE?)
Very early start here off to London for some jazz today happy Mother's Day to us all

Alex yes it was me talking about teacher changing- we have no issues with improvement/things to focus on. This is more on the lines of pure negativity which has come out of nowhere.

Have booked dc nto one of the recorder days next month (not sure what I am supposed to do for the day as it's too far to travel back home,well, it's a nice play so may get one of the other dc to come along for some sightseeeing)

Alex, great result!! He did so well. So jealoys with RAH, hope you will have a great time enjoying another Orchestra concert.

We couldnt make to the festival yesterday as the chess tournament was whole day. We lost(expected), it was a really big day with coaches of hundreds girls in the country came over. Its great to take a part and played(even lost).

There is a new game in this household today: making music by running/moving with pressure your wet fingers on the tip of glasses, cups. They make different sound on different type of glasses and less/more water. I even have someone try to tune this "music" via the piano. I hope no glass is broken then it will be my gift for mother day. Have a lovely day everyone.

Alex great news and good luck with RFH!
green during a holiday years ago, DH and DS did the music glass thing to replicate the five note sequence used to communicate with the aliens in Encounters of the Third Kind. They got it pitch perfect. It was exciting. No aliens came though.

The words "Mother's Day" have not been spoken in this house today yet.

Well done Alex and miniAlex!
My mother's day card read Happy birthday! Sometimes I worry about DS1 and DS2...

Ha ha loose that's a good one. You did become a mother on their birthdays...
I have a hint hint, it took a while but he snapped out of his reverie and felt terribly guilty to have forgotten and gave me a hug that almost took the wind out of me...

Received F&M cookies and a card from DS (thanks to unusually organised DH). Now boys are out playing cricket, I'm having a peaceful afternoon in my garden!

Ooh lovely cookies! I've had a posh lunch in London and breakfast in bed so well happy! Hapoy Mother's Day everyone!