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!!

Good luck or well done to all those who have or have had their exams this week.

Band concert for us tonight so we are having a chilled day at home. Will be the first time dd has played in both bands so a busy evening for her.

Raspberry you have a hit maker in your hands! If only he was getting royalties

Hi everyone, I am back form the exam room! (well, not literally, but...) :)
Dd is the sort of child who puts minimum effort but thinks she will get top marks, so today is no exception. She is confident that everything went spectacularly well (her teacher hopes for merit though ;)). Accompanist said she started one of the pieces with the wrong note (or was it the wrong key? not sure...) but she said that it was actually the accompanist who started it wrong! Here we go....

Thank you everyone for good vibes about our situation with violin. Dd broke it Sunday evening (broken bridge + sound post was moved) and exam was today. So we had Monday to sort it out and fortunately our local violin shop keeper who is good at restoration of violins was working that day (he is working part time and his schedule is all over the place). So he agreed to put other violins aside and to fix ours.... Our exam happened against all odds! (teacher's pneumonia, plenty of canceled lessons and broken violin). I can breath out now.... Green, yes, it was our new old violin she broke :)

Next step is grade 5 theory for dd and grade 1 for my little one.

Fleur once I am back to my normal I will answer you
Waffle how is Goo's pinky?
Kutik massive congratulations with the well deserved offer for your ds! (and this is where I stopped reading all the news last time I have been here therefore apologies for not keeping up with the rest but I will try to make it up)

Should take some now

Well done for getting through it all, only family!

Goo's netball team played spectacularly badly tonight, in a big tournament to go through to area finals. Two girls were ill, so they had to play two subs. Goo and her friend were also injured! However, they scraped into 4th out of 6 and got the last slot for area finals, hooray! These teams were the top 6 from 40 at the start of the season, so they have done well to get this far. Anyway, she has been bandaged up since Friday and her pinky is healing. No further damage from tonight, thank God. She is mega relaxed about the exam, which makes such a refreshing change. Four weeks ago, I printed out a poster telling her how many days to go, and have FORCED her to engage with it. She has form for burying her head in the sand, then working herself into a state at the last minute, and I was determined to break that habit. Thanks to the poster (and one for Rara) we all know exactly where we are with it all, and Goo is also reassured by my absolute confidence in her. Hopefully she will be pleased with her performance tomorrow!

Rara has just zoomed through most of the Grade 2 clarinet book - I bought it because there's one piece she really wanted from it, but she knows all of the notes, so played the other pieces as well (badly). She has taught herself the C major scale and is nearly there with G major, 2 octaves. She'd be ready for Grade 2 Clarinet next term, but neither of us wants to jump straight back into exam prep, and she is definitely doing Grade 3 Cello next term. The Paul Harris book doesn't provide enough pieces at each level once you hit stage 18-19, so I have put her on to Abracadabra, starting around number 90, I think. I've also ordered 'What Else Can I Play?' Grades 1 and 2, so we'll just play lots of lovely pieces, and do Grade 3 in a year or so. LOL I have just realised she is collecting Grade 3s! Recorder last Christmas, Cello coming up, and Clarinet at some undefined point in the future.

Good luck to Goo! Definitely don't break a leg...

Phew Only! I was thinking of you this morning. Your violin chap sounds like a great chap!

T-3 for G6 piano. I think we might be re-sitting this one

Ha! I do love an against the odds narrative! Goo is so gong to triumph! But I also have to say Rafa is like DS2 and they both play cello so watch out! I think she is going to surprise you!
Meanwhile I am in the depths of despair over my grade 4 exam next week, I would cancel but it's just not in my character! So faliure just seems inevitable and for all my teacher says relax, of course I can't! I really don't think the format works for ancient learners! Plus I don't think it's relevant to why I learn. Whatever happens I am not doing another exam!

Only I'm glad it's over and minionly sounds adorable, I love a confident kid. I'm sure she'll come back with a merit or distinction and make you all wonder what were you worrying about.

Prada I'm sure it will be fine. I always feel like dd will fail an exam and then she comes back with distinctions and merits.

Waffle I did want to ask if it wouldn't be worth it better to allow Rara to skip and go to grade 3. To be fair by how you describe her I think she'll be ready by the C session to take it. We have a couple of studies books that dd gets a lot of work out of, the Paul Harris 80 graded studies and James Rae 38 more studies. And quite a few Disney books which she loves. Good luck to Goo with her exam.

Loose you sounded ready a while ago, sorry to repeat what the teacher says but try to relax. On he other hand I agree, I hope to start learning once the kids exams are out of the way but I wouldn't take exams myself. I would play the exam pieces just to measure my progress.

We're becoming stressed, I know we still have two full months till he next session but dd would have been more advanced in her exam pieces by his point, at least I think she was. For grade 3 she had all her pieces learnt by entry date and a bit polished. She'd then polish them till the exam (a bit over a month).

Now the entry date is 12th May (I think) she has a piece learnt 3 quarters but not in rhythm or anything, 2 pieces learnt half, again not in rhythm. She'll probably learn them by the entry date but they will need a huge amount of polishing. Surely you need more time to polish pieces at grade 5?!

Also I am shocked at the contrast between the pieces, her A piece is a Scarlatti and she learnt half in a week, in rhythm and she finds it extremely easy. Her B piece is at the opposite pole, it has a huge amount of voices, chords and it is quite hard. And then it's summertime which she loves but it is frankly a pain! At least she likes it as she now hates her B piece but obviously it is too late to change it.

On top of it she has the grade 3 clarinet prep, learnt the scales and 1 piece but not in rhythm, based on the stress with piano I think we'll push clarinet to the November session as I don't need added anxiety.

There you go, massive whining from me.

Good luck, Loose and Prada!

I find that there is a huge gap between Grade 2 and 3 Clarinet, so 2 isn't usually a good one to miss out (I'll miss out Grade 1 or 3 for some learners) but Rara was Grade 1 around Christmas time really, and has been moving herself along ever since. She really does need to knuckle down with the cello next term, so against my usual advice isn't going to do Grade 2 Clarinet. Who knows about the C session? She wants to do Grade 4 Recorder (mainly to stay ahead of someone, which is a crap reason to do it) but I think she would be better off concentrating on Cello and Clarinet really. She's currently obsessed with the clarinet, finally getting to grips with the big cello, and (much as I love it) there won't be any opportunities for her to play the recorder at the secondary school she is going to go to.

Nooo!! The huge gap is between Grade 1 and 2, but 2 and 3 are fairly close together. Apologies!

Hello, your advice here was very helpful for beginner like me, so thank you to people who helped me!

My ds will be doing first exam in a week, and have managed to have lessons with proper piano teacher for 3 short lessons + one 1 hour lesson.
He has been doing mostly DIY until now, so it's still long way to go even we only have a week! Fingers crossed he will pass!

If you have any tips for first timer, I would really appreciate it.

waffle and only - sounds like all went really well :) good luck to those still to go this week

Waffle/Fleur - dd also found a book of Irish traditional songs to play at this stage and really loved them (and so did her granny); think she also missed out g3: found g5 a big jump as the fingers have to work so much harder and the breathing too

Fleur - dd is only just settling her pieces (cello) for the summer session (mid june exam), so i don't think it is too late to change if dd really hates something - otherwise practice might get a little challenging if she is anything like dd when she has decided to not like a piece anymore....

Raspberry: wow!!!

To Rara, miniPrada and mommy Loose: all the best in these coming tests.

Only: such a relief that you got it sorted the next day? What happened, how did she do it? Mine usually bend on the bow and swing the violin while talking and my heart skips beats. They really need to be very very very careful with their instrument(especially near the exam). We have been on 3/4 now, the sound is nice and strong. We had a trial lesson with someone, fingers crossed.

Fleur: great to hear she does well with the sample test. Its very easy to say "dont be stressed" I know, you have time though. We have been having merits for piano for all exams and the last time we felt a pang of relief when it was a merit. I am so envy you dont find scales are that bad...we were so struggle. Since end of Nov we havent touched any scale and today I received my teacher email telling us few scales we have to pick up this week. We are on this Bach piece tonight and we aim for 2-3 weeks to master it(only 1 page through my eyes). Since having glasses on, we are on reading again and its still all about physics, time travel, space etc.

Hello all, haven't posted in a while and have really lost the threads recently.
So not going to comment on all the individuals that have triumphed against all the odds, including broken limbs, broken instruments , and illness of course.

Isn't music remarkable and what lengths we go to, to be involved.

All music assessments passed absolutely amazing report and results.
Academically hasn't hit double figures in English and Maths end assessments. It will be interesting to see mfl as she has revised for weeks and worked hard.
She continues to smile and put on a brave face. Knowing exactly what she is going through, makes me want to weep.
Thank Goodness for Music.

Hello gilly it's lovely to hear that music is still going so well, and that she is trying hard with everyone else. I do partly understand - Rara has her issues but perhaps not as severe - she's verging on Selective Mutism, anxiety, slow processing, has ADHD traits and very slow word finding (vs superior vocabulary, so she gets very frustrated). She's doing well in class so her teachers don't tend to notice all the bits she struggles with, and she's on the edge of so many things, but not severe enough in any of them to receive a diagnosis or help. So yes... thank goodness for music!

just a quick for greenleave, I think it's better to read without glasses. Presuming she is nearsighted. This was also conformed with optician,

Foundoutyet: we are told to wear them as much as possible for 3 weeks before we can start on Ortho-K as by then her brain gets used to the idea of 20/20 vision. She isnt bothered with them at all and she said they do help(although before the check up she said she saw everything absolutely fine at school and didnt struggle with reading).
Gilly: best of luck with mfl result!

gilly, have seen your other thread on other board.
My ds was selective mute for 2 years, and still has asd/adhd traits. (Haven been diagnosed, since he seems to be doing ok now.)
So I hope I can say same for my ds in the future. ("thank goodness for music!")

Aw Waffle I know exactly what you mean, I know they are both different, but you know when there are discrepancies, they stand out like a sore thumb.
I have met about a dozen people recently who told me they were shocked to find out she was 13, they think she is a 6th former.
Her vocabulary and confidence talking to anyone is unbelievable, and she always has an opinion, can reason and argue, properly.

You'd think this would mean good at English.

I'm sure both our dd will see their way through in the end.

Green, dd was running upstairs with violin and bow in her hands.... And she is very, and I mean VERY, clumsy. The bow she has is a good expensive bow (was coming with the violin) - and this is the only reason it is still alive-no cheap bow would survive daily dropping....

Only, glad you got the violin mended and I'm sure she'll have done well.

Good luck to Goo and Loose and any others still to take exams.

Grade 6 oboe done today for DD1 and hoping for a merit by all accounts. Apparently scales were OK, which is the first exam I've heard that about since Grade 2! She went to try out with a local swing band tonight on her sax and fitted in so well that she is joining them for their concert on Sunday evening! Trying to deflect her from taking up bass guitar.....

Waffle dd's clarinet teacher's feedback was that dd was close to grade 2 by the time she got the grade 1 exam results and while she covered the scales for all grades (we have the Paul Harris grade 1-3 scale book) she felt like grade 2 will stop her progress and like you said she would have been ready for this term (march session) and she/we didn't want an exam after the other. We'll probably be doing it in November I think so a year after grade 1.

stringchild the B piece is the one she learnt the most to be fair. Hate is probably a big word, I think it is one of her least ever favourite pieces of music. She's normally choosing her exam pieces herself and her teacher is happy to support and adapt as long as she works hard and she likes the piece. This time though her teacher insisted she learns this piece as it is a style she didn't cover, British composer and I do think she will like it when it will be finished. But it is giving her a head ache. (And me to be fair).

irvine good luck with the exam next week. Are you going to hire a teacher after to take your DS further or continue diy?

Green that Bach piece looks good. I'll take a picture of the painful piece tomorrow to show you. Good luck with the violin teacher I hope it works! Dd doesn't mind scales because we always keep them going. There's never a time when she hasn't got some assigned which I think make her accept them more as part of playing the piano.

Gilly sorry to hear your dd is struggling with academics, she is doing great with music though which must be a huge relief that she found her talent. She loves it and that is all that matters

doubleup good to hear oboe exam went well, fingers crossed for great result!

Dd wanted to learn how to play the piccolo. Erm...no! Just no.

Thank you, Fleurdelise.

We needed to DIY because his former teacher left suddenly for personal reasons. We had to have keyboard teacher instead, and couldn't find new piano teacher. So, we will have proper piano teacher from now on!