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!!

This thread's moved way too fast for me to keep up also. Well done to those results already in, and good luck for those who are about to take exams - no matter how unprepared they may seem!

Particularly enjoying the stories of clothing mishaps. Making me feel better about being coco the clown when DD's socks have slipped into my drawer. Size 8 vs my size 4 feet is not a good look.

Our socks and knickers get muddled all the time now, especially the plain ones. Goo has the same size feet as me, so it doesn't really matter if we wear each other's socks. Knickers are another matter though... I am a size 12 and she isn't even a size 6 yet, so that's not going to work, is it?

Rara is well enough to watch videos now, unable to eat, but drinking water. I have had to cancel my teaching commitments, and have also pulled out of playing in the school Easter service today. I let the school know yesterday, so hopefully they have been able to sort out backing tracks instead of having me play the piano. Goo is directing my Year 5 Recorder group, who have hopefully by now played three vaguely seasonal pieces while everyone was coming into the church. I sent her in with spare recorders, spare music, instructions and various notes for the relevant members of staff!

Well done Goo! Trying to remember how long we normally wait for results, I think we have a while yet.

We have a festival coming up in May so really need to decide on some pieces. Will probably use one of the exam pieces for clarinet but we need to pick a beginners piece for the bassoon.

Well done the Petra's and Goo! Fab!

Exam tomorrow. Not holding out much hope beyond a pass really.... It is however her 2nd study so I would be more concerned if this was violin!

I'm glad to hear she's feeling up to the water now Waffle, hopefully she'll bounce back quickly once she starts to eat again.
Congratulations to all with results, I'm struggling with this on my phone and another bolded name will have me thumping the walls (no internet here which amounts to child cruelty)

Oooooh! Can I boast??

DS has just come home with news of 94 (out of 100) in his Trinity jazz saxophone exam. He's normally a Merit kind of exam taker - doesn't shine in that context, detail goes under stress - so this is a Big Thing for him.

He's skipping Grade 7s, so the plan is to work towards Grade 8s in both clarinet and sax over the next 2 years, before he leaves school.

Ooh fab! Cantkeepaway! Well done to him

Thanks Prada! He has been really busy - Y11, so lots of GCSE work, and also lots of music ensembles etc - so specific exam practice got a bit swallowed up by life at various points.

(Sorry, that wasn't meant to be an 'extra boast' that he could manage that mark on less practice - just that I was braced for the absolutely opposite result, with a drop down to a pass, and so we are extra-specially smiley this evening)

Fleur - she didn't qualify for the next round of the competition which is a shame as she learnt it from scratch in about 6 weeks and really wanted to get through - but on the day there were better candidates. Luckily she loves the piece as much as me!

I'm pleased to report that she got a distinction in her Grade V theory though - the results came out today. That more than makes up for it!!

Oh and should have said fleur that she didn't do the exam last term. She's hoping to do it next term though. She's started on Summertime for her list C (I love that too!) and think she'll go for Waltz in A for list A. She'll have lessons over the holidays to keep her focused and practising! (I hope!)

Wonderful exam results!!! Love to hear them all, please boast away!
Someone was told off tonight while being less sensible to her young sister then there were tears and ...loads of (focused/quality) practice because she knew she crossed the line and I was crossed. I didnt know that this works, if I am lucky I might have this 3 times a week .

Wanted to tell Prada: best if luck!

Green lucky you. We had foot stamping tantrum here that pieces last played 6 weeks ago for exam now not as polished but need to be resurrected for a school concert.

Great results everyone. SE I feel your pain that sort of tantrum happens here too hopefully your dd feels that better about it now

Amazing exam results!
We had a great evening last night, listening to NYJO, and their Dutch and German equivalents at King's Place. The DCs absolutely loved it and DS1 was fascinated by the different drummers' techniques. I spotted several familiar faces from the BBC jazz musician competitions!

Well done for the great exam results all!

Prada good luck today! Let us know how it went.

MidLife dd is also learning Summertime for her C piece I think that is another hard one particularly for dd as it has some big stretches but she loves it and so do I. She's doing the Scarlatti sonata for her A piece, she wanted the Waltz initially but her teacher had the book for the Scarlatti and played it to dd and she preferred that one. She was playing the Slow Air last night and decided she actually likes how it sounds now so at least the polishing part should be easier.

We also need to decide and prepare for an audition piece for dd's secondary school admission I think we'll keep one of the grade 5 pieces going till September, I'm thinking of summertime as she loves it and she will probably perform it better but if she takes the grade 5 exam in June we can at least see which piece she gets most marks in and keep that one for the audition.

Congratulations to can't and crisis, we like hearing results, we'll cheer for the good ones and console you over the less good ones.

I'm having a flashback to 2013 this week, it goes to show that pieces that you thought you'd laid to rest can pop up again years later. One of DS's G8 pieces was also in the (brass) band library, the two were more or less identical but at the time he stuck with playing the version that he had to produce in the exam. After the exam he didn't want to touch it ever again but it turns out that four years is long enough to qualify for "ever again" and he's playing it an a concert in a few weeks.

Well done to everyone on all the fabulous practical and theory results! I won't name names in case I miss someone out. Good luck to MiniPrada for today.

Goo is super happy at the moment, and looking forward to starting some new flute pieces tonight. I think she is hoping to do all of the Suite Antique and all of the Godard Suite next. Rara is still off school, says she is now feeling around 6/10. She was already verging on underweight, and has now lost her appetite completely. I'm trying to tempt her with all her favourites.

I'll keep an eye on the thread and start a new one later today. I was hoping to get to tomorrow, but I don't want to interrupt the conversation by leaving you thread-less for a day.

Only three messages to go to get to 1000!

Dropped DD2 at school this morning, DD1 was still in bed as she broke up yesterday and DH had gone to work. Not working today, so I sat down at the piano and suddenly an hour had gone by! Don't get the time usually and I'm very rusty not having played properly since my teens when Ii scraped through Grade 6, but I found a nice little tango piece and had some fun with it.

Double I've been playing this: It's quite fun.

I wish! Nothing nearly that complicated here!