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!!

I must add 'personality' to the formula also. I don't think many finds being soloist is a happy choice.

Mine plays better without music too Kutik

Actually, I just realised we have been asked about teachers too.... But again, we are not London based and don't have celebrity teachers here therefore I think it is just curiosity most of the time. I ask about teachers too. But I think that keen musical parents want to know "the trend" and be informed who goes to whom, know the names-just in case, and basically like to gossip about music related things :). There are some well known names here - not necessarily for good reasons and you can almost predict a reaction when you call certain names. Our local violin shop owner knows a lot about local teachers and all the gossips.
I had to admit I have a certain pleasure in being connected to a good teacher :) I like when people say, oh, yes, I have heard he is a very good teacher :))))
So I am cynical and vain

I've been asked about my teacher. But grown-up musicians in the local area actually do know each other.

well our teachers are def not 'known' internationally as far as i am aware so we will continue our peaceful existence (think only people who ever asked us are music shops so maybe we are missing out on some big discounts :))

I have never ever been able to memorise music. But I am also bad at mental maths (despite having various postgraduate science related degrees).
dc3 found grade 2 scales in woodwind more difficult thean the grade 4 piano ones. Asked whether at the exam she could look at the piano whilest playing her woodwind scales...

I don't think you need famous teacher. Although my view is unless a child really wanted it I would not recommend music as a career so in a sense I would play music down - been a wonderful hobby for me as a lawyer but usually it would not pay the bills for most people. My children's father i think wished he had not gone into it. He gets all those brilliant players knocking on the door wanting to teach uninterested children grade 1 stuff for a paltry fee.

However if I had a child who wanted to make it their career I would certainly not stop them and many people have a very nice life making a living through music.

(Never, my brother and I (and our late mother) and indeed on the other side of the family my chidlren's great grandfather have/had perfect pitch. I did some research on it at unviersity. I think it's genetic. You can be very good at music like my children's father (organist, FRCO etc ) and not have it and other people (obviously who need to do quite a bit of music even to know what it is) do have it. My mother did not have much musical training but at teacher training college was always asked to give the note for the choir. For me it feels like the difference between seeing in colour or black and white. Certain keys I prefer over others. it's always interested me. We discovered my brother had it first at 10 - he was at a very musical school and in the orchestras and choir etc and my school didn't even have a choir and then discovered I had it too but not our sister who did just as much music. The more I sing the more accurate mine is and if the children try to trick me by playing very low or high notes on the piano to guess I may well not know the note if it's very out of usual pitch. It's total quirk having it and doesn't make me better or worse at music).

A friend of mine had her DC with a "famous" teacher, famous in respect of the fact she was a teacher at a music school and she had a great reputation, it was really hard to get to be her pupil privately, huge waiting list and so on.

From my point of view she was a ruthless teacher. While I am sure she was amazing from a teaching point of view, her way of driving her private business was shocking from my point of view. She was charging a fortune (ok understandable considering her name) she didn't care if the pupil was ill and couldn't make it to a lesson, the full lesson fee was still charged, imagine your dc waking up and being sick from a sickness bug and the teacher having no empathy, when you inform them they say something like "thanks for letting me know, the full lesson fee is still being charged". Ok I understand they are losing money but once it a while it would hurt to forget the fees and be human or at least discuss it at a later point. (I personally would have taken my sick dc for the lesson the second I would have been told she'll still charge me but I am evil like that).

Anyway, I am sure she was a great teacher for all her pupils but the lack of forming a humanly connection with my friend's dc and her parent made me think she would not have been the right teacher for us.

Both our teachers are known in the area but not famous.

DS2 has amazing sight reading, (benefit of being a Chorister. He finds it hard to maintain the quality when memorising singing pieces. Whether he'll do singing grade exams I'm not sure. He's done RSCM exams but they aren't from memory.

He also has perfect pitch. I was told he might have difficulty with trombone because of this, he just seems to get on with everything.

Loose, thanks so much, will search for it tonight when I have wifi. I watched it with her last night( I already did on Sunday night however its still very informative to watch again). I can never imagine any of my child could be so interested a out science. I am sure she had alot in her head last night before bed. The last couple of months we have been buying tens of physics books. I am still torn between forcing her to get out and play and read what she likes. She is very lucky that I have very little time during the week with her during day time so she is pretty much free to do whatever she likes.

I am tone deaf I think, I cant be able to tell any. My daughter is slightly better than me, still we struggle with aural. It doesnt stop her to learn to play abd progress.

Regarding to teacher, for violin(string), being a student of a great teacher saves alot of time and could lead to success I think. Fingering is extremely important. The missing bit that I find with my current teacher(who is unknown) that the connection that she has either with me or my daughter. My unknown piano teacher has it with us. I hope he stays as long as he could. I should start too as my second child is learning in couple of years time(her birthday is this weekend). I'd like to play along with them both.(great admire to Loose and Never)

We have a good memory( glances to times table and be able to remember it), things written down could be easily understood and memorised and expanded(music theory). Facts from books, magazines can be repeated without reread them. I still have never seen her without a music book. We just always have them opened(they are dancing aliens to me as I have no idea about music). We just need to try to take the book away I think.

I am planning for secondary and rhe fee could be large ( around £20k/yr or above). We are currently spend £700(or above) on her monthly activities and will have to start the same with our second child and all is from our income only(the secondary fee is the same as nursery fee that we are paying for our second child now so its always "expensed"/"expected"). There will never be any savings in the next 15 years until they both off to Univ(if they are bright enough) I guess.

The key is money.
Money buys you the famous teachers. They're mostly good albeit ruthless, they can advice on career, repertoire and connections.
Money buys you the expensive instrument which sounds so much better.
Money buys you a trip to Germany to have a masterclass with Mr or Mrs X.
Money pays for JD.
Money buys you attendance to concerts, workshops and festivals abroad.
Money buys you books, repertoire, etc.
Yeah, I'm cynical too

drummers Certainly money doesn't hurt!

We are certainly a modest income family. Maybe I should guide ds away from getting too serious about music...

Anyway I wrote about a boy a couple year senior than ds who is so musical and talented a few times on this thread. He has a music scholarship at a very academic independent school and also goes to a JD. His focus was always music so he or his family didn't have the dilemma we have (sport vs music) at primary school. However things seem to be getting harder at secondary. I spoke to the dad recently and he told me the boy started complaining about commitments and expectation with music. Quite surprised as this is the boy who always eats, sleeps and breathes music. However, I think having a music scholarship and piano and violin as his 1st study at a JD makes his schedule madly busy. And he sees other friends doing 'teen stuff' yet he has to practise everyday...

I wonder how things will be with my ds who is so into music at the moment....

Green Why do you want your dd to play without music? If it gives her the sense of security, even though she really doesn't need to see, it's ok to let her keep playing with music? I am saying this because when I contacted a JD to clear a few questions prior to the auditions, I was told that there wouldn't be any merit/demerit whether the candidates perform for the audition with or without music.

We don't quite make it into the middle income bracket as a family. But this is a substantial improvement in living standards for me - incredibly deprived childhood, right on the poverty line. So anything my DCs do musically is fab - we are never going to afford multiple lessons, or JD, or specialist music school, or private school, or top of the range teachers! Fortunately I can help them with recorder, theory and piano, and Goo's flute lessons are covered by a DFES scholarship. We still have to scrape together £20 for her piano lessons and similar for Rara's cello.

Not piano, clarinet!! Although I will help Goo with piano when required. Which is almost never!

Talking about memory. Someone said no good at mental maths. I wonder if you were still good at maths in general. I think being good at mental math is no indication of being good at maths as having mathematical brain is nothing to do with being good at calculation. It's a different skill. Sorry, totally off topic.

Waffle We can't apply for any financial help as apparently we are wealthy enough not to have any help. Yet fees for JD, private school, specialist music school, top of the range teachers are all too expensive for us to maintain for a long run... Me and DH call ourselves the poorest middle class family in our (posh) area.

Green Why do you want your dd to play without music?

A performance is usually better without music if it can be, of course. If someone needs the music then by all means have it. But don't have it and not look at it. I think the fear of going out without the music needs to be conquered. You don't see famous soloists or young musician participants go out with the music. That's because the more internalized the music is, and the more it becomes yours as opposed to the composer's (the sheet), the more individual character and emotion your interpretation will have... And the more you will feel free to engage your whole body, as opposed to dictate your body position by having to have your eyes on the sheet.
Music scores are like parents. You need to have them at the start, but then you better move away from them if you want to fly.

dd prefers to play without music and is def more expressive when she does so - one of her teachers really hates her doing it; apparently he had a bad experience in a concert once when he froze. i wish he wouldn't share that story though as it is quite off-putting for a young one to hear.....

Green, I would be interested in knowing physics/science books which you or your DD found good. In case u don't want to share here, an you pls. send personal msg.

To memorise or not to memorise.

In fact Susan Tomes has quite an interesting blog. www.susantomes.com/

I tend to agree with her. It's the sheer unpredictability of it all that makes memorising music so stressful! At least for me. And clearly, even with the music in front of you, you don't actually read everything. I'm not quite sure what I read ...

NeverEver thanks for that, even though I'm not sure I totally agree with her And I also don't think a soloist performance is the same as a chamber or orchestral performance. Maybe I don't totally agree with her because I don't really care about a note missing here or there and I look for something else. I think the key issue, though, is this:
And the pressures are much worse today than they were in Clara Schumann's day. After a century of recording, the record-buying public has been trained to expect perfection, whereas earlier audiences didn't mind if things went occasionally awry I have read a lot about this issue and I think that's the real problem these days. Accurate yet dull players may be respected more than expressive ones who may suddenly add this or that to make up for a forgotten bar. Give me the second any day. Horowitz in his late years, bad memory and all, forgetfulness and all, but oh my God the pathos.