April Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

We've managed to fill up the March thread, so I give you April's, around 10 hours early. Don't use it all up at once!

The music threads are for learners of ALL ages and stages, including beginners and adult learners.

My kids Goo (11) and Rara (8) break up from school today, thank goodness. Rara is off sick at the moment, in any case, but they both need a break. They did their music exams this week. Goo got a distinction for her Grade 7 Flute, and we are awaiting the results of Rara's Grade 1 Clarinet, plus a couple of my pupils. They will probably come on my birthday - the ABRSM ones often do.

Next term, we have a big community concert at the local high school - all the feeder schools take part. Goo could do Grade 7 Recorder and/ or Grade 4 Piano, but I don't think she wants to. Rara is doing Grade 3 Cello. My Year 6 Recorders have been asked to play in the local Festival gala concert, and I'm sure there will be primary school leavers' performances too.

Sixth form choices ....DS2 announced this week that he would like to consider specialist music school for sixth form!

Lots to think about there, but he's only Y9 so there is time.

JDs were also our plan for after his Choristership, but that plan seems to have altered with starting organ and seeing how that goes!

DD is Y12 so at the uni visiting stage, second DC to do this. Parental involvement involves facilitating visits up and down the country! And encouraging them to crack on with their personal statement over the summer.

I must investigate these aural apps... I have to say that so far, running though the aural tests with my pupils and handful of times (in Grades 1-3, maybe only on 3 or so occasions) has always been enough for them - do not all teachers do this? I did have a girl who bombed the aural in Grade 6, so I gave her a couple of extra 30-minute aural lessons, and she got full marks in Grade 7!

For the character question, I just tell them to describe the mood and say why. That's enough at Grade 4. e.g. "It's a jolly, happy piece, because it's fast and in a major key" or "It's slow and sad, in a minor key, and sounds like it could be a funeral march".

Uni visits - I'd forgotten about the jolly to the RNCM next month. DS expects me to go, apparently it's a thing now for parents to be in tow. I suspect that it's more to do with the ease of me delivering him to the door rather than him having to find his own way there from the station and I'm hoping that when he's done one visit I might get to bow out. I pointed out he had GPS and maps on his phone which I somehow managed without when I was his age but he still thought I was being totally unreasonable expecting him to find his own way from A to B.

I am so very happy there is no choice where we live! The form for secondary school has one written on it

That’s our world except it had SATs. We’re in a grammar-free zone and if you have the money that quite nice private school is still quite a long daily journey. That said we did get (very discreet) tutoring kicking in towards the end of primary to help ensure top set places at secondary, and I'm told it's still happening now in DD's Y9.

Borrowing from someone else’s recent quite witty blog the acronym for my 13yo DD is FL, where L is for Lucky, and F is rude. She is some people’s yardstick, ‘the one to beat’ in a few areas, and if she didn’t exist then a few of our local parents might have been a bit more relaxed.

DD is really good at maths and has never done extra curriculum maths at home, but there is a lot of ‘extra’ in a school lesson because of faster speed. In music she’s a pianist, refused to touch another instrument sadly, and despite typical repertoire stuff for roughly nine months pf a typical year, her average weekly practice is around two hours.

Here the purpose of music was to be ‘good for her soul’, but I was outvoted on climbing the grade ladder and the next one on the horizon is 8. I’m not sure what will happen after that. If there are no difficulties, then it will be Y10 at that point and I’m assuming GCSEs will be annexing more of home-life. Ideally we’d still keep the lessons with a very good teacher just exploring repertoire for a while, but without any concern for chasing diplomas etc.

ha. imagine playing after no practice for 2 weeks (been away). at least dc3 happy to get back at it, but dc2 won't touch it till her lessons next week...
I don't mind the clorine in my hair, but my eyes get sore after sitting there for 2 hours

I really like what Janet Brown wrote: "Each parent decides which I like. I like a UK where parents have choice - some will do lots of tutoring or lots of music or else nothing out of school. Parents choose. We are all different." My only principle is if we want to try something then we shouldnt do half hearted.

Aural: grade 5 piano aural isnt as bad as sight reading or scales I remember. Mine couldnt sing and still managed ok. We didnt do any practice the last couple of days and this morning it felt apart. We decided to go to the riverside for a lunch and then a stroll, will try again tonight.

MrSlant At least I've discovered books again to help me avoid competitive swim parents

Thank you for the aural advice, Dd does a couple of 10-15 min sessions with her teacher before the exam and it seems to be enough, but I became a bit worried this time and downloaded the app. I think helping her at home on top of the couple of sessions with her piano teacher will help.

Her piano teacher will also have to do both grade 3 and grade 5 examples as she refuses to do aural practice with her clarinet teacher. At least she's done grade 3 before, it will be just a quick refresher.

Back to school tomorrow here (and work) so I am trying to make it into a positive "you can see all your friends, and wear your new uniform items, and there is wind band tomorrow also". I hope it works.

Same here Fleur! Just had an expensive trip out for haircuts and school shoes. I think I won the bad mother award when it transpired DS2's trainers were 2 sizes too small. The school shoes were similar. Turns out he's been hobbling around because he hates shopping! DS1 on the other hand had a specific brand of shoes in mind and wore DH down into getting them for him!
He's also bought a pair of shorts to wear for drumming.

Thank you everyone for the hand holding but it's unfair for me to despair as many of you are on the same boat. I marvel at the early risers that sit by a pool for hours. icould I do hope uni application is mostly indy but all I see is parents super involved. loose drumming shorts cool. DS is now drumming barefoot to strengthen his foot muscles!

Unfair of me. Bilingualism does hinder!

"Each parent decides"

That's a bit romantic though e.g. if parent A decides on 11+ tutoring then parent B may feel they have no choice but to do the same.

Perhaps it depends on people's economic status, but it was the 2007/2008 financial crisis when my DD started primary school and there was a lot of anxiety in the air here. We actually had a choice(!) of one faith or one non-faith school. The schools were similar, but as the third generation of my familiy with a piano in the house we picked the one which mentioned a long relationship with a very good peri and when DD started at the school we stuck her on a list for future lessons in Y2.

Y2 rolled around and some mothers genuinely ran to the school office when they saw DD in the playground with a music bag in her hands. Within two years nearly half her class were having piano lessons. It was a possible advantage and they didn't want their child to miss out and get left behind mine. A couple of those parents are just insanely competitive, but for most of them that anxiety about the future was the significant factor.

Well I wouldn't have noticed unless you pointed it out drummersmum!

What do special drumming shorts look like or is it just because it's such a physical instrument and you get hot?

I'm with you Greenleave, liking what JanetBrown wrote and also that I don't push my children to do anything but if they want to do something then they will do it to the best of their ability. I think it's excellent training for being a grown up where you have to commit to do well. Although with sport they are fully committed with no pushing I'd quite like a day off sometimes. I just LOVE how music is bringing a new dimension into their lives. DS2 will sometimes hare in from a game of football, muddy and red and not even take his shin pads off before he throws himself at the piano. One of my all time favourite photo's of him is when he did this. Hair standing up, mud on his gangly teenage knees, all his kit still on and fingers dancing over the piano with such an intent look of concentration on his face.

Pique there are some excellent YouTube videos of maths and music if your DD would be interested. On the grown up musicians thread a few of us are of a mathematical leaning as well as music, I think all music is basically maths and ratios but I think this is probably the opposite of people who see it as an art!

On the maths and music thing, DH is a mathematician, but hasn't a musical bone in his body (although he enjoys listening to music). Both DDs, however, are really good at maths and pretty decent on their instruments.

Ah, they aren't shorts specifically made for drumming, just shorts that DS1 has identified as ideal! Perhaps there is a niche market for drummer-friendly clothes...
I will mention the barefoot thing to him as I am not sure he's thought of that!

It's the last day of the holiday here. We had been away and back in London last night. We decided to finish off our holiday with a day trip to Greenwich today. Had a fantastic family day - munched Byron burgers for lunch (loved the Korean flavour), cafes, pubs and shops, then museums to make DS the astronomer happy. Music practice has been pretty much abandoned as usual during holiday. But most of after school activities start this week so hopefully we go back to our normal routine soon.

Anyone had a teacher suggest the new ABRSM performance only diploma? My daughter has had this mentioned (violin), but I'm thinking that if the syllabus is basically the same then she might as well prepare the rest of a full diploma exam anyway. She's year 9 and I suspect it will take at least 9 months to prepare a programme regardless; having failed to get a diploma myself once exams got in the way of a resit (not in the UK) I think year 10 sounds ideal for a serious attempt.

Meanwhile with my youngest I'm wondering about when to start him preparing for grade 8. He's a chorister which puts a lot of time pressure on, so we've given exams a break since grade 5. He is heading for early voice change (summer born year 7, so not fair at still 11!) but getting towards grade 8 level on both piano and violin; scales however have been neglected ... When I did grade 8 violin I learnt the scales from scratch in about 3 months then ignored them again. So the dilemma is whether he should consider doing a grade 8 exam before he finishes choirschool next summer, and how soon to start preparing. Do we choose a piece that would serve for scholarship auditions and an exam, or leave thinking about grade 8 until after scholarships and then see when he looks ready. Complicated by me being his main violin teacher at present, though I may get him more external guidance soon!

raspberry

I'm happy to give you the low down on dd school if you like.
She'll show you round the school if you attend an open day.
Just dropped her off tonight, it's so good to see her happy.
Everytime she returns she says it's like she's died and gone to heaven.
The children are so lovely, like a family who all look after each other whatever their age or instrument.
I'm sure the others are the same too, it's a fantastic environment for them, especially if they are hell bent on being musicians.
I like that everyone is accepted warts n all.

if they want to do something then they will do it to the best of their ability

She doesn't need much prompting, but the deal here is that DD gives things a fair chance e.g. not discarding a book until she has read a few chapters. In some areas I expect her to fulfil obligations e.g. if she goes to Scouts one evening a week then, unlike the many part-timers, she goes on Remembrance Day marches, night-hikes etc.

Not much nudging required for the latter though because DD has three Ms: maths, music and mountains. The latter includes a lot of serious technical rock-climbing. They’ve all got visual-spatial modelling, but there are some interesting assessing and thinking ahead under pressure parallels in her music and climbing.

Music is clearly very mathematical and I recall DD did take to her first busy Bach piece very quickly, but what about music you want to hear? I’d say a lot of the art is in the deviations from the maths.

MrSlant

My dd is a good musician, quite gifted in some respects, but in special ed for Maths.
She struggles and barely reaches double figures in tests and exams.
She'll be very lucky to pass a GCSE in Maths and she works hard to overcome her problems.
She sees music as an art and is quite good at History, Art, and Languages are her main focus.
I think your post hits the nail on the head tbh.

Alma Deutscher, the child prodigy, apparently dislikes mathematics saying she is not good at it. So not all the musicians are natural-born mathematicians!

gillybeanz thank you so much. You will guess it's exactly that school he had in mind.

We are going to a piano recital tomorrow, a girl who I think is currently in Y11, younger brother playing violin in your DDs year.

Their Mum tried very hard to persuade me to get DS2 to audition when he was 10. He wasn't interested then though. His organ teacher did sixth form at that school though, and he was talking to a trombonist from the school at NYO Inspire, so I think there has been a combined effect!

Music and maths Stolen from Barchester on another thread. You could have such a discussion on it, I have one friend who is utterly horrified that you would try and quantify the art of music but to me it is all the shape of numbers . You could spend forever discussing the subject, it really is fascinating. Then I go and spoil my maths head by being a complete Tchikovsky/Prokovief freak, preferably played by some giant over the top Russian orchestra. Although it's the mathematical spacing in those big giant chords that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck I'm sure!

gilly I have two super maths brains and one who was on school action plus with extra help for maths. He had a completely mixed bag of GCSE results but (with a LOT of hard work put in over the months leading up to it) he passed his maths and I cried like a baby. Had to be shoved into the car before any of his friends could see! Still get a bit fizzy nosed thinking about it. He has however managed to teach himself the most heartbreaking pieces of lyrical piano music via an iPhone app. I feel sad that he missed out on lessons when he was younger but he struggled with everything too much for extra curricular stuff.

Exactly Pique, give everything a fair go. They can't like everything but if they are going to try then they have to give it a chance and do it properly. Love the three Ms.

Grass I'd never thought of the worrisome voice change, to prepare all that music and then have your 'instrument' start to change shape.