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.

Dd also eats at 7 mostly. The idea of pre food homework is futile. We just try to minimise neighbour annoyance by practising the high notes on clarinet immediately after. Then violin after, the sound is more secure. Green's neighbour still plays on my mind if practise is very late.

Fleur, yes, ds started violin last year but by the time of his exam it will be 1.5 years since he started. Remember, my children start early . To be honest I was not keen on this idea and discussed this with his teacher. I think teacher overestimates ds, teacher thinks I underestimate him . I decided I have done my best to make sure that my children have the best teachers around, now I retire :) If teacher wants to do exam-fine, if ds fails it - I don't care, I truly don't.

Talking about two pieces for exam - I am sure your dd will be fine to learn them. Ds is taking exam at summer - I only received exam book yesterday!

Exam/festival dresses - I am all for the nice dress. Not necessarily sparking but a 'proper' looking (saying that uniform is fine too as well as smth like white top+ black skirt). I am a strong believer in human factor. And examiners are humans too :)

Waffle, may I ask for your advice please?....
Dd has a recorder lessons at school. Recorder teacher is teaching privately too.... Is it worth doing some odd grades on a recorder? I am thinking about the highest possible grade with the minimum effort (say, she can do grade 1 with no effort, but would need to spend time on grade 2 - then I would go for grade 1 only). Is it worth doing? And what is highest grade she can look at after her other music lessons (assuming lessons at school are pretty basic)?
Thank you

Fleur forgot to mention our piano lessons.

Ds is starting after Easter break

Dd just had her first lesson with a Russian teacher. I totally fell in love with her. She is clearly not a typical Russian teacher - she is very.... I would not say English but certainly not a Russian either! Smiles a lot , very soft.... I told teacher - here is your student-do whatever you want with her. She got straight to the business-started with dd's hands which are HORRIBLE! So I don't envy you anymore

Kutik I am not a musical parent. I only know the difference between minims/crochets/etc - this is all. I know when note should sound longer or where rests are-this sort of things.
Basically, my task is to make sure that there is no lazy practicing. Like with piano scales, clearly I have no idea if dd would play them correctly but I can make sure that fingering is correct. But to be honest I can recognise when scale is out of tune. The only thing I can not do is to differ one scale from another. And yes, there was a time when she didn't want to play some scale and she tricked me-said that she played that scale but in fact played a different one. This is smth I cannot help with :)
Violin-yes, I would not recognise the subtle changes in sound, but I think I can hear now when music is out of tune or some odd notes are played incorrectly. Dd started her first music lesson 5 years ago and during those years we obviously listened a lot of music-I feel like my ears had a proper training too.
I also feel lucky in a way that dd always knew what she was supposed to do and how - I only had to ensure that she is not lazy. Ds is not like that and I sometimes struggle to figure out what he needs to do, but luckily dd helps me now :)

Re. holidays - we carry on lessons during holidays - long breaks are not working with my children unfortunately

Another aspect of practicing I fully supervise-is aural. We practice it at home, almost nothing is done during the lessons-this is by mutual agreement with the teacher. But as I said before - we use app for aural - so it is easy

Only, it makes me think of my 3 years old now, just another ...3 years. Your son is doing really well though. My 9 yrs old only started violin at 7. Best of luck with the new teacher!

Petra: on the day she isnt in the school club she is usually given something to eat at 4(usually small pie, cold sandwich etc). On the 3 days at school until late then I just pack her similar(a banana, an apple, loads of dry nuts). Mine eats like a horse too. She eats more than me now.

Se22: how is it going with your teacher? We are still on silent except during piano lessons and Sunday morning. She has been having normal conversation with us since though. I still secretly wish we could afford a semi detached one day. Violin is practised in the conservatory, well, we dont do much though so no complaint yet. If there is complaint it will be the whole neighborhood. I am thinking of Loose's posh shed too

Another thing I do during practicing - sometimes dd's playing is really boring and flat-so I point at that, try to help her to imagine a story behind the music-basically switch her into more creative mood :) This is important part of practicing too as far as I am concerned

Icouldbeknitting I used to knit too during lessons, but it was during lower grades, now I feel lessons affect my ability to concentrate on ... knitting! :)

Only glad to hear the piano lessons are going well, hang in there with the corrections, dd's piano teacher got to the legs now, she is obsessed with her legs position. and well done to your DS, have fun preparing.

Regarding support at home, I have sat in dd's lessons since she started piano a week after turning 6. I kept up with all the lessons without actually playing, learnt the notes, learnt the scales fingering, aural requirements, etc. Of course now I am losing track and lagging behind but dd will not do music practice without me. So when she started clarinet I said to her that I cannot virtually learn another instrument so she's on her own.

So our routine is that I sit next to dd on the sofa or on a chair while practising. First clarinet, I actually have no clue what she does but I tick her practice book once she's done each task. If she gets stuck I help her find the info. I prompt her to do what her teacher asked.

With piano I can still identify mistakes but so does she do it isn't about mistakes. It is more about effective practice. Such as "don't bother practising the first half of the piece which you've known by heart for a while now, just practice bar 19 to 21 where you are having issues". Don't do it just once quickly and consider it's done, do it several time till you feel it is embedded properly. Don't forget the teacher asked for x,y and z to happen. Sight reading - I can identify all the errors and point them out at the end.

These are our dynamics, it works for us.

Re violin-is no one using mute? May be not every day but from time to time? Last year we went on holidays only couple of weeks before dd's violin exam - so I needed to keep her practicing - we took violin with us and she practiced with mute in the hotel :)

Green, thank you!
I bet your little one could sit her first exam much earlier, I was very lazy with both of mine when they started violin. They resisted fiercely, both of them, as it was very hard at the beginning, and it put me off too.
Dd did her grade 1 piano at 5-but it was so much easier with piano-I didn't need to push her at all. But we always had love-hate relationship with violin...

OMG Fleur, there are legs too???

there are legs too

haha - yep - those things called pedals - the kids need to get into sitting face on at the correct height and working on press and ESPECIALLY release of the pedal. We found out DD16 is flat footed with no arch strength at all and needs to wear boots with a heel to pedal correctly or her feet get cramp. Only became an issue in exams for her at about grade 4 upwards, but by then she had had plenty of practise.

Release of the pedal is quite an art - I have to pretend I'm driving!
Regarding practice - I don't really supervise DS1 as I can't help much and he wouldn't listen anyway but with the caveat that when he puts in for the next tuned percussion exam he will have to play his xylophone pieces to me so I know he isn't just dodging the difficult stuff.
I do help DS2 with piano but that's partly because I get to sit in on his lessons now so I can check he's actually doing the relevant bars.
Ironically the only reason I ever sit in on cello practice is because I can decipher his teacher's handwriting!
Green definitely go for the posh shed! Just think when you have two dds playing violin!

Only dd has a habit to cross her legs under he chair or stretch them out, the teacher insists the feet have to be flat on the floor unless of course you use the pedal. This is also combined with phrases like "back straight, elbows down, shoulders down" dd sometimes ends up looking like some sort of still statue. For a second though as she quickly forgets, crosses her legs and raises her elbows.

Oh and dd's teacher is also working on teaching her how to pedal properly, she described it as a fishing event for dd to visualise: release the fish (play the notes) then catch it in the fish net (action the pedal). Then release the next batch of fish and then catch it in the net again. And so on. Dd quite likes the analogy.

Green I haven't decided what we will do yet. Im the only parent and being the sole decision maker can feel impossible

Dd used pedals when doing her last piano exam but no technique was discussed unfortunately, apart from press-release :(
Oh well... I am sure Russian teacher will have her chance with pedalling too :))))
Fleur-so familiar... They know their staff but do they ever follow it? NO!

Thank you all for sharing how you support DCs with their home practice. Some comments assured me that it's ok not to know the technical side and that being untrained musically doesn't mean you cannot help. Individual condition such as personality and family schedule decide what works for each, and I'm amazed to see how people positively find a way to work for them. Very inspiring! Although I had been quite pathetic about being supportive in regard to DS's music (which I changed now and am trying to be as supportive as I can), perhaps in a way it was the best I could at the time. I was paying the fees and being a taxi driver at least, and for my very determined DS, it may have been what he needed from me. He would have been irritated and annoyed if I had been more keen! His early musical journey was such a bliss (especially with violin as it was mostly fun apart from the occasional grumpiness of the teacher). It would have been a different story if someone like me had been in the way! Today, he is enjoying time with his dad outside, so no music here. But when he does practise tomorrow, I am going to sit down on the sofa and be an encouraging audience.

only, DS uses pedals a lot for years but I haven't noticed any technical discussion happened during the lessons yet!

Kutik dd does not like me to supervise her practice but no way I will let her to practice unsupervised. I still need to correct her bow and hands as she would play her 'lazy' way. We just were tipped that she has dyspraxia which explains her body control problems, therefore I understand that it is just plain difficult to do it all right and therefore I need to remind her (again... and again .... and again.....)

We did loads of pedalling with the g5 pieces last year and other around g6-7 pieces now, the chair is still creaking almost every time she releases so we havent done well yet. She has been doing a piece where she has to change hands and cross them very quickly, it wasnt ok last week however it sounds(and looks) much more natural this morning.
Only, last year we brought our violin with us during the 3 weeks holiday away in the summer and we didnt touch it once so I have decided never try again.
Only, Kutik, can I ask how are you doing with vibrato. We havent started, our new teacher says we should, she will show us how from the next lesson.
I keep my goal very simple: to hope for g8 by end of primary for both instrument(in my head it means the fundamental technique has been ticked), then from secondary she will be on school lessons, practise on her own(I will be on the next one who will be nearly 6 by then so another cycle). She could do whatever she likes by then(festivals or not, Orchestra or not...).This is my ultimate aim. For now, it seems a mountain to climb.

Green you and your DD are doing fabulously. Two Grade 8s by the end of primary is a formidable goal, and an astonishing standard. I know of quite a few children who've managed to get one, but I've only ever met two children who have managed two Grade 8s by 11. One is friends with Goo, slightly older, and now has four Grade 8s and a diploma! One is more of an acquaintance, has lots of GCSEs already and passed a diploma at 8 or 9, but doesn't seem overly happy. Your DCs seem really grounded though, and the older one has lots of other fun activities to do as well. It seems that you are giving them a really fun (as well as musical) childhood.

Greenleave actually we practiced on holiday quite well (plenty of time too) saying that we only go for one week, with my two children I rather prefer to stay at home altogether! This year number I am taking violin for my number two (possibly, he is is much better to pick up after the break than his sister).
Vibrato.... Oh.... Apparently, one year ago, when we started it for the first time, it was quite good (according to the teacher). Then all of a sudden it became bad again (see what I mean by long breaks? She didn't do it for few months and it was like she never touched it at all). So there was a struggle to "restore" it. This video really helped (there are few actually but start with this one if you need help). Our teacher said it is not how he taught dd but if we manage to do this sort of vibrato -fine with him too - just any for a start