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.

Thanks Green and good for you for being firm about Monday morning. I hope you and MiniGreen are having a lovely weekend.
DS2 had 2 hours' orchestra rehearsal followed by a double birthday party to go to - basically gaming and food. I suspect he's having a very nice time!

Kutik - congratulations, just saw your post! I can imagine it's all mounting up. I managed to spread paying the bills a bit and they are never all due at exactly the same time, but I daren't add it up!

Yes, I need to plan carefully so that a huge chunk of payment won't overlap!

We had a long day, just got home. DH is watching a football match (but I am going to kick him out to the gym to watch the rest as he is being too laud), and DS is playing Zelda. He is so into Zelda....

Is anyone going to this year proms? We went first time last year and participate in various family activities. The ones we went last year tickets were cheap £25 or something for a RAH box seat. I am putting in a planner now for this year and for 6 concerts my bill appears more than £800 for 3 of us and they are not best seats. Is the planner price very close to the final price, we thought proms tickets are cheap?

Green - yes it can soon add up; depends what type of seat you choose really? i always go for stall as i think they are most comfortable/best view even though not most expensive. we sometimes prom in the balcony esp if we are not sure we will make it through the whole thing and that reduces the price a lot

String: great tips, we might do couple of prebooked and loads of hop in/balcony then. We had really great times last year almost every week mid Jul to mid Sept and love the free activities that the whole family can join, I love bbc for many reasons.

How about choir seats? They are not expensive neither. The view is quite interesting and you can see things you won't normally see which is a fun bit. Many years ago I saw Lang Lang playing with orchestra. I could see him doing some sort of finger exercises under the keyboard while the orchestra was playing (and him waiting for his turn).

Hello. I haven't posted on this thread before although I asked a few questions on different threads and got great replies and advice. We are not scaling any heights but I have a 7 yr old dd learning violin for 18 months. I have been a bit worried about lack of progress but today we had a breakthrough and I wanted to share as no one I know in RL gives a monkey's about music ! Firstly I found a recording of her playing a year ago - I can confirm we have come quite a lot further than I thought ! Secondly half way through practicing a piece she stopped and said 'That was dreadfully out of tune - I need to start again' -- yay !!!!! My husband thinks I am slightly mad for being happy she was out of tune but didnt understand that a) She knew and b) she wanted to do something about it. I have also recently taken up the violin have been a reasonable clarinet player (grade 8, county orchestra etc ) in my youth, so I can be more use to her in helping and my goodness it's hard to learn to play !! I am now much more understanding of her struggles. I remain in awe of the super talented children on here.

Well done Loose, and Kutik on making the decision.

Dd got her marks sheet back and surprisingly it was the A and B pieces that she has been playing really well that she dropped some marks on, it's helped her to see that actually it's just what the person thinks on the day.

This is probably too specific a question but here goes just in case someone can help. Dd has started learning a Minuet and Trio, in the piece there are lots of repeats but dd says when she does it for an exam she doesn't have to do the repeats, is that correct? Seems a bit weird to me!

Welcome Didiplanthis! Don't feel like your dd's achievements are not comparable, I remember joining this thread when dd was just about to take grade 1 after 18 months of playing the piano and I felt I was "ridiculous" with my posts comparing to all the grades 3/4/5-8. And now here I am a few years later, dd about to take grade 5 piano and 3 clarinet and it doesn't feel so ridiculous anymore to actually be interested about her music development.

This thread felt so welcoming, no judgment, just exchange of opinions, experience, advice, if you stick around I have a feeling you'll become addicted like some of us.

Where is Only by the way?

Woolley that's correct, your dd is right.

I just got a brilliant email from dd's clarinet teacher. She emailed to arrange the exam details and ended her email saying she was blown away with her progress, determination, focus and musical talent. I am sure it is all due to the piano experience, dd is still finding clarinet much easier, but it still feels good to hear those words.

I have been a bit worried about lack of progress

It's not my area of expertise, but isn't that the typical violin progress story i.e. you typically spend a long time making not much progress and then it kind of takes off? Much like this: www.violinlab.com/Community/details.php?id=7184

Fleur, wish we had a tiny slice of your experience! You've been receiving all those wonderful and endless praises from both teachers... Just to let you know, in case you are not aware, it's not that all the children get such warm words from their teachers. I have never got one for instance! They have said 'well done' or 'he deserved it (based on his effort)' when DS achieved something, or maybe some occasional 'you can do it' (wait, it's not a praise but encouragement, isn't it?) - that's all really. You've been so modest as always but I think your DD's achievement with clarinet is not all down to due to her piano experience!

Always lovely to get an e-mail like that Fleur.

Congrats to miniKutik. Sounds like he knows his own mind.

Didiplanthis , welcome!!

Thank you Double.

The journey of our JD challenge is nearly ending now. It looked so bold of us to even think of trying, but I am so glad we actually made the action (more precisely, glad that we let DS what he wanted to do).

This challenge brought us so much positiveness. But a truly magical thing would be that my DH, who was not very happy with DS favouring music over sports, has secretly started reading 'Music Its Story in The West' by Alan Kendall. I know he still wants DS to be sporty rather than musical. But it seems DS's determination displayed during the challenge made DH want to understand his son more.

Of course, I am not supposed to know that he is reading the book!

Woolleybear The ABRSM website is a mine of useful information:

Da capo (DC) and dal segno (DS) indications should be followed but other repeats (including first-time bars) should not be played, unless stipulated in the syllabus. However, very short repeats may be played at the discretion of the teacher or candidate.

(If it's not ABRSM ask Mr Google "examboard repeats" and see what pops up)

So pleased you've made a decision kutik how exciting for your ds. Ds has his second round audition tomorrow which will hopefully be a fun creative day and then we just wait and see . Welcome Didiplantthis it's always really exciting when they have their eureaka moments and here is a good place to share these ( not everyone else gets it)

Woolley - some pieces are full of repeats and the exams would have to be double the length!
Fleur that is so lovely of your teacher and just shows how impressive Minifleur is on the clarinet! It can be a bit emotional for the parent, although DS2 gets embarrassed by praise - which is quite funny to see!
DidIplan it sounds like a breakthrough moment! We had that with cello - at first DS2 would plough through a piece regardless of pitch and then began to be a lot more self critical. He's very consistent now.
An unexpected benefit of music lessons - DS2 spotted a toy piano at the gaming party and tried to play it. Next thing a proper keyboard appears and he's providing the musical accompaniment while the other gaming addicts dance! He even joined in the dancing! those lessons are worth every penny!

Thank you for the advice, I'll have to be more trusting of dd in the future!

didiplan welcome, loved your post, sometimes we just need to look back to realize how far our Dcs have come, and I love the "I'm out of tune" moment which is hugely significant.
Kutik that's great, almost decided here, very likely see you in JD2! And I won't tell your DH I know about the book!
fleur you have a gift to find amazing teachers, don't you. Although the real gift is your DD

Kutik is great to hear your DH is now supportive and wants to know more about his son's love of music. And well done to you for being so supportive and your DS being so determined.

Thank you for the nice words, I think the teacher's praise come from the fact that dd is quiet and doesn't show much determination. As her school teacher (male) who taught her for the last two years told us at parents evening, the first impression is that dd has no intrest in something and then she's blowing you away with her quiet determination to achieve her best. She doesn't get in the competitive conversations with friends and she doesn't have a competitive behaviour but she will push herself to the max to achieve what she wants.

Kutik the praise is channeled around the exam, before Easter the teacher said she doesn't know if dd will be ready for the summer as not all the scales were fully secure and she only had one piece ready. Over the Easter break dd decided she's doing the exam so she nailed the scales and learnt another two pieces on her own. Went back yesterday with all three pieces known (but they need polishing) and one completely new scale left to learn. Coming from a quiet apparently uncompetitive dd I can imagine she was a bit shocked.

Loose I love the little piano anecdote, I can imagine how cool the other kids thought your DS is.

drummers missed your post while writing the essay above. I think we've been lucky with our teachers. And thank you for complimenting dd. The start with the clarinet teacher was a bit harder as she didn't get the rhythm dd is used to, she likes a challenge and likes being pushed but she is a great teacher. I still favour the piano teacher while dd would probably work much harder for the clarinet one as she is more fun. I did hear her cross also though so I know she can be strict if needed.

Now off to do music practice as dd didn't do any since Thursday (bad bad mum for not providing the availability) and I am not worried about the clarinet exam but piano...

One question before I go: what happens if dd is entered for both piano and clarinet exams by one teacher? Will the teacher have her name on both certificates or would she be able to specify different names for each exam?

I am asking because we've decided that, as dd's piano teacher is attending the piano exams and will accompany dd in the clarinet exam it is easier to have both exams the same day (I know, crazy) so she will submit the entry for both herself. I would like to have the different teachers names on the certificates although it isn't a deal breaker.