May Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello, and welcome to the May thread. It's a public holiday in the UK, but my school is open and I had to work today, which is why I've only just got round to it! This is a place for parents of musicians of ALL levels, and adult learners, to chat about lessons, practice, scales, concerts, exams, and whatever else they'd like to! We have lots of regulars, some occasional posters, and sometimes people who just pop in to ask a question. It's a friendly place.

I have two daughters. Goo is 11 and in her last term at primary school. She's working towards her Grade 8 Flute (some time next year) and playing from the Grade 4 Piano book (currently refusing to take any exams, and putting off the first proper performance!). Rara is 8, may or may not be doing Grade 3 Cello this term, and is approaching Grade 2 Clarinet.

Both of them played the recorder for years, starting as preschoolers. They reached Grades 7 and 3 respectively, but sadly neither has really played since the music festival a few months ago. They are obsessed with their Flute and Clarinet, and really enjoy Piano and Cello. There won't be many opportunities to play the recorder at the secondary school they will attend, so much as I love it, it's probably a good time to quietly drop it. Recorder has given them both lots of opportunities, confidence, reading skills... and festival prizes!

Goo does NCO and South West Music School. Rara isn't that level at all when it comes to music, but is gifted with her hands. Instead of practising the cello and doing her school spellings today, she completed a lovely sewing kit without bothering to look at the instructions, and also made a lovely crafty construction from card and coloured paper. Both girls are keen on drawing and playing computer games. Rara swims and Goo plays sodding netball and dodgeball, which have both been responsible for multiple injuries over the past few months!

Ok, sorry if this is written badly, I am rushing through it. Here's what the top drummer we saw at the perc fest does to monitor his practice:

Constantly records himself. One a year he fully assesses himself, records his playing of different pieces and technical stuff, identifies areas he needs to improve and work on. Obviously some of these deficiencies or ambitions ha been compiling during that year. He then searches for specific exercises and pieces which will make him work on those areas. He divides the following year in blocks of three months, each trimester dedicated to improve one or two areas. After the three months he records himself and performs a self-assessment. He says he gets nervous even though nobody's watching or listening Apart from these year and trimester assessments, he constantly records himself before and after, sometimes from one day to another. This is to keep motivating himself like on a before & after diet program! He can notice small improvements after a day's practice. The day's practice is also divided in blocks. He will play for lets say 50 min then give himself a break of 5-10 min. Never longer than an hour without a break.
Length of practice depends on time availability, but average is 3 hours.
He keeps a journal of all the above, writing down what he needs to work on a using diagrams for the kit when designing new fills and grooves.

He switches off all mobile phones and internet. This is crucial. He says there have been studies that show your focus duting a creative task hugely improves not only if you're not interrupted which is obvious, but also IF YOU KNOW you won't be interrupted. That certainty can only come from creating that possibility i.e. switching off devices.

How to focus in a world where you can just go from one thing to another on internet and never stop? He says that in the past the challenge was to find a specific record, hear an artist, etc. Once you had the record, you would learn it by ehart, hear it a hundred times. Now it's the opposite, youth can now listen to anything and anyone instantly. So the challenge is to achieve that DEPTH. Stick to one thing and if everyone is coming to you to show you this and that, refuse to engage, say you're working on this one thing, that's what you're doing now.

When asked why he didn't have more toms and gear, he said more gear doesn't necessarily translate into better playing. He says his creativity doesn't depend on having more stuff, but on having limitations. He then illustrated by playing an improvisation on the snare with his bare hands and nothing else.

Drummers sounds good and I am sure it will apply perfectly at an older and more mature age. Dd wouldn't be able to organise herself that way but that's what the adults around her do, including her teacher.

Thanks Rapidly x

Haha Gilly. Dd one really likes your dd!
Little percussionist may be with your dd in big band, maybe not quite yet, but in a couple of yrs xx

drummers

Your peace and quiet reminded me of this so much.

Many well done MiniPaulweller!

Drummers: thanks so much for sharing the practice advices. I so agree with being play without any disturbance to maximise improvement and focus (and everything else)
Loose: you made me laugh when I read the bits on "boys translation". We are opposite here, this is the almost all girls house.

Any tips on playing music without music book please? Mine has (or used to have) good memory and couldnt play 3 pages pieces without a book well. She plays much better with the book. Taking the book away then she makes mistakes. We have been learning this Sonatina Fritz Spindler for 3 months now so it isnt like we havent had enough time.

Kutik: we havent seen any school. I will make that decision next year( I might not bring her with me). I think I will try not to let her to put her heart or mind on any school incase she cant get in the school she wants(this is just me thinking failing 11+ shouldnt be end of your educational life and similar to getting in the aimed school doesnt mean we then are done). How do you prepare your son if you dont mind me asking. Is he taking this Sept exam(I remember he is in yr5).
Fleur: you are so organised!!!

Well done to mini PaulWeller. Fab news.

I have pre registered for the October open day, so we will reply what DS2 thinks and take it from there!

see what DS2 thinks!

Green, yes DS is Year 5 but we are not doing anything particular for 11+ yet - but with reasons. I don't want to bore everyone here so I will PM you to let you know the details.

drummers, thank you for the sharing.

Congratulations to paulweller junior, wonderful news.

Just catching up on the news quickly before another day of sweaty poolside competition waiting for the odd 30 secs of magic (or not). Still squeezing 30 mins of violin now, how we juggle in this house now is not great!

Congratulations on the school place for minipaul!

green: I do understand the challenge of not allowing your DD to fall in love with a school, but she'll be in Y5 and they have a big part to play on learning where they may best fit, even from a feel on open days that we parents can miss. It can also be motivating for them if they can see themselves somewhere. And then work harder towards that. Where interviews apply, this is key...

really useful tips Drummers!

Great tips drummers, many thanks for taking the time to share that. I think removing the distractions and focusing are such good advice. Actually, this is advice I should take.
Well done minipaulweller lovely to join your big sister!
Green we will never speak of the time I tried to get him to talk about his feelings aged 13!

I agree ealing, one of the selective schools in the area is known as the best in the county, everybody wants their child to go there, when we visited with dd last year she was adamant she's not going there. For a second I looked at her trying to picture her there and it definitely isn't the school for her. Sometimes is so easy to forget that the school needs to be right for your dc that you just go with the flow, if everybody wants their dcs there it must be right.

Did anybody watch Eurovision? Happy for Portugal but I found the song boring and his speech at the end very arrogant. I wanted Italy to win. Or Moldova. There were quite a few good acts.

I agree with ealing and Fleur. The best school in the country doesn't mean the best school for your DCs. I also think how much you should put effort in the preparation depends on where they are aiming and how many gaps to fill in to achieve the required marks. For instance, one reason why we are fairly relaxed is that DS is not aiming those super-selective boys grammars. Although DS may have a chance to get in with good preparation, I feel they are not right for him. So he doesn't need to prepare madly, and instead he can spend his time on something else.

I completely agree about the school being right for the child.
I know our dd really wanted to go to the school, but if it hadn't been a good fit, no way would it have happened.

I do think though, at least at dd school "A good fit" is part of the audition process. It doesn't matter how good you are if the environment isn't right for the child.
Just in the 2 years dd has been there we have seen children leave as what suited at 9 years old doesn't suit at 14 plus.
Obviously as they progress through the school even more demands are placed upon them, and not everyone can cope with it.
The musical demands are plenty before you think about GCSE and A level preparation.

I'm going to listen to the latest Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann pieces dd is singing now, so will come back tonight after school run

Gilly: enjoy the performance!

Ealing, all, very valuable advice especially the interview bits which I completely forgot. And the motivation if the child wants it then go and get it attitude. So we will do few next year(we are only yr4 now). For now, I promise I will not mention 11+/unrelated musical stuffs.

Any tip for playing without a music book in front, is it the mentality that someone must have it opening infront of them and actually they dont need it? Mine had a terrible performance recently mainly because she forgot couple of keys then stop then rushed through the rest. Violin is better. She plays her g5 pieces without the book.

gilly thanks for the clip. It hit the spot

Well done minipaulweller! Thanks drummersmum for sharing that advice. Perfect.

SATS are over. All ok. Miniprada has been chosen to represent her school in a national maths competition next week so she's very pleased. We had our final rehearsal lesson for G7 violin next Saturday 😱 All ok here. Teacher is pushing for a distinction. I'd be happy with a pass or merit. She has worked hard though. Piano is ticking along with no grade work yet.

Green - pm me if you need any 11+ advice. I agree with whoever said the teaching group will be biased towards selling more tuition. We tried group tuition initially but frankly it's like school and it won't fill in your child's personal knowledge gap. She's got plenty of time so treat it like a marathon not a sprint. I do find it hard to believe that a child who has already passed G5 theory, is great at chess and reads physics books for pleasure is 'behind' in maths. I'd take that with a pinch of salt.

Have a great week everyone!

Green you could play a game and break the piece into small chunks then see if she can do it without mistakes with her eyes closed. Dd loves playing this game, she does it without any reason just shouting "look mum I can do it with my eyes closed".

Thank you, these are good tips, I have a dark/sleeping eyes cover, could use it in the game.

Maths: well, she had a perfect score for maths when she did the tutor test, although the remark of maths isnt as strong then I asked what we need to do, any recommended practice book then there isnt an answer. I know I need to have a 1-2-1, maybe mainly on the technique side: 1 hour a week for everything, its so hard to find one. This one can sit and do maths day and night though. As much as I want her to not to be too academic and studious (however not failing her important test) and challenge herself in things like music. I think I am the same as we all here, a right balance is hard to find.

Greenleave

I understand your comments about balance, it's very hard and even harder as they grow older.
My dd is finding it hard atm as had to choose a pathway already, to start in Y9. They have to make choices so early these days and in their case a bit earlier due to the music commitment.
I've been talked into providing a tutor for GCSE Italian, which is going to prove nearly impossible.
Why do I agree to these things?

"Iz it cos I'm a Mum"?