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!

Ha! Gilly I got conned into finding a Japanese tutor because DS2 didn't want to do French. It seems to be going well, though! (I'm relieved to say DS2 seems quite happy to stick with French.) the things we do.
As for schools, well DS1 was mad keen on art at 10 so I paid particular attention to art departments - how was I to know that a few drum kit lessons would turn into an obsession with music!

I am spending the morning trying to control my blood pressure as the examination session began today. And I am not even the one taking the exams 😂

green I loved the pic you posted.

Fleur

Fleur has your daughter got a date for grade 5 exam yet? My dd is doing Allegro, Sostenuto and Cool.

callme I was talking about DS's gcses, no exam date yet for dd's grade exams. Dd is doing the Scarlatti Sonata, Slow Air and Summertime. I love Sostenuto and Cool but Dd is the one choosing. Is your dd ready? I'm hoping for July dates as dd still has some hard work to do on the Scarlatti piece.

Thank you Loose!

Fleur: best of luck for your son on gcse(I fret about 11+ and its nothing compare to gcse...).
We paid again for violin g5 last week, havent got the date yet, we are ok with intermezzo, half way through Rondino and havent touched Allegro. For piano we will choose the B1 and try to learn it, its great fun when its challenging. Scales are still painful to learn however we accept its part of the package.

Green she's doing well! Good luck with the scales - painful is the word as far as I'm concerned.
Fleur i like her choice of pieces! I've just got started on Waltz in A and Sostenuto! I have to map out DS2's piano practice, though, or he will only play pieces! He's on track with the g4 scales as long as he doesn't forget anything learned so far but he hasn't done contrary motion yet! Sight reading is one per practice session so we should have done a reasonable amount by half term and the exam will be July. What I really dread is the aural because he won't sing apart from in the exam. He's got away with it so far but I know he won't practise the intervals. I'm holding off nagging about cello practice for now!

Green, just PMed you the info you asked. Sorry for late replying!

Just a quick update, piano and drum exams entered for DD coming up sometime in June. She is working hard but not enjoying the piano at the moment ("cause its hard"). Really hope once this exam is out of the way she can have a break and just enjoy it again. I forget sometimes that she has been learning for less than 2.5 years (1.5 on drums) and lessons are only during term time times. Just hope she is not too put off by the experience of two grade twos at once.

Really enjoying reading all your posts.

fleur good luck with gsces. DS is sitting Spanish this week, but everything else next year . Can i borrow some of your surplus blood pressure? Mine is 77/50 today...

Fleur good luck with the exams looking forward to a tricky conversation tonight as ds wants to sit his grade 7 ( and has been entered for it) but is getting really stressed about it not sure that it's worth it and wonder if he should wait. Ultimately it's up to ds and his teacher ( however we have to live with him in the meantime ...,)

trumpet do you think he's ready? He may be and It may be just nerves. Or is it too soon?
I am impressed with people here signing up for exams when some pieces haven't even been started. You're all brave. DS and his teachers only sign up when he's playing all the pieces. The upside of course is there is no stress and possibly a higher result although not necessarily. The downside is we spend longer ad nauseam with the pieces. He's been playing all his piano pieces well for weeks and his exam is still two months ahead. I guess he and his teacher would say there is always room for improvement which is of course true.

He can play the pieces ( well I think) but until 2 weeks ago hadn't looked at scales, orchestral exercises etc these bits will be fine I think as he can play , but he will have gone from grade3 to grade 7 in 2 years ( exactly) so his aural and transposition's less secure / needs an awful lot of work especially if he wants to do well ( which he always does) .He says he's really feeling the pressure and however good he is it still is only a hobby and he's only 12 so there's no rush

Trumpet is also his first instrument so it's not like he has a background in music that he can draw on if that makes sense he only started in year 4 with whole class lessons I think he's done incredibly well to get where he has which has led to so many amazing playing opportunities and he loves it ( but I want him to keep loving it above everything else)

Thank you for the good wishes all!

And good luck to your DS too drummers!

Dd's piano teacher has a rule for the exam entry: all the scales and all the pieces have to be learnt by the entry date hands together and at a reasonable pace. The time between entry and the exam is used for polishing them.

So now, a few days after the entry date, dd has two pieces almost ready (Slow Air and Summertime), only adding slight details on certain bars to improve performance and the third piece, Scarlatti's Sonata, half is ready at the right speed and only adding dynamics and half is still quite slow, needs speeding up and dynamics added. Scales ready, aural pretty good, sight reading okish.

Can I please ask for opinions on this , especially from any music teachers,

Dd is 8. Learns clarinet in school. Was given the high note exercises of Paul Harris book plus the grade 2 pieces 2 months ago. They all sound good to my untrained ear, yet what concerned me was dd reporting every week that the exercises are not being checked by the teacher. So today I sent him a friendly email asking if he could please check them at her next lesson as I did not want her cementing incorrect techniques into the exercises. I felt that was reasonable. However I receive response that I must not bother him for "weekly updates" although I certainly do not email him weekly- maybe every couple of weeks as 8 year olds are not always accurate....,and that I should only send questions via the practice book. Stressed that I must not question what he does /doesn't do in lessons. I'm quite taken aback as she enjoys the lessons, and maybe because her other instrument is learnt. Outside school I'm used to engagement with the teacher. I understand that most of the pupils he teaches are in the senior school which I'm sure makes a difference to parental input. At a loss.

trumpet I'd see how it goes but maybe make it really clear to him if he doesn't feel ready then it could be worth postponing. Of course, he may be the type of person who thrives on pressure but that's a very big leap in aural skills. I'm sure the teacher can judge this, though.
We definitely don't enter for exams until the pieces are ready having learnt a lesson in the past! (Exam date was sooner than teacher realised!)
Green just read my post again and I don't mean MiniGreen' scales are painful - I mean mine are! Just to clarify!
Fleur hope it went really well today!

Fleur ds's teacher has no rules😆He's brave and encourages ds to push himself and take risks which ds loves and it's worked so far we shall see
We've just had a chat I don't think I'm winning the argument for him not doing it though I know his teacher won't make him if he really doesn't want to we shall see what ds thinks

It's difficult SE I think school teachers probably aren't supposed to communicate by email they aren't here. I've always been really lucky that ds's teacher was happy to keep me in the loop even when he did teach him at school you're right young children aren't really good at telling you everything and I think it's really helped ds that I know what's going on etc. Having said that ds's teacher doesn't ever check everything that he sets him to practice ( if he did they'd never cover anything new on the lessons, but it seems to work)

Dds pieces learnt and known, but still has never played any without any errors (half term at home so time to polish). Scales she knows but some still have errors. Sight reading much improved (but failed grade 4 sight reading so still bit iffy). Aural pretty good (apart from which type of music, that bit still needs work (baroque etc)

se22 considering a lot of teachers are complaining on forums about the lack of parental input/support with regards to music lessons I find it baffling yours doesn't want to engage.

I agree that not every exercise set can be checked in every lesson as there is minimal time if you want to move on but if as a parent you state there's a need to check as your dd wasn't clear or you are not clear if the right work is covered then I would expect the teacher to oblige as ultimately he's hired by you to teach your child. He can then write a note to put your mind at rest if he finds you had no reason to worry.

I had a few situations where I wasn't feeling confident around certain tasks being covered properly and I asked mainly for reassurance. Even recently I asked dd's piano teacher if she is worried about dd not being fully ready for the exam and I received a "oh no, don't worry, your dd is not on my worrying list".

Another example, our clarinet teacher recently put the exam pieces aside stating they should have some fun playing Disney pieces. I had no issue asking "is it the right time to have fun now, what if the exam is in a month's time?" and have been reassured she's ready, I shouldn't worry.

Not sure how I would tackle this, probably looking for a private teacher and before switching giving him my feedback, maybe giving him something to think about seeing he wasn't approachable.

PS I must sound like a nagging parent, however my dd's teachers seem to enjoy me actively being interested. One of them actually ask me to keep staying in lessons when I wanted to pull back. She said dd is still quite young (9) to realise exactly what she needs to do.

Thanks, I find it odd that exercises set 2 months ago aren't being checked at all. It is a lesson in school but that I pay for, (the usual London rate)these are not free lessons... and they are 40 minutes long.
We opted for a lesson in school so she was involved fully in the music department at school.

Trumpet - sounding very similar to the situation here with DD2 and her bassoon exam. First exam (G4) last May after 16 months playing and now G7 at the end of June. I had the conversation with the teacher as to was she sure she wanted her to do it this session and was told yes, it will push her playing up to the next level.
Just started a new piece over the Easter hols, so trying to bed that in and polish the others. They are all quite long, especially the study and take a lot out of her as she's only 10 and doesn't have the biggest lung capacity. Getting an hour's practice in most days, broken into 2 blocks, but still have to fit the aural in. Not enough hours in the day/week! Not too many melt downs yet, but there is still time for the pressure to build! May need the Valium myself by mid June. And she is doing G5 theory too. Aargh!

Wow I am impressed with your dcs progress Trumpet and Double! Truly impressive!