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Extra-curricular activities

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May Music Thread

784 replies

Wafflenose · 01/05/2017 15:59

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!

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Kutik73 · 31/05/2017 22:30

I didn't know rollup pianos were so unknown! It can be useful but you won't touch it at all when you have access to real piano. It's just slightly better than paper piano, say when you want a quick finger exercise away from home. You have to be careful not to go for something too cheap as some models are really bad. It can be really frustrating when the keys don't respond well. Paper piano would be better than poor made roll up ones.

Fleurdelise · 31/05/2017 22:38

Is there such thing as paper piano?Shock off to google paper pianos

Kutik you are amazing!

Kutik73 · 31/05/2017 23:10

Ha ha ha. Paper piano is just a piece of paper with keyboard drawn on it.

We didn't have the real piano for a long time. It was okay as piano was just for fun. But when DS started showing his passion for music, I got worried the fact that we were not well equipped. His piano teacher told us about a pianist who was too poor to have piano so practised on paper piano and won a prize. She told us no money and luxury would be able to buy diligence and real passion. She was basically telling us being equipped well was not the most important thing.

I was going to buy a portable keyboard for the time we were away from home (we were always away for 6 weeks in summer) but was hesitating as it was bulky. So when the piano teacher told us the story about the pianist, I thought if paper piano would do okay rollup piano should be fine too. So got it and it did serve our purpose.

It's more like a toy for DS now but it's so light so we take it with us when we are away.

Kutik73 · 31/05/2017 23:28

Just to clarify my previous post...

We had clavinova which was okay for the time being. The piano teacher knew we had clavinova so she didn't mean to say that we would be okay with paper piano, and she did advise us that we should get the best possible piano we could afford when we were ready to buy one.

We finally got one last year after DS's grade 5 exam. Smile

Trumpetboysmum · 01/06/2017 07:49

Fleur hope your day is better today. We are currently still in a terrace I love my house but trumpet practice is difficult to fit in sometimes if we don't want to annoy are very tolerant neighbours too much. We are currently trying to buy a much larger and more sensible detached house much closer to the high school , but the whole moving process is driving me slightly mad. Currently at grandparents with no neighbours to worry about so ds can make as much noise as he likesGrin If we don't manage to move this time ( we have been trying now for over a year) then we are going to build ds a posh ( soundproofed) shed to do at least some of his practice in!

raspberryrippleicecream · 01/06/2017 08:07

Good luck Fleur. We did two exams in one session once, piano G4 and trombone G3, we've avoided it since. Though the results were fine.

More manageable was DD when she did violin and sax in the same 2 years running, because they were different boards the were different weeks.

Think how lovely the end of June will be, no music exams or GCSEs!

I am having a very quiet half term, literally. DS2 is in Germany with school and DD is too busy with AS revision (to the PP who asked, yes she is doing AS in all subjects, 12 written exams) to practice.

I've cheered myself up buying tickets for DS1's uni summer concert.

MomOfTwoGirls2 · 01/06/2017 17:55

DD2 just got her RIAM Grade 5 violin results! 82/100, with 8/10 on both sightreading and aural which were result of huge effort all year. This was her first exam (Suzuki kid), she never did aural before and her sight reading was poor.
I am so happy for her 😊

She will do Suzuki again this year, but continue to work on sight reading and scales. Will think of doing Grade 7 in 2 years time.

AlexandraLeaving · 01/06/2017 18:16

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