June Music Thread

[Fleurdelise]

Hello all and welcome to the June thread! Waffle did me the honours of asking me to initiate this thread as she has no access to Internet while on holiday.

This thread was first initiated by Waffle when Goo was 6 and now she's 11. It is a thread for all the musicians, big and small, to share their love (and frustrations ) during the long path of learning an instrument. I first joined when dd was 7 and in the process of preparing for grade 1 piano for moral support. If you read the ending of the May thread you'll realise I am still a nervous reck here we are now, two years later, Dd is 9 and preparing for grade 5 piano and grade 3 clarinet, the exams are in exactly 13 days. I also have DS 15 who is in the middle of his GCSEs at the moment, he has no musical interest.

As I couldn't leave Waffle without an introduction, below is a quote from the May thread. The only correction is that I believe Rara has now turned 9.

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!

Horrible Double, it's vile knowing they've been in your house, but you are so right that it could have been worse (we were sleeping when it happened to us). DD's school is also in a regular theft hotspot for cars.The loss of her violin (emotionally) doesn't bear thinking about...what a relief they weren't taken

Probably unlikely Loose. They seem to be from South America and they don't think they are living locally. Got some lovely cctv images for the police though.....

That must feel like such an invasion of privacy Double! I only had that experience once in my youth when the theft broke in through the balcony and all he did was turning my bag upside down. Stole nothing as I was young and penniless but only the thought of somebody being in my private space was horrible.

Doubleup, these things make me so angry. It's so much more than "loosing things".

Just a quick update. DD took her grade 2 piano last week and she said it went ok, but sight reading was terrible! To be honest I am most proud of how hard she has worked over the last 6 weeks to pull it all together.The night before the exam I was not even sure if she would even enter the room! There have been a few tears along the way, just got to wait now.

Drum exam next week, she is much more relaxed about this, not sure if thats a good thing or not!?

Fleur - hope your daughter is ok, it is horrible to see them so upset.

Good luck and rescue remedy for those taking music exams.

Missymew well done your DD and good luck for her drum exam x

Fleurdelise, Sorry to hear this, but I still think it should be at least a pass.

Doubleup, how about your DD1's youth orchestra audition? We google local youth orchestra, the nearest one is still half hour drive and need grade 6+ and age 13-18.

Missy well done to your dd and happy to hear it all went well. Forget sight reading, only if she makes an attempt she gets 10 marks so hopefully more than that. Good luck with drums.

violinandpiano thank you, to be fair this morning I feel more optimistic as there is no real explanation for which it would go from so well in the practice room to do bad in the exam. And if it is a fail I think she will by then have moved on and decide more lightly if she wants to retake just forget about it.

Double, I am very sorry to hear what happened to you and your family. That's awful. So glad to hear all the instruments were safe.

violinandpiano, I recall your DD is around G7 so you can try with the youth orchestra you mentioned. The age restriction is often not so rigid as long as the standard of playing is met and also the child is fine to be surrounded by older kids.

Kutik73, we only start one piece and the teacher has not polish this piece. I do not think she has been solid Grade 7.

Fleur - did not know that about sight reading, really interesting. She told me she did attempt it, she thinks she played the right melody (sort of) just not the right notes! If she passes we will all be super happy for her, anything else is a bonus. I am just glad its all over for now.

She was not overly impressed with the shiny new grade 3 scales book she came home with after her lesson, but also doing some stuff for fun which is great.

One questions about the drum exam, do you think she should use her ear protection for the exam? She wears them for all her lessons on accoustic kits, the school have got very hot on this recently which is a good thing.

violinandpiano, sorry my memory is often dim... Anyway you mentioned that the youth orchestra is 6+ so your DD doesn't need to be solid g7 and should be perfectly qualified to apply? But age difference is very personal so difficult to judge if it suits your DD just by standard. I hope you can get more info/advice from JD she attends...?

double hope things are looking up for you today
missy yes to ear protection in exam. DS has done 8 exams all with his builder's headphones from b&q!

Aww my munchkins music teacher is away for ages and has arranged a temporary "stand in" teacher. She had a double lesson with her today, worked her ass off and was fab, even though it was a total stranger

Goo just back from a school residential trip, so has missed 3 days of piano and 2 days of flute. She's not very tired, has no homework, and I allowed her to miss orchestra, as she hadn't been in school and it was impractical. She is now screaming at us about not wanting to do flute practice tonight, even though she has an audition on Sunday. Fine, she doesn't do it and she won't get a video. She really is appalling if we ever let her have a day off!

Waffle, agree about days off, dd only ever contests practice after a day of two off. Hence why I'm so rigid about it when we are at home

Glad it's not just us. She has done nothing since 3.30pm except eat her dinner and relax in her room! She was whining for a video but is now practising instead, because I told her that if she didn't do that first, she could stay in her room until the morning and lose her video. She'll come down in a minute with a sulky, "There, I hope you're happy now!"

Agree about day's off here also. Dd is having the days off till Friday when it is her first piano lesson back after the exam and I am dreading how she'll be against new stuff and refuse practice, she does it after each exam.

Good news today is that her clarinet sling arrived plus her Kuhlau sonatinas book and she is excited. She looked at the book and said "these look so hard but fun". She then spent some time adjusting the sling and attaching her clarinet to it. The things she gets excited about. All seems forgotten which is great!

Rapidly sorry I must have missed it (or my memory is letting me down) is she at a music school?

Rapidly good luck to her.

lol dd's story is changing again. Now I found out she restarted before getting to half way in both pieces and she did play through, still with a couple with minor mistakes. One piece she restarted from the beginning and one from a few bars before. Apparently scales were bad but not that bad, for example she was asked chromatic contrary motion and she played chromatic. Then realised that was wrong and played the right one.

She's now thinking she probably did pass but just.

One thing is for sure, my kids like to keep me on my toes until results days.

DS (finishing his exams this Friday, yaaaayyy ) is giving me such mixed info about all he does that I feel like killing him. Today he texted me saying "chemistry C2 was hard and I ran out of time". I felt paralysed! Texted back and no answer! only found out later that he meant he couldn't answer one question. One!!! And I spent hours worrying as he didn't reply to my text and was still at school.