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!

Doubleup I am sorry, it is easier to replace missing stuff than to get rid of the feeling of insecurity. It will pass.

By the way, I was not questioning dd again, she started talking about it, I realise that is how is sounds above.

Look at what we've got to move on to, exciting more so now when I think there won't be any exams stops (of course I wouldn't vouch for it as dd may change her mind).

ha ha fleurdelise, I have had that with dc1 "ran out of time" " missed out a question"....but once at home and asking about it he still seems fairly optimistic he can get A* in that subject

Fleur honestly I think Minifleur was fine on those scales! That sounds like a really insignificant thing!
Naughty DS1 though!! I reckon he knows it's going well but is just messing with you!

foundout and Loose lucky he's still alive I swear. The amount of times he texted saying something slightly worrying and then stopped replying. His excuse is that he's at school and he can't always use the phone but you can't just say "it was alright" and that's that or worse "really hard don't know how much I've done" after one exam. again to find out later he's done more that a lot of other DCs. Oh well roll on end of August, we'll know by then.

Fleur hang on in there, you're nearly at the end now. Y12 is much easier I promise (said she who was out of the house for 12 hours yesterday for an open day, another booked for Saturday)

Icouldbe university open days? I have a feeling DS will coast for the next couple of years as there are no more AS levels and then have a shock at the end of it. We'll have to wait and see. His NINO came the other day and I had a sudden realisation he is now considered an adult.

Just out of curiosity... Extra tuition outside of school is norm for GCSE and A levels like for 11+...? I so hope not...

Fleur It kicks off early for conservatoire applications, if you're slow off the mark thinking about it in Y12 you can find that you've already missed both open days. In the absence of AS exams schools/colleges still poke them into demonstrating some knowledge with internal exams but the linear exam does do the later starter some favours.

Kutik it depends. in Y10/11 school tends to sell them the line that their life will end if they don't get A*A across the board but this is not true. They need GCSE results that will give them access to the A level courses they want (if they go the A level route because other paths to adult life are available). It didn't matter to DS whether he had a string of As or Bs because either would do for entry to A levels. A levels are more about learning outside of the classroom, they are supposed to put some effort in on their own time. This is not as difficult as it sounds because ours only have 4.5 hours tuition per subject per week so there are lots of study periods (or "free periods" as some would have it).

kutik some families tutor some not. It would be the last thing I would do. For many reasons but main one being that I disagree with it and think that you're raising someone who will never be able to achieve anything on their own. What will happen when the dc get to university or even the work place.

Icouldbe good luck making the right choice.

No tuition here at all. We've done about 3 months before 11+ for DS to ensure we covered exam technique but that was it.

Saying that, seeing that the maths GCSEs have changed I will see where dd is in year 7 and if needed I will hire a tutor to ensure she doesn't fall behind. But only if needed.

drumersmum - thank-you. Just need to remember to take them and not get lost (like the last drum exam) on the way to the exam centre!

drumersmum - thank-you. Just need to remember to take them and not get lost (like the last drum exam) on the way to the exam centre!

I wish our Y12 had been easier than Y11, DDs school did all the AS exams and not one has gone well for her despite working her socks off. Anyway, last 2 yesterday and starting to think about open days.

Fleur your DDs Grade 5 cannot possibly be any worse than DS1's, who hadn't done nearly enough practice. He went in expecting to fail. He squeaked a pass. I'll bet your DD has at least a Merit.

Thanks also for the you tube link. I've not been able to look at things this week but will catch up soon.

Ahhh, meant to link comments together and to say I'm sure music exams not always going as well as she'd hoped have made her more resilient.

Ds is doing the new maths curriculum it's going fine and it's manageable ( just a lot harder than the year 7 work I did many moons ago 😆)
Fleur ds also only ever calls me if there is s problem ( and then doesn't reply when you follow it up!!) so you have my sympathies must be a boy thing dd I'm sure will send me lovely messsges when she gets a phone
In year 7 I am already finding myself repeating to ds that whatever targets school sets are for school and that there are many paths and ways to succeed in life ( and these paths don't always start with all grade 8's and 9's at GCSE) I just hope he's listening he sets himself very high standards which is good, but he needs to give himself a break sometimes!! ( I may regret saying this as he becomes a teenager!!)

Yes I'm hoping that too raspberry, it sounds awful but in a way ds needs an experience where he doesn't do as well as he hoped to see that it's not the end of the world. His teacher reckons it's good to have a disastrous playing experience to realise this !! ( though his teacher of course won't have to manage the fallout!!)

Goo had her 'disastrous' playing experience when she was a few weeks shy of 10. I hoped she would learn that the world wouldn't come to an end, but it changed her whole personality, and she no longer likes playing solo or being the centre of attention. Having said that, she just seems so gawky and awkward at the moment (puberty) but is a natural extrovert, so I do think that will change.

Topical question on whether children should have extra tuition through senior school to get them through GCSE/A levels.

We've just come out of end of year 8 exams. A real mixed bag of results, from very good (on her strength subjects) to absolutely dire...namely, Maths. She wasn't the only one, with all the year Maths teachers stating to their respective sets that the exam was very hard. On the whole, she was pretty disappointed with her overall subject results, but there were so many reasons why she didn't perform as well as she'd expected; not taking proper notes throughout year, not reading around subjects, change of teachers mid year, subject matter not being covered etc etc across the range. And not respecting that many may have actually studied more! All the type of stuff that never changes, so my advice was to get over it, it'll happen at work too.

It would be so easy to knee jerk and say she needs support from Y9, but rightly or wrongly, I took the view that this year was a low risk, learn what works for you"8 year. And it back-fired in some areas, because I didn't intervene, nor overly change her schedule to accommodate the exam period like her peers all going on total lock down. Most of which are still exhausted and not training.

But, I too believe there are many paths to life like Trumpet, and whilst it may be disappointing for her not to get the top grades like she's been used to in past, she now needs to work towards doing enough to gain good access to the right courses, and that may mean not striving for A*/8 or 9's across all subjects, and to keep the balls juggling on the stuff she likes such as music/sports etc. Otherwise she may as well be in an exam factory for 7 years. And be unhappy more than the average teenager

She's feeling the low confidence like many now with the new maths, but I know it's not her, as a girl who managed to teach herself G5 theory in a term cannot be adverse to maths, but somehow the new curriculum and its lack of market readiness for teachers/pupils has not helped anyone. She knows she's lucky to not be a I/GCSE guinea pig like those who've just sat their exams, therefore support from the school first is the way forward vs hiring tutors that would ultimately mask a young person's ability to develop resilience for more challenging studies. I think she's also a little humiliated by her arrogance of winging it like she may have done during the year, but hopefully can adapt her attitude.

Some children are already in therapy in her year, lots feeling they under-achieve vs their bright siblings etc at neighbouring schools, or peers at current school. Some have tutors, for many subjects, including their native languages. I keep telling DD all of her peers, wherever they school, are sitting the same exams in years 11/13 to get to the same places as she may aspire to. How they all get there will be very different.

Long answer to a short question Kutik. I have documented my thoughts (indulgently, I apologise) to help me not back-track when I lose my faith over the coming years...

Ealing I couldn't agree more
Waffle it is difficult when they hit puberty and get all awkward I'm sure she will come out the other side so to speak. Ds's public playing hasn't always gone totally to plan but I think his teacher thinks he needs for it to go completely wrong and it will be how he reacts to this which may determine what he decides to do in the future re music/ not music , his teachet had quite a unique view on some things

Dd's teacher tried to talk on the phone with dd but she refused. She (the teacher) then told me we need to put it behind us, she knows she can do it, I know she can do it, it will be a big dent in her confidence which is slightly worse in dd as she is an introvert and we were working on building up her confidence, a fail will be a massive deal for her.

Saying that I do agree that sometimes this is building resilience more so in kids who realise they haven't worked hard enough and dedicated enough time to prepare. The problem with dd is that she did invest a lot of time prior to exam, she practised when her friends were playing outside while she could hear them, she was ready but psychologically she wasn't.

I think that what I have realised is that she doesn't deal well with exam pressure. Which is fine when we talk about music as it isn't the end of the world, we can stop exams and only take grade 8 when ready. But you can't do the same with GCSEs and other exams. Not sure what the solution is, expose her to more exams to get her used to it or not in which case I can only hope she'll mature enough till then to learn to control her nerves.

She's fine with clarinet as her piano teacher is in the exam with her doing the accompaniment.

This is the second time it happens but first time it wasn't that bad as she managed to push through the errors in grade 3. Errors that appeared in the practice room previously, 10 min before the exam.

Regarding the GCSEs I can say hand on heart that I wish I would have hired a tutor for DS in maths as he was the guinea pig of the new requirements. Is scary to hear your child who got a place at his school based on his ability in maths saying that he thinks he only completed 50% of his exam. Luckily it was only the first one, he finished the other two so hopefully it is an acceptable result (a 5 is enough for him to continue with his A levels as he's not planning to do an A level in maths).

There is NOTHING in her description of the exam to suggest that she was close to a fail in any section. Nothing at all, so please don't spend the next few weeks worrying about that.

Most secondary schools do end of year exams every year, so they are pretty experienced at taking them by the time they get to year 11. Your DD has years to learn to cope with that. But for further practice, she could also start taking theory exams - start with the one below her current grade, to build confidencentre. The consequences of failing a theory exam are pretty small, in the grand scheme of things.

Confidence! Stupid phone.

Hi everyone!
Anyone is doing theory on Saturday?
Last minute help if anyone interested
www.actionquiz.com/classical-music-theory-quizzes/