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!

Thanks se22. That's good to know now - before going through the secondary school application!! I think we have to stick to states I'm afraid... No offence to anyone who goes to state secondary. It's just that we don't have many great choices in our area....

Double have you looked up the"you're online pianist" website ? The pieces may be on there with piano backing to play along to that's what ds is using to practice

Thanks Trumpet, must go and look that up now! Not heard of it before. That's for later in the week though. DD2 just back from camping - rather tired and looking like she has been dragged through a hedge backwards! If she does anything today it will be theory, but not until she's had a shower

Double at the minute it's only got the trinity pieces up ( Abrsm got taken down a couple of weeks ago not sure why) wasn't sure which exam board you were using . Ds still hasn't done his theory so he's doing trinity

Kutik i don't know where in London you are, I can only comment on the culture near me,but the culture at dd's school prizes both sport and music. Dd school offers both sport and music scholarships. It is worth investigating if this is the same at schools in your area as it could potentially make big difference to fees.

First lesson went ok, dd's teacher said she won't waste her time taking grade 5 again if she does fail but she doesn't want dd to stop doing exams as they are a good measure of progress but we'll move on and we'll decide together when she's ready for another one, maybe skip 6 and do 7 in a couple of years or switch boards to Trinity as it may suit her better (no reasoning behind she just said it is worth trying maybe that board suits her better) anyway she said she needs dd to put it behind it and move on, enjoy her music and that is exactly what they did in this lesson.

She started a beautiful Kuhlau Sonatina (in C major op 88) and two duets which she'll play in the competition with another of her students, she then asked dd if she wants any piece in particular and dd said she wants to learn Cool (from the grade 5 list) so they agreed on that and then there will be some Bartok also.

So big plans and dd came out of the lesson beaming and happy.

So pleased your dd enjoyed her lesson fleur that's the most important thing. We haven't done the exam yet but trinity is quite different to Abrsm ( especially the aural) which seems to suit some pupils better

Glad your DD is feeling happier fleur.

School nearly over now for my DD (just one oral exam on 3rd July). Lots of music still to go though: she is playing piano and doing her singer-songwriter thing at a music festival on Wednesday (for which new songs are being written apparently! she says she needs a new setlist), and she has another end-of-term concert scheduled for the 28th at which she will play a duet with another student.

Today she put herself on the waiting list for a place in the saxophone class at the conservatoire next term. Not sure where she is going to get the time ...

ha, dc3 had her exam yesterday. dd only mentioned on Wednesday her exam was on Friday instead of next week.

I was planning some aural practice this weekend...

Hope the exam went ok even though ds's exam isn't for a couple of weeks we're so busy he won't have masses of time to practice now which isn't a bad thing sometimes I think it's just best to get on with it

A very scared dd went into theory this morning. She knows it all, just has to not panic and do it under exam conditions. This reminds me why I was keen for her to start at g1

I'm sure she'll be OK, se22. It's good for them to get used to it.

Something has flipped in Goo, and nobody is allowed to listen to her any more. She has been invited to play at a fete where she went down a storm last year, and declined. Her piano teacher feels that she really does need to get over the hump of her first piano performance (she's been learning for just over a year) and I suggested that she could play to the school Head of Music's class - Reception class! Very unthreatening. She won't do that either, says she is never doing another music exam, and so on. I can't make her, but will just try to get her back on an even keel with practice, and ride out this storm. I've asked if she wants to give up, and she absolutely doesn't (not that I'd let her if I thought she'd spend more time playing computer games, rather than doing something else constructive) so I guess we just need to be patient and ride this out...

Best of luck to all who has theory exam today!

Theory exam.... 40mins and we are out.... anyone wants to make a guess on our marks?...

waffle DD has been very reluctant to play for an audience at times. She is not really shy; in her case it's a mix of "not wanting to out myself forward as anything special" and fear of failure. The first is why she has until quite recently been quite reluctant to play her own songs in public (it's "pretentious") and the second is why I can never get her to play piano for the camera.

It has tended to get better over the years. She enjoys playing guitar in front of other people now; she has got over her self-consciousness about playing her own music in public. Piano is still a work in progress, mainly because there are so many things that can go wrong.

I am sure it is just a phase for goo; welcome to teenagerdom ...

waffle DS went through a similar phase in y5 specially not wanting to volunteer to play in school. The moment he hit secondary school there was no stopping him!
only it will be fine!
I have contributed to the channel ☺

We have a problem with our piano pedal. It creaks like an old door It can be heard sorry.

Mine is changing too, no longer my sweet pea who I could plan a kiss anytime and she kiss me back, we kiss goodbye before bed, when I got home each evening etc. The last 2 months she stopped then now she doesnt even want a cuddle, she becomes tense even just for a cuddle. I am very sad, still keep trying, I am only allowed fore head kiss before bed these days and she even wipes it away when she turns away. I so miss just few months ago she sleeps on my lap, I can kiss on her face and she gives my tight cuddles. And she is only 9 years old, still some years before the teenage hits.

Only, they really dont need all the time, mine swore that she triple checked and still spent that much time.

Mine is getting better with her pedalling drummers, the chair is no longer screeching .

I had to work from home yesterday to be able to meet our violin teacher and she said she isnt happy with someone who doesnt practise, she said its so frustrated as someone can do really well if practises. We only need 30mins 5 days a week to be ok. I promise I will sit down with this someone the coming week so the practice will happen.

What upsets me is the tuner adjusted it the other day and since then it creaks much more!

DC 1 and dc2 were happy to play for an audience till year 7/8. After that it wasn' t "cool". But same happened with sports, initially keen to be picked for matches, now trying to avoid it...
dc3 is luckily still too young.

Then the tuner should come back to take a look?

Fingers crossed it will be fixed!

Hello everyone! Sorry but got a new puppy (surprise for miniprada) so he is an absolute time thief. I've spent all of my MN time on the doghouse section 😂 I've attached a pic. He's a Leonberger 😍

Double - sorry to hear of your crap news. We had intruders on our land last summer hence we have the massive new dog!

Green - I haven't had a chance to watch the clip you kindly sent. I will try tomorrow but on a hen do later so will be hung over for Father's Day... Bad luck with the holiday. That's also crap news 😢

Fleur - I hope minifleur is ok. It's rubbish when they feel bad. Miniprada's saving grace I think was not passing G5 theory first time so she knows that the world won't stop turning if she doesn't pass. She has no nerves which I think is not a bad thing. As long as they try their best I think as they are all only little.

Wishing everyone the best in theory today 🍀🍀

Forgot my pic! Here is my little teddy bear ( I say little he is 10kgs and only 8 weeks old, he'll be 80/85kgs when he is 2) 😳

Drummers please please please tell your DS he has two fans here, he is so great, dd said she wishes she'll be that good when she's older. We have a loud pedal also, it doesn't squeak but you can hear it when she's using it.

Waffle did something in particular happen or is it just a phase? Dd explained to her piano teacher yesterday the following: no more exams, no more festivals or public performances. Her teacher just laughed and then said "well you promised you'll perform in the festival so I've entered you (not really but dd doesn't know that ) and ok, no more exams for a while".

What's funny is that she knows dd will start, in about 4/5 months, to ask when can she choose her next exam pieces. Let's see what happens now. She also hasn't got the same attitude about clarinet, she's happy to take exams and perform on it.

Prada that is one very cute puppy. He's gorgeous! What's his name? Have I sent you the YouTube channel details? You can see a few dcs on there and also contribute if you wish.

In terms of news, we may be moving house, we've set our heart on a particular area (about 5 min away from where we are now) seen three houses and really liked one of them. We're getting our house valued next weekend and if we believe it works financially we're off. The good news is that it is detached (more practice time) and it has more space it terms of where the piano will go and the other instruments dd may choose to learn.

Drummers meant to ask, which Yamaha model is your piano? It doesn't look like a U one, just nosey.