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!

I enjoyed her performances massively! I will try to get a few from my two this weekend.

Very busy term so far!
My Y4 DS sat his theory exam last Sat. He came out saying it was easy and he finished it all in 40 min . I guess we'll find out how he did...he can be too overconfident. But for now no more paper practice...hooray. Thank you mini and others for showing that a child can prepare for the exam within 6-8 months.
Can I please have access to the youtube channel? I promise to contribute

minimama I loved the videos, she comes across really musical to me, she can really pull out that melody in her right hand in her piano pieces and I can hear some great dynamics in her clarinet piece. Well done to her!

We can report one of the worst piano lessons in the less than 4 years Dd has been learning. She basically didn't concentrate at all, laughed, didn't do anything that her teacher asked her, hid her face in her hands... luckily dd's teacher saw beyond her (embarrassing) behaviour and told me not to worry, we'll get her back on track soon. You can see she lost motivation totally, there's no exam to look forward to as it's now gone and she's still convinced it went all wrong.

I had a chat with dd in the car explaining that her teacher is very understanding but she may decide not to teach her anymore if she behaves like that and dd suddenly started thinking about it. She said she doesn't want to give up and wants to be good at piano but she just doesn't know the reason for learning all these pieces. So we found the problem, she actually lost motivation because she forgot to enjoy the music for what it is.

Luckily she started Cool from the grade 5 book which she loves and wants to play. She said to her teacher "I wish I could burn his book but I really love this jazzy piece"

She also started a Grieg Waltz which she likes a lot, the duet which she likes and a Sonatina towards which she has no feelings (doesn't like or dislike it) but her teacher wants her to do it.

DD2 didn't have the best of lessons on Wednesday and was having a bit of a melt down yesterday evening. I feel exhausted trying to get her to do the practice and iron out the last glitches and keep her buoyed up. She has an extra lesson on Monday, another session with the accompanist on Tuesday and her usual lesson on Wednesday, so that covers some of the bases. Just got to cover this weekend and next Thursday and then it is out of my hands. I think we will be pleased if she scrapes a pass!

At least I don't have to try to get her to do theory as well any more. I think it has just been a very big ask for her this term. This time next week I will definitely be on the !

Got the results! Pass in grade 5 (118 also so not such low marks ) and Merit in grade 3 clarinet! Not bad after only 1 year of learning clarinet and 4 (in September) of piano.

Phew! The teacher called us to tell dd "see, when you are well prepared you pass even if you have a really bad day!"

When dd mentions exams next I'll hit her!

Oh and the results are showing the other way around so Pass in clarinet and Merit on piano but we're assuming this is wrong online based on the feedback we got from dd.

Ahhh well done minifleur what a relief!

Yaaaay! Well done miniFleur! And to you Fleur!

Thanks guys! Such a relief! I knew your good vibes will reach us!

Well done, Minifleur! Wow, that's quick. (And am I usually right, or am I usually right?) Based on the videos you shared just before the exams, I would have predicted low merits, had everything gone to plan with both. It's perfectly possible that those results are the right way round, but all will be revealed shortly.

Rara's BFF got into the Foundation programme of South West Music School. She's some way behind Rara, so for the second year in a row, I'm kicking myself for not applying for Rara. She really doesn't want to know though! It's hugely reassuring to have one pupil getting into NCO (even though she subsequently dropped out... and gave up...) then another one getting into a regional group/ JD equivalent the following year. Yay!

well done MiniFleur :) excellent news

Waffle - well done to you too! (will your clarinet do the nco this year or was that it for them? will Rara....?)

yes the results seem quick this year - ours are estimated week of 3rd....

Waffle you are frequently right. Since we chatted re dd she had a trial with another, out of school teacher, who we will gee over the nine week summer as her teacher won't do holiday lessons. The first thing she worked on was cheeks

That should read use not gee

Great news Fleur and noe relax
can't wait for ds's exam to be over (he just has to play in 3 other concerts first!! Though at least this will take his mind of it and remind him why he plays)

And well done to mini fleur

That's great, se22. I have to admit, I have a bit of a jealousy problem when it comes to other people teaching clarinet pupils. Not that I don't have a fair few of my own.

BFF is thinking about NCO, but it depends whether she is able to sight read Grade 2 level stuff for the sight reading tests by then - upper register is a work in progress. Girl who got in last year (probably autistic, with a photographic memory) told me about the sight reading in perfect detail, so we need to work on what's required.

Rara... er... might be.

So happy for minifleur
waffle not all music teachers are so dedicated
mini haven't had a chance to watch but I will!

Well done minifleur!

Thank you all! Waffle you are always right

It may be that the results are the right way around but that would be

The two things that puzzle me (which may mean that piano is a merit and clarinet is a pass) is the third piece: according to the merit exam she got 26 in her third piece, that was her weakest piece in clarinet and the strogest in piano (the only one that she didn't restart - Summertime which sounded great the day before). While according to the pass exam the third piece got 23 which would match the clarinet third piece, otherwise she would have got a higher mark in the restarted pieces than the one played well.

Also she got a higher mark in the sight reading in the pass exam than in the Merit one, which would make sense if the clarinet was a pass as she's better at sight reading than in piano.

Anyway, never mind, we'll get the certificates next Friday and I'm sure dd's piano teacher will let us know if there's a change.

Somebody was very perky tonight, getting her framed ready, 😂 talking about how she'll learn Cool and surprise her grandad. I've been asking her for a certain piece (well two pieces) for a long time but no success, I may as well start learning it myself. 😂

Well done to your pupils Waffle that is a big achievement!

*frames

Sounds like the results ARE the right way round. Like I've said before, restarts don't mean an awful lot. They might have deducted a couple of marks for doing it a second time, but not the first time. I was docked a handful for one restart (and a wobbly start after that) in Grade 6, but the criteria change a lot for Grade 6 - it's a big exam, and much more is expected. Kind of like the difference between GCSEs and A levels.

I can't remember if I said, but my recorder pupils got a pass, merit and distinction for grades 3, 4 and Initial respectively last week. I have an OK Grade 1 Flute and a wobbly Grade 7 Clarinet still to go.

Fleur that is excellent
So pleased she got a good result .. what a relief!

Well done for the exams results Waffle! They sound good to me and good luck for those still to come.

I may ask about trinity for grade 6 as today dd's piano teacher heard me stating that I want dd to take grade 5 theory next March and asked me what's the rush? I explained that if dd does want to go for grade 6 in the end (which I'm sure she will because she'll get bored after a while) she needs it and she said to me that rather than stress about theory she's happy with dd doing Trinity grade 6 and return to ABRSM after. It doesn't sound bad at all, plus it would give dd a flavour of both boards.