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!

Morning all. Well we're on our way to ds's first rehearsal at county Orchestra. He's very nervous. The good thing is he has got his new carbon fibre bow to try out which is technically his birthday present which isn't till the end of the month.

Wish us luck!!

noteven that sounds similar to how they do it here in France - theory, aural, reading are assessed separately; instrumental exams are assessed on a performance in front of a jury (and peers).

disorganised good luck to your DS. Once he gets there he will be fine I'm sure.

fleur I think teachers develop a very good sense of which of their students have the potential to become accomplished musicians.

fleur nice! I would be excited too
loose DS did the same camp last summer. The atmosphere is really fun isn't it?
noteven how free a choice do you have for repertoire?
Wonderwoman was so much fun and she really is a role model for all the young Dds out there. No man tells her what to do. In a Warner Brothers film, the only left bastion of male dominance in Hollywood!

Bastion left sorry wrong order. They're definitely not on the left

It's at least 20 mins from DipABRSM syllabus and up to 10 mins of own choice of at least Gd 8 level so there's lots of variety available.
It's £150 fee! But it's been good to have a definite plan this year I think.

Noteven dd would love that when the time comes. She was just talking to her teacher about how much she doesn't like arpeggios, she's fine with scales and the singing aural part. Funny though as she gets all the notes right on the singing part of the aural app.

Ladies I don't even dream dd would be a professional musician but it feels exciting to know we have the expertise around if dd goes down the route of well known competitions. At least she can be assessed to know if she is the right level at any point to participate.

Today is a sporty day, off to dd's trampolining class, hopefully she won't break anything.

Noteventhebestdrummer the fee is only the start of it, wait until you add in the sheet music and accompanist. I think it's a good investment though because if you use it to extend your repertoire it gives you a solid chunk of music to draw on for auditions, concerts and whatever else. I had DS's programme spiral bound and it's the first thing he picks up when he needs a piece at short notice. I think so far he's performed something from it four times now and it may yet provide A level performance pieces.

Got back in London from our 'surprised' holiday. So let me join you afresh!

First of all, thank you for the new thread Waffle and Fleur. I joined early this year when I was feeling a bit lost as my once wild boy unexpectedly became a musician. I have been helped, advised and guided by all those lovely people here. You guys are amazing, and so inspiring.

DS (9) plays piano and violin. He took G1, 3 and 5 piano exams, all passed with a distinction. He has never done any exam for violin even though we consider it as his first study. His last piano exam was a year ago, and now we have no exam plan in any near future. He is a very impatient boy, and is a quick learner. If we left him alone, he would just learn new pieces very quickly. So we deliberately ditched exams to avoid a danger of progressing too fast. He doesn't need exams/certificates as a motivation anyway. So, so far he's been enjoying the exam free learning.

He loves sports of any sort. The recent big hit was body boarding just because we spent a few days in Cornwall this week! He is also a math and science kid. However, he loves music more than anything.

Mistigri , the table tennis was a good investment for us. We kept it inside for the first few months, but now leave it in the garden. It's collapsible and came with a good cover. So when we don't use it for a long period or when weather is not nice, we just put it aside with the cover on. Most visitors old and young have a go at least once. It's brilliant!

Apologies I haven't read the new thread yet but have a request for help!

Does anyone have the book Grade by Grade clarinet 3? Dd has lost the piano part and is meant to be playing from it in a concert next week! If anyone does have it would they be able to scan and send me a copy of one page?

Thank you

Hello all, Fleur my dd has got her grade 5 abrsm piano date. July the 12th so a bit to go

Thanks Fleur for a new thread!

My 9 yrs old plays violin and piano. We had a period of 9 months finding a violin teacher. Our current teacher is ok(ish). Our problem is we cant travel to any teacher during week day hence less good choice for higher grade. I had my violin exam date: 15th July. The first time we wanted the exam as soon as possible then we were given nearly the last date(its usually the other way round). We cancelled our exam last term as we werent ready at the last minute. Piano is going ok, she is now doing various none exam pieces the last 7 months, around g7. We are thinking of g7 next term however wint start learning the pieces in the next couple of months or so as this one csn kill a piece when she learns it for too long. Our strength is now sight reading, someone could decode g7 (ish) pieces precisely. I owe much to this thread not in term of info and massive support I get from here but also motivation as I must say my child hasnt had much of love and passion for music yet, we do very little practice daily.
P/s: my phone is broken and I have lost all access including personal email, mumsnet, anything required log in as I have put a conplexed password list and saved this list in one of my personal mail folder and of course I dont remember my 20 years old email password....anyway, oddly enough I am browsing my husband phone today and mumsnet log in is saved in his phone, I must used it some time in the past.

Thanks for starting the thread, Fleur, and for keeping it going, everyone else!

We had a really good week away... then all sorts to deal with once we got back, including NCO/ SWMS paperwork, a mountain of emails, a nasty letter to do with work (which I can't really go into here) and a gerbil fight/ declanning. Still unpacking, and off to buy another gerbil cage this morning. We also have our Festival Gala Concert tonight, so it's busy here!

Rara's Grade 3 Cello exam and my pupil's Grade 7 Clarinet are on July 12th, and a Grade 1 Flute pupil is meant to be at the end of June, during an unavoidable performance at work. I'll have to ring ABRSM, but I expect they'll bring it forward!!

Waffle you're back! We missed you!

Woolley sorry I can't help.

Callme that sounds like a great date. You've been lucky with the dates, same Green. We're not in panic mode anymore regarding our date (13th June) and I am now quite happy that, come 16th June, it is ALL done. No more stress. Well, there is the secondary school exam in September but considering the lack of prep seen in this house there's no reason to stress really, we're relaying heavily on DS staying into sixth form in his current school.

Woolley I don't have the book either, but can have a look for the piece elsewhere too...

No word yet from piano teacher on exam dates so I have high hopes it's going to be late in the term. I can't say practice yesterday made me overconfident!!

We had a great performance practice session on piano last night, if she plays her pieces like that in the exam she'll do very well, not consistent though at the moment so I am hoping that it will become consistent in the next week.

Getting there on clarinet also, eliminating the squeaks but I know it may be hit and miss in the exam.

woolley another with various G3 repertoire here if I can help!

hi all - NCO auditions for 2018 are now open - www.nco.org.uk/join-in/apply-now; age banding has changed to match the school years ........

Thanks String - that would mean that DD2 would get another crack at U11 for next year. She'd be one of the older ones rather than one of the younger ones.

Yes I'd seem that the auditions are open and it does seem fairer in a way to link it to school years that way all year 9s get a go at being in the main orchestra. Just trying to pick dates that won't clash with AYM which I don't have dates for yet but I know is weekends ( so rules out the guildhall) and half term ( so rules out Cambridge) am hoping if I get on with it tonight we'll get Norwich

Having said that most of the trumpets this year were already in year 7 so will be stiff competition if there were also older year 7s in this years under 13's

Thanks, String! Does this mean Goo would be Under 12s again? I always thought it strange that it wasn't linked to school years (Goo is October born, so old in her year at school but young in NCO) but she has so many Year 7 NCO friends that she will be a bit sad if they're not all together again.