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!

Minimusician, she started on a Howarth mini, then a Howarth tenoroon. Can't remember the make of the first open hole short reach one she had, but she now plays a Schreiber. All hired through the music service for the princely sum of £20 per term!

I am in awe of bassoon playing kids - rund here even the violin and flute are 'exotic' enough that the kids have lost their lessons 😂. Ds does have a friend who wanted to learn the harp - apparently his mum got very short thrift when she rang the music 'service' to enquire about that one 😂

Argh.... she caught her clarinet at orchestra concert last night and has pulled a pad off. Her teacher is away three more weeks. What do I do?

It won't be a big repair job. Our local music shop will do this kind of thing as an emergency, usually the same day. Do you have a local shop you can contact?

waffle thanks, I knew the music shop didn't do repairs so hadn't thought much about them but they did recommend someone who's doing it on Tuesday. Is she ok to keep playing it? She's got a festival on Thursday so should be practising

She won't do it any harm by playing, but it isn't going to work properly. I doubt any proper sound is going to come out, unfortunately. Although I think it was you that mentioned plugging holes with blutack... I wonder if you could do that for this hole?

Solid ABRSM Grade 1 flute this morning - 12 yr old who hasn't been playing all that long. She rushed a little, but is a whiz at scales and should score in the 115-120 bracket. A little lower than in her lesson last week, but she will be happy with that.

Minimusic- the NCO teach them sort of short term fix; will ask dd what it is tonight and post it

stringchild thanks very much!

waffle well done your pupil xx

Well bassoon exam done. No idea how it went, but as her playing has been very up and down, it could go either way. We'll all be happy if she gets a pass - fingers crossed, but who knows. Don't want to quiz her about it too much as, emotionally, she has been on a knife edge. Just want to forget about it and not have her do another exam for a very long time, until she is emotionally mature enough.

On another note, DD1 took part in her school music competition finalists concert last night. Very high standard of playing all round and she got some lovely comments afterwards from the adjudicator and from the teacher who did the accompaniment. She just seems to be coming into her own, music wise, this year.

minimusician that's fabulous

well done Miss DoubleUp

And breathe..... She managed to pass! Perhaps not in the way she might have wanted, but it's a big tick and she doesn't have to do it again! If her teacher even suggests Grade 8 before 2 years have passed, I may have to deck her! One very relieved bunny

Well done everyone. Great results coming in!

Slightly awkward moment for Rara today... for context, BFF has been playing the clarinet for 18 months, and was Rara's inspiration. Rara started 9 months ago, and had caught her up by the new year. There was literally nothing to separate them - they shared a festival title in January, and both scored 130 in their Grade 1 exams in March. Since then, Rara has sprinted off into the distance, friend has been accepted to a Centre of Advanced Training and wanted to talk about that today, and what stage she'd reached in the Paul Harris book. Rara made all the right noises, until she was asked what stage she'd got to! She doesn't want to upset her friend, so is keeping quiet, and truthfully said, "I'm not using that book much any more". Friend persisted, saying, "Are you on stage 11? 12? 13?" and so on, up to 19, before concluding, "No, you can't possibly be!" (Rara is on 21-22, but mostly playing from Abracadabra, What Else Can I Play? and the Grade 2 book). I hope it never comes up again, quite honestly, and am thinking of putting in separate entries for friend's eventual Grade 2 and Rara's Grade 3, which will probably be in the same session!

Doubleup that's great, a relief for all of you and very well done
Waffle it's tricky, isn't it. But Rara showed a lot of sensitivity in knowing it may be an issue.

Kudos to Rara for her mature sensitivity

One ARSM last week for DS seemed to go well, that was flute. Singing ARSM is tomorrow and sounding lovely

Wowee, he will be Mini-Noteven ARSM x2!!

Both DC collected from band practice. Now sitting with in hand ans on my face.

Not the effects of the gin yet , just bad typing!

Well done for the results double and NotEven!

Waffle well done to Rara being such a good friend. She shows amazing maturity, I wish dd's friend would be like that, in the past she was ahead of dd and rubbing it in her face, now dd is ahead in both piano and clarinet and the conversations have moved towards "yes but did you get a distinction like I did in my grade 3" type. I tried to intervene last time by explaining that people react differently in an exam situation so it doesn't always reflect the real potential. Dd isn't competitive (she is silently but never opens that sort of conversation or talk about her achievements).

No music for us this weekend, Dd had a school event today after school and a party tomorrow so we cancelled the lessons. In other circumstances I wouldn't but being straight after her exams I think she deserves a weekend when she can do other things.

Hols for 2 week!! Yay!! Violins left at home, so no practice for 2 weeks. Lots of work to do when we get home.

Still have 3 weeks of school left here MomOfTwo - least for DD2. By that time DD1 will have been on her school music tour and returned home.

New thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/extra_curricular_activities/2968322-July-Music-Thread?watched=1

Good night!