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!

Bigbiscuits go for it! There is a lot to enjoy in playing an instrument and parents can help loads just by making sure practice gets done - and by deciphering the notes in the practice book!
But perhaps you are musical but didn't get the chance to play? It's never too late!

Last clarinet lesson before exam done, another teacher saying all is great nothing to worry about.

Good luck to those having their exams in July, we would have loved those dates but in the meantime I have to say, I manage to see the bright side of getting it done at the beginning of the session.

I have a Grade 1 ABRSM Flute pupil who had no inclination towards doing an exam until the entry date... May 12th. She started the pieces on May 19th, and we've been given June 30th, ho hum! Luckily, she loves scales and knows them all. She's also 12 years old, so is grasping what's required in the aural tests very quickly. Sight reading should be fine, and we added lots of nice dynamics to her pieces last night.

I have Trinity Initial, Grade 3 and Grade 4 Recorder pupils on Monday, then a Grade 7 Clarinet and Rara's Grade 3 Cello on July 12th.

That was how my DS was like last year with his piano exam, Waffle! The teacher entered him around the deadline that's when DS started learning the pieces. He knew the scales luckily but in a VERY lazy way so when we realised his scales were nowhere near perfect, I really thought it would be a disaster. We had a lovely holiday in Switzerland during the half term which didn't help the situation!! But as usual he pulled all fine in the end somehow. He usually does well at exams/auditions as the nerves make him more focused.

All was fine in the end but he wouldn't always be able to get away with the attitude. So I have zero intention to let him do another short noticed exam in future!

DS1 took part in his first Whit March yesterday with uni brass band and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Good luck Fleur and anyone else with exams.

We celebrate the last AS on Wednesday.

bigbiscuit if there is a chance for him to learn an instrument go for it. something you can play in groups for preference as that opens up all sorts of opportunities for playing different styles. Depending how big he is as year 5 whether he could manage saxophone as they are seen as pretty cool by boys. Always groups looking for a drummer but more effort to transport the kit later when he wants his own. In the summer lots of amateur and youth groups will be found playing at fetes and on bandstands so let him listen to a few different instruments that way.

raspberry it's a special day out although a long and tiring one. I'd probably stretch to the word "surreal". My previous letters to school for the afternoon off have stressed that in order for unique local customs to be preserved someone has to keep on doing it. It must be a nightmare of organisation with all the road closures and coach traffic which is worthwhile for as long as plenty of bands turn up.

Neither of mine went this year because of exams and workload on the run up, I can't say that I missed picking them up at a motorway roundabout at 4.30am.

I just made this film, for my mum really. It's Rara. She's not very far along, but my mum wanted to see how she was getting on! I filmed the piece twice - there's a tiny mistake in this, but she thought it was better than her other attempt.

Waffle she's doing great. . Could I please be cheeky and ask if I can pm you a video of dd to get an idea of how her pieces are. She's hardly had any lessons this term between school residential trip and teacher ill health. I feel progress is stagnating. As a reminder she is 8 years old (y4) a few weeks younger than Rara

That's fine! I love being asked about all things clarinet (and recorder).

Awww, I love Rara's playing - she has a really nice tone!
Well done to the Boy, Alex! It sounds like he's doing great! DS2 had a happy couple of hours at our music service this morning but was delayed coming out by the fire alarm (someone smoking where they shouldn't be apparently...)

Aww, I'm glad he got a lovely report!

If you look closely, the sling isn't doing anything at all here. I dug it out for her fairly recently, as she is just to small to hold it up and cover the bottom couple of holes properly. She got away with it in the lower register, but B and C in the higher register were very unreliable. I don't like them, personally, but this has helped her a bit.

Thanks waffle I will record her tomorrow. She's too tired tonight to do herself justice (preparing for three exams over the next two weeks) choir, drama and a violin workshop thing today . Hopefully she'll sleep well tonight

She sounds great Waffle!

Well done to the Boy Alexandra!

Interesting conversation about the sling, dd's teacher gave us one to borrow today for the exam and ask us to buy one, she's not a fan of them she said but in dd's case apparently she finds hard the move from A to C (if I remember right) in the high register and she noticed it helped her today taking the weight off a bit. I've ordered one as dd really wanted it.

I think I'll record dd's pieces tomorrow, both piano and clarinet.

Proud mama moment here- she got a FutureTalent award this time round and their profiles were put up on their website yesterday. It's very cute seeing her wee biography there!

waffle my monkey has blutack in the bottom hole because she still can't totally cover it! We have ditched the strap (which I had to custom make to be small enough for her) in favour of a small Etude grip/thumb rest and it made a massive difference both to her hand position and how comfortably she held the clarinet. It was £30 very well spent.

fleur good luck to her! 2 weeks to piano exam here.

Aww, I found her. Very cute. How tall is she, out of interest? Rara is much older (only started 8 months ago though) but she is tiny. She weighs 3 stone 10 pounds at 9 years old.

waffle she's prob heading for 125cm tall now I think and weighs about 3st 4. She's a little over 7.5

Dd will turn 10 in August and she's 3st 8 and last time she was 130cm. I've got a didi one, just like her mum (I am 5ft2).

Minimusician well done to your dd! You must feel really proud! Which piano exam is she taking?

Somehow we ended up looking for houses, not sure what happened but I think we found our dream house and we can afford it. I am hoping to arrange a viewing next week. So funnily enough I had no plans to move and now I am excited, fingers crossed all goes to plan.

Miniprada well done, great news... I seem to remember both of our DDs getting their G5s at the same time and now G7s.... time for a rest now though and just enjoying lovely repertoire.

Violinandpiano I think this years u10s Strings auditions were all of a really high standard... which probably mean next years u11s will be the same but not necessarily u10s so don't let that put you off. The audition experience is good and there is written feedback which helps.

Dd has been at the piano for the last hour "composing". Where does one start with composition? Dd's teacher told us before she's not very good at this side of music, are there books on it you can recommend?

Ds started by arranging simple tunes that his teacher either wrote or suggested ( he arranged carols for a brass quartet at Christmas) now he just messes about and improvises at school he's been using composing software

Im afraid haven't got any exciting news from Kutik family but just wanted to say congratulations to miniMinimusician, & good luck to Rara and miniFleur. Sorry if I missed anyone, but I'm sending good vibes to all of you!