(Mostly) August Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Here's a new thread for August, but we're starting it a few days early, because you lot have managed to be super chatty this month! I wonder if things will slow down in August due to people going away... maybe or maybe not?

I'm Waffle, a teacher of woodwind - mostly recorders and clarinet, but I have a couple of flutes currently, and teach saxophone, piano and theory when required. I am determined that the music threads should be open to ALL, including complete beginners and adult learners. It's a good place to discuss lessons, practice, concerts, exams and our generally hectic lives!

I have a DH who plays the guitar for pleasure (no lessons) and two girls. Goo is 11 and has her Grade 7 Flute (March 2017) and Grade 6 Recorder (December 2015 and now pretty much stopped ). She has been learning the piano for 15 months, is refusing to perform in any way, shape or form, but will probably take Grade 5 next year. Rara is 9 and has Grade 3 Cello (July 2017), Grade 3 Recorder (December 2016 and also ceased) and is working towards her Grade 3 Clarinet... probably next spring. Goo is off to NCO Under 12s on Sunday, and we need to pop out to get her some shoes and general supplies in a bit.

I have just realised that we will probably have Grade 8 Flute and Grade 3 Clarinet going on in the same session, Spring 2018. Oh dear! If Rara bothers with Grade 4 Cello, we'll probably have that at the same time as Grade 5 Piano, next summer. Double oh dear!

Misti lovely to hear that you're working on piano and I do hope you get the lessons.
Your DS's school sounds very intense! DS1 will be 16 in November and revising for GCSE mocks! He has the advantage of being one of the oldest in the year.
I was interested in your DS learning guitar. DS2 has been playing guitar a lot this Summer holiday, just teaching himself on a bargain acoustic guitar from the local music service and an electric guitar owned by his dad, who deliberately left it out so he'd play it!
We've offered to pay for some lessons so he gets into good habits. My only condition is that he keeps up practice in the other instruments. He's pretty good normally at fitting it in and as he's only going into Y8 there won't be too much school pressure to worry about.

Well I had a very happy goddaughter yesterday, whose Grade 8s just gave her enough UCAS points for her uni place!

She's very glad she's done them.

loose check out justinguitar.com. Very good progressive course from total beginner through to good intermediate and beyond.

DD has been a year ahead of her peers since primary - she has done the normal secondary school cursus. It's relatively common for students to skip or repeat years here leading to wide age ranges in a single class - in fact it's not unusual for the gap between the oldest and youngest in a class to be more than 2 years.

Misti looks great! Many thanks. It sounds like your school system is very different to here but it's clearly working well for your dd!

loose yes Justin is great. We discovered his videos a few years ago when DD googled "how to get your pick out of the guitar" ;)

French system suits DD because of much later specialisation - she would hate A levels (they would suit DS though - he'd happily drop everything except maths and physics!). DD in contrast is planning to do a higher education course that allows her to delay specialising for at least another two years.

raspberry well done to your niece! What is she going to study?

Got back from holiday today to find that DS2 got distinction (132) in his Grade 6 clarinet exam. Really pleased for him.

Fantastic news Second.

Thanks Misti. She is going to study Psychology.

Aww. Ds is home for a night or two and a lot of this is happening !

They are onto the British bedstead men now. 😂

I posted DD2s solo from Dublin Suzuki camp on YouTube channel.

My first ever YouTube posting!! Yay!!
Probably won't get video again until next solo, not allowed to video her practicing...

Hello! Can I join in? I am a longtime mn'er, but have name changed a few times.

I have two DS. DS1 (12) plays the piano. He enjoys it, and plays well, but is more into maths, physics and coding. He is working towards his grade 5.

DS2 (9) plays the violin and piano. He is also a chorister. I teach him the violin myself, although I am not a professional teacher! He hasn't done any exams yet, but I am thinking of grade 6 or 7 violin this year - probably spring term. I have also put him down to audition for the NCO, mainly for experience as it is so competitive.

I am so thrilled to find this thread. Teaching DS2 myself, I feel a bit isolated sometimes and I've already enjoyed reading about all of your musical DC's. :-)

Second many congrats that's super!!
Taggie very welcome! And kudos to you for teaching your DS yourself.
momoftwo thanks for posting, lovely video and playing and if I may say so, lovely red dress
misti that's so funny, DS and DH are always having fun with the Gnu song!
raspberry I am so glad for your goddaughter. I thought UCAS points were useless in reality? Lots of people on Mumsnet saying they are irrelevant, and doesn't a university place depend on A Level grades only?

We've just come back from a few days in the middle of nowhere, just green fields and horses out the window. So much nicer than London (I think I'm getting old). DS has been composing his choral piece today and drumming a bit...

Misti, so true re your comment on risks in sports. DS always appears to be so primitive to me so I'm constantly worried about him. But I've started to notice others seem to think DS is rather sensible and mature. For instance, his class teacher described him as a little adult (an old man trapped in a 10 years old body). I hope others are right and he is actually not so stupidly fearless as I think!

Well done to Mini Second!

MomOf Two, lovely performance! And yes, lovely dress!

Have you been back to your homeland drummers? We are also going to the middle of nowhere very soon. DS doesn't go anywhere without his violin so we were planning to take it. However, we stupidly booked BA without checking their policy on musical instruments. I called up to see if it's negotiable, especially it's only child sized one. But I was politely advised to book another seat for violin (apparently under the name of "Mrs Violin Seat") or trash it into the hold....

Alexandra hope the Boy had fun... show biz time!
Kutik, no, not my homeland, we were here in the UK which never ceases to amaze me, so much beauty everywhere. DS took his practice pad, sticks and metronome - everything fits in his case! Love the "Mrs Violin Seat" idea

Re sports, DS loves badminton most of all right now, he naturally gravitates towards safe sports. Next year he's finally allowed to drop rugby - yay! - and has chosen to try golf instead...

Alexandra We sometimes watch adverts over and over again, anything with a brass band in it is immediately a candidate for live pause while we work out who it is (it's not always a single band so can be tricky) and who we know.

Congratulations TheSecond, I see you elsewhere on here on a regular basis.

We've had yet another email this week about concert wear for female performers. DS is on tour next week with a group that he's never played with but it would appear that inappropriate dress for performances in churches is a major concern for the organisers. I'm glad that I have a boy where you can't go wrong with shirt, tie, trousers and shoes.

kutik have you seen the thread running about flying with violins?

Drummers this particular course is UCAS points but I would agree it's not very rare they count.

kutik I have personal experience of risk sports, so I can see that DS - although he enjoys jumping bikes and it obviously looks spectacular - isn't much of a risk taker. Your DS sounds quite similar, mine is a bit of an old man too ;)

How big is a violin case? Does it fit into the carry-on luggage size?

DD has a travel guitar that is currently at my mum's in the UK because of the difficulty of flying it home. I might just sell it and buy a new one!

Thanks for nice comments about DD2 playing and the lovely red dress!

Kutik, different airline, but party of 10 violin players just boarded a small regional plane (Stobart air, for Aer Lingus), and they accommodated all violins plus 1 viola.

Checkout the tips on the other thread.

Also, we had 3 separate flights with Ryanair recently, and they also allowed luggage with bigger dimensions than their cabin baggage. We took a chance with one of the cases, and didn't have an issue

We haven't yet been stopped with dd1s violin Even though it exceeds cabin baggage size on an airline that basically says they dont accept things that are oversized.

Hello, and welcome Taggie.

It is a bit quiet this week, isn't it? Holidays and music camps. The Suzuki camps sound amazing, full on, but a real opportunity. There was one 10 miles from us but we aren't doing Suzuki method, although play from the books, and staying with musical child would be too difficult with other DCs and DH.

Congrats, Second, to your DS.

Oh, and DD would love to play netball. She is a little clumsy, and I wonder if it might result in finger injuries.. but I have promised to search out a local club.

We are practising Romance from the Gadfly and she is trying to incorporate a little vibrato. Very early days but she was quite encouraged that a few weeks of practising next to a wall to keep the violin steady seems to have paid off. It is baby vibrato though!

Just received the comments from g4 violin exam and two pieces got perfect marks (140 total) and the other piece only lost one mark. Then a few marks off scales but the aural was 14/18. I understand this isn't good? We need to work on this probably, but I am terrible at aural.

I am usually happy with my pupils who get 14/18 for Grade 4 aural. It's well over the pass mark. Do you know where the marks were lost? (In my three Grade 8 practicals to date, I got 14, 15 and 16 in the aural tests... I know my stuff, but it's so easy to go to pieces in there!)

Hi Waffle, her marks were:

Pieces, 30/30, 30/30, 29/30
Scales, 18/21
Sight reading 19/21
Aural 14/18

Very pleased with the sight reading, and it sounds like the aural isn't as bad as I thought. DD is the most nervous about that, so in exam circumstances it is probably very nerve wracking! Obs I told her she was completely fabulous.

Lovely marks all round!

I like to say that scales are worth easy maresearch if you know them, and costly if you don't. I think I might have nicredit it off someone on here though.

I might be looking for a clarinet teacher for Rara at some point. She's driving me crazy!

Talking about clarinets, I was at a car boot today and one trader had some old recorders and clarinets. The recorders were German, moeke and Horner and a very long plastic yellow one. The clarinets were wooden and with names in arcs across the bottom. I did think about taking a photo to see if anyone was interested, but thought at 8am on Sunday, people had other things to do!