(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!

Hello.

One of these years I hope to be a regular on here but for now DS is 9mo and can't be let near my violin lest he smash it. Loves bashing the piano though. I used to play violin back in the 90s but haven't practised in years. Would like to restart that, and piano, and learn to sing properly, and lead DS by example in playing/ singingstuff that is simple enough that he might be interested in copying it. Currently singing is my only instrument, in a cathedral choir that is currently a bit saggy (no money for a DoM or any heating, and everyone is tired of struggling for numbers/ having no budget/ having hands too cold to turn pages every service).

Does anyone know where I could get old ABRSM /Trinity/ Suzuki books for violin, voice and piano, grade 1 onwards? Ideally cheap and secondhand, really don't mind if covered in scribble/ trashed. Amazon UK obvs has them but paying international postage on every item means it gets too expensive quickly. We live in a small town in NZ where books and sheet music are horrifically expensive - think 20 quid for a trashed secondhand ABRSM grade 3 piano book from the 1960s...

schwanengesang do you have any family/friends in the U.K. Who could get a batch from eBay for you then ship them over to you in one go? We've had some that way. We are fortunate there's a bookshop sells second hand music locally.

waffle thanks for the new thread, I had failed to realise it was here til now!

I'm mama to 7yr old little lady who did G3 clarinet and g2 piano last term. She plays in 2 county bands & is joining orchestra in September, hopefully. She has the most wonderful teacher who she adores though she's moving to JD in September. We decided to put her in for NCO audition, for experience largely. Following from the weight conversation, she's 128cm and 21kg. She's a dancer too so never stops moving so can eat for Britain and has legs for days. We are quite early on in our musical adventures so our instrument collection is comparatively disappointing! Student B flat clarinet, cheapy E flat clarinet that she first started on, piano, ukelele, a few recorders and a random fife?!!? She is after joining the guitar club at school in September to tinker on that so I guess we will be adding a guitar to the mix soon. She's looking forward to learning the bassoon in due course.

We have just got back from a fab week in London- she did an Ignite workshop at RCM, went to the proms, ballet summer school at Pineapple and finished the week with a proms family workshop. Plus a wonderful time tinkering with her musician cousins the whole week long on clarinets and lots of improvising at jazz piano. She had so much fun.

Off to the NCO today - very long drive. Trumpet if you should see this, I'm wearing dark patterned trousers, a blue Swimathon T shirt and piano trainers! I will probably also be losing the will to live by 3pm.

Piano trainers you say waffle? Obvs. We need a picture of those!

Sympathies Waffle. We do that journey to DH's family but with an extra couple of hours added on. At least it is mainly motorway.

DS2 is back at Cathedral Choir today. Doesn't usually sing in the holidays, but they are doing a 'special'. Feels very weird.

I am intrigued by piano trainers......

I am intrigued by piano trainers also.

I just realised that sadly we've missed the NCO audition as dd won't have a teacher till 16th September. No help in choosing pieces and polishing them. I was going to put her name down sometimes in August as her previous teacher was going to confirm dates available during the summer to teach and prepare dd. Oh well maybe next year...

Welcome to the new people Didi and Schwang.

Talking about NCO I wonder how crazy would I be to put her down for audition, chose two pieces with her, her her piano teacher to check dynamics and readiness closer to time and see how it goes, there's nothing to lose is it?

Does anybody know when is the closing date for applying?

Not NCO but lower key audition. This is what we did and then nearer the time just checked with the teacher to see whether they were "suitable" for he audition. ....and then less than a week before dd changed her mind and chose a different piece.
(Not as bad as other dc who 30 min before ABSM exam changed her mind about which piece to play, well, no, she always wanted to play the other piece but was too scared to ask her teacher....)

(oh, and 30kg here)

Fleur, I just booked DD's audition and we have chosen pieces ourselves. Will go over them with the teacher around September after a few months practice.

I don't know where these teachers are that organise everything or suggest things. Ours is good, I think, but doesn't do that.

DD is auditioning for county orchestra and county strings in Oct too, more likely to get in!

And have just booked an intermediate strings ensemble afternoon in Cambridge with Marianne Olyver in October through ESTA, if anyone else is interested. 4 hours workshop, they send the music beforehand and ends in a little concert.

Hello Schwang, originally from Auckland here. Are you near Christchurch? Only so many cathedrals in NZ!

Is anyone else doing the last G5 theory in November before it changes format next year? We are going for it. Did 1 hour yesterday on book 4.

DS, with a range of educational pysch problems has GCSEs next year and he will need all my attention and help. And there won't be time for everything.

Thanks for the encouragement foundout and Niggle I think we'll start preparing a couple of pieces from the new books we've ordered but that will have to be after our holiday. If I think she sounds any good by September I'll see if I can still get an audition space.

I remember last year when I first came to know about NCO from here, we put our name at 11.30pm on the last date and it was end of September. I didnt even know what was NCO and what does it do. We then decided to play the 2 pieces we did for G3 in June. We didnt practise and had no teacher from June so no surprise we didnt get a place. I later on came to know how competitive it it is, it was nice not knowing and naive in the sense that there wasnt any excitement or disappointment. We paid £25 for the fee and £100 for accompaniment. If we do it this year I wont have accompaniment as I dont think its worth it for us(level of preparation and dedication). We havent chosen a piece either, reading here people already chose their picks, I remember Kutik mentioned a special piece. I think others deserve much more. What I find in music is, some other children play so much more advanced and better and we are in awe because we know how hard not only in term of talent they have but more in term of how much hard work and dedication. In short, they earned it.

Hope all NCO children and parents have a lovely day today! Enjoy!

Oh and I was asking because I can imagine what the new teacher will say if I drop it on her in September, oh my darling Dd is auditioning for NCO, I drove her a bit mad anyway about the length of lessons and duration through the year, she probably already thinks I am THAT parent without starting with her and saying "my dd is so amazing she'll audition for NCO". Not that I think she's amazing, I think she would benefit from auditioning and if she'd get in it would be amazing, I haven't got high hopes though considering they are stating grade 4-6 for U11s and dd just did grade 3.

The books I've ordered though have cds and are grade 4-5 so we can see how much justice does she do to them. Having cds would be easier for me to identify if the preparation is anywhere near performance level.

Owch! Is that how much an accompanist costs?

I think we'll go solo.

A lot of those grade 4-6 will actually be working towards grade 4. We have found that a lot of exaggerating goes on. Closing date is end of August. Truly, I would get the entry in now and pull out later, but she IS good enough to audition (I have one or two trying out this year, who are nowhere near her), they do not take grades into account, and I will help you in any way possible, whether commenting on her videos if you liked, or even meeting up (I have family up your way)...

I have driven 125 miles... now my mum is driving. Here is a picture of my feet.

Typing in car.... I meant, only pull out if not ready. But she will be. Goo had train wreck preparation for under 11s and was between teachers, and I wasn't teaching her either. She had just had her 'bad' performance which destroyed any confidence she used to have, she was preparing all by herself and then changes piece 40 hours before the audition! She hadn't played the piece for well over a year, it was far too easy, and she had to do it unaccompanied. She got in!

Have people actually chosen pieces? Good will choose in September and might still learn a new one in Sept/Oct. I have my thinking cap on for my possible littlies, but we will also start on the pieces next term.

Green, sadly we dropped 'the special piece' although DS learnt and can play well now. It belongs to his previous teacher and should be played by someone else. We don't do NCO this year. We won't see DS's new teacher till early Oct. It's not the main reason why we don't do it though, as it's the case for many of the applicants - I don't know anyone around me who sees their teacher during summer. We just have plenty other things going on next term.

DS was meaning to play the special piece at a concert in July as his solo piece, but decided to save it for someone else to perform one day at the last minute. He dig an old piece out for the concert.

I'm struggling to get DD2 to practice at the moment as we still have a houseful of guests until Thursday. We are trying to find times when nearly everyone is out and she shuts herself in our bedroom and plays. Normal routine needs to be established as soon as possible. Still 3 weeks til NCO U11s and she has a lesson in 2 weeks, so hopefully she can sort herself out.

Re. NCO auditions, the teacher has chosen two pieces, but DD2 seems to hate one of them and will avoid playing it if at all possible. I may have to e-mail the teacher for a third alternative piece. All I want is a period of DD playing things that she enjoys after all the stress of Grade 7 last term. DH still threatens to return the bassoon to the music centre.....

The first time she auditioned was for U10 and one of the pieces got changed the day before to one she hadn't played for 6 months, but she still managed to get in. Just depends what they are looking for - although playing a minority instrument probably helped!

Thank you Waffle you are amazing! I'll take our holiday for two weeks and then look at the books and choose two contrasting pieces with your support and if you don't mind I'll send you some videos to see the progress. At the end of the day she's got nothing to lose she will still practice anyway so we'll take it as good experience.

Good luck to all the NCO kids now and the auditioning ones.

I find it amazing how many people are reporting pieces changing a few hours/days before the auditions/exams. I'd have a heart attack if dd would do that, well done to them for the confidence and still getting a success story.

P.S. I just love those shoes!

I love them too, and have caught Goo trying them on. Oh well, they will be too small for her next year, but will fit me for ever! Ha ha.

Love the shoes waffle!