September Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello, and welcome to a new thread for September. This is a lovely, calm and supportive corner of Mumsnet where we can talk about everything to do with music lessons, exams, practice, auditions, and whatever else you like. Contributors of ALL standards and ages welcome. There are lots of experienced music parents on here, but we also have a steady stream of beginners, and the collective knowledge on here is impressive.

I'm Waffle, teacher of woodwind - mainly clarinet and recorder these days. My DH plays the guitar for fun. We have two DDs - sensitive, highly strung and accident-prone Goo (11) who plays the flute and piano, and starts secondary school next week, and laid back, funny Rara (9) who plays the cello and clarinet, and is also a reading machine.

There's not too much going on for us musically this term, apart from auditioning for NCO in October. My main priority will be getting Goo settled in a much bigger school, with a longer day, and she's getting there under her own steam, eek! Luckily for us, we don't have any music exams or secondary school entrance stuff going on, but I know that lots of you do. I am anticipating Grade 8 Flute and Grade 3 Clarinet next term, and Grade 5 Piano in the summer term. I've no idea if Rara will do any more cello exams after the drama of the last one! At the moment, she says she's sticking to the odd numbers. Nutcase.

Gilly good joke 😜

Thanks for thinking of us all, for some reason all the stress left me once the GCSEs results came out and I am now in a state of "I don't care much" regarding all the other stuff happening around me. It is really bad as dd has the MAT and then the NCO and I am barely asking her to practice her pieces every other night or so.

Luckily she seems to be more responsible than I am and last night whe she had a sleepover she took her clarinet and both piano and clarinet music books with her and practice at her friend (who also plays the same instruments) or so she said.

Today we visited a lovely town and she dragged me in a music shop and asked for more sheet music, she now has some Beatles piano music and clarinet Christmas music (Guest Spot). Her piano teacher is used to us buying random music but I swear her new clarinet teacher will be shocked when she'll see the amount of books we have. I need to stop giving in!

Icould DS is driving me crazy about cars and learning to drive. He has another year but he goes on and on about it.

Catkind Yes, bands usually have instruments. Our band insures them as well so the only cost is regular attendance and whatever the weekly subs are. I should probably warn you that it's not unknown for the accompanying parent to be given an instrument as well so as to have something to do while they are waiting.

www.brassbandsengland.co.uk/find-a-brass-band/

We started with the music service teacher first and then when he' been playing a year or two he went straight into the main band. He sat in between two old hands who rescued him whenever he got lost, pointed out where he'd missed an entry and brought him back and generally acted as training wheels.

When they did whole class brass in primary they were each given a trumpet mouthpiece and a trombone mouthpiece to buzz on and depending on how they got on with that determined which instrument they ended up with.

Tonight DS is playing with the fourth band of the week, it's holiday season and he is covering for absence.

I sympathize everything seem to happen on the same day syndrome, Waffle! DS is so looking forward to starting jd this term but he is going to miss the first day as year 6 tests (which is part of the process for selective places at some states secondaries) as well as the secondary school open day (where they don't offer any alternative date...) are happened to be on the same day. It'll be either the test in the morning and the school visit in the afternoon or the other way round but haven't got any confirmation yet.

On top, DH was trying to enter DS for a triathlon which was again happened to be on the same day. I had to tell him DS had only one body!!!!

Hello again. We are impostors here as DS is only 10 months old and the extent of his musical prowess so far is bashing the piano and glockenspiel, chewing the descant and tenor recorders (must clean the pumpkin out) and singing a d when I tune my violin (the d is the one i have to tune every few minutes as the gauge is probably too high for my instrument). He would like my violin but probably only cos it looks tasty...

However inspired by these threads I have got going again with violin and piano practice (working through Grade 2 ABRSM/ Grade 3 AMEB / Doflein books 2 & 3 at the moment) and am learning to read music on the recorders, which I always played by ear before. I've also got out for the first few times since DS was born and gone to sing evensong in our cathedral choir. Have also been working through the little Kodaly choral method books, singing them to DS. He thinks it's fun, and some of the pieces are exquisite

Fleur, despite GCSE results out, ds is still giving me a headache. He is know thinking of changing subjects as for one of them he only got A instaed of A*. But it is (I think) his favorite subject...

dc2 giving me a headache as she hasn't done much of practice over the holidays.

schwanesgang it's wonderful you're giving yourself that time with your music- and it will benefit the baby too. My piano lesson each week is quite precious "me time" now. Plus my DD loves seeing me practise and progress. Duetting together is special too.

Thanks Minimusuciansmama — yes it is definitely nice to have a part of me that is not all about changing nappies, stewed apple, and sleep deprivation (much as I don't mind doing the standard mum stuff for our lovely giggly little DS).

Those of you with opinions about music exams: I'd be interested to know what you think. Someone I know who plays the same instrument as her DC has recently taken DC away from teacher, and begun teaching DC herself. DC would be grade 6-7ish I guess, reasonably confident, has been playing nearly 7 years, aged 10. Mother recently told me DC is progressing rapidly through grade exams. But I found out that DC has just recently done grade 2 exams, having done grade 1 in the previous round. Did quite well in the exams. Hardly surprising given the normal level of playing and the number of hours of daily practice with mother over the last 7 years!

Is this pot-hunting, or a legitimate way of boosting the DC's confidence? Seems a bit odd as a strategy... wouldn't be totally surprised if this featured in negotiations about removing DC from teacher.

Does the DM not realise you don't have to do every exam Schwanengesang? Or could it be there's an aspect she struggles with like aural tests or scales that they're working through as they go up? My teachers never put me in for exams till I was well past the standard, but that's a bit extreme!

schwanen so the dcs played for app 7 years and they are 10? Did they start at 3? What instrument? First if this is correct I would think that she's brave, it must be very hard to teach your dcs specially after a certain age.

Secondly if it is piano or violin I would say that very rarely you see measurable progress so young unless you are a trained Suzuki teacher, I know quite a few DCs who started piano at 4 and took 3 or even 4 years to her to grade 1 level.

There was a girl same age as dd doing lessons before us with the same teacher when dd started age 6. This girl started lessons at 4. A year and a half later dd took her grade 1 exam and the following year grade 3 exam and at this point the other girl took her grade 1. What had happened is that dd came to lessons fresh and out in the work while the other girl become complacent and bored with the lack of progress. She had years of playing without achieving much (that she could measure, there were of course achievements but she didn't have a certificate for them).

The DC isn't doing badly if they're grade 6-7 standard, whatever exams they're taking. Unless schwanen meant it was the mum who was grade 6-7? I do agree if they start very young it has to be about having fun doing it now, not any expectation they'll end up a better player for it.

Catkins my DS1 started on trumpet aged 8 and got to Grade 5, but it was really too small for him and he switched to trombone and tuba in Y8.

DS2 never got away with trumpet at all, and took to trombone immediately at age 8. I always think it's best they arent too fixed on a particular instrument, and try a few out.

Is French horn something he could try at 8?

I know DC that did. Mine couldn't get a sound out of it, they are more suited to larger mouthpieces.

I do love playing as a trio with my girls Even if violin, flute and flugel horn is a rather odd combo. Im thinking of drafting in dh's uncle who is a new beginner horn player to make a quartet and and to the lunacy 😁

DH is toying with switching to flugel from cornet. There's a borrowed one hanging around in the dining room at the moment.

Mending, your family gathering must be so much fun!

I was wondering about suggesting a chorister chamber group/ band but didn't know if piano, horn, cello and recorder would work - I am now inspired by mending!

I used to post a bit but have name changed. I have DD very nearly 12, back to school tomorrow, she sings and plays the cello but won't take exams. She started the piano at Easter and is working through a book of grade 1 pieces so exams on that might give her some confidence to tackle a cello exam. We just ordered the 1-5 all-in-one theory book and have to get that out the way this academic year :/.

I have dd2 9, lured from the flute by bright lights and grease paint and dd3 6, who has started on the flute but been incredibly difficult to keep going over the summer hols. I don't know what autumn will bring for that and do wonder what I am pushing it for sometimes. DD has a lovely schooling and social life through her music and I suppose I wanted that for them all, but they're all very different!

Xennialish, is it by Rachel Billings? If so, that's what my DS used last year for his grade 5 theory. He hadn't done any theory study before (although he seemed to know quite a few already due to playing piano), and his lazy mum didn't want to order 5 books so grabbed something that covers all.

kutik i think it's a good thing we dont have very close neighbours! But it is fun 😂
I can't claim it's neccessarily 'works' musically, however youve got to work with what youve got...

What have I missed?!

Thanks Waffle for a new month thread.

I have a 9 yrs old daughter who is playing violin and piano. We thought of piano exam this term however will need to discuss with our teacher on the lesson tomorrow. After 3 weeks not touching the piano (neither the violin), I feel like we are back to Zero when she sat down for a bit of both today. Violin has been on and off, we pretty much have no plan. I am also very worried about her academic side this year as she is entering yr5 and needs to start her preparation. To be honest I dont know where to start, worrying we might be underprepared however at the same time I dont want to over prepare her(to me at this age, its too young to judge an ability of a child, 11+ is purely crazy in London, the children are studying way too hard at 10 yrs old).

Greenleave agree with the expectations of year 5 here in the capital. We have had to find a maths tutor for any hope of passing exams next year. More expense on top of the extracurricular activities and another evening late home.it us exhausting organising them, let alone being them - so little play time .

Thanks for the thoughts on exams. I agree DC is doing well to be grade 6-7 standard after 6.5 years of playing; I also agree that progress is likely to have been slow at the start, though I definitely think the benefits of doing music (or whatever else absorbing multisensory difficult activity) outweigh the downsides of lack of progress early on. It could well be that the DC is weak in some specific area (likely aural or theory) that means they're ticking through early exams at a rather extremely late stage. As for mother teaching DC, I think this may be the only arrangement that works for them as I gather mother had errr a few too many opinions to share in lessons with the recently-left teacher... and the two prior ones as well... still if that works for them, all it really risks is teenage rebellion completely derailing the music. Which could be messy but won't necessarily be a bad thing if DC then takes ownership of either doing or not doing music rather than doing it to please mother.

Of course, I have all those issues ahead of me... I hope I will meet them with humility and a sense of perspective, but am aware that I can lack those qualities at times!

Scwanengesang

I can only comment on our experience, but teaching our own dd music didn't work out.
I'm not bereft of musical knowledge, but no expert either.
However my dh is a legend in his own lunch time , a specialist on her instrument and an impressive portfolio of previous students.
They just wound one another up the wrong way and to her it was just "Dad trying to teach her".
So she auditioned for specialist music school and boards now.
I take my hat off to parents who can manage it.
Oh, and when she's had home they play some lovely duets and she listens to what he has to say.

As for exams, I believe they are useful and have their place.
However, they aren't the be all imo and experience.
I know 2 children who had grade 8 at Piano at aged 8, they are siblings and a few years older now.
One of them had a longer gap than the other between grade 6 and 8 as the hand span was just not quite big enough, one had extensions for the pedals, they looked really good. I hadn't seen them before.
I'm not sure what they are up to now, I must get in touch.

Mending, love the attitude - you've got to work with what you've got! Still pretty impressive selection of 'proper' instruments though. In our household, if DH and I want to join DS playing on the violin/piano, it'll be recorder (just manage one octave), harmonica (zero idea which notes we are producing...) or some primitive percussion such as tambourine or castanets in a very much primitive manner!

Re, teaching our own children, DH is specialised in sports and me in arts and we both nurtured DS with our specialities from the moment DS was born, yet DS chose music as his thing (so we were indirectly sacked as his teacher)...