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.

Yes, the Rachel billings one, glad it worked for you. She's has taken gd1 and 2 already but I'm not sure how well she really knows it after the exams!

I noticed an error in my post too, dd3 plays cello not flute, quite different!

First day at back to school here. Dd was anxious last night but dare I say excited this morning.

Green I agree, I'd go as far as saying that the primary education system and the secondary one are not aligned, you have your child for 7 years (incl reception) in a primary school where you are told they need to be self driven and self motivated to learn, not much homework and then "boom!" 11+ exams and tons of homework in secondary.

Green I'm in the same boat as your dd regarding practice - my teacher won't be impressed this evening!
Good luck with exam prep but even more so in finding the right school - it takes quite a few visits to be sure of what you want!
I'm now at the other end in the sense of looking at sixth forms with a maddeningly vague DS1! I'd be really happy for him to stay where he is but he thinks he'd like a change!
Aargh.

I have taught both of my girls. I taught Goo the recorder from age 5 to age 10, and she passed her Grade 6 a couple of years ago. She did go on to learn a bunch of pieces from grade 7 and 8, but started the piano and struggled to practice three instruments. She has only really played the recorder at school and in a festival for the past year, has now stopped, but can still play it. (We actually started at 3 years, then 4, then 5... I followed her lead.) We started theory when she was 7, and she took grade 5 a couple of years later, so I was fortunately able to save a lot of money by doing it myself! I have never taught her the flute (she now has govt funding to cover her lessons) but I had to prepare her for an audition once, when she was between teachers.

I got Rara through Grade 3 recorder last year, and felt she wasn't developmentally ready to move on at the time. She doesn't play any more either! I have tried to teach her theory, and have done 11 months of clarinet with her, but she isn't particularly cooperative. I think I will have to send her to someone else soon. We currently pay for her cello lessons, and Goo's piano.

I taught DS piano for a couple of years, at a deliberately pottering pace, because he wanted to play but didn't want lessons. Though it turned out he was still doing better than some friends who'd had lessons for the same time. Possibly that's more to do with being a musical family who understand that practice is supposed to happen between lessons too! He goes to a teacher now, which is a big relief in some ways, but has disadvantages too. He will insist on playing things wrong because "that's how Miss Teacher told me to do it" - even though I'm sure she didn't! And hearing him practice every day rather than just half an hour once a week, I think sometimes I do have a clearer idea where the problems lie.

Even though violin is my proper instrument, I'm completely at a loss teaching it, so DD has always had a proper teacher. I don't know where to start, what to fix first. Maybe to do with I can remember being a beginner pianist, but can't remember not playing the violin.

Loose, se22: best of luck with finding tutors and moving school decision!

I have 2 problems: I have too little time with her during the week(1 hour in the evening before bed) and most of all I am completely non-musical which I often have someone to tell me "but you cant play, you dont present in lessons, how would you know it was wrong". It was true though that I really couldnt tell. I intend to get back home before the end of our piano lesson tonight so I could discuss with our teacher on his plan for this term exam. If we can still go ahead then we will need to work on the scales the most and decide the 3rd piece. We are usually ok with the 3 pieces however rubbish at everything else especially scales and aural.

This year we will have to give way for academic. The 1 hour in the evening might not even for music anymore. I dont even know where to start her with her academic side, I have been lurking and asking every where. We are fortunately an all rounder, we need to work on: exam format and timing. There is Tiffins for girl which is free however I dont think we will try, all the independent secondary school exams are later on (Dec time I think) which I am trying to tell myself that we will have more time(than my friends who is way ahead, already went to multiple mocks and preparing so well that I am too scared to compare). I also deliberately avoid talking to my friends on 11+ preparation worrying the competition among us might even make the pressure got worse.

Green, I assume the friends who are already so prepared are the same year as your DD? If so they are just starting Year 5, right? I'm sure it depends on child, but in general, I think starting too early can be harmful, especially for bright ones. If my DS had been prepared so well at the beginning of Year 5, he would have been bored to death by now, and possibly would have refused even looking at those text books when in fact, it would have been the time for him to focus more. Lightly prepared and smartly guiding would be good, but hard-core preparation is not yet needed for your DD to be successful at 11+. Having learnt her nature by reading your posts, she would have been bored with the materials like a lighting. You wants her to be most focused at the exam season, not now.

Green I think you're starting at the right time, it depends what schools you have in mind but I'd say if you start preparing now with a good tutor and home practice minigreen will pass her 11+ with flying colours.

As you know I didn't prepare dd at all as I had the security of her brother getting her in via the sibling rule and I still think she'll do quite well, with preparation I'm sure your dd will do great.

I just re-read Green's post. I think you took miniGreen to the assessment before summer so you know where miniGreen has to work on (though I vaguely remember she didn't have any weak areas).

If familiarisation is only concern, then she really doesn't need a year long project. But as Fleur said, starting slowly and nicely now is a good idea, and in many ways much less stressful as you can avoid last minute cramming by starting early. Yes, starting at the beginning of Year 5 is 'early' enough!

I think you can keep the precious 1 hour before bedtime for music, then do some timed work for 11+ at weekends. If you want to make sure, she can do some extra work during school holidays (she has 4 school holidays plus 4 half terms before the exam).

I totally understand your feeling though. I had a panic moment here and there. The last one was some time last term and at the time I got lots of great advice from lovely people here and also people I know in real. I suppose there are million ways for million children. You know what works best to your child - a long term, diligent commitment or a short, quick fix and so on.

Green, was about to PM you but really, Fleur and Kutik have said it all, only better. It is SO easy to get sucked into the London frenzy, but really, only you deep down know your DD's capabilities, and it's easy to overlook what she is so very strong at already due to panic...science, loves reading, maths, music (naturally so, even if she doesn't practise as much as us parents would like)! The challenge is staying firm, and not getting into the spiral, as the reality is she's already got the skills, just needs to format into the structure required for the entrance exams, working to the given times. And maintain her sense of self, for when it comes to the interviews.

We did not start any tutor work (home or the 1 x hour a week with a tutor) until after Easter Y5, tutor's rules. Built up past papers work over time from easy to hard (to build confidence), main bulk in summer of Y5 (e.g 1 to 2 papers every few days, no more than 2 hours work) . Then gave her Autumn off to go on a big holiday, and small amount of final prep over xmas before the exams start. I must add that this was right for us, others will have worked differently, but I did not want DD feeling exhausted before a heavy January (build time for exams, interviews etc), and that she was in full control without last minute cramming. And was reassured that there were alternative options, so she had nothing to lose (in her mind).

Your DD learnt and passed G5 Theory without a blink of an eye. Please, when having dark wobbles, remember this!

We did not sit Tiffin, for a number of reasons of wrong for DD, but also would have muddied the prep needed in that finite time...

Thanks so much everyone for sharing your experiences, your thoughts, love this thread for what it is on music and also everything else such as your sharings and understandings. Yes, I purposely am trying to delay the preparation as I was thinking she couldnt last 1 year preparation however at the same time worrying that I might be wrong and underestimate the tests the consequence could be hard to reverse. I will follow your advise and stay being (pretending) calm.

Kutik, you read my mind, battling now the thoughts of spending the precious 1 hour daily with her in the evening on what. If it is for music then I have the feeling that just another year of me trying to motivate (I use that word because supervising her practice to me is really only for motivating her and making sure she does it) then she could be on her own later, taking it slowly or fast, all will be up to her decision. If it is for academic then music could be very forgotten and I dont want that either. Prioritising would be key this year for me.

I asked her to sit down for few scales for both violin and piano and they are both rusty/forgotten. I am so tempting to switch to Trinity awggg!!!

ealing thanks for link. However, they're all rockers!!! Any jazz drummer in the millionaires list please? DS says rock is far too simple. He has stopped listening to it and now spends hours listening to old jazz and funk tracks nobody listens to anymore...

I have been unwell, my reason for thread absence. Year 11 has started. JD starting in two weeks. DS playing in Regent's Park this Sunday! (Klezmer festival) It's free and they're expecting thousands!

Good luck everyone with all the things going on!!

green There are scales for Trinity too....

Re parents teaching, DH took DS all the way to a Distinction in G5 for piano. I give credit for it working to DH but mostly to DS because it's not always the case that a child will allow it. It was beautiful when they started playing duets together. He then had a proper teacher from then on...

Mmm, true Drummers. I should have known better that your DS is never going to take the easy route .

Your start of year sounds as manic as the end of last...hope you are starting to feel a little better

Goo has just had a piano lesson. We bought the Grade 5 book, and the teacher spent most of the lesson playing the pieces to Goo and getting her to rank them. She told me that it's a great selection, and that Goo had been doing well with the alternative one she was set a couple of weeks ago. I had another talk with her, and made it absolutely clear that we don't want an exam going on at the moment. I was nice though!! The earliest sensible time for her to do it would be in June 2018, and if she needs that long to prepare, then she's not really Grade 5.

drummers hope you're feeling much better soon. Sadly I doubt there are any millionaire jazz drummers. There is no justice in this world...
I have booked DS2 in for an introductory guitar lesson on Wednesday. It would have clashed with tennis lessons but this year he's decided tennis in Winter is less fun - having persevered with it for the past few years I think he's entitled to make that decision! Nice warm, dry music room vs cold outside tennis court - no brainer to me!
Waffle maybe if Goo believes there is no exam, she may become more confident and decide herself that she wants to do it? Hard to know with them at this age, though! I can't tell if DS2 wants to do his grade 5 cello at Christmas and have a blitz on scales this half term or not. He keeps just complaining that they are too hard and he likes the piano ones more!

Brr, winter tennis! No thanks!

Goo hasn't done a piano exam (or performance) yet, and I don't think she's ready. She's been learning 4 terms so is very inexperienced, no matter how clever she might be. If they want to work on Grade 5 pieces, that's fine, but she just needs to concentrate on school this term. I think Grade 8 Flute is also pencilled in for March, so that's not a good time either. Maybe we can persuade her to play in an unthreatening Festival class next January and see how that goes? Goo's teacher and I would both like her to do Grade 5 piano at some point, and Goo has agreed it's a good idea. But not yet!

I know a millionaire jazz drummer. However, he had to give up drums in his late 20s and become a stock trader :) I don't think percussion in any form is a route to millions although I did spot a marimbaist driving a rather new Mercedes at a competition in Belgium over the summer so all is not lost.

herts
I keep forgetting how quickly Goo has zoomed through the grades! Definitely a good idea to consolidate now on piano and focus on grade 8 flute for exams.

herts LOL How was the marimba festival this summer? I forgot you were going!
waffle I think it's very reasonable, everything you're saying.

drummers I'll send you a message but really good. The adult competition was amazing but the kids great as well with people from all over including China and Russia. Hope your summer things went well.

Drummers: what happened? Hope you are feeling better now!

How was your lesson Loose? We got away with being told off by loads of biscuits and a bottle of good wine we brought from our trip. This is the first time we give our teacher something after a holiday, he is more of a family to us now. We are told that we need to develop a system for scales learning and he will need to see how we are learning them the next couple of weeks to decide if we should take the exam this term.

Waffle: only 4 terms so Goo has been progressing really well compare to us learning the last 5 years(with weekly almost no holiday lessons), Goo is doing really well.

Will need to read the end of August posts to catch up with any news I missed.

Did anyone else just see the documentary about Alma Deutscher ? It might have been on before and I just missed it but absolutely amazing . Ds will never manage to sit through the whole thing but I will just get him to watch the bit where she takes 4 notes and then uses these to improvise / compose an entire piece which she plays straight off out of her head . How did she do that ?

waffle I hope Goo has an amazing first day at her new school. Same of course goes for any other new starters today.
Last day of holiday here today and we have absolutely nothing planned apart from ballet and mourning the return to chaos!