October Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello, I just fell asleep in front of a very long film that DH wanted to watch, and woke up in October! I couldn't resist starting the new thread before going to sleep properly.

The monthly music threads are welcome to ALL, and we really like hearing from new contributors and beginner musicians. We have all levels on here. It's a good place to discuss instruments, lessons, practice, exams, auditions and anything else that you want to.

I am a teacher of recorder, clarinet, saxophone and flute, and have two daughters. Goo is 11 and plays the flute and piano. She is planning to do exams on both next year, but none just now because she's just started at the secondary school 2 miles down the road, which has a great reputation for music and sport, and is extremely academic. They study four languages in Year 7 - Goo has just finished her unit on German (by the end of three weeks, they could write three substantial paragraphs - I couldn't believe it!) and is now embarking on Mandarin.
She's thrown herself into choir, orchestra, steel band, flute group and the gym. Rara is 9 and has been playing the cello since the age of 5, and clarinet for a year. She enjoys both, but is happiest when she's reading or cutting up paper/ making things out of paper! Rara has plenty of free time because she attends the village school five minutes away, and hardly gets any homework.

Goo attends South West Music School, which is the nearest thing we have to a JD in the south west. Rara is just about to join! Not too much on musically this term (and not a lot of practice taking place, quite honestly) apart from auditioning for the NCO. Goo has been in it for the past three years, and is hoping for Under 12s. After a wobble about even auditioning, she seems quietly confident now.

I am so impressed with all the adult learning - hoping to do more once the house is finished ( that's if we ever get started ...)

Trumpet, are you thinking to have some work done at your new home? We may go through moving and renovation in near future. I remember you moved during summer holiday. I’m hoping we can do the same so we can avoid the overlap of school commitments and crazy schedule of moving out and in. We did before and it took a while to build up a good routine for DS (but he was not at secondary age so it was okay).

Alexandra I missed the last thread - so sorry to hear about your mum, but glad that you managed to get the music right. Well done to your DS, that must have felt like a big moment for him.

Loose, I admire you for considering exams as an adult learner! I am only learning for pleasure, although I would like to get it "right". My teacher gave me a bunch of Scarlatti sonatas to look at - the one I am learning seems very do-able though google says it has been set for grade 6. Really fun to play.

Yes definitely kutik parts of our house are stuck in 1983 at present !! Slowly getting our heads round what we need to do we just need it all finished before ds goes into year 10

It’s exciting, isn’t it? Moulding and rebuilding an old house into a dreamy one!

I have a valuation booked tomorrow so just about to start the long winging journey... I liked renovations although it was tough. But this selling, buying & moving is what I don’t enjoy. I love house hunting though.

Waffle another recorder question - what do you use to oil your recorders?

in addition to the aulos & thomann plastic ones that go in the dishwasher every now and then when DS fills them with pumpkin-laced dribble, we will soon have three wooden ones. I've just bought a WW2-era Herwiga alto being sold for peanuts in a clear-out. It and my pearwood Hohner alto are varnished but I think not impregnated with anything, so I guess I should oil them and play them in gradually. Hohner hasn't ever been played much and I hadn't touched it for a good 30 years until it arrived here a month or two ago. DS's little toddler one in maple seems to be oiled already but I can't really tell. It has the most lovely sweet tone - far better than all the others!

Ladies.... please talk to me about ABRSM aural tests..... my girl has done trinity until now and opted for musical knowledge and sight reading in the technical tests. Her piano teacher tested her aural and she was doing well at g2 stuff. Her last piano exam was g2, so that sounds ok.... But her next clarinet exam is going to be G5 in summer. What should I be doing to work on with her for getting her aural up to speed? She'd be gutted if her aural test dragged her exam score down. She's doing dalcroze at JD & we will be practising some of the listening/pitching activities from that, which I hope will help for a start. I noticed her sight-singing one of her new clarinet pieces she was about to start learning yesterday.... Im assuming I should encourage more of that....?

Alexandra - so sorry to hear about your loss. I missed that on the last thread ❤️

Minimusician - first happy birthday to your DD! I would recommend the ABRSM aural book with accompanying CD as a starter. It is quite comprehensive. You may want to supplement a little with a greater in depth knowledge of the musical styles and description as it is covered in the book but maybe not as thoroughly as a teacher would like. Yes also to encouraging the sight singing too (from memory not in the book though) HTH. Good luck to her!

Kutik - well done to your DS! Sounds like you have a lovely dilemma on your hands. Good luck!

Mini the book I got has an insert with sample sight singing tests so she could try those.
I think she’ll be fine but as Prada says, get the teacher to go through the characteristics of different types of music with her and do several mock tests nearer the exam. Poor DS1 had 2 very, very brief lessons in aural before his grade 5 having not done a grade 4 and it was all a bit of a shock on the day. He does claim to know how to do it now, though!

Mini, DS had done g1 & g3 before g5 with ABRSM so he was familiar with their aural tests so didn’t particularly prepare apart from new features like describing music style. DS is not brilliant at descriptions so it was his personal bar at the time. But you are not expected to go into details at g5 level so the task is actually not complicated at all. Your DD sounds like he already has good general aural skills and also prob she already knows many different styles of music due to her orchestral experience (DS hadn’t done any orchestral work and had very little repertoires so didn’t have much awareness in different styles/periods). But if you think there is any gap in her knowledge you can fill in little by little. You have more than 6 months so plenty time there. We just used ABRSM book to go through a few weeks before the exam but I heard some people use apps. Suppose lots of materials to practise are available.

Thank you Prada. I’m having sleepless nights as the deadline is fast approaching but I keep reminding myself I have a fortunate dilemma!

Misti we’ll see if I actually ever do this exam! Scarlatti is a very nice choice. I did one for grade 3, so a much easier one than yours, and very much enjoyed it. Got terrible mark in the exam compared to other pieces, mind you, as the examiner didn’t like my version - much to my teacher’s indignation as she really did! (In this case, my teacher was wrong!)
How is the guitar hero getting on? My would-be version is having a break from lessons this week but still practising in the front room (aargh!) but he did do his cello practice nicely yesterday so I’m tolerating it. He spent a lot more time on the computer than on his instruments, though, sadly.
I am tempted to pick up the guitar and dig out his grade one book and have a go once they’re all back at school...

Thank you! We've managed to get her slotted in for her trinity G3 piano in December so I think I'm going to suggest we swap one of the technical tests for aural as a bit of a bridging maybe. We will go shopping for some stuff! Thanks for the suggestions and experience.

loose go for it!!

Anyone here done the jazz grade 5 instead of theory? I'm wondering if it might be a more "her" option.

Loose kids are on their 2 week autumn break and during the first three days of the hols my would-be guitar hero literally played guitar from the time he woke up till about 10pm every day. So yesterday I made him go to Ikea with DH and today I've got him to put up some furniture ;) (he likes building stuff).

I love the Scarlatti (K149) but my chances of ever playing it at the proper speed are approximately zero.

Mini, we didn't do the jazz grade 5 as we would have needed a teacher to go for the route. DS's music lessons were purely for practical, so neither of piano and violin lessons covered any extra. Theory seemed the most straightforward and do-able without a professional help. Basically that was only reason why we went for it, and I think DS would have chosen the jazz route if he had been given a choice. Having said that DS has benefited a lot from studying theory in many ways and he got straight into the more advanced musicianship class at JD due to the experience/knowledge, so on the whole it was a good route for him. I know one boy who opted for the jazz grade 5, and he seemed to be enjoying the process including the attention he got from his peers (a primary school age playing jazz was so cool ). If your DD is in a fortunate place where she can go for any route, then I think the jazz option would def be an interesting choice.

kutik her new JD teacher seems very interested in the jazz side as well as classical and her previous teacher had said she thought it might be fun for her to do a grade or two of jazz, before there was even the grade 5 question

Here you go, such a lucky girl! If she is in a place where she can get a appropriate help to learn jazz piano, why not? It will certainly make her musical journey even more colourful and the opportunity will be even widen! And she is still so young so she has many many years to enjoy the benefit!

Hello everyone, back from work trip. It has been exhausting and today is my recovery day. DS has been preparing for the comp and working on gcse history essay. My best friend is giving a piano concert tomorrow evening and I'm looking forward to that! mini jazz is so much fun, so liberating and they learn so much musicianship. misti does he also compose his stuff in the guitar like his sister?

I was going to wait until November to introduce myself, but have decided to jump in early.

My son is 11 and has been playing the piano for just over 4 years and started to learn the alto sax in September. He decided to stop singing lessons at Easter after Grade 5, but will still sing in choirs. He is taking Grade 5 Theory in a couple of weeks with a view to taking Grade 6 piano next session.

Kutik - my son started at your school A in September (I read the soon to be deleted thread). He wasn't admitted as a Music Scholar, but was made one a few weeks in to term.

We rank towards the top of admissions criteria, which gave us real choices. I wanted a school which had great music, offered Latin and was within 45 minutes door to door. I saw a lot of schools - mainly private, School A and Mossbourne. School A was my second choice - I really liked the head and the general feel of the place, the knowledge-based curriculum suits the way he learns and I liked their discipline policies, which although strict were far more reasonable than those at Mossbourne.

Unfortunately, he mucked up the computer Maths test for our first choice - but it was probably for the best. Overall, I really like the school so far and the music is of a very high standard. I would check that the school offers enough Sport for your son - mine has is not sporty (ASD and Hypermobility), but I don't think there is as much emphasis on sport as there used to be - they do what they can, but it is expensive when you have to bus kids to external facilities.

I can't compare it to School B as that is too far West for us (It takes 40 minutes to School A, but is a simple journey).

If I were you I would also look at independent schools, possibly even boarding schools as they are hard to beat with extra-curriculum activities. Given you have two good state options, I would openly ask about scholarships as he is such an excellent all-rounder. There are still some meaningful scholarships out there and you son sounds like a strong contender.

Jaxx, a big welcome to the thread! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the school choice. As you can see I am still thinking, and thinking, AND more thinking!

Every parent I spoke to whose DCs attend School A seems to be very happy with their choice. Seriously I haven't met any single one who has a serious concern. The audition was chaotic, so it did worry me how the school manages the daily requirements/demands. But parents (and DCs) seem to have accepted the imperfection (and no where is perfect anyway) as the positives the school can offer is much greater. That's my impression. I'm so glad your DS is thriving there (and G5 singing for such young age is impressive).

By the way, your DS didn't enter the school as a scholar, but you don't sound local. How did he manage to get a place? Sorry for being nosy, but this school is so famous for such a tight catchment!

School B offered a personal tour so I asked if it would be possible to arrange one BEFORE the closing date of the application. They came back and it's arranged as we requested. It's so tight timing-wise, so I feel very grateful that they actually troubled to make it. It's not an open day nor audition days, but a normal school day. I'm interested to know how we feel about the school then. I think we will know if it's for DS or not at the visit.

We are considering independent options too. A problem is DS doesn't want to go to a single sex school, this means many of good schools had to be crossed out. We have registered DS at two schools. We liked both schools very much before. But perhaps our memory is simply faded, but feeling less enthusiastic about them at the moment. Both are a great school though.

I like boarding schools for the reasons you mentioned (no daily journey involved!). But it's not our option at this stage. Unfortunately the selfish side of me knows I am not strong enough to let him go yet...

Just wondering if your mini is at the workshop, Double?

Posted too soon, sorry!

but she didn't hit both pieces in either of them, so that's the end of that. Happily, Rara auditioned for South West Music School today, played much better, and was offered a place on the spot.

Gah, my phone is playing tricks on me!! So the first half DIDN'T post? Will try again, on computer!

Gah, hate typing on phone!! It told me it had posted the first half, even though I hadn't asked it to...

Anyway, Goo and Rara had their NCO auditions yesterday. Goo had been so anxious for weeks - "What if?! What if?!" and threatening to change her programme. We persuaded her to stick with it, and she played really well. If she gets in, we would like her to repeat Under 12s, but we are fairly certain they got her to do both lots of Under 13 sight reading. I wonder if there will be an option to swap orchestra if we're offered the older one? Anyway, her hope for now is just to get in!

Rara unfortunately only had half a good cello audition, and half a good clarinet audition, so it's all over for her for this year. She did get into South West Music School today though, as mentioned above!

Yay to Rara!!