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.

Best of luck to all auditions everyone!

I have been so busy with my very closed friends staying the last nearly 10 days, they have a 3 yrs old and a 6 years old so it has been a total chaos. My 3 yrs old also had 6 painful days with gland viral infection(it could be because the prolonged coughing). The good thing is they did bring the 9 yrs old out everyday so we didnt have to go anywhere and still had a proper "holiday". Anyway, they are going home on Tuesday and I am having Weds off with a plan to do a full cleaning/washing day too(or get someone to give me a hand with the deep cleaning).

There hasnt been much music happening as the kids have been up from 6am till 9pm constantly laughing/crying/screaming and I am worried about the piano exam in 3 weeks. There are so much refinement needed for the A and B pieces. The C piece has only learnt half way. Scales are learnt however fingerings were wrong with incorrect tempo. Aural hasnt been touched and my teacher said this grade's aural is a beast. Sight reading is being self learnt and I have no idea how she is doing because I cant understand a dot.

I loved Matilda too.

Congratulations to everyone who auditioned for NCO, I think they are all amazing.

Anyone else gearing up for a Theory exam? DS2 is doing Grade 6. He got 85% on a 'mock paper last week, marked by his teacher so am hopeful he will pass.

Double, it's similar to your length so not too short but my hair was quite long before. All the highlights are gone too so I look very dark! Perfect for Halloween.

Green, sounds like your girls had a great holiday. DS loves having people visiting & staying with us. He gets really excited and suddenly becomes a great host, making sure everyone is happy. But being a typical 'only child', he also appreciates the calmness after all are gone and do his own things at his own pace.

raspberry, good luck to the theory test. 85% on a mock paper is very promising! DS has just joined post grade 5 class at jd, but the focus doesn't seem to be for grade 6, just theory in general, so not sure when his turn will come.

Grade 5 theory next week, any tips? Doing lots of past papers but very quickly!!!!!!!!!!!!

My DD that is (not me)

My little lady is nowhere near ready for G5 theory.... she's storming through parts of g2 and 3 but is having a massive mental block with grouping. Her little brain can play them without a thought but can't reorder what's in front of her.....

I am not musical at all, the grade 5 is just like a foreign language to me!

Hi all, the drumming competition was amazing. DS didn't win it but played beautifully and a couple of audience members went up to him and told him he should've won. They said he had the most musicality. But the young man who won, older than DS was really good and lovely and I was very happy for him and he had awesome technique. DS loved the experience!
We're doing Grade 6 in June, preparing at jd. I just bought the book and two sets of past papers...
Good luck raspberry and callme!

Callme for Grade 5, his teacher was very insistent he wasn't allowed to leave early, even if he had finished. He was told my husband wouldn't be there to pick him up until the end so no point in rushing. This worked for him, he slowed down in the exam. Good luck .

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.

A big yay to drummer's boy! What's a great experience. And, his fan club seems to keep growing!

raspberry, a great tactic! That's what I should've done! I told DS to take time, but as I expected he came out very early. He said he finished at first, but then quickly confessed he actually wanted to go to the loo. A kind attendant let him go to the loo and return to the exam room. I reminded him to work slowly as he went back. But he came out in 5 mins...

What a wonderful experience drummers - very well done to your young man and I bet he was brilliant!
Poor DS has missed his percussion tonight because of a surge of homework but he should be ok for the rest of his activities this week.
No theory for us - DS2 will probably do G5 next year.

Oh poor your DS, Loose! I'm really scared of the workload at secondary school... DS was (and still is) a typical all rounder. He loves everything he does, and is good at what he does. But he is rapidly changing. He liked music always, but not as much as he does now. The value of music seems to be getting greater each day. I mean, literally he seems to like music more than yesterday! He is more willing to give up other stuff for music. I'm struggling to keep the balance as he is still too young to decide his future. It may be a phase, but if not, I'm not sure how to keep the balance at secondary school... I really hope homework is manageable and DS still has time for music. I'm sure he would hate to miss a rehearsal or lesson for homework....

So far homework has very rarely interfered with music Kutik and I get the impression some of last night’s deluge could have been done over half term! DS collected some that he should have had already.
My experience has been that homework is generally finishing off work, doing a worksheet or an extended task that could be done in stages (my boys like to leave it to the night before!) so it should be possible to keep both music and homework ticking along OK.

I'm with everyone else over G5 theory, I dropped DS off and told him I'd be back fifteen minutes before the end so if he was finished early he might as well spend the time checking the paper.

Kutik my DD is much older and we're not in the UK but keeping the balance right between school, music and other activities is a real juggling act. Music is definitely suffering this term. It is probably her
last year of formal lessons, although that may depend on what she chooses to do next year (still undecided - we are supposed to be weighing up the options this weekend). It is very difficult for all-rounders. DD essentially needs to choose between a maths-oriented course (she is v good at maths, probably one of the two best maths students in her very large senior high school), a humanities and social sciences oriented course, and an arts oriented course. Thank god we are not in the UK because it's hard enough to narrow down the options in Y13 let alone Y11 ...

Much easier for kids with a strong inclination towards a particular subject. My DS wants to study maths/ physics - in fact we have known since he was tiny that this is what he will do. Music is just a pastime for him.

Oh and drummers well done to your DS, shame he didn't win but sounds like a fab experience.

Misti you’re right - it was very easy for me to specialise in sixth form but DS is having quite a dilemma. He is trying to keep music as one of the options if he can at the moment. No final decisions until after GCSEs!

Thanks everyone. Homework is definitely interfering with music here. Like big time. But it wasn't so much in years 7&8. But we knew it was a very academic school and he loves it, so that's the juggling.

Well-done Drummers! The experience he had was priceless, I could only wish the same for mine.

Theory, I did tell mine to stay however I think they all need only 30mins or something. Mine took it when she was 8 yrs old and staying for nearly 2 hrs would have been too long(she never had a written exam in her life before). We might be the only one here who only did G3 practice however went for G5 theory by then I guess, nearly 2 yrs passed and we havent gone past G5 practice.
Mine said she didnt like playing last night, she said its boring...we all know she didnt mean it however I know she doesnt love it as much as many of us on here. The thing is we dont really love anything in particular (yet) at the moment which is very hard to encourage either practice or start revising for 11+. I told my husband that we need to focus on the piano exam in 3 weeks then she could start with her academic side. I really feel I am hanging around in a wrong place here as we are neither musical nor devoted nor trying.

Green, it goes in waves I think. I look at it like surfing: you have to be in the water to catch the next wave. Maybe in inspiring concert?

G5 theory next week today. Thanks for the tip about staying in the room! I will tell DD I will be back in 2 hours. By the way, she is 10 and the exam is at a local high school. I have to take the other children home and go back for her. This will take around an hour. Can you leave them there at primary age?

I stayed - DS had never done any formal paper exam before and yes it was at a rather large high school so I wanted to be accessible for DS. The waiting room was packed so assume many parents stayed but not all of them. Suppose 10 years old would be okay but ask them just to make sure?

Goo was 9 or 10 when she did hers. I dropped her and left - I had a pupil of my own to teach, and told her I couldn't get back until 10 minutes before the end, which was true. She spent 1 hour and 55 minutes in there!

green i think you definitly being here! You have lots of useful points and insight and minigreen is clearly musical - ive seen the videos! I can't imagine trying to get dd1 to sit a theory exam......😲

In other news ds did a lovely performance in his concert and is now out truck ør treating with a large wooden axe 😁