November Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

New month, new thread! This is a place for musicians and parents of musicians, from complete beginners to experienced and everything in between, to talk about everything to do with music! Previous threads have covered exams, practice, scales, instrument hire and purchase, theory, composition, aural woes, auditions, scholarship preparation and much more.

I started these threads when my 12 year old daughter Goo was 6 and preparing for Grade 1. I never thought we'd still be going, 6 years later! I appreciated all the advice I was given back then, and try to repay that when I can.

Goo plays the flute and piano (she has been learning the piano for 18 months but has yet to perform - ever) and has no exams lined up at the moment. I also have Rara who is 9, and working towards her third Grade 3, on the clarinet. The other two were on the cello and recorder. She's more interested in art and reading, and currently swims five times a week.

I am a teacher of woodwind, and Wednesday is my day from you-know-where... full-on from 6.30 am until 10 pm, and about to get worse!!

(and no, I can't play either part with any degree of accuracy let alone musicality... it will have to wait a few years!)

Thank you for sending me good luck. DS has to pass the entrance exams first though! Imagine if he didn't. What's the drama of sorting out the references and all!!

To update DS's decision on whether to take 1st violin place or stay as 2nd violin leader. DS has decided to stay as the leader of the 2nd violin for now. He didn't find 1st violin's part particularly difficult or overwhelming when he played during half term holiday course. But of course it depends on what they play, so it could be that the repertoires at the holiday course was not that hard. Anyway, he has nerves of steel, so pressure of being 1st violin won't bother him much. The main factor of the decision was more likely that DS preferred to be a leader.

And the concert master is absolutely brilliant, so there will be no chance in any near future that DS could lead the 1st violin. Ha ha.

I am really sorry to be back here just with worries as we really aren't keeping up this term.

Bassoon is going well for dd, Big Double Reed day tomorrow, thanks to Doubledup for the recommendation to do that.

Our issue is clarinet...dd struggling a little, mainly due to lack of motivation I think, as playing her exam pieces for too long and she doesn't like the two that the teacher picked for her.

So, last lesson she comes home saying unless a certain thing is fixed on her clarinet she will not pass her exam. Fair enough, Ive been putting it off due to financial worries. I e mail her teacher as I was a little angry that she had put this to dd, rather than to me.

I have had this back

"At grade 4 candidates are expected to negotiate the break smoothly and dd does not always achieve this due to insufficient breath support even when the instrument is in good order. I think the adjustment to be made to the instrument will be minor.
I was concerned to learn yesterday that dd is taking a bassoon exam this term as well as clarinet. This might explain why she has progressed less rapidly than I have come to expect from her. At present she is not quite at the standard needed to pass but I hope she can turn a corner over the next week as the Board won't refund her"

This is the first I have heard of her suspicions that dd might not pass, and I suspect I only got this because I emailed about the repairs to the clarinet.

The reason for less practice/less progress is twofold. Mainly it is due to entrance exam preparation but secondly, the pieces being given to dd too early, and the teacher insisting on two of them, and dd doesn't like the pieces.

Clarinet is now due for repair on Wednesday but I'm thinking unless there is substantial change between now and this time next week I should pull her out of the exam. She'll hate it as she will then have to miss grade 4 but I really just want her to get back to enjoying it again. The effects of a "fail" just before her entrance exams will I believe be catastrophic and I just cant take the risk.

Any thoughts...and thanks for listening to me rant!

My reading is that the clarinet teacher is ticked off about finding out about the bassoon exam and everything else follows from that. I think she would have expected that she she would have been consulted about the bassoon exam before it was booked. It would probably have meant that she would have scheduled the clarinet exam in another session. Going forward with two teachers on two instruments - they do need to know what's happening on the other side.

G4 - meh. Cancel it, remove the problem and focus on school entrance. You have a lot on your plate there, why add to the pressure?

Doubleup I’d cancel the clarinet exam - she doesn’t have to take it. If she’s doing grade 4 bassoon the aural skills are covered and she can just move on. I think the teacher is just trying to shock her into practising but it sounds like dd is out of love with the pieces!
It’s ok to take 2 exams in one session but I think if you’ve got additional school exam pressure, that could be overload.

woolley, is your DD also applying for a music scholarship at secondary? Mine is sitting at two indies so he’ll have two exams and two auditions and an interview in January (the latter two are only if he passes the exams though). The exam subjects at the two schools aren’t the same so he has to prepare for both, though it’s just one additional subject to one school. He has to perform two pieces on the violin then one on the piano, and will be tested aural, theory and all that for the auditions. Then he’ll have a piano exam in Feb/March.

He hasn’t done much preparation for 11+ as he has no free evening (and weekends are hugely taken up by music and sport commitments). He is doing fine at school and he is in a very bright class but I know it won’t be good enough for passing 11+ comfortably. His optimistic nature doesn’t help. For instance he seems to enjoy writing and actually he has no problem finishing his writing homework as he always has something to write about in his head. But I checked his writing yesterday (I don’t normally do it because of his horrible hand writing) and it was full of laziness. I could see he rushed and didn’t really plan carefully, simple structures, simple wordings (even though he knows a lot of words), careless mistakes here and there. Oh dear, he’s got to work hard during the winter holiday if he wants to gain a slightest chance to be successful...

Now I’m not sure if it’s wise to book a piano exam next term. It’s not even his first (most important) study. Feel he would be better to spend his already very limited time on something more important...

Sorry no direct reply to your post in regard to the clarinet exam. But just thought your DD may also have plenty on her plate so may not be a big deal to miss an exam for now (she’s still taking bassoon exam, right?).

I'm with previous posters woollley. Having once done a double sitting once, we've avoided it since. Your DD is mentally preparing also for entrance exams, which don't just stop at at the exam, it's the follow on from that..months of endurance.

Reassure her that she's already passed the level for G4 on clarinet by preparing all the necessaries for that level. The exam result alone is not the indicator for that, so on this occasion, with what's going on, by-passing maybe her best option. Then put it behind you and move on. There is that risk that if her result if she sits didn't not go well, this puts more on her plate than she needs right now.

Then get back on track with both teachers with a programme both instruments are on board with. It never helps to play pieces you're not fond of either, so that may be another learning to avoid for future (even if it means an uncomfortable conversation with the teacher)! Zapping the love out of in instrument is not beneficial to anyone.

Good luck with it all!

Pull her out... it's all too much. Get her to choose some other exam pieces she loves if she wants to feel that she's hit the right level, and she could try next term IF everyone is on board with that. Also get out her Christmas music and buy her 'what else can I play?' for grade 4 clarinet - it's fab!

Definitely pull her out of the exam - if our dcs are going to keep playing they need to enjoy it

But I guess woolley’s another issue in the situation is the teacher didn’t communicate in a way she wish she did?

True kutik, but some of us do go through rocky patches with music teachers and can come out with a good relationship again down the line. It's easy for a teacher to be triggered by something and then write (not condoning it), but some are also parochial to their own instrument needs and don't take in the bigger picture, or wasn't aware of the bigger picture. If they are and ignoring it, then there's an issue.

It will depend woolley, if on balance there's more good with this teacher than bad, and then try and work through it as a misunderstanding that you all avoid for future?

I feel I spend my whole life negotiating for ds with everyone ( except his trumpet teacher who is amazingly accommodating) thinking that their needs, concert , rehearsal etc is the most important thing. A difficult balancing act I guess our dcs ( or us) just need to keep talking to everyone so that all involved are aware of the bigger picture.

Obviously I meant woolley - complete brain fail on names there!
I’ve been lucky with DS2 that we’ve been able to coordinate with cello and piano quite well but the term he did G3 piano, cello and SATS was the last time I’d try to combine all that!

Me too Trumpet, including the side comments (not malicious, but the need to make the point)

when does she ever sleep? (music about swimming)
no wonder she has a shoulder injury, hunching a violin under chin for 3 hours (swim coach about music rehearsals/concerts)
why do you think you're exempt from a hockey tournament, unless you think you're the next Michael Phelps? (yes, seriously, this was said... sports teacher about conflicting sports).

We've learnt to pick our battles very carefully, a lot. Count to ten a lot. And laugh at their expense a lot

Ealing

"Woolley*, teacher sounds highly irritated (I have one that does this sometimes).

If it were me, I would email back and discuss how lack of communication has lead to you finding out that your DD may not pass as an aside to your first email. Agree that he/she should have been informed about the other exam, so they could be co-ordinated in different terms and this should be done in the future. I would not do the exam, it might be quite demoralising for your DD, especially now that she knows. Maybe discuss how your and DD's expectation would be that the teacher wouldn't enter for an exam without believing a merit is achievable. Take a break from the exam pieces and do some fun stuff.

My DD (10) is very down as her teacher was highly critical yesterday; picking up on lots and lots of tiny things. G5 violin in three weeks, so DD is miserable about it. Went to the lesson full of beans and came home saying she was terrible at violin.

I can't imagine why her teacher thought this was useful, or perhaps it was just unintended!

Woolley the spring exams are not very far away at all as entries are made in Feb.

Question- are there any MDS funded, Sunday JD options? London or Birmingham, Manchester possibly

Hi Woolley, glad to hear that your DD will be at the Big Double Reed Day. What timetable is she on? It depends on age and grade I think. Both DDs are going tomorrow - one on bassoon and one on oboe.

DD1 is doing Grade 6 sax at the end of this month, and although she is not doing Grade 7 oboe until the spring session, her teacher was saying "I realise that she is doing an exam this term, but she must up her practice on oboe." Some tolerance, but limited.

DD2 is studying Ancient Greeks at the moment and we came across this clip. Rather glad that this isn't in general use today, but very interesting.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-41941088/the-forgotten-ancient-greek-instrument-you-have-to-listen-to-this

Minimusiciansmama would Leeds suit? Yorkshire Young Musicians runs on Sunday.

icould no, but thank you - she does YYM at the moment, we are looking at "in the future" options. She's floating wanting to juggle serious music and ballet and we seeing what combinations would work.

Thank you all for your useful advice!

Re the double booking, we were meant to be doing no music exams this term, should have stuck to my guns! The clarinet was because of next terms syllabus change. F we do pull out which is looking likely then we will just have a break til grade 5.

I don't anticipate that grade 5 will be any time soon. I think we will stick with the teacher for now, we have two terms left of school and would probably have been changing then anyway so it would be good to stick with that, and no doubt have a new teacher sort out some bad habits before thinking about any more exams.

Bassoon, we were meant to be doing grade 2 next term, but dd is in a joint lesson with a child who has done no other exams and so wanted the grade 1 experience, and dd didn't want to miss out!

Double reed day dd is in 11 plus group but suitable for beginners? She is equally nervous and excited! I'm hoping it will be the distraction we need from clarinet upset!

In response to Woolleys dilemma, here's my feeling as a teacher.
I was once asked to take on a pupil because the mum felt the peri teacher at school was not teaching her daughter any technique. Having taken on the pupil, it was only some months' later that I discovered she was still having lessons at school as well. It took several long discussions and more months before mum gave notice to the school teacher...only to then take up the same teacher to teach her daughter a different wind instrument! At that point, the daughter was playing 5 instruments, none of them well because she had to alternate practice. Eventually, having put my all into trying to get her playing with a decent enough sound to scrape through the next grade, due to the affect of learning a double reed instrument alongside flute, I felt I could no longer continue to teach her.
It's a fine line, as a teacher - you give your all and invest time, thought and effort in every pupil and feel passionate about what you do, but also have to accomodate the other interests pupils may have.
There is nothing more frustrating than having a pupil turn up lesson after lesson, having done little practice and thus making little or slow progress, when you know they are capable of better. Only this week, a pupil of mine paid me from her own pocket money because her mum said she wasn't prepared to "pay each week for her simply to own the instrument and never practise".
It's a slightly easier situation if the pupil doesn't want to take an exam, but if they do, I certainly expect them to put in the time necessary.
It sounds like your DD' s teacher is understandably frustrated that her progress is being limited by her learning bassoon, because of the different playing techniques. No teacher wants their pupil to scrape through exams.
In the case of my pupil mentioned above, I learnt from one of her other teachers that she took grade 8 in 2 instruments last term and only achieved a pass in both. If you look at some of the good independent school's info on offering music scholarships, they often state that they are interested in higher scores, rather than higher grades.