December Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Have a new thread for December!

This is an ongoing chat group for musicians, parents of musicians and anyone interested in music. We talk about practice, scales, theory, instrument hire and purchase, concerts, exams, auditions and loads more. Newcomers and beginners are extra specially welcome - yes, a lot of us now have children who are getting quite advanced, but we all had beginners once. I started the conversation when my eldest was 6 and working towards Grade 1, and we now have learners of all ages and standards on here.

I am a teacher of woodwind, and have two daughters. Goo is 12 and in Year 7. She loves her new school, and has grown up fast since she started. The first few weeks were overwhelming and confusing. She loved the challenge of new subjects, new faces, lots of different sports, etc. Unfortunately, she is a poster child for complacency, is now finding it all very easy, and doing the bare minimum again, sigh. She extends this approach to music too, putting in a bit of effort at the last minute, and often making an eleventh hour bid to change piece for important performances. She is gregarious, intense and obsessed with her phone. Oops, I forgot to say, she plays the flute and piano. Grade 8 flute is pencilled in for some time next year (teacher is campaigning to wait until train tracks come off) and she hasn't performed on the piano or taken any exams yet.

Rara is 9, and a completely different kettle of fish. She likes music, but she likes reading, art and making things even more. She's talkative, eccentric and highly creative. I have no idea how her mind works. She is in Year 5 at the village primary, and couldn't really care less about academics. She plays the cello (working at an early Grade 4 level) and clarinet. Some of her clarinet pieces are Grade 4, but she is having some technical problems at the moment, mainly due to her size and incorrect placement of her fingers. So the next exam she does will probably be Grade 3.

Both girls are members of South West Music School (Rara starting next month) and both auditioned for the NCO. Goo was very pleased with herself, but Rara had an absolute disaster. She bounced back within a day though.

How wonderful! My little miss is a great big bunhead and we love the ballet. We saw the royal's contemporary shorts in the spring in bargain £3 seats. Then in September the Royal brought a gala performance to our city theatre to reopen it which was AMAZING. We are off to see the ENB do the Nutcracker in a couple of weeks.

waffle I am beyond proud of Goo and Rara. Goo is working through it so well, as hard as it feels and Rara is being delightful in her handling of her success. I really am proud to call you all our friends. I so wish we could reach SW regionals xxx

Big day for my girl. Full day of music concerts/rehearsals at school- they rehearse most of the morning, perform to the school then perform to parents this afternoon. She's playing with the orchestra and one of her G5 pieces. Then it's rush off into the city for her G3 piano exam. I am very stressed about that- she only took g2 in July and is ready but she's had so much else on with dance exams, dance shows, school production, music concerts that I worry this will be the time she doesn't get the results she's used to and hoping for!

We are ending the day going to see a friend who has a totally bonkers Christmas tree and invites everyone round to vote on the best/worst decoration before crowing the annual decoration of the year!

For those worrying about not starting music early enough......Kennedy started at 7......and he’s done absolutely fine .
My dd didn’t start violin till 7 either- She used to worry about not having started earlier, as some of her violin friends had started at 3/4 yrs old.
She was fortunate enough to meet Kennedy the other week, and he told her that he started at 7 too.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra has a guide to instruments on its web page and the featured cellist says he started playing cello when he was 12!
I just wanted to congratulate Rara- it’s really a lovely outcome for her and her videos show she has a great tone. I’m sure Goo realises it’s not the same pressure as she was under. It gets much harder the further you go along in all the arts and there are more competitors. And a huge well done to Goo on a fantastic first term at secondary school - she has done brilliantly.
GCSE mocks finish here today, thank goodness.

Kutik - well done you fit a fab treat to yourself. We are seeing Matthew Bournes Cinderella at Sadlers Wells this weekend; v excited (me more so than dd I think!)

Stringchild, I saw MB's Cinderella many years ago when it was first performed. It's lovely! We're hoping to see it again when it tours next year.

Yay! I found you all :-)

Hi folk!

We went to see ENB's Nutcracker. DS and his fellow young musicians were fortunate to work with the leading players of English National Ballet Philharmonic this term. DS played their repertoires sitting next to Matthew Scrivener on one occasion and since then DS calls him 'Matt' adoringly every time when he talks about him.

I saw The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker at ROH a few years ago. DS enjoyed both, but I could see the difference. It was interesting to see the same ballet by different productions.

Ballet this weekend for us all too - Scottish Ballet's Nutcracker. The amatuer orchestra I play with has played loads of the music so it is really familiar. Must remember to watch the dancers and not just listen! Taking the autistic child we have on repite care with us so hope she enjoys it too! DD's oboe teacher received some lovely comments about her playing at the play day from one of the tutors, 'a lovely sound and not a duck in sight' which is good going after 3 months playing!

After praising Howarths quick reed delivery am getting a little bit nervous as she only has one good reed at the moment and two pretty dud ones so need the delivery to arrive before concert on Tuesday! Posted first class on Monday so hoping they come today!

So I think most names are pretty familiar here from the NCO board... waffle I hope Goo is starting to feel a bit better??

We have Noo (10) who plays violin. Not done an exam for a while now but playing at around G6 standard, need to get G5 theory done ASAP... Plus piano as a very definite second instrument, planning on G3 before the end of the school year. Also does lots of Theatre, which can cause disruption to practice regimes!! (She's in panto at the moment, practice is non-existent....). Fun loving, easy going and generally co-operative. Very musical but not very academic. Self-professes to HATE practice! As many of you know, will be an Associate member of NCO for the second year running and will attend South Easterlies Regional Orchestra.

Then there's Moll (7). Oh my goodness, what a contrast. Plays cello, occasionally around G3 standard but more usually like she's never picked up a cello in her life...Also piano, taking G1 on Monday and who knows what's going to happen!? Reads music like she reads words and gets frustrated that she isn't technically capable of translating the written music into what she thinks it should sound like in her head. But is also not prepared to work to change that! Life is a combat exercise. Extremely bright academically and jury is still out on just how musical she is (I suspect very, but her temperament is definitely hampering progress). A child to whom rules don't seemingly apply!!! But in equal measures, hilariously funny, emotionally astute and quite wonderful.

I'm a very keen (and reasonably decent) amateur violinist (or more recently 'fiddler') playing regularly in a semi-successful contemporary folk band, when not ferrying my children all over the county/country for music and theatre related activities....

p.s. never been to ballet but very definitely must!

Hello All! I haven't posted for months now but I do keep an eye on the Music threads and am always amazed by all your children's fab achievements. For those who don't know, we have 5 musical children, all playing multiple instruments and generally happy & keen musicians with occasional fits of pique about practice!

I'm after some advice about trumpet mutes for a gift for one of DD1's friends for Christmas. She's a beginner (pre-Gde 1)who's moved into a flat and can't practise at home now because the trumpet's too loud! What should I look for and can I buy such a thing online or do I need to take the trumpet and have it fitted??

Thanks for your help.

Well well funny how this thread became an echo chamber of the NCO one and I had to go to the NCO one to try and understand what was going on!!

waffle I'm so sorry for Goo. I know it was the highlight of her year. The good thing, she has learnt the nature of the beast - her best audition and she´s not in. This is the arts!! Not entirely a meritocracy. A mix of everything including luck, numbers competing, subjectivity and other mixed interests of those making the decisions (to which we are not always privy). So now she knows. The other thing I would give her is this old Buddhist saying:

The obstacle is the path.

My congrats to rara. I think it´s awesome she will get to experience what her older sister has.

Kutik very happy for your boy! And everyone else with news, I just have no idea what´s happened ha ha, and I just can´t get my head around in, out, regionals, associates, reserves... whaaaat?? But here are my cheers to all the DC who had the courage to go for it

DS news: Three carol concerts as a timpanist done, one of them PAID! Last day of school. GCSE mocks after hols. So basically, no hols. Practice has gone to pits this year. Too much school work. Thank God for jd, at least that's a day he takes off to make music. I can now say that year 11 SUCKS.

Yep, year 11 sucks. DS1 seems quite cheerful all things considered but I think that's a combination of finishing the mocks and probably not getting the marks back until January!
My suggestion of cutting down some music activities fell on deaf ears, so he's carrying on!

"Trumpet practice mute" will get you what you want TRL. It won't be silent but it will be quieter. You can buy ones where you can listen to yourself with headphones but I would have thought that was overkill at G1 (might be worth setting up an ebay search for the future though)

What a rollercoaster of a ride 2017 has been, just musically let alone some of the other major life events we have gone through. This last couple of weeks waiting for NCO results has been a killer; so glad that's over!
Other good news that we heard this week is that the concert band from the local music centre that DD1 is in has been invited to the National Concert Band Festival finals in April having been awarded gold at the regional event. Sounds like a family trip to Manchester!

drummers, DS happily told me he did very well after a mock test then got a crappy mark for comprehension, and he also told me he messed up one of his audition pieces for NCO then got in the U11 with excellent reports. Lesson One - never listen to his feedback.

Double, sounds like you'll have another roller-coaster year. Well don to your DD.

Hello everyone. I’ve just got the one child. He’s 13 and plays French horn. He’s passed grade 7 and has got a place in NCO main orchestra which came as a bit of a surprise to us both after reading the thread on here about how competitive it is!
He’s a Music scholar at school so does do a lot of playing as well as being involved in city and county youth orchestras and windbands.
He’s been playing since he was 7 (start of year 3). He loves what he does and is currently talking about studying music at university/conservatoire. But he’s 13 so plenty of time to change his mind! Are there any other horn players here?

Well nie little parcel from howarths just dropped through the letter box- with the wrong reeds in!! A quick call later and they assure me a correct one will be winging its way to us. All the NCO talk has been interesting, it all sounds very stressful! Hope you can all relax now!

Doubleup- my son’s band have also been invited. Sadly it now clashes with NCO so he can’t go!

Kutik, it's usually quite difficult to get any feedback out of DD2, but she had come out of her NCO audition a little down saying that she'd been very nervous and it didn't go as well as hoped. The accompanist came out saying that she had fluffed a couple of phrases in what was usually her better piece, so we all thought that a place wasn't likely this year. The feedback from NCO was great though - it even used the word excellent with regard to her articulation and praised her musicality and sensitivity. Also said she could blow harder - or at least that's what they meant! A long-standing bug bear of her teacher's. Just needs to grow, fill out and get bigger lungs - if only I could get her to eat properly....

Sirius, what a shame!

double that sounds like great fun. What a great opportunity for her.

About to take the long trek off to Pembrokeshire to hand over Christmas pressies...

Hope the reed crisis is resolved soon Horsey

Double - so pleased it was a good result for your DD! See you (with cupcakes) at SE...

Anyone got any thoughts on Pro Corda?? now we know there's no NCO residential for Noo I'm assessing other options!

Yesterday I asked DS about the messed up incident because the NCO's report didn't hint any negativity and praise after praise, even his sight-reading was sited as 'extremely good.' DS said, 'I thought I may have but not sure why'. Well, he has no idea how much pains I had been carrying just because he told me he 'messed up'... Anyhow, it doesn't matter any more!

folk, I kind of stay away from Pro Corda consciously due to the high fees! But I hear only good things about it.