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.

Glad it went OK, ICouldBe and best wishes for tomorrow.
Green yes, they are at the same school but this was the music centre and they are in different bands. I sat through both concerts willingly but I confess to a glass of red between the two!
Alex wow! That is quite full on but all sounds very exciting!

Thank you for the new thread waffle.

I'm mama to 8yr old clarinet and piano playing monkeygirl, plus starting bassoon soon. She's taking G3 piano in a fortnight, possibly G5 clarinet in the summer. December crazy here too. Ballet shows after JD tomorrow. 8 concerts between now and Christmas. She's loving it. And of course, we are excited/nervous that December will bring NCO results.

Icould - am glad DS may be finding some respite in music; thinking of you both

Icouoldbe and Misti

So many concerts and shows planned in this already busy month!! You guys must be super organised to be able to manage all...would be much needed medicines!!

I have signed numerous forms to confirm dc will be participating in various school xmas concerts. I am just hoping they are not all different concerts but just reminders of the same one.

Icould I'm glad your ds managed to perform the other day hopefully he will manage today too

Just posted something on our shared channel, it could have been better had we opened the piano however we arrived late (after a late movie night, someone couldnt get out of her bed) so no preparation as planned.

Oh December already! The Christmas concerts have started already :)
Just a quick intro with the new thread:

DS1 (13, almost 14) supposedly preparing Grade 8 horn, but really just playing and no serious work happening :(. He is in one county orchestra and some more at school, during school time, no need for mummy taxi for these ones.
DS2 (just turned 10) auditioned for NCO for the first time, waiting on news...He plays cello (his main passion, around grade 6-7), piano preparing for Grade 6 in the summer sometime and horn at school (took Grade 4, but does not really have time to practice it; plays in the area brass band).
DS3 (just turned 7) plays violin Suzuki and has started some piano at home with his dad.
I am thinking that kids playing so many instruments between them was probably a mistake (expensive one) and giving in to pleas for starting new instruments was careless of me. We struggle with organising practices and listening to them play.
With multiple children with 2+ instruments each how do you organise their practices in the weekday?
I asked this question to a very famous violin teacher, who herself was a mum to 4 kids, all playing multiple instruments. She said kids practice each in a room, she got them settled and she went to fix herself some G&T; the kids never knew as they thought she was with another one. It worked well :)
I'm to try this approach over Christmas :), but do you have any other ideas? At the moment I have the two younger ones practise one instrument before school and on most days another after school. But often what happens is that the after school one does not get played as much as less time/motivation lagging/tired kids. The eldest does not have the same as he now only has one instrument (did piano and guitar a lot till last year and then chose to only play horn).
Sorry long post...

I don't have an answer to the multiple instrument practice conundrum but I do like the idea of hiding from it with a G&T.
DS2 plays guitar - his "fun" instrument - every day. Cello gets played Sat (ensemble) Sun, Mon and Tuesday in the lesson (or with any luck at home if no lesson) while piano overlaps and gets the rest of the week. However, in the run up to a performance or exam one instrument gets neglected! I don't begrudge him the instruments because he genuinely enjoys playing (as long as we're not talking scales!)
DS1 organises his own practice and I keep out of it!

I have only one child with two instruments so I am not qualified to give any advice on multiple children with 2+ instruments. But we do struggle with organising practice due to other non-musical commitments. Sadly there are a couple of days a week DS cannot practise at all, and he normally rotates his instrument daily. So strictly speaking, he is not satisfying daily practice per instrument. He expresses his interest in other instruments, but I haven't allowed adding more instruments yet as I can imagine he would end up practising only 1-2 times a week each and it would only cause further frustration (wanting to be better but no time). Luckily his preference between his current two instruments is pretty obvious, so there is no battle of priority when less time is available.

GI76 - been going through the three kids multiple instrument issue for a while albeit ours now a little older than yours. All of ours play piano plus a combination of percussion in all its guises, violin, viola and saxophone..oh and voice. Never really had much success in organising things so just tended to be a a free for all. I think from the age of 10-11 none of our kids would listen much to us regarding music so our role in practice was just a gentle reminder. Now we don't say anything and they just practice when they want and if they don't they suffer the consequences. The one concession we did make was buying a digital piano to add to the upright so two could practice at once (and one with headphones so annoying siblings couldn't comment)

Ds practices piano before school ( or has a run through of his singing stuff if he's got a lesson for that ). I guess when he has his singing exam he will do less piano. He's never needed to be asked to practice trumpet so does that after school if he's not at orchestra. He was supposed to practice in the dining room when we moved but has decided he likes the lounge to play in so I do need to organise his sister to practice piano around his practice/ lesson time. When we've finished the house I might move the piano from the lounge to make this easier . His sister needs a lot of reminders to practice piano but is ok once she starts. She often does cornet before school -we have nice neighbours!!

Hello everyone!

I completely got sidelined at the end of last month so I fear I missed everyone's news and updates. Sending hugs to those who need them right now.

Miniprada has just started y7 and is 11. She is at an academically selective school which has a strong music department which was her criteria. She plays violin to G8 standard and is workubg towards the exam. She will take G7 piano next summer. She is having a whale of a time at the new school, has taken part in the school 'young musician of the year' which was won by a child in y8/9 on her 3rd diploma so well deserved...she is also in choir and has two concerts this week - one that earns her a £5 and one backing Lesley Garrett so that should be fun! They are also giving up their time in the hols to sing for charity so that'll be good.

Hope everyone's 11+'planning is going well!

As you might have guessed, I'm a pro flautist and teacher, and mum to DD (14), who has started singing lessons this term to go with her love of drama, and DS (11), who started learning cello 3 years ago and is grade 5 and has recently started learning piano. He started as a music scholar at a cathedral school in September and is really enjoying it but finding the days long with all the extra music and sport he does ( he's never bern involved with the latter before but now plays rugby for the school).
He auditioned for NCO this year but only for the audition experience really - no hope of getting in, given how advanced the other applicants seem to be, but he enjoyed the process and it did wonders for his playing.
DH also plays professionally, for a national opera company, so we're a pretty musical house but never thought that either child would take it up. We're enjoying being part of youth music again, after our own happy childhood involvement. 😊

Floot I wouldn't say that your ds won't get into nco this year . He's done amazingly well to get so far so fast and I think it's really down to how they play at the audition not how difficult the piece was or what grades they'd done . Ds had only taken grade 5 when he got into the same orchestra last year . Having played for a similar amount of time . Fingers crossed for your ds

Ladies... we just made it into 'trending' - briefly! Must be a slow MN day.

I have four Initial recorder pupils and three Grade 2s today. The little ones are all done, very excited and happy. Slightly bigger ones later this morning.

Happy December everyone. I hope all of you who are busy with concerts and performances this time of year are managing to keep on top of things. I remember from my school and performing days that taking a multi-vitamin at this time of year can help a bit!

to icould and Misti

So, I have DD Year 6 and DS Year 4. I am teaching them both the piano and DD is hoping to start cello lessons soon. DD has just done Grade 1 piano and theory,. we are still waiting for theory results, hopefully this week. DS will be sitting Grade 1 piano and theory in Spring if he gets a move on with his scales practice...DS also sings in the school choir which he loves. DD will be doing Grade 2 theory in the Spring and then possibly Grade 2 piano in the summer. She is doing well with pieces A & B already but I think we are going to do some Christmas music practice in December to hopefully help with sight-reading.

I have a BA degree in Music and French (20 years ago!) and did Grade 8 in piano and oboe but again, that was in sixth-form so many moons ago! I am quite enjoying getting back into the piano again though via teaching the DCs.

Loose, Kutik and hertsandessex thank you so much for sharing your experiences on practice timings/scheduling! I guess it all works out in the end and it does not need to be balanced. They will love playing one instrument more and put more into it.
Sorry I should have said that I'm musicathome but could not remember my login .
Prada so happy that mini has settled well in the new school and enjoys her music there! I'm starting again on the 11+ journey for the second time with my middle child. He would like to go to a school with lots of music and sport. Our comp is good and seems to do lots of sport, not sure about the music yet; will ask at open day. My eldest is Y9 at a local-ish grammar. There are some independent schools close by, which will also visit. Do you mind sharing for a music scholarship was miniPrada at G7 violin and G6 piano and was this enough to be called in for an audition at all? It seems to be kids these days only 10 years old have to be so advanced just to get called in!

Thanks, Trumpet. His teacher and I werw chatting the other day and realised neither of us got into NYO, but turned out ok. I didn't audition until I was 17 and was told in no uncertain terms by the audition panel that I should have auditioned years before and that it was too late now. Can't help feeling a bit the same about DS - he could have started lessons a few years earlier than he did.

Fingers crossed for all our DCs. 😊

G176, I like the principle of letting DCs try many activities/instruments when they are still young and let them narrow down their interests as they get older. We are not particularly a musical family so while we let DS try many other things we didn't think of letting him try many instruments - two seemed enough! DS started piano with 1-1 lessons then later violin was added as extra-curricular at school, so we regarded piano would be his main and violin was just an extra for fun for the first few years. DS had a different idea, and now the priority has reversed completely! We tried to rotate the instruments daily but in reality piano is often abandoned when his schedule becomes too tight. Knowing his priority def makes my job easier as I know which one has to be dropped when we have a mad week or month.

Hello everyone. I will NOT spend this week pressing the refresh button on email checking for NCO message...

DD went to first all day strings rehearsal yesterday for county strings ensemble. She really liked it, but said she was getting tired during the last session (10am to 5pm, so not surprised). She is section leader of 2nds but felt the girl next to her was better - but she had been in the ensemble last year. This will be good for DD as she has a beautiful tone on violin but needs to work on rhythm, which is difficult at home with just me. I think it will be great to develop some of the skills she currently lacks (mainly due to lack of experience). So if she doesn't get into NCO this year, we will be more prepared next year!

One of the girls asked if she had a stammer, and DD said yes, and that was the end of that. So she didn't feel uncomfortable, which was lovely. Musical children seem more sensitive somehow.

DD had a negative experience at school on Friday when her class, Year 5, were sent to look after the reception children while the preparations for the Christmas Fair were going on. Her bossy friend, sitting right next to her, told the little ones DD had a stammer so it was okay if they didn't understand what she was saying and they should ask friend about things instead! DD didn't know what to do. All littlies looked at her as if a martian.. DD was really enjoying looking after them until then and felt diminished.

Will ask speech and language therapist what she should do in those circumstances..

Kutik we did not start by letting them try different instruments, at least this was not the intention.
It just happened that they fed off each other and followed what was available to them at school.
First DS1 started with guitar lessons at school when he was 7, in a year or so he added horn (subsidised 20 min lesson at school) as his teacher thought him to be quite musical. Then DS2 was listening to him play and started learning horn (tenor) when he was in year 1 first with his brother and later on with also greatly subsidised (by the county music service) school lessons. Both of them went to the area weekly brass band and enjoyed it there.
When DS2 was year 2, I started him (and later DS1) on piano lessons as my husband plays and we had a piano at home; in year 3 the primary school was offering free cello lessons and my DS2 signed up for the group lessons at school. Then he really took to the cello and now less than 2 years later plays grade 6 pieces, but sadly with school budget cuts the lessons are no longer free and he also moved to a different teacher.
DS3 also wanted to play with the others, first started on the horn at home, but could not really play in the brass band with his brothers. He was in reception and at the school there were a free group lesson with weekly violin group (similar to the cello group). He liked it and joined. Sadly this has now stopped and he is doing Suzuki violin outside school. Just recently with DS1stopping piano lessons, DS3 started doing 20 min with the same teacher.

So it was not really planned for them to have so many instruments, except for the piano (which I planned and from the start was an out-of-school activity with paid lessons) but they went along with what was available to them at school. I know that we are very lucky to have so many musical opportunities at our local state primary school.
I just feel that maybe as they are growing up due to time (and money), it might be best to have one instrument (+ maybe piano?) and get very good at it. Not sure really what is best, but they'll probably find what is their favourite instrument and suits best. I now know with my DS1 (year 9) loves his horn; DS2 (10 years old) loves his cello and DS3 (7) not sure yet he plays violin and piano.
My grape is that if they are doing lessons they need to practice their instruments and how to be sure they have enough time in the day :)