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.

Well done to Goo! And hope everyone's end of term performances have gone well this week.

We are on Day 1 of a 5-day piano and theory bootcamp this week.

As we are away from Dec 27th until they go back to school, I had explained to the DCs that we were going to spend some extra time on music for the first five days of the holidays and had jokingly called it 'bootcamp'.

The idea is that they have to do an hour's piano practice a day, 1 x theory practice exam paper a day and I will be fitting in a piano lesson tomorrow and another one on Saturday.

DD has approached it all with enthusiasm and has done more than her allotted hour of practice today. We have had tears and sulking from DS. If he had spent the same amount of time on the piano as he has spent throwing himself on the sofa in a strop then he would have finished his practice for the day by now. Am not hopeful for Day 2 of bootcamp tomorrow! Have told him he doesn't have to do it if he doesn't want to but he's not going to be allowed to spend the next 5 days on the Ipad instead...

I might crack upon the Bailey's.

Japanese ds also has to get on with his theory this holiday , his playing is now well in advance of his non existent theory exams. I'm at dd's piano and singing lesson so will pick up some past papers for him - lucky boy!! I'm not hopeful that he will be ready for grade 5 before next autumn but at least that means he will then have a choice of boards for grade 8. Good luck with day 2 of the boot camp and happy holidays to all that have finished today

Goo has broken up, and it will now be piano and flute boot camp here, because she hasn't practised for ages. They have the 1200 votes to count for the talent show/competition, and will presumably announce winners next term now. I imagine an enormous dance act with dozens of year 7s and 8s in will win.

Rara has one more pointless day to go... I say pointlessbecause they aren't actually doing anything.

taggie we have applied for Pro Corda primary too!!!

And waffle really happy to hear Goo is bouncing back! X

Just finished mammoth 2hr violin lesson!! Not sure who is more exhausted... Noo has got so much to do over the hols. Boot camp all round by the sounds of it!!

Waffle dd had a pointless day at school today . We have broken up now I definitely need a rest ahead of next term it seems that dd will be taking grade 1 piano and grade 1 cornet plus potentially grade 3 in musical theatre ALL in the march sitting I need just thinking about that !!

Folk - great! Maybe our DCs will meet if DS2 gets on the course. They may suggest a year of preparatory first, or he may not get on at all, depending on audition.

I admire all of this 'boot camp'. We are on holiday this week, so no music at all, apart from that monkey/alligator app recommended by trumpet. Both the boys and I are hooked

Yes, wouldn't that be great!! We will do the Easter one if she gets on. They are being super lovely and have even suggested she tries for a scholarship, which I'm not sure she's on form for but it will be good experience to try. And aren't you doing South Easterlies too??? We will have to wear red roses pinned to our rope or something 😂

Rope!? Top!!

Love the idea of a rope of red roses - Hawaiian style. We will do Easter too if DS2 gets on, and southeasterlies.

Oooh let's hope they do! Then we can introduce them beforehand and there will be at least one familiar face 😊

Wow, what a wonderful thread - so lovely to come across it having recently joined the forum via the NCO thread. It's been fabulous to read about all of your wonderful children and to hear about other family lives which are just as wonderfully chaotic as ours!
DS (12) plays cello - Grade 7 dist on paper but playing grade 8 pieces (teacher doesn't want to do the exam till he's on a full size cello - which is a little way off!) He's been in NCO for last 3 years and is v excited to have just got a place in U13s this year. He's also started playing drum kit this year (school lessons) and as he mainly practices this at school I really had no idea how good he'd got until the school concert last night where he was the drummer for the big band and a fab y10/11 Jazz group. He played a gorgeous cello duet too, but I think I'm so used to hearing him play cello that it was the drumming that I was completely dumbstruck by -
I had no idea he could do that! (Does wonders for your street cred too!)

Dd1 (10) got to grade 4 on violin a couple of years ago but never really enjoyed it so asked if she could start flute this year - which she's enjoying much more! Her real passion is ballet though - she does 5/6 hours per week and is v excited to have just been selected for the English youth ballet.

Dd2 (just gone 8) does lots of squad gymnastics and plays piano -
done prep and working towards Grade 1. She's desperate to play trumpet and spends a lot of time 'scat singing' the most fabulous jazz improvisations in her best trumpet voice! I've heard though that you're not supposed to start brass until the adult teeth are through - and at the moment she's rocking the 'all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth' look. Any advice from brass experts out there?

Sorry for the long introductory post!
I hope everyone's final Christmas concerts go really well - nearly time to relax!!

Well come threefun, such a lovely introduction and I love the @2 front teeth look. I missed mine when she lost her front teeth, it went so quick, we had NO picture of the time... I am ready with my phone for my second one(only 3 now so still few years to come).
I have been on my second day school run and its so HARD. They are so busy with so many concerts, activities, Christmas lunch, sing a long, parents helping. I thought I could be ambitious and combining few play dates with a large group of girls then after tonight concert I am now exhausted. The school orchestra is tiny though, wished there were more strings.

So glad the force is with goo again.
DS has started revision for gcse mocks. He prepared a revision timetable and the first thing he scheduled was four hours of music practice everyday. Hence the actual gcses are rather squeezed in ha ha.

Hope everyone has a great break.

Ah threefun glad there's another drummer around!

Welcome three fun. I have brass playing DC who started at 8, but I'm not much help. DS1 started playing trumpet, he never actually had the gap as he grew his adult teeth behind his baby teeth and had a double set for a bit.

Will you all stop showing off about your school break already three more days of pointless, then I finish work at midday Christmas Eve (though it's a fun morning's work taking the kids Christmas party and leading Christingle). I am soooo ready for the week off and the 2.5 weeks off school mayhem!

Welcome threefun ! I have a brass playing ds ( in fact I wonder our boys teamed up at the under 12's last year ? I definitely remember talking to someone who had a cello playing son with 2 sisters !?! ) Congratulations on the NCO place and if it is you I know ds will be thrilled to meet up with your ds again. He seems to have lots of cello playing friends so I'm sure they know each other .
Ds and dd both started on the cornet in year 4 when they were 8 . They had whole class lessons at school and the county won't let under year 4's play because of the teeth issue - though I'm sure not all of ds's friends had all their teeth through. Dd still plays cornet ( because that's what we had at home and our house was starting to look like a brass shop) and ds mostly plays trumpet now - so he can do jazz and orchestras playing.

Posted without checking !! Orchestral playing !! Not orchestra
Cornet can be good to start in as it's smaller and you need less air (sort of) and ds found the switch between the two easy

Drummers love the revision timetable with built in practice time !! Ds is even trying to plan the next two days social activities around his music practice!! I did point out that it was ok to have a couple of days off now and again- but he will always put trumpet before school work !!

DS2 started at the end of Y3 on trumpet, because that's what we had at home, but switched to trombone after a couple of months as it was too small for him DS1 got to Grade 5 on trumpet before switching to trombone/tuba.

drummers love the revision timetable! Poor ds1 is tucked up in bed with a stomach bug. Thank goodness it is the last day of term here. DS2 is a real grump in the mornings!

I can't remember DS ever having the toothy gap so I'm no help. He started brass in Y3 (7), they gave preference to Y4 not because of teeth but because they were better listeners and got more out of the lesson.

mini we may be done with school, but still 3 days of pointless work to get through for me. Yawn... height of panto season in our house now, school shows (which are shorter and have the more adult content removed) all done and she just loves the full shows! Doubles today, Saturday and Boxing Day so we won't see much of Noo this week!!!