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.
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Extra-curricular activities
December Music Thread
Wafflenose · 01/12/2017 09:11
Congratulations to everyone for some amazing results - and the mums behind the minis too, usually responsible for 50% of it! And the teachers 
waffle
ealing she passed high! She was ill on the day. She swims at a competitive level. She's at a very academic school. Very well done to her 
OK, I'm going to be a little contrary here. kutik I think you have to work on musicality from grade 1. I disagree that you only have the tools to focus on musicality after g8. In fact, I'd say musicality should be taught as the main aim and the tools are something to get you there, something you will improve with practice. DH, who taught DS piano till g5, always made a point of working endlessly on the dynamics, the personal interpretation, the tone, the voice, before deciding a piece was done. 20% of the time was learning the piece, 80% of the time was spent on the musicality.
niggle when I read your post I thought the teacher was asking for a long time, but really, she's asking for a year to go from g5 to g6. I would expect that to be reasonable? That's the pace we have gone at with all instruments and that didn't prevent us from having all g8s done before this year. Like waffle said, a year allows for exploring other repertoire and that's so important for her learning. If she's able to play g6 now, you could consider skipping g6 and doing g7 in a year and a half...?
In general, I think hurrying through the grades is what stops many children from spending time on developing musicality. I'm not saying that's the case with everyone, but I have been to so many children's concerts by now... I've seen so many "advanced" wunderkinder playing soulless music.
drummers, sorry for my lack of explanation. I didn't mean you don't work on musicality before grade 8. Of course it has to be there all the way through. I meant there were still plenty skills/techniques to learn after grade 8, that's all. 
I always think learning 'notes' is the easiest part of learning a piece, drummers.
It's good to do other repertoire and worth spending time between grades to mature as a player. As for post-grade 8, DS1 is learning all the time on bass guitar so that definitely wasn't the end of the line.
Speaking as someone who will never get to grade 8, I'm finding that grades 1-5 have been an amazing learning experience (even if my brain hurts sometimes!) - it's taken me a long time to get to grips with scales!
Kutik - there is a huge downside for me in that my DS2 has caught up with me on piano and makes me look pretty dim-witted! Of course, that's how it should be! (Not competitive at all, oh no! 
)
Loose
Niggle, you mean when we switched teachers? DS left his old teacher in early July and started with a new teacher in late Sep. Nothing wrong with the old teacher though. It just happened as a natural flow. The old teacher is still a good friend of ours and DS is going to play a duet with him at a Christmas service.
We have never changed piano teacher. We are very happy with her, but, we may have to leave her when DS moves to secondary... 
Dear kutik I totally get you and I know what you meant. Like I said, I was just making the point cause I woke up weird and contrary today 
I'm just worried she will miss out on opportunities that require you to be super good at one instrument niggle I know it feels like a delay. But she can be super good at one instrument independently from what grade she is. Being super good doesn't mean being grade 8. It just means being super good whatever grade you are. That's why NCO will audition you and won't just take you based on your grades.
The teacher won't consider skipping grade 6 now but maybe when she sees your DD play pieces in six months, she will have a change of heart? Or you could change teacher. I personally disagree with teachers who don't want to skip exams. Skipping doesn't mean not preparing a certain level, it just means not taking it and having a less rigid, more flowing and organic approach to development.
drummers
DS is grade zero violinist yet he believes it's his most important instrument.
Ealing especially considering how unwell she was that's a fantastic result !! She should be really pleased with pulling off even taking the exam let alone passing it.
Niggle I understand your frustration. I think drummers is talking a lot of sense about good teachers being less regimented about taking all of the exams and when they take them . Ds has skipped loads and kind of took grade 7 on a whim ( his or his teachers not sure who's!!) last summer. He got away with it and yes he can now play grade 8 standard stuff BUT because he has raced ahead ( with no musical background before he took up the trumpet) there's lots to learn and gaps to fill in - so I do understand your dd's teacher not wanting to rush. Even though he could probably do the pieces and scales for grade 8 in the summer ds won't be taking by the exam as he's just concentrating on doing lots of playing, getting really good, and filling in those gaps ( and deciding on his musical interpretation of pieces). That way ( in theory at least ) grade 8 should be well within his cape abilities when he takes it .
Even if your dd's teacher won't skip grade 6 it will be ok as long as she gets to play LOTs of repertoire between now and taking the exam next year - then she won't be bored and will have really developed as a muscician. And don't worry about NCO they really don't care about exam grades - just musical playing
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