January Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Happy New Year!

This is the new thread for our continuing (6 year old) conversation about all things to do with music - lessons, exams, auditions, theory, scales, practice and whatever else you want to talk about.

I am Waffle, teacher of woodwind, amateur composer, and unpaid consultant watching and commenting on all sorts of woodwind videos that people send my way! I am mum to Goo 12, and Rara 9, who both play instruments, do South West Music School and NCO. Goo plays flute and piano, and has Grade 8 and Grade 5 pending for some time this year. Rara plays cello and clarinet - working within Grade 4 for both, but hasn't taken a clarinet exam since Grade 1, and wants to do Grade 3 this coming term. She's way behind with Theory, so it's theory boot camp again this week. We start back to school late (Jan 8th) so that's good.

I am wondering whether to start a whole new channel actually folkmamma - the lady who started it can no longer be with us and I feel a bit uncomfortable with still using it. I'll get in touch with her and see what she thinks is best. I think it's fine to have one open to all regulars on here, but she was the one that used to send people the login details.

That sounds like a good idea waffle.

Bootcamp gone well today - safely negotiated both instruments and theory with DD2 who is very pleased with herself for mastering a new piano piece in the past two days (anyone would think practice actually worked... 🙈).

DD1 also very positive today and has done the worst of her practice list with a little to go later.

I think the promise of double rewards for positivity and no meltdowns has worked!

My DD is 8 and is now at grade 2 of double bass and it is so hard work to practise etc ( no motivation to practise at home but enjoys performing in the orchestras with other children)...I asked and she is interested in adding one more instrument... I thought perhaps an instrument which would be more tranportable and a different family (brass?). Just a bit of frustration with transporting double bass, difficulty with finding a teacher who can travel to our house and not sure my DD is really enjoying it to the extent to justify all this hard work...

Well done on completing boot camp Folk - we had a good day here as well

It would be good to sort the channel out. I hadn't realised about the sensitivities involved, and it might be as well to start up a new channel. It is so nice for mini-Taggie to launch his career as the next stampy to see the DCs progress.

I am awaiting confirmation of the right thing to do. Leave it with me for now.

Schooling DS1 who plays bass guitar rejected the idea of taking up double bass on portability grounds, although a friend's DS did manage it to grade 6 but was older than your DD (he was also very tall!) and they had to buy a different car! It's a lovely instrument, though.

Don't they also carry a chair? I often see tiny kids carrying the instrument, bow, chair and a heavy bag packed with music and snack at JD... Some lucky ones have daddy sherpa following them though.

One of the daddy sherpas (daughter was tiny and not capable of carrying what she played) used to joke that it was part of his long term plan for getting rid of his mother in law. No one would look twice at him struggling to get a huge bag into his car.....

Do cellists have to carry a chair also?

When they're little Kutik... DD2 takes her chair everywhere 😂

No, cellists are ok!

Waffle when you contact our old friend, please tell her she is missed and I hope they are all ok.

DD wasn't little, I suppose, so she just used whatever was there when she played cello.

I can remember the soloist I had to look after from BSO (guest soloist at a local concert) wanted his practice chair to be identical to the concert chair, so he could position his cello properly during his warm-up

Happy new Year everyone. I haven't posted for a few months (due to rl stress) but I have followed. I have a 9 year old dd who plays violin and Clarinet with exams likely in both before she turns 10 .

Really wanted to wish the aforementioned poster all the best too

I understand the cellist wanting to practise in the same condition as the concert (chair). DS plays piano and violin. I like the known feeling of violin - wherever he goes, he plays with his familiar violin and bow. With piano, you never know of the key weights, action, pedals, etc, and has to adopt instantly whatever given... It can be quite a gamble!

Alexandra the shed was very much coveted by a friend at Christmas! I gather he has ordered brochures...It is a very good solution although a bit chilly this time of year (except for DS1 who just doesn't feel the cold).
Waffle please do tell our absent friend we miss her!

Hello se22! I have been thinking about you loads!

Happy New Year everyone.
Waffle I've been thinking so much of our old friend and just hope she's OK.
Congratulations on all boot camps achievements.
We've had a non holiday, just GCSE mocks revision, music composition and practice. Managed to make DS take 1st Jan off to sleep in and watch with me the Vienna concert. As soon as it was finished he went off to learn the Radensky March on the snare. So now he's ready for the gig
kutik I watched that link but there were no comments which you mentioned...?

Something to share with those who may be interested...

drummers, not sure why it's not appeared but here you go, I'll copy the comments ;

^I made this video compilation of home movies for my mom on Mother's Day, but I also wanted to share it with all of you to make a point about something that's important to me. Watching the videos from my youth, it's clear that I wasn't a prodigy. I was blessed to have parents and teachers who believed in me with their whole hearts and gave me wonderful opportunities to perform and build my confidence as a violinist on stage. As I grew, so did my passion for performing and practicing and I began to win competitions and performance opportunities on my own. Even though I still had so much to learn as a teenager, I believe that people took notice of my passion and dedication, and doors were opened to me that at times I didn't think I truly deserved. I had countless failures and setbacks. Some of them were completely devastating. But I didn't give up and have continued to strive for excellence in playing as well as for passing on my passion to the young musicians of today.
I say this because I want all of you to know that anything is possible. No matter where you are at this moment, you can build something incredible if you just take the time to nurture it and refuse to give up. It's never too young or too old to start something if you truly believe in it with your whole heart.^

kutik i love the quote and I love the new video. Thank you.

Rara's teacher has a 1/16 and a 1/10 cello! Rara started at nearly 6, on a 1/8. She got her 1/4 at 7, and now has a 1/2 at 9, which is a bit big and should last for a long time.

Viola sized, but waaay thicker. Rara is likely to be of such a size that she won't ever need a 4/4. She'll probably have a 7/8 fully grown, same as her cello teacher.