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.

Thanks,he does a fair amount of sight reading with the 3 orchestras and string ensemble he's in and I'm told he is very good at it but I'm sure he can always use more practice. How do I know if it's right though?

This all sounds very impressive! DS2 is working on Cool at the moment and will be starting another G5 piece. His teacher likes the Sostenuto by Chopin (as do I) but I'm not totally sure DS2 will go for it. For cello he should be playing his scales, enough said.
God knows what DS1 is up to!

Icould ds has stopped playing in jazz band ( for now at least ) in favour of more solo practice- it's already made a massive difference as rehearsals stopped ed at the end of November plus he had lots of time over the holidays. He has school exams though soon so who knows how much practice he will fit in.
Disorganised I always get ds to run through a mental checklist in his head before he plays a note of sight reading- otherwise he just launches in and guesses !!

Mending, I've just checked Schubert Sonatine OP137 - it's so beautiful!

Trumpet..., I was a keen latin dancer until I totally damaged my health some years ago. Tico Tico just grabs my heart...

Waffle, I may be wrong but cello was considered to be Rara's first study, wasn't it? It seems clarinet is very close to take over? Isn't it interesting how 'main' changes? I always thought piano was DS's main and violin was something for messing around and having fun. Now it's a total opposite. these days DS's piano practice is near to nil (which is not ideal!).

ealing, I've also checked Scene de Ballet (I am having a steep learning curve today!). I love that! How lucky for your DD to be able to learn the piece! Good luck with the music comp!

It's good that your DD spent for good 3 years on consolidation her skills and techniques. DS needs that too. He started with some skill work with his new teacher but then it was replaced with learning several new pieces for auditions in mind. Once the auditions are over, DS will go back to focus on skills again.

The first thing DS's new teacher introduced was scales. So, good bye to those days when DS had to practise only one scale (anyone remember?). Now he has lots on the list.

Thank you Kutik. I rather like it too, but I think it needs a real showman to pull it off - she's lost her chutzpah of late on violin so I hope she can gain her confidence back if she gets through.

GOOD LUCK this week on the entrance exams to minikutik; minidouble and any other minis I may have missed!

earling, I am a turtle rather than a rabbit - not a big fan of moving forward too fast too soon. Serious skill studies would slow DS down but in a favourable way. DS's teacher understands a child needs a treat so he will have some pieces to have fun here and there (I hope...).

DS played footy this morning and now is out for diving in a pool. 11+ what?

Having learnt the first movement of Schreck's Sonata for bassoon and the third movement of Vogel's Concerto in C major, one of the schools has asked for one piece no longer than 3 minutes in length, so doing a cut down version of one. DD2's teacher decided to cut the other one down too for the audition that wants two pieces. To be fair, one piece would be about 6.5 mins and the other about 4.5 mins if full length and their audition slots don't really allow for that. DD is fine with the shorter versions, but now the dynamics count even more. Just trying to get her through to the end of Thursday without any meltdowns. Then 3 more days of entrance exams, one of them being common entrance over two days. Looking forward to letting her chill a bit - although there may be another audition at the end of the month if next Saturday's exam goes to plan.

Oooh, Double! We had a similar problem before. DS performed the same pieces at several places for different purposes, and he had to play a shorter version for one place. We simply cut the repeating bits so it still sounded 'completed'. But I was worried if he would mix up and wrongly play a shorter version when he was supposed to play full.

I have already booked a play date at the end of January (all the exams would be done by then!). DS is so looking forward to it. Boys got some fab stuff (named games) on Christmas day so claim they MUST have a play date to test out each other's 'fab stuff'.

Ooh seeing all these lovely pieces being suggested is making me very itchy to get Noo started on something new! The last decent piece we did was Mollenhauer's Boy Paganini which she did for the NCO audition. Panto has really put the brakes on... can't wait for her next lesson, hopefully her teacher will have something good for her to get stuck into.

Tuesday swim at 5:20 Showing you all ladies the true identity of miniealing

I know the scene de ballet ealing - great fun :) So much lovely music to choose from kutik!

I'm trying to learn some viola repertoire at the moment. I've been playing it for years in orchestras and chamber music but hardly any solo repertoire. I know a lot of violin repertoire, but didn't pick up viola till after I stopped having lessons. Long term plan: learn the Walton concerto. Short term plan: preparing for a little (but big for me) solo in the summer with one of my orchestras!

Kids' plan is simple as they're near beginners.
DD violin is doing suzuki books (although not with a suzuki teacher), so that'll keep her going for years. Currently tidying up one of the little Bach Minuets in book 1 for those that know them. Feels like real proper music!

Piano both DC have the same teacher and she does seem to be into exams, so I'm expecting a Prep Test for DD some time soon. I am quietly working through some Piano Adventures with DD on the side as the music from the teacher isn't challenging her yet. It's really boosted her music reading though, so I'm more than happy with what they're doing.

And DS is working towards gd 1 piano. After that I'm going to be asking for him to learn lots of easier music as the gd 1 has been a bit heavy for him (he likes the pieces though) and I really want him to sort out sight reading too.

Hahaha drummers! I wish I could share this with her 😂

DS2 is playing the Mozart E minor sonata and Salut d'Amour (original E major version). He is also still working on the Bach Double and a bit of Corelli. He will play the Elgar and Corelli in a festival in a few weeks, then we can focus on the Mozart, which he loves, and the Bach, which is good for him

Kutik - has your DS played the Mozart E minor sonata? I think he would play it really well, although it wouldn't challenge him technically. DS2 is only just learning spiccato, so finds a couple of passages quite hard.

Kutik Recorder was first study for both of the girls until they reached age 11 (Grade 7/8) for Goo and 8 (Grade 3/4) for Rara and stopped playing very much. Rara says cello is her favourite but hasn't progressed hugely since her exam last July - she's been working on loads of difficult shifts and hasn't polished many pieces. Scales are weak, which impacts everything else, but she won't practise them. Hopefully her teacher can get her back on track soon! The arrival of the clarinet was the death knell for recorder, and I do agree that it will become her number 1 eventually.

Dd planning to go on a music residential later this year. She isn't as heavily into music as some (well, most) of your dc and she is asking what people do in the evening?...."Just more music or other games" (she is someone who normally participates up to 15 hours of various sports and I can't see her sitting around for 5 days....).
She did a day with them and really liked it so therefore planning the longer course.

Oh Waffle! Rara and Moll sound like kindred spirits...

Taggie, no DS hasn't played the Mozart E minor sonata. It's a beautiful piece! I assume it's one of the easiest sonatas written by Mozart but still it needs a high level of precision and accuracy as well as musicality and fluency. On top, Mozart wrote this sonata shortly after his mom passed away... DS can certainly have a go if the requirement is to play it at grade 7 standard as it was listed in the past. But I don't think DS can express the deep sorrow running underneath the beautiful melody yet. Too sublime me think!

Waffle, which one do you think comes more natural to Rara? I hear some people suit to certain instrument more than others. I just wonder if it's true and how it's obvious. DS expresses his interest in other instruments but I haven't let him touch them yet. I sometimes wonder if I am stopping him explore and find his instrument (he says he loves violin most but of course he would say so as he knows only piano and violin).

found, my DS used to be sporty rather than musical and having a super fit daddy he was so used to do lots of active stuff none-stop (his weekends was really crazy due to his mad daddy being in charge). One day I signed him up for 3 days music workshop. He had never done a full day music, let's alone 3 days!! So on way to the workshop, I told him he wouldn't need to go back next day if he didn't enjoy it. He was incredibly active at the time that I honestly thought he wouldn't cope without any physical output (such as running, jumping, falling, whatever). But he loved it. He was very sad on the last day. I was amazed! He returned to his usual wildness next day though.

catkind, Walton Concerto is absolutely gorgeous!! Thank you for mentioning it here otherwise I would have never known the piece. I love both of your plans (short and long) and your DCs '. DS also use both Piano Adventures and Suzuki books for his piano and violin studies.

use = used - not any more!

folk they do sound similar!

Kutik he is definitely a natural violinist! Woodwind comes far more naturally to my two.

found; I know all music residentials vary - the one DD has gone to for past 4 years in the summer definitely does sports (tennis, swimming, rounders), games etc for those not wishing to do music related activities after dinner. Your DD will hopefully find the right balance of music making vs down time...

Thank you for replying. Dd doesn't mind either way!