February Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Have a new thread for February!

This is a place for our ongoing conversation about music, instruments, lessons, ensembles, scales, practice, exams, aural, theory and whatever else you'd like to talk about. Everyone is welcome - new and older members, beginners and advanced.

I have two daughters - Goo (12) flute and piano, in a bit of a slump at the moment, and Rara (9) cello, clarinet and recorder (yes, she's picked it up again) on a roll at the moment. I teach woodwind and have my own little clarinet group called the B Flat Blues, who don't rehearse together regularly, but played in a festival this week.

I also have quite a bit of news, mostly good, but am so tired that it will have to wait until tomorrow now. Hopefully it's worth waiting for (and before anyone asks, no, Goo didn't get the desire of her heart).

... and no would definitely not sell a good instrument to a family I thought wouldn't properly appreciate and look after it.

Dd has had a 1/4, 1/2 and now a 3/4.
The 1/4 was a stentor-so I gave it away....
The 1/2 is a westbury- so I kept it.
She wouldn’t have it any other way
I can’t imagine her wanting to give up the 3/4 when the time comes either.....

Kutik, I've kept the 1/4 (purple and sparkly!) and the 1/2 (stentorian) but I p/ex'd the 3/4 which was her first serious violin - antique and beautiful but serious £'ss and worth 100% what we paid for it (as is the service for violins previously purchased at Woodbridge violins) so I couldn't justify leaving it on the side (like the other two). Miniprada was not happy but understood she wasn't paying! In all conscience I couldn't part with a violin where the new owner might not look after it!

Apropos purchasing violins has anybody used Guivier. I'm starting to think of upgrading dd's violin to a 3/4 after she has taken her G5. We've used Stringers for the last few violins and she will have taken 3 exams on her 1/2 size but would like something special for the next size .... (need to start saving) .....following kutik's issues with interest.

Just wanted to jump in and say hello after reading this thread with interest. Nothing to add to the violin conversation, I am afraid!
DS, age 9, plays the trumpet and is about grade 1 heading towards grade 2 level. He is currently preparing for a music festival which I am desperately trying to find a piano accompanist for. DD, age 7, started the clarinet in September and is progressing at super speed. Going to ask her teacher about putting her in for grade 1 this summer. Trying to get my head around Trinity versus ABRSM. The pieces for ABRSM appeal more but maybe only because I recognise more of them!
I fell like orchestras and ensembles are still light years away but it's interesting to take a little peek into the future here!

se. Yes - we used guivier. They were really good. We got DS a very nice French 1/2 size violin for about £900. There were plenty to try in our price range and we had as long as we needed in a private practice room to try them out.

Unlike our local luthier, they were not at all snooty about student instruments.

They will give us the full price of the 1/2 size as part ex for a 3/4.

Thanks Taggie. If you can think of any other shops in the London area which would stock around 1-2 k please let me know

Rara is on her third cello, and we didn't keep the others. She started on a 1/8 and we hired it from the teacher, because nobody stays on a 1/8 for very long. So that one went back. We bought a 1/4 from another student, and by the time Rara was too big for it, the teacher had someone else lined up to buy it. We bought the 1/2 from someone who goes to SWMS/NCO, and will sell it on when the time comes to buy either the 3/4 which well get Rara through preteens/ early teens, or the 7/8 or slightly reduced 4/4 that she will end up on, fully grown. We haven't had expensive instruments so far, but we won't be able to afford to keep any outgrown ones.

se22 I hope your DD is feeling better. Maybe she needs a break from exams after these - she's done a lot quite close together, hasn't she? Rara is currently only doing the odd numbers on both instruments, and that works for us.

Welcome Ilovesushi.

My DC have done Trinity and ABRSM at various times depending on teachers and pieces. Main difference for us was the aural, DD hated ABRSM with a passion because of the singing back. Trinity exams suited her better.

We have a music service ensemble that starts at pre-Grade 1 incidentally, so have a good look round.

DS2 has gone off to Liverpool for NYO Inspire ensemble. He's taken himself by train, including a change so feels very grown up!

We are going down to pick him up so we can hear the sharing on Sunday afternoon.

Thanks raspberry! I remember hating the singing element of the aural tests. I used to take forever to screw up my courage then sing in the tiniest voice possible. I think DD will be okay with it though - lots more singing confidence!
I think the county music service ensembles for woodwind only start around grade 3 here, but I need to investigate further. She is only one of two woodwind players in her school - lots of brass, no strings at all - so not too much hope of a school group.

se. I'm afraid I'm not from London so we only looked at guivier. We went there because there seemed to be lots of half size violins on their website. Others only had one or two. There is a lot more choice for 3/4 though. I reckon kutik is a bit of an expert

Taggie

se22, as Taggie said Guivier has lots of stock for your price range. They are one of the oldest violin shops in London so they've got lots network and often dealers' first choice to bring instruments in (at least that's what they say!). Their private room is very calm and lovely also (I can pm you the photo later).

But it may worth remembering that those shops in an expensive area need to make decent profit to keep running and paying the high rent! Very often, you'll meet a delightful surprise at a small family run violin shop in a modest area.

Matthew Coltman in Ealing and Old Violin Workshop in Hampton are worth visiting. Tom Blackburn has some interesting collections also and as a former violinist he can give you lots of great advice from violinist's point of views which I found very educational. His quirky apartment is like a museum of antiques and odd objects.

Please feel free to visit my thread about searching 4/4 violin!

Welcom ilovesushi! DS is not an exam taker (zero certificate for his first instrument!) but has done several ABRSM on his 2nd instrument and is actually taking one this term. We have no knowledge in Trinity so cannot give you any useful comparison - sorry. But DS seems to be fine with ABRSM and doesn't mind the aural section, though not sure how he will find it this time as the higher you go up the trickier it gets.

The reason of wanting to keep the 3/4 is not only because of the sentimentalism of DS's childhood memory but also I think it's nice to keep it for DS's child. DS can teach him/her one day like some of you on this thread are doing, or simply hand it down in family. It's not that expensive but very special (to us).

Thanks kutik

Hi ilovesushi. I don't know anything about clarinet, for piano I quite like the Trinity DC are working on, there's a bit more flexibility about what pieces and exercises they do. But I didn't have to choose, teacher just told us what and when. So do you definitely need to get your head around it at all? I thought most teachers would either only do one or choose what they think suits the student best.

I do regret not keeping DS2's first violin a bit although the feeling is tempered by the fact that he started on 1/4 and not the 3/8s most of his friends had in year 1 - they are sooooo cute. But it was rented (just a little Yamaha V5) so it would have been totally irrational to buy it once he had grown out of it.

The advice is always to rent when they a little but given we had three V5s in a row, I think we'd have been marginally better off buying, even if we just got £30 back on Ebay for each one. Hey ho.

The transition was terribly painful when we moved to and from half size - a couple of months of mourning from him, which was hard.

For some reason his teachers always seem to want him on slightly larger instruments for his height than his chums, although they have the same teacher, so this Christmas he moved to a full sized although he is only about 143 tall (he's 12). Must have arms like a gibbon

This time we finally gave the rental back to Kensington chimes and rented one from his teacher. It was a really interesting experience as he offered two and ds2 loved one and hated the other. And I felt really guilty because the difference in sound, especially in the upper register, was so instant and spectacular. I don't know how much was the move to full size and how much moving away from the jolly old £300 V5 but I am feeling a little guilty about leaving it until grade 6 to get him something better. He is very much a journeyman player, with a cluster of boys in his year who are far better but I also know that they all have spectacular instruments. Bad mummy.

It also utter surprised me how seamless the change was. As a non-string player, I was expecting a least a couple of weeks of him adjusting to the new finger positions, but it took one lesson. I guess he does it all by ear, but I would have thought that muscle memory would be more efficient - any comments from string-mummies to elucidate gratefully received !!

Michaela, I guess once you're a reasonable level player you're used to playing in different positions with different finger spacing and arm extension anyway?

Hi Ilovesushi . I would have a look to see if your local area has a Saturday music school as well as ensembles . That's what ds did when he started out . Can't help with the keeping instruments dilemma as it's different for brass , though I'm sure we will keep the current trumpet when ds upgrades at some point.
Went to an amazing AYM session yesterday they had been working on songwriting and composition all week and as usual I was astounded by what they had managed to produce in a week . Ds is a very lucky boy to have access to this scheme

Thanks for the welcome all!
Both DCs do music lessons at school through the local music service and they don't automatically offer the chance to do exams. You have to put in a special request as a parent. I wanted to mug up on both systems so I could have a more informed chat with DD's teacher.
I love the idea of them joining an ensemble at this early age. So much fun playing with others. I will start hunting!

45. I don't care though. It's quite liberating actually.

Wrong thread

DS1 is competing with his uni brass band at uni brass today, its on live stream if anyone is interested.

I don't feel guilty for not buying expensive instruments earlier on. DD played violin form 8 - 11 and cello from 11 -14. She switched when she moved up to Secondary. We bought Stentor 2 instruments for each. She stopped playing both, expensive instruments would have made no difference. Where we live kids don't generally have spectacular instruments though.

We did buy her a nice sax when she was 10, which she still plays!

Ds doesn't have a particularly expensive instrument either - not when compared to others in NCO . His teacher however says that it will be fine till music college and proved this to ds by playing on it - and he sounded great . Ds is less convinced !! ( but is just angling after a new trumpet!!)