March Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Welcome to the new thread for March! I am typing this from home rather than having to go to work - snow days all round. We currently have 1cm, but there are red warnings for wind and for snow later today, so it's going to be horrendous.

This is a place to talk about all things musical, whether you or your DCs are learning. We have lots of followers, from beginners to advanced, and everyone is welcome!

I am a teacher of recorder, clarinet, flute and saxophone, and have two DDs. Goo is 12 and having a fabulous time at secondary. She is Grade 8+ on the flute but not taking the exam until braces are off (and I think her teacher is holding out until she thinks Goo can get full marks or something) and around Grade 5 piano - no performances or exams yet and terrified of anyone hearing her, so that's getting to be a slight problem. Rara is 9 and between Grades 3 and 4 on both cello and clarinet. She's taking Grade 3 Clarinet this term so that when she goes off to the NCO in the summer, she doesn't have to tell other children that's she's only done Grade 1!

Great news on the school bidding wars double and string!

We had the piano exam results today & both the DCs got distinctions. DS (Grade 1) had 136 and DD (Grade 2) had 133.

Am especially pleased for DD as she did Grade 1 just in November and I wasn't sure about putting her in for the next grade so soon but didn't want her to get bored. And she was in tears in the warm-up room as she was so worried about piece C.

They are both happy .

Hope everyone else's exams are going really well!

Well DD1 did her Grade 7 oboe exam today. Not the best experience as the accompanist didn’t turn up! Thankfully DD’s teacher was there in case of last minute hitches with reeds etc and she played for her, possibly not with as much finesse as would have been desirable, but did the job. Hoping the examiner will be sympathetic as he was made aware. Accompanist forgot to check her phone or diary!

Returning to the school’s issue, I spoke to the school we had originally decided on and explained the situation saying that we were having a bit of a wobble and they upped their offer from 10% to 25%, something that is very rare apparently! Does feel a little as though we are auctioning her off to the highest bidder.

Great results for your minis Japanese!

Well done Japanese! It's so lovely when they do better than they think they did!

double must be wonderful for your DD to be at the centre of a bidding war! So flattering!

Well done to all the DC's for getting through their exams and good luck for those preparing over the weekend!

I have such a brutal work deadline that I may need to give the DCs a weekend off their music . DS1 can practise himself but DS2 won't practise without me, although I'm sure he could!

Great results Japanese DD and DS! Diplomatically similar results too. And wow to exams two terms in a row.

LOL at auctioning your DD off double, but it sounds really positive that you've been able to shift the financials in favour of the school you really wanted. And what a compliment to her that they will.

Countdown to exams is looming a bit here. Couldn't get sensible speeds out of either of them today, lots of rushing particularly for DD. DS starts by playing his pieces too slowly, then plays them too fast, ignores all the mistakes and says sagely, "hmm, that was good I think". Sigh.Also worried that teacher seems to have told DS to ignore the tempo change markings in one of his pieces. Or he thinks she said that, goodness knows what she really said.

DD is more patient with me than I am with her. DS has no patience for anything. Eh well, it's only Initial/Grade 1, they won't be bad enough to fail unless they get nervous and do something very unexpected.

ignores all the mistakes and says sagely, "hmm, that was good I think"
Sounds like my eternal optimistic DS.

Well done to Japanese's minus!

minus = minis...

Just realized DS didn't do any aural practice. The teacher doesn't cover the supportive tests much but still she did a quick run through prior to the exam in the past. She kept saying she would go through next week then kept forgetting and even I forgot about it at the last lesson before the exam... I don't have any memory of DS suffering from the aural section for the earlier grades so he may have done alright though surely g7 has more complex questions? I can't imagine DS talking about features and composer.

Kutik DD1 did everything she could to avoid aural practice - she has a tendency to stick her head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening when it comes to things she doesn’t find too easy. Her 30min lessons with the music service don’t really allow time for it either. The verdict on aural today was that wasn’t a total car crash - oh, and her scales were apparently OK too. We’ll see.......

Next up is DD2’s Grade 2 guitar.

Dd hates features- can identify baroque and twentieth century but romantic vs classical is 50:50/phoneafriend

I don't think the lack of the aural preparation will be a total disaster. After all isn't it quite rare not to pass? I heard just participating alone get marks which I think is very generous!

Our problem was given a chance to practice DS wouldn't have avoided and in fact would have happily participated. But unfortunately we, the teacher and I, forgot about it... Ha ha ha...

Is there something to do with harmony? DS said so and he said it was easy. So at least one bit is ticked! He didn't refuse to sing so again ticked. He suspiciously got busy with his iPad when I asked for the rest of the aural section so it will remain as a mystery until the result day!

Tomorrow DS has his quartet performance debut! And after that boys are going out for a running and curry night with friends (once a month tradition), and I am going out with girls. The dress code is 'sparkle'. Any idea?

You are describing my DD1 se22!

Thanks everyone!

Yes, I was happy that their results are fairly similar but I know it won't always be that way of course!

We're waiting for theory results now.

Taggie - good luck with your work deadline. I can empathise, I have been slipping into working on the weekends to meet deadlines. Am trying to stop but it's a losing battle at the moment.

Great results Japanese Im sure he'll be fine Kutik as I imagine they cover quite a few of the things that come up in his lessons at JD. Ds hates aural tests and doing well when he finally does his grade 8 is what prompted him to take singing lessons - though he's realised that he really likes singing anyway so that's good .
I was relieved that he did Trinity for grade 7 a very different type of test and I got quite good at them by the end !! Somehow I have always been the one to do the aural work and it causes massive arguments though my planning did work last time and it was worth putting up with the grumpiness from Ds as he got full marks !! I shall be reminding him of this when we prepare for grade 8

Trumpet, I think that was partly the problem that the teacher kind of expected it would have been covered at jd. DS has his piano lessons with a local lady not at jd. I'm sure DS is learning something useful for exams indirectly but he doesn't really prepare for nor learn exam contents there. I told the teacher this several times and she said she would go through next week but she seems to have this idea inputted and kept forgetting! But so did I.

But as I said, a bit of messing up in aural tests won't de a total disaster. I know plenty people who passed even when they refused to sing or didn't do well at all ALL the supporting tests!!

Kutik DD2 totally refused to even try the sight reading in her piano exam last time and still got 127, so as long as he gave it a go I can't imagine it will affect the outcome as he will get very high marks for pieces I'm sure x

Kutik I thinks it often seems to get forgotten which is why I've ended up doing it with ds , his teacher did do a bit for grade 7 but there's never enough time ( especially when you decide to enter the exam with 2 months to prepare everything- never again !!) I'm sure it will be fine though . Ds didn't do well at all at grade 3 on his aural which is why I took control of the situation and he still got a distinction ( could have got full marks if the aural had been covered properly and not the week of the exam by me but that's another story !! ) And doesn't really matter anyway ) like Folk says you can definitely afford to not do well on one area and still do really well overall - not that I think your ds will have done anything particularly wrong anyway

We have always used e-musicmaestro for aural training before exams. I realised early on its a bit of an afterthought and takes away from lesson time anyway. In the build up pre exam, over 2 or 3 weeks we would do 10/15 examples a day and even just knowing the question order and format made it easier for DD. I only subscribe a month at a time when necessary. For g5 she got 17/18 I think. Her new teacher outsources aural above grade 5 also.

Yes I agree. If you are playing at the standard comfortably, you have to mess up really seriously to fail. It's not good attitude though and ideally you should cover everything but as we all know there is never enough time in lessons. DS is naturally quite good at aural (not necessarily in exam context though), so I think he is alright.

Our music service did a survey recently of what people thought of their services. They were asking what other services people may be interested in if they were offered and one of those was aural lessons. That got a big ‘yes please!’ from me!

I know I think there is a market gap there! DS's piano teacher often offers makeup lessons on Saturday mornings. I suggested she could run a group aural and theory lessons for her pupils instead. She can make money more efficiently as they don't need to be 1-2-1 and I'm sure lots people would sign up! This way it doesn't need to be always exam focused and children can develop those important skills more effortlessly and possibly more interestingly.

PaulWeller sorry dozed off last night after s very long day but basically there is a Roland amp specifically for their drum kits, PM-03, that is made to fit between the pedals so should be OK if you only want it for practice - not designed for performance. We don’t have it, though, we actually play ours through a bass amp (!) so that’s not huge help - however it does work!

On aural - DS2 basically had the book and one session with his teacher for G5 although luckily it’s not hugely different from G4. I had to go through the different musical styles in the warm up room yesterday so who knows how that bit went.
Japanese well done to your minis!
DS2 still busy with cello- orchestra rehearsal this morning, then workshop all day tomorrow.