April Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Happy Easter! The sun is shining here (at the moment) so I'm hoping spring has finally arrived.

Here's a new thread for anyone who wants to talk about music lessons, exams, practice, concerts, aural, scales, theory, ensembles or anything else music related. Everyone is welcome, from beginners to advanced and also adult learners. I started these threads 6.5 years ago when I had a beginner myself. Her nickname is Goo, she is 12 and taking Grade 8 Flute next term. I think she's finally going to do her Grade 5 Piano in the autumn. When those are out of the way, she's thinking of taking up the recorder again and doing Grade 8 on that, because flute sort of took over and she never got around to it. Her sister Rara is 9, and is currently around Grade 4 on both Cello and Clarinet. She doesn't want to do any more exams for ages, so will probably do her grade 5s in a couple of years or so. Rara is a lapsed recorder player who will be performing on it next month, and she dabbles with piano, glock and accordion. Both girls do South West Music School, although I regularly go back on forth over whether this is still the best setting for Goo. We are pretty rural and hours away from any big cities.

Please can we all be extra careful to make sure that everyone is acknowledged and assisted where appropriate... I include myself in needing to make an effort, but I'm not around all day, every day. This is a lovely, calm, supportive corner of Mumsnet but I do receive a handful of messages from people who don't feel welcome because they or their children are less advanced, or they're not in a position to consider JD/ private school/ expensive instruments and feel left out, or they wonder if it's OK to post about certain instruments/ families. I did say I would try. Thank you all so much!

Oh I forgot to say in the business of the start if term . Ds went to see his ENT surgeon and his hearing and his repaired ear drum are perfect and he's allowed custom fit ear plugs now ( so more £££) but that's very good news . Especially when he often has to sit so close to the percussion!!

Thanks everyone. The comments on practice time are very reassuring. I get a bit worried when I hear rumours of DCs doing 2 or 3 hours a day. A good half hour sounds more balanced for a 9yo! Just finished an excellent session here. The new tone exercises are working wonders :-)

Good luck mini-juggling! How exciting to be auditioning for such a fantastic school! I saw the head of strings lead a wonderful masterclass a couple of months ago.

Great news Minitrumpet! I am sure Minipanda has done fine - I know exactly how that feels though because nerves are almost impossible to control. If you just manage to keep going somehow it's always ok.
There's no chance of early morning practice in this house. Both dcs are typical teenage boys! Also it's a bit chaotic here. We're having the spare room decorated so DS2 can move out of his tiny box room but being the 'spare' room it has masses of 'stuff' in it. The dining room (where the piano and cello live) is crammed with boxes at the moment plus guitars and an amp. I think we have a bit of a practice amnesty at the moment!

Hi. Has anyone any tips on learning all the musical terms and information about orchestral instruments for grade 5 theory? DD is taking it in June. We have been going through the workbooks together (I did grade 5 theory many years ago) and she is getting pretty competent on the other sections but there seems to be a lot of information to learn. I have been trying to say the musical terms in ways to illustrate their meaning (where possible) but other technique suggestions welcome.
Thanks.

TrumpetVoluntary we have used an app for music theory terms, the one we used was called music theory lite.

TrumpetVoluntary have you got some past papers? You can get them and the answer papers on amazon.

For G5 theory, DS2 went low-tech for the musical terms and made old fashioned flash cards. Blatant boast alert: He got 94% so it must have worked.

Hofnote app? There are a couple of sections on instruments within the grade 5 theory material.

I should add hofnote.com I think and theory subscription is maybe around £5 for a few months. We have used hofnote a lot for aural for various exams and love it.

We've just found the 'Quizlet' app and are going to try the performance directions flash cards on there. Can't comment on how effective this is yet though as it's early days!

Just to say though, performance directions are only worth a very small number of marks in the exam so tip from BFF's mum - don't waste too much time on it!

Noo and I had a good chat last night while out walking the dog. This morning she set her alarm for 6.30, was at the piano at 7am and had done both piano and violin before school! So now we have an easy evening ahead of us. And practice was really good because she was fresh as a daisy - I popped in a couple of times but otherwise left her to it. Much better than the banshee of yesterday morning! Hopefully she will see the benefits and it will continue...

Very little practice here this week because of sooo much playing going on at school. Both kids are rehearsing with various groups for a community concert, and I'm playing in it with my steel band. Goo stayed on for 2 hours after school last night to assist with recording for a GCSE ensemble - two of her friends in year 11 had decided to play a flute trio for their GCSE and asked Goo to play one of the parts. She was extremely happy about that, but is distraught about them leaving. I think she will be co-running flute group with another girl (who will be y9) in September. I am encouraging one of my pupils to go along too.

DS used Quizlet for GCSE and at A level, they use it in some of the A level lessons.

He can be holding his shoe in one hand, frozen, and I´m there waiting and watching and I know he's gone somewhere else.
Very familiar to this kind, druidsong. Very reassuring. Thanks. [flower] I think I need this kind of reassurance sometimes, to recognise DS's efforts and achievements and to accept him how he is. I wear massive rosy glasses but at the same time I can be quite critical towards my own child. And I can get irritated by something so small like, having too much zombie time! I think deep down I knew it was necessary process for him. That's why I feel guilty when he can't get enough of them.

My two have at least an hour of computer/ phone time and almost an hour of DVSs every day. Goo will have far more if she can get away with it. The past two nights, she's been up until after 10 doing homework at the last minute, due to her inability to self-regulate. We have tried confiscating the phone, nagging, not letting her have her video until she's done her homework etc, but we're now letting her learn the hard way. It winds me up because she's lastminute dot com, and I never was!

But does he gets screen time after he's done everything? This is my serious question for those who say screen time is allowed once all is done. In our case, once all is done it's often too late for screen time. Reading or long bath is fine, but no screen time because it's too close to bedtime...

I don’t think there is a right nor wrong on screen time, you need to judge how capable DC are at self regulation, or actually welcome some help (but won’t admit it)?

Mine recently returned from a week’s swim camp. She was with the 15 yr plus group, where phones were confiscated for whole duration (apart from calls to home if needed). The

Thanks for the music theory suggestions - we have been using an app for aural practice (the ABRSM one) but not checked out theory apps.
Folk - yes, I was wondering about not worrying about learning all the terms etc as I suspect she will get enough to pass regardless, but I think DD will be stressed if we haven’t even tried to learn them a bit!
Three - yes, she did her first practice paper over the holidays. She did fine so think all will be well if we keep up the practise.

In response to the conversations about practise, DD does piano in the morning and trumpet after school. Not long for each on school days but longer at weekends. And I frequently have to tell her to practise the things she is meant to practise instead of playing other stuff eg her choir songs, or a pop song she likes. I do have sympathy though as I remember when I was learning playing piano for ages but very little of it was what I was meant to practise!

HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHHAHA! Ha...

Sorry, I just called Allianz as we are so close to purchase a violin for DS and wanted to see how quickly the application would be done once the payment went through.

Someone on MN said it could be done online too, but the gentleman on the phone said not for the value we were claiming and also said the whole procedure would take for a good couple of days to clear a few important things. He asked me if I would like to start now, then at least I could get the insurance covered as soon as the purchase of the violin was made and I replied 'yes'. So we started tedious security check stuff. DS's 3/4 and 1/2 were well below £1000 but this time was not so I thought, wow, what's an incredible step up of the security!

But after all the time we spent on the phone, we both realised he took the value wrong and he thought it was nearly £100k! He knew it was for a 10 years old but he didn't change his voice at all and carried on the security check at the time. But he confessed after we realised all was wrong that he was screaming inside with a shock by the amount money we were spending on a kid...

I was told I could come back once the payment was safely done and it could be done either phone or online, within 10-15 mins.

That would be one special violin.