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!

folk - come back to South Easterlies with your cupcakes!

No pressure for next Sunday then.... 😂

DH and I went to see Chicago with Cuba Gooding Jr. Last night. He was suffering with a cold and was losing his voice but I was so glad he gave it a go anyway. The show was fantastic! Band were on stage throughout and were totally amazing. Would love Noo to see it (she wants to be in a pit band when she's a grown up) but maybe not for a few years... 😜

Really enjoyed the woodwind final - I loved the recorder player with percussion accompaniment, but they were all really impressive. I don’t envy the judges.
DS1 has gone off this morning for final GCSE performance recording (trying to decide which ensemble piece to use) but still trying to get DS2 out of bed for string orchestra!

We haven't watched the woodwind final yet. We'll probably watch half tonight and half tomorrow with DS. He's gone to an amazing birthday do in Surrey today. Won't be back till late evening. DH never wastes time and has already gone cycling. Somehow I am left with lots house chores!

Chore 1 - sorting out violin.

The E string on the violin we are about to buy is close to break so I was going to order a full set as a spare and extra E to replace. The violin has got Evah Pirazzi. I've never bought them before, so was surprised how expensive they are. The total came up as £93! Or it's not expensive for normal sense? I am thinking if I should go for Dominant - it's cheaper. Or should I stick to the same strings already on the violin? The luthier surely chose the bland as he thought it would be the best match to the violin? What is your choice for yours?

Kutik, Evah Pirazzi are much better strings than dominant. It does make a big difference to sound. Worth the difference on a half decent instrument imo. Which said, I did play on dominants until adult, they're fine, but I get a more mellow sound with nice strings. Are you using the string zone? Often come up cheaper there.

Thanks cat. It sounds like worth extra penny. I'll have a look at the string zone.

Perlman uses Dominant so it should be good enough! Though it's because Perlman, he can get away with any string!

Strings are expensive - DH was genuinely shocked at the price of individual cello strings. Worth it, though. I would also recommend Stringzone as possibly cheaper - definitely worth checking out.

Looks like we have found the brass teacher for dd!!! Yay!!! Instantly clicked with her, keeps her playing for the hour without her getting tired, lets her do fun stuff too (he bought a natural trumpet for her to try this week)...absolutely thrilled! Not bothered about pushing her through exams (neither are we), just happy to keep her joy in playing!!!

Phew!!!

Kutik if you buy as a whole set rather than adding them individually it will also be a bit cheaper. Definitely use stringzone. And the Eva Pirazzi get my vote over Dominants, different league!

Yay Petra! Good news 😃

Oh yes! We have the fab violin teacher, we had a piano teacher who dd absolutely adored, it’s been much harder finding a cornet teacher!

The dealer who quoted £93 has already posted! I haven't paid yet, but somehow they misunderstood it was an order. Seriously...? So well, I can't even shop around now but have to pay the money!!! At least Eva Pirazzi sounds worth it. Hopefully it lasts long...

I remember Sheku talking about his dad in the audience when his string broke at BBCYM. He said his dad was like, 'oh no, another £80 throwing down the drain'.

Druid I must confess to being sat there thinking about all our DC's potentially being up there in the not too distant future! Especially your DS and also Mini-Trumpet... There was only one violinist but she was pretty awesome. I'd love to see Hamilton - maybe next year as we've promised the girls we'll do Wicked in the summer and will also be going in to see our friends DS in his West End debut with NYMT. Plus hopefully Noo will have her own stint in the theatre this summer (audition tomorrow!) which will end up costing us a fortune in tickets...

DD has Peter Infield’s Thomastrik silvers with exception of Dominant E. Probably similar price or slightly lower than the EP strings (can’t remember) We also use Stringzone.

folk that's exactly what Ds wants to do !! We'll see ....
Great news Petra !!
I really hope the new strings last Kutik

I wouldn't be surprised if those two make it to the televised bit! In fact, I'll be looking out for Goo's NCO friends in years to come... I'm even thinking about buying my first ever TV licence (but not the TV, the kids would be content with iplayer because they really have no idea!).

Dd1 has evah pirazzi gold strings on her violin. That was how the luthier set it up, it sounds good and is very flexible/adaptable (concert tonight will cover the whole range including rock) so im loath to spend loads of money trialing different strings. I tend to buy from stringzone and get them delivered to people who will be visiting us to otherwise import fees would remove any saying and them some. I did look at the cost of double bass strings i suspect the current strings are from 2002 when the bass was apparently purchased and i should get them changed..... considering we got the bass on free loan it's not so bad a cost - i thought i was going to have to buy a whole instrument we've done ok with just buying a bow and a bag...

I think just having iplayer is a really good idea waffle . The only person who really watches in this house is dd , I think if she didn't watch tv she would watch more you tube though !! We very rarely watch live TV and I only download from iplayer and channel 4 . Having said that dd put the queens birthday concert on the tv last night , they had a band to accompany the live acts and I did think will that be Ds in a few years ? - he'd love it . He got very excited when he saw his nco tutor on blue peter ( a favourite show of dd's) at Christmas. I can't think who the band were with , but I think it did underline just how versatile and adaptable he will have to be to make a living out of it . Maybe we will also be spotting Goo on tv , I'm sure we will if it's what she decides she wants

Inspired by BBCYM recorder performance, DS dig out his old recorder which I bought him when he was 6 or 7 for fun but didn't get played much and forgotten. He played through 'Recorder from the Beginning Book 1', which I bought together with the recorder, and asked me to get more music. I checked Book 2 on Amazon and it seems to have some duets so now I am thinking to get a cheapy recorder for myself too so that we can have fun together. I really wanted to be able to play something with DS but there is no way for me to catch up with his piano and violin. But I did a bit of recorder at school so I think I can handle some beginner's pieces.

DS has YRS-302B3. I think it was £10 or so - very cheap. So I am thinking to get the same one. Or, should I get something else? Any recommendation/advice would be appreciated!

That sounds a lovely idea Kutik . I can't play piano well enough to ever play with my two though they have started playing trumpet/ cornet together a bit and it's lovely

Oooh, so nice your two play together. Trumpet. Last night, straight after watching BBCYM, DS suddenly remembered his baby instruments kept in a basket. There were a tambourine, a Castanet, a den den, etc in the basket. He picked a harmonica and started blowing. So I brought my harmonica and joined him. We just played for fun, making up some silly duets. I can' forget his face! He was soooooo happy. He was so so happy making some fun noise together. This morning, before going to his Sunday football, he found the recorder and the music book in another basket. He enjoyed playing through the book and asked me to get another book as he went out. Realised how much he was missing this kind of 'sharing' at home, I thought me playing a recorder with him would be a fun idea, for both of us!

Noo having a tough morning. At audition for a summer theatre project. Most of the kids are from dance schools. The routine is really tricky and fast. She is a reasonably good dancer and picks things up quickly, but has the disadvantage of a surname starting with A so was first in. Others have had loads of time practicing and learning off each other and to top it off, she got whacked in the face during her audition. First time she's ever cried after an audition- hopefully she did enough to get in the ensemble bit she was really hoping for a call-back for a more meaty role which I can't see happening this time. Still, just one of those things and all a life lesson, right..??