May Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Have a new thread for May... you all managed to fill the April one!

This is a place to chat about music lessons, exams, practice, aural, theory, performances and anything else you like. We have many regular and occasional posters (some of whom are learning themselves) with children ranging from complete beginners to very advanced. We do try our best to make sure everyone feels welcome!

I am mum to Goo (12) flute and piano, and Rara (9) cello and clarinet. They play in loads of school groups, South West Music School and NCO, although practice isn't going too well at the moment. Later in the week, all three of us are taking part in a big community concert, which will be lovely.

I hope that the shows go well and that you feel better Wafflenose.

Trumpetboysmum - did you also have to get up at 6am? I am a bit intrigued by this silent mute - where did you get it from? I bet my neighbours would have loved it if I'd have one when I played trumpet.

trumpetboysmum I’d also like to know about the mute as I play trumpet myself very badly!!

Trumpetboysmum we have the silent brass system. For anyone else thinking about it, you can often get them cheaply on ebay as they've been received as unwanted gifts. The mute has a microphone and you listen to yourself through earphones. You can buy the mutes separately from the system so we have mutes for two different instruments but just one sound unit.

DS plays in a brass band with an age range of 8-82. Ours does free instrument loan and will add your own instrument to the band's insurance policy - all in the price of your band subs. Depending on their summer programme you may have many bandstands in your future (folding chairs are a must have) with cold churches featuring through December.

Kutik yay SATs are over !! Hopefully he can recover now
Alex that's a really good point and I've always told Ds to be very mindful of how the older students might feel - it's less of an issue now anyway ( apart from the jazz thing where it was years 5 to 9 and then year 10 upwards but that's sorted )
I get up early anyway so yes I was up with him . He managed piano and trumpet and was very pleased with himself . He thinks he's doing more trumpet when he gets home - we'll see how tired he is !! The mute works well though and was a good use of his music prize money .
Icould I'm looking forward to the sunny afternoons ( and less so to the freezing cold churches!!) already

Alexandra you are so right and it's important to remember. waffle hope your recovery continues

Alexandra - very good to be reminded. I confess to feeling frustrated at DS2 playing in groups well below his level, but from now on I will be mindful of your words. I really do passionately believe that music is for all, but sometimes my demonic music-mom character takes over my brain, Jekyll/Hyde style.

Actually DS2 likes playing in ‘easy’ groups as long as they are playing easy and attractive music. It isn’t any fun for anyone when groups aimed at a beginner level are too ambitious!

We also experienced the frustration of age vs level in orchestra. In our case it extended to splitting group into 1st, 2nd & 3rd. That and a lack of inspiring music caused my 2 ladies to quit orchestra this year. Thankfully DD2 got into an ability based orchestra for next year.
Thankfully both my girls get very enjoyable orchestra experience at Bryanston Suzuki camp, so understand the problem isn’t ‘orchestra’ just that particular orchestra!!

SATs finished and somehow all the children in DS's class have no more runny nose/sour throat. Miracle.

Earlier this month I talked about a festival having quit a tough adjudicator and one category didn't have any winner as the adjudicator thought no one reached the standard. At the time I said no 2nd nor 3rd neither. But actually there were 2nd and 3rd, but just no 1st. My misunderstanding, sorry for the wrong information. DS and his friends were not in the category so I was half listening... No one may care, but just to put things straight!

Busy musical weekend for us. The usual 7am train to Royal Brum Conservatoire in the morning, then heading by train to the Royal Academy for new starters meeting. Quick sleep, then driving to Foden's Youth Band rehearsal on Sunday morning.

Hope you all enjoy your musical activities this weekend.

Absolutely Alexandra, great post. Also the county ensembles seem to work towards big trips reasonably regularly so it would be a bit rubbish to not be able to go after all the work. DD is a second study instrumentalist in a very elite environment so has the opposite issue - she towers above the other members of her string quartet! I'd say it was character building but I don't think it has occurred to her to be bothered .

Little lads dad I like the "Quick sleep!!" I feel like I need a very long sleep this is sadly lacking because of my dcs many activities plus a house renovation !!

Me to Noo (after copious jiffing around)..."is there anything else you need to do to get properly in the zone?".

Noo to me..."there are 4 things actually. 1) I need to take my jumper off, 2) I need to wash my hands 3) I need to put my shoes on and 4) I need you to change your attitude please".

Well, that told me 😂😂😂

Folk

She wasn't quite sure if I was going to laugh or shout at her 😂😂😂

Thanks druid but we can't sing till I-don't-know-the-date-yet-but-the-grade-exam!

Good luck to all those with GCSE/grade exams/auditions/competitions!

Folk that's very funny!
Waffle good luck with the festivals, hope you're on the mend.
Not much to report here as, like Druid, GCSEs have taken over here and DS missed two ensembles this week but I just wanted to say well done and good luck to everyone with grade exams! Kutik your mini is very impressive!

Hope your performances go well today waffle.

kutik - I am just looking through all our recorder books. They all seem to be arrangements by Peter Lawrance with 'Winner' somewhere in the title (which by the way did not make for an easy half an hour online when I was trying to track down the piano accompaniments)!

Easy Winners by Peter Lawrance
Winner scores all by Peter Lawrance
Winners Galore by Peter Lawrance

These all have fun, well-known pieces but no duets. I am thinking about ordering some of the Duets/Trios from the Beginning books as, whilst DD is preparing for Grade 2, we like playing all together too.

I ran through some Trinity aural exercises with DD this morning - new territory for us as we are completely new to Trinity as a board.

And kutik - I know I said earlier in the week that I expected to hear from ABRSM on their exam dates by the end of the week. I think that was because for every exam I have made the entry for, we have always been given the first week of the session. I thought all exam dates were announced on the same day and have only realised that they seem to get released in weekly batches. We didn't receive our practical dates yesterday so am assuming that means we are not in week 1 (which is a bit of a relief to be honest). I did notice though that the theory venue for central London is now online.

DD is going to a half-day recorder day tomorrow at a school in south London run by the NYRO. They hold recorder days where you need to be Grade 3 standard + but if you are not at that standard (which DD isn't) then you can go along for the afternoon only. So, she is looking forward to that I think but also a bit nervous. She is struggling a bit to hit the higher notes especially top A. She is playing on a 5 quid recorder we bought from Amazon back at the beginning of the year. I was going to wait until after her exam and then treat her to an upgrade. But now am wondering whether a better quality recorder might help with the high notes...ho hum...

Waffle hope the performances go well.

Dd got second place / silver medal at a festival earlier today.

Very well done to se22's DD!

Japanese, thank you for the great info about recorder music. I am having a panic attack very quietly but deeply right now so once all is settled and I get my sanity back I'll look through all the suggestion. Hopefully we can play them - we don't have wide range in pitch yet!

The reason for my panic attack is DS's violin... I can't even talk about the details as it's too upsetting. Basically two very well established luthiers told me to return the violin... Sob sob sob...

Oh no Kutik what’s happened? I’m currently sitting in the sun listening to dh and dd in the brass band - very good way to spend a sunny Saturday!