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.

You are right Taggie. She's just had a monumental sobbing fit and is 'the sorriest she has every been ever'. (She really was very rude to me). Tired, and very emotional. We have cleared the air so hopefully she will be ok now. 😬

Mom If I played the viola (which I don't ) I would most definitely try to make friends so that I can play the Brandenburg concerto no. 6. OMG what a piece of music!

for folk and Noo. Lovely to hear you are back on track. But sorry you both had a rough morning. Good luck for tomorrow!

We are having a nice quiet-ish half term. DS2 is doing very well getting used to the 3/4.

I am starting to come up against a dilemma. DS2 is close to playing pieces that I can’t sight read easily, and I am getting a bit fed up with the giggling about my crappy intonation, or whatever. I don’t have time to practice. I do wonder if this is telling me that it is time to start to think about a teacher. But I can’t take him to jd (obvious solution, if he would get in). I don’t know of any really good teachers for relatively advanced children of DS’s age.

For context, he has just turned 10, he is getting ready to do his grade 8 (trinity) prob next term or in the spring, plays in NCO etc. So he is coming on well but no prodigy! He can be flakey and inconsistent, especially without ‘reminders’ from me. He started properly just before he was 7 and has only been taught by me.

I had wanted to sort out his posture before he played for anyone and this isn’t perfect, but improved with the help of a lovely Alexander technique teacher.

A big constraint is time. In term DS sings until 8pm 5 nights a week, with rehearsals most of Saturday and Sunday. I had wondered if I could find a teacher to give us ‘consultation lessons’ or similar in the (very long private school) holidays and half terms, and I could continue to teach him in term.

So my question is - how do I find such a teacher? I would be willing to travel to London.

Any ideas would be much appreciated! Thanks for reading the long post.

Taggie - not sure where you are? It can be useful to look st your local professional orchestra and see if any of the players teach; also I am guessing there is a director of music where ds sings / they are usually well plugged in to teaching networks. And also you might want to ask ds’ tutor post the summer course - not an official part of the role but some of them have an amazing network

Lots of JD teachers have private studios. Check out the teaching lists at RCM, RAM and Guildhall and google the ones you are interested in. Most of them will have biogs on the college websites. That is how BFF's Mum gets many of her private students.

Taggie, it sounds like it's time for miniTaggie to have a teacher. I'm afraid I don't have any useful advice though. I've never actively search for a teacher as DS started violin at school and the next step he took was straight into jd. You can request your preferred teacher at jd but I didn't have any clue so left it with them to decide whoever they think good for DS.

My friend's DC auditioned for a music school but couldn't get in however the school provided one of their teachers for weekly private lesson and he re-auditioned a few years later (and he got in). Perhaps you could contact jd/music school/music service near to you and see if you could have a consultation lesson or ask for recommendation?

Good luck

Posted too early!

Good luck to Noo tomorrow!!

Thanks everyone! Those are great suggestions, and Folk has also kindly pointed me in the direction of some local teachers.

Druid - we can’t do jd because DS2 has chorister commitments on Saturdays.

For those who asked - we are in the Oxford area.

I suspect the sticking point to getting a teacher to take DS2 on will be fitting in lessons.

Does the choir school not have music teachers? It's not my 'world', but I have recent ex-cathedral chorister relatives who learned 1 or 2 instruments in (choir) school time as well as their daily singing commitments? is it a junior only choir school? My relatives were at an all through choir school so relevant instrumental teachers were sourced from the senior part if needed.

Good luck tomorrow Noo glad things have calmed down a bit !!
Hope you sort the teacher problem Taggie - he's doing fantastically well
Not much going on here ( apart from house stuff) Ds is at AYM this week sounds like he's enjoying it.

can’t There are instrumental teachers at the school, but I don’t think they would suit DS. I can’t go into detail on the thread because my identity is obvious to anyone who can be bothered to work it out... but yes, that is the logical solution

Taggie - oxford Cello School prob know everyone?

Oo, I have tickets to a concert of treble voices on July 13th in Oxford, might we see miniTaggie in action?

namechange - yes he will be singing I will go if I get round to buying tickets!

Thanks trumpet and string!

Druid miniTaggie might be preparing for grade 8 for quite some time. Possibly the autumn/spring idea is a pipe dream - I won’t put him in until he is really ready. There are plenty of cool pieces on the list that he hasn’t played yet, so he won’t get bored. I am motivated to try to start preparing him because it would be good to go to a new teacher with grade 8 under his belt, and it is a useful benchmark for senior School entry. But we will see where he’s at. It will look worse if goes in too early and gets a rubbish mark!

You are right that he doesn’t have much practice time, and he has never prepared more than 2 pieces simultaneously to a high standard before!

One advantage of the process, is that he is suddenly interested in practising scales and sight reading

We got DS's piano exam date yesterday - June 18. I was hoping for/expecting a July exam. I called ABRSM today and have managed to buy him another 10 days by travelling a little further. I much prefer the Trinity system where you can book a date online.

Taggie, that must have sounded a bit creepy with the name change, sorry, I do post on here!

My sister is looking after my chorister daughter during her holidays and she wants to go and be nosy . She rarely has more than one piece on the go due to choir and high school commitments (not that she lets the latter bother her much ).

Swaying - not at all. It is lovely to hear that you are interested enough in choral music to go. It is a lovely programme, and the soloists (not DS2!) are in terrific form. If anyone else wants details, feel free to PM me.

Littleladsdad I'm sure he'll be fine . I think it's much better if you can pick a date too luckily the jazz exam doesn't clash with anything for Ds and dh can take him but it was all a bit up in the air until we got a date !!

folk, I hope everything went well for Noo yesterday.

Thanks Double, bit of a mixed bag yesterday. DD2 was also auditioning for the entry level course. She came out crying because she froze at the sight reading (again!) and couldn't do the singing back in the aural. Noo was also disappointed with herself because she felt she didn't play her best. A few slips in places that are normally no problem. But it sounded ok from outside the door so we will see...