July Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello, I have just realised it's time for a new thread! Feel free to discuss anything musical here - any level at all, from total beginners to advanced, and adult learners are welcome too!

I am a teacher of woodwind, currently limping towards the end of term (July 24th... can't wait!) and have two DDs. Goo is 12 and plays the flute and piano. At the moment, she's doing the bare minimum, but she has won the Y7 music attainment award at her enormous comprehensive secondary school, so we get to go to an awards ceremony next week. Her piano teacher is about to retire, so we're looking for a new one. Rara is 10 and I would say is now a joint first study cellist and clarinettist - it doesn't come easily and she's progressing at an average rate, but a good Grade 4 on both. She spends most of her time reading, drawing, doing origami and swimming for a club.

I have so far managed to get through 27 music medals this term (6 still to go) and 4 Trinity exams (1 ABRSM still to go) and about half of the concerts!

Yay - well done Noo! And well done to Folk for the excellent teaching!

Also congratulations to mini-littlelad, mini-Petra . Brilliant results

Well done to cricket ‘s DD! Exams are terrifying, and she did well to conquer her nerves and get through it.

DS2 has had a big choir day. Public concert and rehearsals for next week’s recording. They sang well, including a tricky Mendelssohn song in 7 parts that they have been working on all term. On the violin, we are yet to look at any of the pro corda or NCO stuff. I am away next week, so he will have to practise himself! Should be interesting....

Very well done to Noo & folk!

DD had 95 in Grade 3 theory and DS had 90 in Grade 2. They are both at parties this evening so not too interested in their results .

Thank you! And we'll done to Japanese's two also. Now, where's the wine....

Thank you for all the congrats, I've passed them on. It was DS's last day at current school today. At the end of Speech Day yesterday the boys did a flash mob version of the theme from 'The Great Escape', which worked very well!

Well done Folk, I think I need to check out those Blitz books! Well done mini-taggi & Petra!.

Thanks lovelies :) it was her very first music exam so we didn't really know what to expect, only found out when we got there that she had to go in on her own, poor thing looked terrified.
She had a pianist with her for her 3 pieces and she said she did great on them but then DD thinks she messed up on the sight reading and started on the wrong string.
Fingers crossed for results!

Well done to all the other minis taking exams!

So many well done s I can’t keep up - congrats to everyone on exam results and theory! So pleased with how well everyone’s done

Lots of great news, well done to all!!

Especially, a big hurray to cricket's DD for her very first exam experience.

I think it's quite usual to mess up somewhere even when you've prepared well due to nerves, luck or chemistry with the examiner... But messing up everything rarely happens if you play at the standard and prepare reasonably. Also, lots of people do better at home when they don't have any pressure nor nerves. So it's very normal that you feel you didn't do well or better in an exam room. Completely normal and utterly natural and the outcome is usually better than you think.

Well done to Noo and the mini Japaneses! Ironically, after doing minimal work and scraping through G5 theory DS1 has since done quite a lot of it for his bass/guitar lessons! DS2 is now plodding his ways through various topics at G3 and G4. Think it'll be quite some time before I have to worry about an exam!
Patrick oh no! I hope he isn't too heartbroken!

2nd 10 year olds are nasty. One of DD's "friends" told her after a performance that she shouldn't have played the da capo (although Child did on her own piece) as friend wanted to be the only one with a long, wow performance. They are the same grade.

2nd, huge well done to her, so pleased they have seen reason and let her choose violin. And sorry she had rude responses
:( Classical music isn't everyone's thing I guess, but at 10 that's shocking manners.

Musical kids even more so, should know better :( Based on recent school concerts, the route to popularity is playing something people know the tune of, fast or slow. But pshh, play what she wants to play and can play well.

2nd - I can see how that would be very frustrating for your DD and for you. 10-year-olds and children around that age don't seem to have developed any kind of filter yet. A lot of hurtful things said by kids that age seem to come out of jealousy which definitely seems to be the case in those who have said negative things to your DD. Is she in Year 5 now? Does that mean one more year before they all go to different secondary schools?

When I was in secondary school, I went to one where it was cool to be sporty (which I was not) and definitely not cool to be musical in any way. Most of the music stuff I was involved in - orchestras and wind band - was outside of school so my classmates/school friends had no idea and I definitely learned to down play my ensemble involvement in front of my school-mates as as a protection measure.

The irony was however that although I was a competent musician, I was nothing special and was surrounded by exceptional musicians in the out-of-school ensembles. So, I ended up getting it from both sides: teasing from classmates who used to make fun of the 'music geek' and then barbed comments from the out-of-school musician high-flyers or at least wannabe high-flyers for 'only sitting Grade 8 at 16'...

Anyway, the lesson I took from all that is that there are mean fuckers everywhere and it was best to make my own little way carving out my path of what I was interested in at the level I was comfortable with. My own DD is about to leave Year 6 and I will be relieved to see the back of some of her classmates. But am also under no illusions that she won't come across equally if not even trickier characters in her next school.

Oh Melting, "the lesson I took from all that is that there are mean fuckers everywhere".. that's cracked me up laughing 😂

at folk

folkmamma thanks for the theory book recommendation I’ve ordered one.
DD back from a fab Germany music tour and had good news on the piano exam: 136 distinction. DD very pleased as its the best mark she’s had

We did g5 theory with the abrsm books, also “take five and pass first time” but I thought the blitz books looked better!!

My tricks for g5...learn the fcgdaeb then when you get into exam write them out, draw a piano keyboard, draw the staves and label the lines with the correct notes, write out the tone patterns for major/minor scales...

petra that's exactly what Noo did - wrote out all the key signatures and labelled with relative maj/min, drew her keyboard etc....

Do they have scrap paper available in theory exams?

Yes they do cat - it's scrap manuscript paper and you need to hand it in with your exam response. The invigilator encourages candidates to sketch a keyboard right at the start.