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!

Hi all, I'm new to this thread (not to Mumsnet)but have been following the threads for a few months. My dd is 9 (coming to end of Y4) and has Clarinet Grade 1 tomorrow (she started in September) and cello Grade 1 next week (she started this at beginning of Y3). I was wondering if someone could explain the exam process? We have had a practice with the pianist but was wondering what the process of the exam was. It is ABRSM. Thanks

Hi Worriedmum42
This is from DS2:

• You arrive at the exam venue, give the administrator your name, hand in the piece of paper with your choice of pieces on.
• You're directed to a warm-up room, where you have time to run through a piece or two.
• You are invited into the exam room.

• The examiner will ask you to play the accompanied pieces first (from group A and group B) then the accompanist leaves.

You can choose what order you do the rest in.

• Play your group C piece.
• The examiner will ask you to play some scales, arpeggios etc (this can be any from the syllabus but won't be all of them).
• The examiner will give you a simple piece to sight-read. You're given a short period of time to study it (or even play it through quietly to yourself first if you wish).
• The examiner will perform a short aural test, as explained on the syllabus.

That's it.

This is on the ABRSM site for candidates in the USA, but the advice is applicable anywhere.

Cat - I know - I get / got a year+ out of dominants!! dS2 also wears out socks...

For strings, they literally wear away where his fingers go. You can, for example, see the d Major scale as worn thin marks (and the strings lose tone quality). Nails super short so it must be his sweat and heat... suggestions for resilient strings welcome

TheThirdOfHerName thank you. Are we supposed to have the piece of paper to write the pieces before hand or are you given it when you arrive? We haven't been given anything by her teachers. Thanks again

DS2's teacher always gives him the piece of paper at his last lesson before the exam. This might be because he doesn't come to the exam venue on the day (DS2 is accompanied by someone else).

Will your DD's teachers be at the exam venue too (e.g. accompanying her)? If so, they will probably bring it with them.

I'm not entirely sure if the teacher will be there...I actually don't get very much communication from him (School based lessons) and have to email him through the school music coordinator. I have seen on the website you linked a downloadable slip so have done one just in case...thanks again.

Hi worriedmum yes I just downloaded the slips from the website good luck to your dd

Double great news how exciting to play at RAH .

Have lurked for some time. Not a full intro but just wanted to share with understanding audience. My youngest who is somewhat in the shadow of a very academic elder sibling just passed grade 1 viola with 137. ( passed piano with a pass earlier in the year) I am so pleased for her!

That's great Wandastartup
Clearly she has a flair for the viola.

Thank you trumpetboysmum and Alexandraleaving*

Don't worry about the slips worriedmum there will be some at the venue - in fact I've never filled an ABRSM one out in advance! Good luck tomorrow!

Thanks littleladsdad. It is all a new experience so just want to be able to reassure dd in the morning. I'm sure it will all be fine (fingers crossed!)

Great news Wanda !! Dd is often in danger of feeling like she's in her brothers shadow ( though we all as her family try to make sure that it doesn't happen) so it's really lovely when they do their own thing and feel that they have done it well.

Cripes taggie, that's an expensive habit. Hesitate to suggest more robust strings as it may just be a way to burn even more money in his case! You could try putting on obligato or evah pirazzi sometime when he has a big performance coming up then you at least get to enjoy the extra tone if it doesn't work for durability. Not an expert but I'd guess obligato might work better for durability as slightly lower tension? I probably shouldn't admit it but I did have a set on for 8 years once Included having 2 babies but quite a lot of playing in between!

We are definitely in Taggie's camp I'm afraid. E string snapped early June so I put a new string then now I can already see his finger marks on it. We use gold for E so the discoloured parts are just too obvious...

Sorry to barge into this thread , but in case it helps - Worriedmum42, you can also watch a video of an actual Grade 1 exam on YouTube, and I know some people who found that very helpful to see exactly what would happen. It's worth warning a child that the examiner will stay very neutral, no matter how well or badly they play, and will say something like 'thank you' after each piece with no expression. For children who are used to teachers or parents giving lots of praise, that can be very disconcerting, and they can assume that it's all going wrong, when it really isn't! My little friend was very grateful to have been told to expect that.

DS was asked to join the end of a term music concert at school. But it was rather short notice and because of all the events related to Year 6 running almost every evening he had no time to revise his old big pieces. So he picked a simple piece which he has recently started playing. It's simple enough to memorise the notes but can easily be murdered with poor bowing. And of course he had never played with piano... But he played fine. He managed to give sensitivity and delicacy to it. It was the last concert at the school so it would have been a real shame if he hadn't taken part. I felt a proper closure by finishing off nicely like this.

He's starting to learn a concerto he's dying to play this weekend. That's so exciting!

Ooh what concerto PatricksViolin? Yes the gold ones are known to wear quickly. Say how about silver coated rather than steel coated for those with sweaty finger issues? Might be less susceptible? Gold is just soft though.

Meant to say, a big well-done to TheThird's DD. Big well done and a viola high-5 to Wanda's DD. And good luck to worriedmum's DD, two in one term is brave! At least she'll be on the ball for aurals!

DS is continuing to study Bach A minor with his current teacher so they are starting to work on allegro assai (hurray, the last movement!). But then he's off to a school trip for the whole week next week. Not great time to start a new piece (as possibly he'll forget what he learns...). But the teacher offered an extra lesson and she is available only this weekend so he just has to get on with it!

Thank you for all the good luck messages. It seems to have gone okay as far as we can tell. The boy who came out whilst she was in the warm up room was in tears but she came back in waiting area quite smiley. We will see! Now full on cello practice for next Friday.