August Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Welcome to the new music thread for August - a place to discuss anything you like to do with learning instruments/ singing. We have child and adult learners on here, and all standards from toddlers experimenting with music to the very advanced.

It's coming up to 7 years since I started the first thread, and I have been flagging a bit lately due to a long illness. When I started the first one, my daughter Goo had just turned 6 and was about to take her Grade 1 recorder exam! She is now 12 (13 in two months), has done her Grade 8 Flute (result currently under appeal), is thinking about Grade 8 Recorder next year (having not played since Year 6) and is learning the piano. Piano hasn't gone well this term. Her teacher has been going on lots of last minute holidays and also has another job now, so Goo has only had two piano lessons since Easter. Teacher has now decided to retire from teaching, so we need to find a new one. Goo has never, ever performed on the piano and hasn't taken any exams either. She has been learning since she was 10, and was recently learning pieces by Bach and Chopin, although I have no idea what she is practising at the moment.

I also have Rara (10) who plays the cello, clarinet and recorder at a good Grade 4 level. It doesn't come naturally to her at all, but she's more inclined to work at things... when it suits her. She plays the clarinet most, but swears she's in love with the cello. Her bass clef reading definitely seems stronger. We have started and stopped theory three times. I think she is more than capable of doing it, but she's distractible, longwinded and feels the need to reinvent the wheel. I have decided to wait until she's ready to do the whole lot in one go... hopefully when she is a bit more mature and developmentally ready. Goo had it done and dusted at the same age and I find it hard not to worry about Rara at times, but in many ways she's just as able... but on her own timeline.

I usually have 80-90 woodwind pupils on my books - mostly recorder these days, although I'm a clarinettist really. I currently have a clutch of little clarinets, a couple of flutes and a good saxophone pupil, so plenty of variety.

It's not so hard to guess, isn't it? Not many boy violinists!

I had to leave my phone for repair at Apple store yesterday. I'm collecting it later today but can't communicate with DS until then. So it's nice to see the photos and videos just to see DS is still arrive and how he is doing though he appears playing footy more than violin in their photos.

ALIVE!!!

Not too many bassoonists either!

Glad to hear your DD’s settled raspberry! I’m sure once she gets there she won’t look back - almost all of DS’s friends ended up loving where they went last year, even those who ended up at insurances/clearing places. The only one who’s dropped out actually got into her first choice

Just about to set out for dd1s 1st day at JD

Good luck mending , she’ll have a great time 👍

Hope she has fun Mending. Does this mean lots of driving and a ferry crossing?

1hour 45 mins driving each way but no ferry

Todays program starts at 10 but normal start time is 8 no saturday lie ins for me

Mending good luck for today! Ouch to the early starts!
raspberry glad to hear things are settling for dd!
We are post-GCSEs here and DS1's life seems to revolve around music and staring at computer games. I fear for the future...! Sixth form is going to come as a shock!

@LooseAtTheSeams hope results were what you all hoped for??

@Mendingfences have a great day! We are joining the no-Saturday-lie-ins club soon too. Not looking forward to the early starts but very excited about what happens when we get there! 🤪

It's a good club to be in i think folk

folk yes he did fine, thanks! Very pleased to be going to his preferred sixth form!

Loose well done to your DS . What A levels is he doing?

Mine goes into the French equivalent of sixth form and likewise it will come as a shock. He hasn't been on the computer so much this holidays but he spends about 8 hours a day playing piano, when he's not with his girlfriend. He will have a heavy timetable this year - he is doing a science baccalauréat with an engineering option which means about 32 hours of timetabled classes, plus homework - and the long days are going to take some getting used to.

I might be the only MN music parent to ever complain that their child practices too much . I am looking forward to having the piano to myself when he goes back to school.

On the plus side he is progressing very quickly - this holidays he has learnt a Chopin nocturne, Debussy's rêverie and now he says he is going to start a piece from Ravel's Miroirs. Not at all ambitious then . He's had two lessons lol.

to Loose's amazing DS! You must be glad it's all over.

Just watched NCO Twitter. Some awesome tunes from West Side Story! can't wait to see the live tomorrow.

And, hope you enjoyed the first day of the exciting adventure, Mending and her DD1.

Well I had a brief chat with DS2 earlier, thoroughly enjoying himself. He'd been to three concerts last night.

Two of the three boys he is sharing with are also organists which is brilliant.

Well done to your DS Loose

Mistigri your DS is amazing!
DS keeps changing his mind. At the moment he's set to do 4 subjects in Y12 as the school still does AS levels. So currently those are English, maths, philosophy and psychology. Mind you, we'll see what happens when he goes to enrol!

Well done to your DS Loose!! Getting results has definitely relieved tension in this house.

What do people on here generally think about music GCSE? DD1 was recently informed her original combination of GCSEs can’t be faciliatated any more because of timetabling. She’s now essentially got to choose music or art but can’t decide between the two. She’s only grade 4 and 5 on her instruments and has only been playing for 2 years so is worried about the heavy theory element and the workload taking away from her main GCSEs (maths, sciences and languages are the ones she excels at really). She also doesn’t want it to take away from her enjoyment of playing, because she’s quite casual in her interest. Would be interested to hear experiences!

Good news about the gcses! And mistri i am in awe of your kids. No idea about music gcse, sorry.

Dd1 was very nervous this morning but both survived and thrived

DS and I were talking about music GCSE today, in fact. DS did exactly the wrong thing and chose art and music. In his case this was too much coursework overload but mostly his experience of GCSE music was quite positive and grade 5 level is definitely ok!
DS got a 7 (old A) in the GCSE. He only dropped 1 mark on performance and dropped 3 marks overall on the compositions - but that's just as well because he seemed to spend most of his GCSE slowly plodding his way through them. The written paper he found really odd - the essay bit was fine but he said there are questions about the set pieces where several answers could be right but only one will get the marks. So clearly he was struggling a bit there! But he genuinely enjoyed it.

Tabby if workload is bothering her I'd steer well away from the Art. DD did Photography, and she still shudders thiking about her portfolio. I have three huge folders tucked away on the loft in case she wants to look at them one day.

DS1 did old style GCSE and DS2 is 1 year into the new syllabus. There doesn't seem a huge difference. Grade 4 and 5 is fine for the start, it would be fine at the end. Ds1 did learn some theory outside class but that was partly because he had a rubbish teacher for most of Y10 and they were behind.

Neither boys have found it impacted on their playing enjoyment

The final block is now really limiting for her - it’s only got French (which’s she’s done) geography (which she doesn’t want to do) food tech (see geography!) performing arts BTEC (again, see geography!! Plus it sounds like a lot of work and she prefers exams) and then art or music... I think she’s more naturally drawn to art because it’s something she’s always been good at, but then music is something she’s recently taken up. I’m worried that because she plays very casually the GCSE might force her to be more serious, and then she might lose her interest. Thanks for the useful experience - she’s really been stressing about it today and yesterday. It’s a tricky decision. which could all be solved if Spanish wasn’t in the same box as German twice

From what you say there it seems like music might be a good choice.