September 2018 Music Thread

[folkmamma]

Hi all! Our lovely host Waffle is away at the moment and has asked me to start this months thread.

Here is a place for us to share stories, ask for advice, and generally support one another through our DCs (and in some cases our own!) musical journeys. All are very welcome, from the early beginners to the very advanced. Some people have been regular contributors for years, but we also have a lot of newcomers and love welcoming new contributors to the MN Music Thread team. I became aware of this group about 9 months ago via the NCO 2018 thread and I now spend more time here than on Facebook... .

Over here, I have Noo, just turned 11, violinist, violist and pianist. She is playing at aroud G7 standard on violin (first study) and is starting JD this month, eek!. Noo is also an associate member of NCO and this year joined the Pro Corda ensemble training programme, which she loves above all else! She is also very into musical theatre and regularly performs in professional and semi-professional shows - it is a challenge to juggle it all, but somehow we do. This month is a biggie for Noo as she starts secondary school as well as JD.

DD2 is Moll. 8yrs old and plays cello and piano. She is a very different kettle of fish to big sister - every bit as able, but some self esteem issues, together with a slightly quirky personality, mean her journey is not often quite so smooth (and mine completely turbulent!). Working towards G3 cello this term (although she doesn’t know it yet) and will go for a consultation at Noo’s JD sometime this term also.

I’m sure Waffle will drop in to update us on Goo, Rara and her own musical self once she gets back from holibobs.

Good luck to everyone with back to school, changes in school, new routines and audition prep! I predict September will be a busy month on the thread!

Over to you....

Interesting discussion about practice. Definitely agree with floot's "work smart not hard" idea - always been my way of getting away with things both academically and musically :)
Mind you I practice so little it has rarity value!

I like to add that practice doesn't happen only in a practice room. While you are waiting for a bus, when you are about to sleep, when you are playing sports, and when you are listening to music, they can all contribute to solve a problem or improve your playing if you are aware of what you are doing (and deliberately linking to what you are practising in a practice room remotely). It's quite interesting how much 'practice' people can actually fit in their busy life if you start to think this way and use the power of mind.

I teach it, Druid...but the majority of pupils pay no attention. Likewise, I diligently write down everything they need to work on and how to tackle it, but they ignore that too.
My ethos is that your brain is a computer that needs programming - garbage in, garbage out. So, for example, when playing a scale, a pupil might play G, A,B,C,D,E,F...F#, G, and then be surprised when, the next time they try it, the exact same thing happens. I tell them they need to stop at the point of error, think about what and why and then go back a step and correctly input the right note - so, slowly play E, F# a couple of times, then go back further, D,E,F# etc. It's pure muscle memory but can only be memorised if it's played correctly first.
If you keep putting the same in, you'll get the same out, positively and negatively.

Yes, Patrick, mental practice is invaluable.

Very interesting discussion on practise !! Sometimes I think ds overthinks things when he hits a problem ( but having read this thread maybe I’m wrong) . He’s getting better at practising smarter but it takes time to get practise right - and it’s easy to slip back into old ways .
For a first trombone lesson I would expect lots of buzzing on the mouthpiece and little playing on the trombone !!

DS's teacher gave him a good talk about practice last week. He is trying! (Teacher that is. DS not so sure.)

And yy to head practice. I used to practice orchestra music on the train. Particularly good for passagework - if you know which finger to put where without the prop of physical or sound feedback, you really know it. Also for memory if you want to play something by memory. Not much good for bow technique or intonation though!

Normally Noo will do 1-1.5 hours on a Sunday, 30 mins before school on Monday, 1hr on Tuesday, 1hr on Wednesday, 1hr on Thursday then rest day on Friday. That's on violin. She will then do 15-30 mins on each of viola and piano on top depending on if/when it can be fitted in, but usually manages 3-4 sessions on each per week.

Monday is a 'light' day on violin because she has a singing lesson every other week, senior strings after school and then her piano lesson, which I think is quite enough! Rest day on Friday is because she has theatre school from 4.30-7.30, which is fun and a release for her, but is still 'work' in some ways. She comes home and goes to bed in prep for a full-on day at JD on Saturdays.

We need to practice smart this week as it's NCO today so no violin practice in addition to that, which means we lose our 'big' practice day. We sat and wrote her practice plan together this morning, and are going to try 'mental' practice for the first time tonight - I'm going to plug her into a set of earphones and sit her down with the music in front of her and get her to visualise playing her pieces whilst listening and reading the music - paying particular attention to the techniquey bits that were covered in her lessons yesterday. I'm hoping given her theatrical tendencies she will be able to visualise pretty well. In addition, before we went off to NCO we discussed how she can use the rehearsal to practice the technique stuff from yesterday. Even if she only thinks about it a couple of times, at least she is thinking about it IYSWIM.

Practice plans are invaluable for both her and me - it means there is no ambiguity about what needs to be covered during the week. Although as she is getting older I am handing over more of the decision making re: what to practice, when. She is getting very good at this.

We had a talk on the way home from JD about how she wanted to approach things this week - teacher is having a big focus on bow hold and has introduced some new elements to bow stroke, which really need my eyes on them to keep consistency and form good habits quickly. But I also don't want to spend the whole week battling with her so I gave her the option: Mummy in the room pointing out when the new technique is slipping, or no mummy in the room but it will take longer to consolidate on her own. She is very keen to impress new teacher and so made the 'right' choice (mummy in the room). But it will still be a challenge I think!

I'm learning soooo much about this from the podcast Crazy recommended, it's just gold dust.

Oh, but despite all this, she still HATES practice. But loves playing. Go figure.....

Interesting about the mental practice. DS2 doesn’t get much practice time but he spends hours everyday listening to music, always imagining himself playing or singing it. Maybe that helps more than you might think.

Definitely yy to making use of orchestra for technique! Lots of opportunity for vibrato and shift practice in the slow bits.

Also I told DS2 that at nco he must do his posture, tone and straight bow exercises at the beginning of every rehearsal (about 2-5 mins of Simon Fischer type stuff) when everyone else was no doubt showing off their big concerto cadenzas. It was surprisingly effective! He came home playing better, and with no bad habits.

After weeks of barely any practice, DS2 is having a concentrated session of cello practice this afternoon. There is a lot of work to do. (First piece just needs some work in places, second piece needs lots of work throughout!) i think piano practice tends to be a bit more focused in comparison, though.

He's stopped for snacks. Oh dear!

Loose, DS2 stopping for snack as soon as you mentioned he's having a concentrated session made me smile as it sounded like my DS! When I talk about him being diligent or being smart about his practice or basically praise his attitude, somehow he kind of stop doing it and I'm like, 'where has that boy I was talking about gone???' I don't know why! But it's as if he senses he's being talked about and decides to do the opposite!

Anybody else's DC do this? DS just started practising and within 5-10 mins he has played bits of 4 or 5 different pieces. He does this all the time. He just suddenly stops and starts with something else and then maybe 5 mins later goes back to something earlier. Drives me mad listening from afar although maybe method in his madness of jumping about the bits in pieces he needs to work on.

Mine does this herts. She says it’s to avoid a melt down when she can feel herself getting frustrated. Returning to the original piece is restored with calmness. Allegedly.

A lover of process she is not. End result...definitely!

Mine does this too Herts. Starts warm up, plays McDonalds jingle, something from Star Wars, back to study etc.

This is absolutely my DS! Jumps around, jams a bit, melts down when I suggest practising ' smarter' ie not from the start every time, super slow in the learning phase. DD is a totally different kettle of fish, metronome and tuner employed for every oboe session, long notes, studies, pieces, and then usually a decent period of 'fun' playing pieces from sound of music or greatest showman as well! A good 40-45 minutes every day without fail. So different!

Practise is the main cause for slight concern after this weekends exeat. He's doing lots of it but I'm left wondering about the quality of it as he seems to be left to just get on with it. Difficult for me because I'm so used to being there. Early yet but something to keep an eye on.

Glad to see I'm not alone. I'm not actually sure it is a bad thing - not much fun to listen to but maybe effective, well at least if not like that all the time.

Littleladsdad - I think you have gone through the looking glass on that one. I see DS every weekend unlike you but really have very little involvement in what he is doing. I see my main role as just making sure he is keeping all the plates spinning in the air across different teachers, instruments, forthcoming concerts, competitions in coming months etc the best I can.

Ealing: mine is definitely the same:); love the end result but not fan of the processing :).

My DS jumps between pieces a lot on the piano though he does work on small sections quite methodically.

It seems to work because since the end of August he has completed two pieces (not to exam or performance standard but not far off) and is halfway through two others.

Ealing and Greenleave, one of the articles I read about practising yesterday likened the process to enjoying a fire...but having to chop the wood first - you have to put the blood, sweat and tears in to enjoy the pleasure that follows. 😀

DS had a sour throat last week. He was fine on Saturday but got worse a bit yesterday and today he doesn't look good at all. The first day of missing school! Unlike primary school, his day now is so long that missing a day feels like he'll miss A LOT. But he really needs a rest today.

Oh Patrick, we do manuka plus lemon in warm water, try to see if it helps. We cough like an Orchestra as a family here too, always happen beginning of Autumn.

Floot, thats so true. I have someone who loves competition and exams etc. She is most motivated when put to exams, tests, competition...just doest like practise for it though