January to March 2019 music thread (Title edited by MNHQ)

[CruCru]

Hi all

Here is the new music thread for January - I hope no one minds me starting it.

I am mum to a son (7) who is learning the piano and trumpet and a daughter (5) who is learning the piano and violin. I am having piano lessons and played the trumpet as a child.

Some of the people on these threads (and their children) are fantastic musicians. Some are more like me. All are welcome.

Thank you to Wafflenose for all the time she has spent managing these threads.

Agree with everything Neleus has said and I would add the tip of playing in unfamiliar surroundings. This could just be in a different room from usual (obvs not easy with piano ha ha) or round at a friends or relatives house. Or an empty room at school. Anything to get them out of their comfort zone to prepare for playing in the unfamiliar territory of the exam room. Unfamiliar surroundings should also help to focus the mind and not lapse into the daydreaming as well as getting used to playing in different acoustics. My poor DH had to resort to watching my DS practising for his G8 to counteract the daydreaming. Annoying but it worked!

Well, it's surprisingly quiet here, dh is working in London and will be back in small hours and dd finished hers for a couple of days, back to school sunday.
Dh doing a masterclass in a Northern City with another sax player. Dd has decided she's signing up with the other to get a different experience I hope he takes it well

Do look around for particular masterclasses, lots of shops are hiring venues and bringing in specialists, also covering instrument sales and accessories, advice and a fun day and they are free.
Just have a google, it's amazing what's about.

I’d second on the masterclasses. DD has done a couple of piano ones (organised by school) and they were really useful!
If anyone can help me I’m looking for a holiday camp/club that’s orchestra/strings based for DD to take her cello to. We’re midlands based if that helps.

Will keep my eyes open Mabby as we are both Royalty

My guys did 1 1/2 hours practise daily for their g8s. It was split into two sessions. The first session was for isolating bits and practising passages. The second was a run through, plus scales etc, for stamina.
Ideally, they would have done two hours a day, but schoolwork meant that wasn’t really possible.
I also echo what has been said - it’s great to play in different acoustics.
Get lots of practise with the accompanist. Stamina is a huge factor for grade 8 upwards.

Thank you fellow queen! 😊

Thank you Boys and Shaky more great advice! Hadn't thought at all about changing the practice site... Run through with the piano today - should give a good indication of what still needs to be 'tweeked'!

Good luck finewine we are also preparing for DDs grade 8 in a few weeks...hopefully all will go well. Also have DS2 who is super anxious about his grade 1 clarinet in 2 weeks’ time. He panics if he makes any mistakes and puts his clarinet down so just trying to get him to run through the programme without stopping. DS1 is doing grade 2 piano and completely blasé, just bombs through despite quite a few slips hard to believe they are brothers 😂

Hi there! Also on exam prep duty here at the lower end. DS(9) is taking two grade 2s and DD(rising 7) taking grade 1 piano. After being worried about DS being ready in time and DD being nearly ready months ago, DD is now littering mistakes and DS has jumped up to the line. There's always got to be one to worry about! DS sounds a bit like your DS1 in approach lotsofmilk, he's bombed through so many times he can actually do it pretty accurately now.

finewine another thought. I seem to remember that you don't have to play the three pieces back-to-back. I'm fairly sure that you can do the 2 accompanied pieces followed by aural, extracts etc before playing the third piece. Can anyone confirm?

Thank you LIttleladsdad - I've had a look at the ABRSM website, looks like you can do the exam sections in any order, so then depends whether the 3 'pieces' are counted as one section or three seperate sections - I will investigate further....but putting the aural before the scales may also provide a useful break...

Thanks Cat and Shakey!

She is on Violin Star 1 and Strings in step book 1 at the moment(on French Folk song at the moment).

She loves huming and singing all the time and loves all types of music, very different from my elder one who has refused singing flatly every time. She could also read the notes quite well by herself.

Hi Shaky, how long do we need to practise for G8 if we could only do 45mins aday. We have all the time in the world(yr6 and state school, almost no homework) however her retention and focus drop massively after 45mins.

greenleave could she do a bit in the morning and a bit in the evening or a bit straight after school and a bit after supper if she needed more time to cover the material? Does she definitely want to do grade 8 at the moment at all? At the end of the day the bulk of it is learning some nice music that she'd probably want to learn anyway, she doesn't need to enter till she has a programme learned and ready to polish up. How long that takes depends on whether she can basically sight read the notes/fingerings/bowings or it takes months to work out section by section.

She has been playing playing G8 pieces level for some times now however hasnt had exam for a long time since G7. Her teacher suggests her to take it. They will be choosing pieces next lesson. She is truly not a morning person. I will suggest 30 mins in the afternoon then 30 mins in the evening, thanks for a great idea.

greenleave my daughter took hers in year 5. She was ‘disappointed’ with her mark, but still got a distinction! I would definitely split up the practise times. My daughter started doing 45 minutes and then went to an hour and up as the exam got closer.
We did aural practise every day, as those are not exactly easy. She also did lots of scales practise as there were 95 scales with three different articulations! I kept a chart so she could see her progress, which really helped. And she did sight reading daily too. So her practises were regimented so nothing got missed out.
Also, it’s about trying to keep it fun and remebering that as the exam looms, that you just stay the course!
Miss 12 now has her ATCL in year 7, and is trying to take her DIPABRSM in year 7 too. Thought that’s more likely to be in y8, as the Viva Voce requires a huge amount of work. We’ll see how much work she does...

I mean she took her ATCL in year 7 term 1. So she is trying for Dip at the end of year 7.
I guess how long it takes to prepare is really up to the amount of work she can put in and what her technique is already like. Also, whether she’s aiming to do as well as possible!
We did a lot of choir and a Capella work that year too so she found the sight singing quite easy compared to what she had been doing in the groups. That is well worth doing!

I think managing focused for 45 mins is pretty good for that age. Mine doesn't. Occasionally when he's so into it, yes, but usually after 20 mins he would say 'tired' and seek for a break... Most of his practice happens away from home now I have no idea how he is dealing with it. I imagine staining out of the window is part of his practice routine!

Shaky, was it you who mentioned someone in the big orchestras and teach are doing Uber due to the hardship of making a living from music? That's seriously disheartening. Nothing wrong with Uber but, even teaching alone cannot bring enough money...? After all the training and discipline....

Yes that is sad on the Uber front although I know quite a lot of musicians (several with both partners musicians) and most of them seem to have a reasonably comfortable lifestyle especially once get into 30's/40's. That said they do a lot of teaching in addition to performing and are quite entrepreneurial with a portfolio of lots of things going on - solo, ensemble, bands, orchestra, teaching at various schools, teaching privately, teaching on courses, judging competitions, composing, arranging etc. It almost seems like business skills (marketing, legal, financial, social media/SEO, website, graphics) should be compulsory for musicians who want to make it a career.

Herts, I am glad to hear that you know quite a few musicians who lead a reasonably comfortable life by juggling various roles and projects. It may not be great for someone who pursue performance only career, but I think the juggling jobs as a trained musician/teacher suit my easily bored DS better. He is a natural multitasker and he would probably enjoy it rather than being stuck in one profession. Definitely a lot more enjoyable (for him) than being in an office or lab.

I guess those who manage to make a living from juggling are still very fortunate and many others struggle plentily but nice to see there is a hope!

But doing Uber is a totally different story. It's very sad unless there was a reason other than financial difficulty...

Herts

That's so true, and it can be a difficult balance too.
If you have something important on that you need a good focus for, you can't be teaching kids their CDE's and listening to bad tuning, all day.
But you can't afford to put all your eggs in one basket.
Dh is currently writing a study book, programmes for masterclasses, arranging for big bands, touring with the BBC twirlies and Jazz gigs.
When he's quiet he has instrument repairs as well.
It's not what I would call a comfortable living, but it keeps the wolf from the door.

I meant to add, that at dd school they have classes on networking and she has been doing this for a couple of years now.
It's mostly fb she uses, but has lots of followers on Twitter too.
it's a must for publicity too, just upload your gig dates or concerts, maybe some photos of recent work.

It was actually from me talking to the examiner, prior to Christmas. He’d just told his son not to take ‘A’ level music, despite being a good musician. He said it was heartbreaking, but he knew people that...
And that was when he explained about them Uber driving.

On a side matter, don’t you just love it when people don’t equate hard work with results. I keep hearing how it must be great to have talented kids - but actually they work really, really hard. That’s how they got there. But no...apparently it was all in the genes. Sigh.

Shaky I always say that DS has benefitted greatly from having an outstanding teacher. I know exactly how lucky we are - we have struck gold. Without a great teacher even the most talented kid ain't going anywhere ...

I think musical success takes a combination - sheer love of the thing, talent, hard work, good teacher, family support.