Summer term 2019 music

[thirdfiddle]

A new installment of the long running music parent threads. Everyone is welcome from complete beginners to grade 8 and beyond. Thanks as ever to the lovely waffle for starting the threads up and looking after them for years. What are your plans for the coming term? Any exams, auditions, festivals, new instruments? Please come and chat.

So.... DS decided last weekend that he was keen on applying for SWMS. Form all done plus reference and I'm now sat here trying to be calm about the fact that his audition videos aren't uploading to YouTube 😬. Is it meant to take ages to publish a one minute video?

Hi all, hope there’s room for a newbie?

My only DD, 8, takes after me for multi-instrumentalism (if that’s not a word it damn well should be). She’s just passed Grade 1 singing with merit and is prep test/ early Grade 1 stage on harp, violin and piano.

Getting a practice regime is interesting, I’m the main instigator as the only other pianist in the family and DH, despite being a brass player, doesn’t enforce practice if I’m working away. Any tips to keep momentum going when I’m not in the same house?

I'm breathing again now I've sorted DS's application and pressed send - gulp!

Welcome Margia. I'm not very musical myself but I did play a little bit as a teenager and I watch most of the lessons so I've got enough of a clue to supervise music practise (& much more of a clue than DH who isn't musical at all and hates noise!). Suffice to say that practise rarely happens if I'm not in the house although DH will now remind DS and a token effort will be made. Better than nothing (probably...).

I should have added that practise generally happens around the same time each day so the routine helps.

Hi MargiaStevens. I think we are pretty desperate to have more and more newbies as many old posters kind of disappeared! So, welcome!

My DS plays only two instruments so can't really give you first-hand advice. But I know a few multi-instrumentalists and the most impressive one was a girl who I met at jd - she played five instruments to a high standard. Her older sister was the same and their mum traveled a lot for work (their dad didn't get involved in their music study at all).

The mum would moan their choice to continue all the instruments to jd standard was 'absolutely crazy'. I noticed though, the mum was incredibly organized and the girls were highly self-declined. The mum supervised the girls' weekly timetable even when she was away for work. She had written down their homework and practice plan and would call them to check whether things had been done. The girls seemed to follow the schedule happily and would often report back to the mum what they were doing next.

I'm sure this is pretty unusual, especially for their age (The older one was preteen and the younger one was still at primary school). Amazing...

*declined = desciplined...

Good luck to KittyOSullivanKrauss's DS.

Hi Margia. I'm intrigued to know what instruments you play now. Kids' piano teacher says she likes teaching multi-instrumentalists and thinks the more they do the faster they learn. Your DD must be very keen to want to do so much!

We usually aim for practices after tea but get one out of the way straight after school if not doing other things. There is a small screen time reward once it's done which does cause DS (10) at least to go and practise without prompting. He does need reminding every few weeks of the difference between practice and playing through your pieces with the same mistakes every day. DD (7) needs reminding to start and usually wants company/help. Where is your DH coming from on this? Is it that he doesn't approve of enforced practice, or he's just not on top of things? Unless you have a super organised 8 yr old I think convincing DH may be your best bet. I do think they need to progress to make it fun, and (with honourable exceptions) they need to practise to progress. My DH is not musical at all but has got on board with "don't forget your piano practice". Though I did discover recently he tried to stop DD using the metronome because it was too loud for him! Brownie points for DD, no brownie points for DH.

And yes, good luck kitty's DS!

I’m not a frequent poster anymore because of privacy issues, but just wanted to drop in to say hello to the newbies and good luck to Kitty’s DS! There are a few SWMS people on here.

@margiastevens - lovely to find a fellow Chalet School fan on here 😉 maybe I should change my name to NinaRutherford, although Nina was a bit odd tbh. Not one of my favourite characters, despite her piano prowess.

Hi all!

Thanks for the warm welcome! Thirdfiddle, my main instrument is viola but I’m also equally proficient on violin, piano, flute, trumpet and percussion. I can get round a french horn and bassoon as well...! I’m slightly envious that DD plays harp (is it wrong to start learning myself?). My parents are both retired music teachers and in half terms if someone got bored a new instrument found its way into the house...

In terms of practise, I have a notebook where I write down what we’ve done and aim for three instruments each day. Hubby gets the need for practice BUT... DD clashes with him because, as far as she’s concerned, because she’s never heard him play he therefore knows nothing about music. Oops! He’s also a bit of a “oh we’re all too tired so let’s put the tv on” parent.

I don’t expect him to supervise violin practice at all, but she could do piano and harp fairly well, and sing unaccompanied, so I think I just need to get him to man up a bit!

That's so cool! You must have a house full of instruments. Viola is my main instrument too but just for fun. Do you play professionally?
Can you convince DD to at least play through her pieces if you're not there? My DH genuinely doesn't know anything and even he can manage that much encouragement. Maybe if you were super patronising and told both of them exactly what to do he might start engaging more?

No, never been a pro, I decided to go into healthcare instead!

Good idea with leaving detailed instructions, I shall try that!

Thanks for the good wishes. We have no idea if he's at the right level but there's only one way to find out & some other posters on the thread have been encouraging and helpful (thank you!). DS has gone from being lukewarm to really quite keen on the idea so we'll have our fingers crossed.

Hi margia! Wow, that sounds like your DD enjoys her music! We find doing one lot of practice before school helps, then fitting in one lot after school is not too bad. I have 3 doing piano so have to schedule these in so they are not clashing and wanting the piano at the same time. It's just the rule that practice happens everyday except lesson day so that if it is a super busy week or they are tired they can miss a day and still have done 5 which is perfectly fine I think. In terms of what to practice, their teachers are quite good at setting expectations. My DD was struggling for a while with what to do on one instrument and her teacher made a tick box page with scales, long notes with tuner, studies, pieces with metronome speeds so it helped create a structure.

Recently I've realised DS doesn't play much while he is supposed to be practising. I didn't hear a thing so went to his bedroom, just to check what he's doing. He was sitting on the bed and looking at the music. He said he's practising that way. Another time when I popped in, he was listening to some music (presumably the ones he's studying) using his phone. He seems to play without a bow for a good while too - hence no sound.

I mean, I understand studying the score is important and listening would also be very helpful. I am sure there are lots of exercises you can do without using a bow too. But his actual playing time seems to be a lot less compared with those silent exercises...

I don't want to make him play just to satisfy my worries in case he's doing the right thing, so I haven't said anything to him yet. But, I need a bit of reassurance. Should I say to him he is actually supposed to make sound!? Or is it normal to spend so much time on silent practice sometimes? I've spotted him being like this quite often.

It was easier to spot if he's doing things rightly or wrongly before as I sat in on his lessons. Now I don't attend any of his lessons I have no clue...

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice DD (Y8) is doing Gr5 music theory exam soon. While she was preparing for her music theory (over the last two years) her piano teacher said she doesn't want her to grade for next piano grade...she slowed down and didn't push her for harder pieces at all, I let it slip... So the next exam she'll sit will be grade 6. She wants DD to do Gr 6 at Xmas this year (which'll be 2 years and 1 term since her gr5 piano exam!) and to my question why she can't skip grade 6 and start preparing for grade 7, the piano teacher said that it's much better to do grade 6 and skip grade 7 and then do grade 8... Does anyone know if this is true? What's the difference? Why can't she steadily prepare for grade 7 from now and do it next year? Am worried that DD will not be able to do gr 8 in time, i.e. by end of Y10 (I don't want her to do any singing exams in Y11). Thanks.

p.s. oh the above was supposed to say 'piano exams' not 'singing'.

Hi notinahundredyears. I guess grade 7 could be more time consuming. Longer pieces, longer prep time, more time out from making progress. Whereas if she's well on top of the standard, grade 6 could be knocked off without so much work. Even if she didn't start grade 7 prep till she was well on top of that standard, it's still a bigger thing to do. Have you talked to the teacher about wanting to aim for grade 8 before year 11 starts though? They might just be thinking she's young no hurry.

neleus that's really interesting he's working that way, whether instructed or otherwise. I think you have to trust him to get on with it, he's done so brilliantly this far. Why not ask what he's working on? You're allowed to be interested even if you may not understand the answer!

Thank you for the reply, thirdfiddle! I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean though... You say Grade 7 is longer prep time - doesn't it mean it's best to start now so that she does it by end of next school year? Yes, did tell the teacher about aiming at end of Y10 for Gr8.

Notinahundredyears, DS took grade 7 after grade 5 by skipping grade 6. It didn't do any harm. I suppose the decision would be very much depending on the individual's needs as everybody develops differently. Perhaps, the teacher thinks taking grade 6 then skipping grade 7 would be the best route for your DD to achieve the target (grade 8 before Y11) provided she knows your DD very well?

thirdfiddle, thanks for your thought on this. You say 'interesting' which means you find his way of practising a bit unusual too? I asked DS what he was supposed to do, why he wasn't playing much, etc, but he doesn't give me any clear explanation. I must say he isn't great at explaining. He isn't very articulate. I know from experience, sometimes he doesn't cover what he is supposed to cover ('oh I forgot about it'). But also I know sometimes his method 'works'. So, it's a bit tricky how much to intervene!

Notinahundredyears, I think what I was guessing at is that any exam puts the brakes on progress for a bit. You're aiming to have three particular pieces in peak condition for a date determined in advance which you may not know. Whereas in normal progress you can move on to a new piece when you're ready and have different pieces at different stages of prep, for exam prep you need to have all three close a long time in advance so you're sure they'll be ready, but then keep them going till the exam, not move on.
This is less the case if you do an exam at a stage where it's easy for you. So if grade 6 is easy for her, she could be working on harder things this term, sight read the pieces in September, polish them up for a couple of months, done. Then go back to making faster progress aiming at grade 8. If grade 7 is currently hard, she could start learning the pieces and take it next summer, but then she's only learned 3 pieces in a year and lost momentum. Or she could wait till she's at a stage that grade 7 is easy, but then it's still more of a block than grade 6 would have been - longer pieces, more scales, more time consuming generally. Bit like pole vault competitions - sometimes it's better to clear a lower height for confidence then skip to your target rather than waste lots of energy on a height that's a few cm off the record. It is totally a guess that that's the sort of thought process though!

Neleus, it depends so much on his teacher's general approach and what particular aspects of your DS's playing they are trying to work on. Yes I'm a bit surprised not more bowing - there's so much to do with bowing technique. But it could be he's better at that aspect, or they're concentrating on left hand first, or this is an approach for learning new pieces or difficult passagework. Does he talk to you about what pieces he's learning or if he's doing exercises?

I've been told to do bits of left hand only before, so has DD from quite early on come to that, but not lots ever. But then I've never had a really top level teacher either. I really do just mean I find it interesting - nothing more constructive sorry!

Thanks thirdfiddle. I always value your comments and find them very helpful. DS is reluctant to 'describe' things as it doesn't come naturally to him. BUT, I asked him more today and managed to get more information.

He does a series of silent bowing exercises also so it's not that he's focusing on left hand only. He also said when he is learning new pieces, and especially when he's trying to memorise them, he often works on left hand without a bow. It's interesting he's actually working on memorising now. He always memorised very quickly without trying. But now he deliberately has to do the process due to the increase in the amount of work as well as materials being quite dry. It's good that he needs to push himself like that as he is very laid-back by nature which is good but not so sometimes.

It may be something to do with stamina also? He can play football all day but he gets so tired so quickly when he practises violin. He says it's exhausting. He seems to have lots of (quiet) pauses between exercises, which I think is fine as I would rather like him to build up stamina slowly and steadily.

Ah that makes sense neleus. Good practice for him describing it to you, if he does go for a musical career he's likely to want to teach at some point!

Suppose it's time for him to start reading other than Wimpy Kid....