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.

Well done minisnowball’s DD! Fantastic result! We got Trinity results through the other week - high merit for grade 1 singing so it’s merits all round!

That’s great snowballs, and margia. A merit is a really good mark. I am not expecting fantastic marks for my dd’s... so I hope the run of merits continues 😀

I have just looked at the timetable and my dd’s Exam was very early... glad it’s done and hopefully results before they break up for hols

Thank you for everyone who replied my post. I applied for NCO today.
Got audition date at our local venue. I am glad we are not in London as many London slots are sold out already! I will wait till NCO 2020 thread will be on.
I like the idea of black belt on ABRSM exam too!

Best of luck for the audition Karate

Thanks all - she was pretty sanguine about the merit in the end (though not terribly excited). Hope her teacher will be OK. And well done Margia's DD!

Anyone with any thoughts about how to polish pieces to get them from Merit to Distinction? DD2 tends to learn pieces very fast (and her teacher quite often gives her a study and a repertoire piece to learn every week or so, so she plays vast amounts of stuff in a term). It certainly pays off for sightreading, where she got 20 out of 21, but I wonder if she isn't learning how to get a piece really, really good?

She often only has her exam pieces for six to eight weeks before taking the exam, and has quite the low boredom threshold with them. The result is pretty much always a solid merit on pieces (25), decent scales and aural.

What does she need to do to become a really polished player, and is that something that can be learned? Perhaps she just needs to take things more slowly? She's 9, and G4 flute and G3 cello, but has only been learning for 2 and a half and two years (group lessons for the first years) on the instruments respectively? She's also quite small, so is maybe struggling with some of the physical requirements and stamina now.

Any thoughts from people who know this stuff would be fab. She has no need to rush through grades for the sake of it as far as we're concerned.

I'm not one of those who know this stuff as I'm just a mum of a child who plays violin and piano so no technical advice from me I'm afraid. But just to share my experience and thoughts on this...

I think polishing isn't easy for any musician at any level. Learning new pieces are always exciting, working in details seems to be quite fun too, but polishing needs huge amount of maturity and musical awareness...

DS got a distinction for all the exams from grade 1 to 8 (skipping quite a bit between), so he clearly did well with exams. But, to be honest, we never felt he polished enough for any exam/performance. There was always something wasn't right, and my son isn't particularly self-critical so often leaves some problematic parts once he considers it's 'OK'. Especially his piano is a bit 'OK' theses days as piano becomes more of a leisure than serious learning so he hardly ever polishes up any of his piano pierces for performance. You can tell he hasn't nailed it but still sounds nice. Perhaps nice enough to get a distinction still.

I don't think ABRSM expects perfection even at grade 8. For instance, if you see some of the repertoires listed for grade 8, you can see it's impossible to play very well for the players at that standard. So you've got to polish it but not as polished as you may think... I think luck on a particular day plays a big part also. If your DD gets Merit with good supporting studies results consistently, her technique must be secure for the grade, and I'm sure she was actually capable with getting a distinction. Those missing a few marks doesn't always mean because of her playing quality. It could be the examiner's personal taste, or she got distracted a bit, etc. Perhaps all she needs could be more performance practice prior to the exam day?

You can also see the criteria on the abrsm website and mark mock exams, which gives you an idea of what they look for. Even if you consider yourself not very musical, you would probably be able to make sense of it. She is still young and playing lots and enjoying it is important too. Playing under pressure is tough, my ds always complains as soon as I come in the room it goes wrong! Before the exams we often have them play to other people, it is meant to be a musical performance, not really like a maths exam. You need to communicate with some feeling. If any of the previous BBC young musician of the year is on anywhere still, watch some of them for the way they express themselves!

If she always gets a solid merit but wants to up her game to a Distinction I'd be asking her teacher how she can achieve this. Because if she keeps teaching her the same way that's unlikely to bring the marks up. Do any of the teacher's other pupils regularly get Distinctions? If it's always always a solid merit you have your answer right there.

Hello all, my apologies if this is the wrong sort of question for this thread but I’m a complete newbie to the world of music exams and lessons.

My dd has her piano prep test at Wolfson College, Oxford on Thursday. She is completely cool and collected but I am not! I know where the college is and have sat nav etc but it seems the parking there can be tricky and I just know I will panic a bit and I really don’t want to put that over on to her.

Has anyone had exams there before and can say if it is hard to park, or if I would be better planning to park somewhere entirely different and walk (the weather looks nice). As it is I am going to collect her from school early as it’s a minimum of 30 mins drive. I am the sort of person who needs to have a plan and I want to give her the best chance I can of doing well, it means a lot to her.

Thank you for any advice, I know once I’ve been there it will be fine! Your children all sound amazing looking through the thread, this is just the beginning for us.

Lots of good advice! My DD plays flute too she’s 14 now. I would say at your daughter’s age she struggled a bit with breath control and consequently tone which meant she was more likely to get a merit. Once she had grown a bit and also moved to an open hole flute the tone improved and she was able to get the higher marks. That’s the problem with wind instruments, they don’t generally come in small sizes! Grade 4 is a great start at 9 though ⭐️

Chickenitalia - traffic in central Oxford can be a nightmare and I suspect very little parking at Wolfson. If you want to be safe and avoid last minute stress get the Park and Ride. There is a stop a short walk from Wolfson.

Thanks all for your lovely helpful messages. Yes, I will talk to the teacher but suspect she’ll be thinking it through herself. She’s more a distinctions than merit kind of teacher in general I think.. given where she teaches. And yes lotsofmilk it is often intonation due to posture with dd2 - especially when stressed. She needs to grow!

Lots to think about anyway- meanwhile we have just gone with lots of congratulations and moving swiftly on to the cello concert she has next week. Thanks for all the advice.

Chickenitalia, my abiding memory of Oxford is the awful parking- my parents tried to stop me going there on the basis the parking was so bad. Can you park in old marston and saunter to wolfson through the fields? Good luck!

Chick - I live near Oxford and echo the advice to use the park and ride. If you go to pear tree, it is a short distance by bus to Wolfson. Good luck with the exam!

Minisnowballs congratulations to your DD, that's a great result. I think these exams are hard and she sounds like she's doing brilliantly. DS has only done two (piano) exams but has had the opposite scoring pattern. He was at distinction level in his pieces last time but sight reading and aural brought it down. Even now he's doing tons of sight reading but I think he'll do well to just pass this bit. His teacher has him doing the pieces for longer than you describe. The downside is that he can get fed up but they are sounding amazing. He manages boredom by having other things on the go as a sideline just for fun. He also plays for other people as much as possible to help manage performance nerves (he's not mad keen on this but he knows it really helps). His teacher says that getting the timing right for a child is tricky and it takes her several exams to know how soon/how late they can learn things, how they'll cope under pressure etc so maybe your DD's teacher is still figuring this out for her?

Thank you Boyskeepswinging!
Good luck to you too.
NYO sounds fantastic!

Someone directed me onto this thread, I want to start dd on the harp but
I have no idea about harps whatsoever.

I actually think maybe I just fancy one sitting in the corner so thought I’d use dd as an excuse...
thinking of hiring one initially. Then saving up for the next million years and then buying one.
If anyone can help me I’d appreciate it

Hi netflux! Children usually stick at something better that they have chosen and love but equally, who could not love the harp, it's so beautiful even when played by beginners? My friends DD plays the clarsach ( Scottish harp) and her dad loved it so started lessons as well. Maybe find a teacher to have a go and see how DD enjoys having a trial lesson.

Hi! Harp mum here, my DD has been playing since October. We rent a harp from her teacher and are frantically saving for the real thing but they are not cheap! That said, it’s a gorgeous instrument even in the hands of a beginner.

Just be aware, even with a lever harp, you need a good sized car and they’re not easy to lug around. Most parents of harp pupils have a 4x4/SUV round here and congregate at music festivals complaining of sore shoulders from the shoulder bags that are used for lever harps while only half jokingly wondering why our offspring didn’t want to play the triangle!

That said, I’m secretly quite glad DD took it up!

Believe me, parents of Harp players you do NOT want to encourage your child to play percussion! Always the first there, last out by a long way and then they may end up playing for five minutes in total in the whole concert if you're lucky! If it's portability you're after I'd go for Flute with their dinky little cases. Oh and they're always first out of concerts

P.S. Obvs I say all this tongue in cheek - they play what they love to play and that's it. But I do envy Flute parents. No-one envies Perc parents!

Had a real shock at the weekend whilst visiting University open days. The UCAS points gained from Trinity exams are not recognised by some unis. Others substitute these points if the lowest A level grade has less points. Trinity website very misleading. Turns out that my Son's french horn grades are useful only as a sentence in his personal statement.

Totally depends on the uni, Gira. Russell Groups tend to make offers in terms of A level grade eg AAA whilst others make their offers in terms of UCAS points eg 120. For the latter you can include the practical and theory grades that have points but only the highest. So if he has G6, G7 and G8 Horn only the points from the G8 can be counted. The uni's website should make it clear whether offers are made on grades or points.

Oh and your son will list his highest Horn grade on his UCAS application along with his academic qualifications so it will be seen by the Uni. For some courses having extra curriculars is important and of course if it's a music- related degree both practical and theory grades may be essential.

Where the offer is points, it's points from the best 3 eg 3 a levels, 2 a levels 1 Trinity if the Trinity is higher than the lowest a level points score. It cannot be in addition to 3 a levels. Admissions were very clear on this!

Gira, that's just that uni. They all have different entry criteria so others will not have the same approach.