Spring Term 2020 music thread

[squintsoftheworldunite]

Thought I would start the ball rolling on the first 2020 music thread since I’m awake. Happy New Year all of you and your lovely little musicians. Carrying on the long tradition of music threads here begun moons ago by wafflenose .... hoping our threads continue to be a place that’s welcoming to all, whatever standard, experience, backgrounds or situations of music bring you here.

2019 brought incredible music experiences for us, our biggest year to date. Exhausting but incredible. We said goodbye to the year with a final music lesson to end what has been an amazing first year on a new, and now first study, instrument. We’ve had a year free from practical exams but full of auditions and performances and so much to look back on with gratitude. I certainly couldn’t have predicted 2019 this time last year! I hope we can say the same of 2020 this time next year. Happy New Year xx

Congratulations to not so mini juggling! What a relief! An exciting next step.
We do post-exam cake too, rewards the effort rather than just the result. You can watch sample exams online if that would help you both. I would probably also prepare her that the examiner sticks to a script so won't say things like 'well done, that was nice' etc which might feel a bit off-putting.
Also make sure she knows what to do if she makes a mistake etc so it doesn't throw her off. Mine have all found the aural tests the hardest- singing to a stranger is tricky. You can find the criteria online so it will include things like confident response. It's quite helpful to read.

You can choose to do scales or pieces first I think. Most pianists do scales first to get used to the instrument. Often ones where there is an accompanist do those pieces first so the accompanist can leave ( it lets them start with the familiar person in the room) but they don't have to. The hostess/steward person can call in the pianist when the scales are done if you prefer.

Also practice in front of ' strange people' eg if you have a visitor, you could get her to do a piece for them, it's not showing off, it helps with nerves to have tried it in different situations.

Ha ha don't tell school about the cake. Cake doesn't take long and getting to exam/centre running late/doing exam/getting back from exam takes an indeterminate amount of time anyway. We often end up bumping into lunch break one way or other and have to feed them lunch anyway.

We don't tell school about cake, they don't know the exam is only 13 minutes long!

Ok great I won’t tell school about post exam cake!! Does anyone have a link to the example clarinet aural tests online, I assume it’s on YouTube. I have looked at some but need to be sure I’m looking at the right example before showing her!

Aural tests are the same across the instruments so a grade 4 piano exam or grade 4 clarinet will have the same format of aural test.

Ok thanks- will have a look at them then. I’m doing my best but know very little about clarinet !

Another cake fan here too - we celebrate the work not the result!

Not direct preparation for your DD as such, but I make sure I know exactly how you get to the venue and where to park, and allow plenty of time, so I'm not stressed and can concentrate on the DC

Good point re. Venue, thanks for that, any stress def. wouldn’t help. Thanks. I intend to celebrate effort too and the amazing achievement she’s making in even doing an exam!!!!

Does anyone have any good tips for brass players and braces? DS plays cornet and had fixed braces fitted yesterday. Google is telling me that the cornet is a terrible instrument for braces ...

He loves brass and does 2 school bands, he's going to hate it if he loses brass for the next year or however long.

I did a brass instrument at school (slightly larger mouthpiece than a cornet though) and had a brace for a few months, don't remember it ever being an issue, either with the playing or impacting the effectiveness of the brace.

Thank you, maybe it will be better than I'm expecting then. He's already had two types of removable brace to adjust his jaw and that caused him quite a lot of frustration so I'm dreading this stage.

Friend's DD who played trumpet switched to trombone for a couple of years?

Another vote for post exam cake. It’s pretty much compulsory....

Music centre had a few french horn players switch to euphonium when they had braces fitted because it's a larger mouthpiece.

I'd ask the advice of his music teacher, it's a common issue for children.

DS2 will be having one fitted in the next couple of months. He is 17 so a bit older than most. Hopefully as he is a bigger mouthpiece it's going to be ok.

Congratulations Juggling! We'll be waiting till April 1 for the US answers... my nerves can't take much more of this!

Loving the post exam cake tradition! We've done that sometimes especially after auditions.
Taking a sneeky few extra minutes for cake at home after an exam sounds great!
Also a great idea to check out where you're going and car parking options and allow plenty of time for any extra events with the DC.
It cost us £9 in car parking for three hours at Trinity and I had to get the change from a garage up the road.
Fortunately we had plenty of time to sort it out.
You can never be too prepared for all these things

The plenty of time and parking for venue was advice I gave on one of my very first posts on Waffle's original thread many years ago. Which she created for advice for her daughter's Grade 1 recorder exam. Lovely it's all still going on.

Thanks. His brass teacher is very nice and wants to see how it goes for a bit which is fair enough I guess. He teaches a lot of teens so he will have seen it plenty of times.

That’s funny how the thread has gone full circle then. Thanks for all the help. Not till March but will let you know how it goes.

Hello Alakazam, completely agree with all suggestions about the first exam. Although last time we had an after school slot so the post exam cake turned into fish & chips at the pub on the way home. It had the same effect though!
Before DS did his G1 he played his pieces at school for his classmates. Once he got to the exam room he realised he wasn't half as nervous as he'd been when he was about to play for his peers so it really helped him to feel calmer and confident. We do this every time now and he generally find exams much less nerve wracking than school performances. If your DD can get as many playing opportunities as possible this should really help.
She might want to be prepared that you won't be able to go with her to the exam room. You can be with her for the warm up but you'll be shuffled away to the waiting room once she's ready to go the the exam, and the stewards will show her into the exam room. If she has additional needs then maybe a dry run trip a day or two before just so she can meet the stewards might help (if this sort of thing usually helps her). They're usually lovely and friendly.
If she's practising well then she should be fine, good luck!

I just thought of something else: the examiner won't ask to hear all the scales. Just a few of them. Worth her knowing so she isn't thrown if she's been diligently practising all of them and she only gets asked for two or something. DS is always surprised at how few they ask for.

Wow! Well done to mini(?) juggling. Fab news. Greenwich is wonderful (though the parking is an absolute nightmare).

Alakazam, as the parent of a woodwind player (dd plays flute) the only thing I would add is to take some drinking water. DD always gets hiccups before her exams - I think it's a stress thing!

We have a G5 flute this term, and a somewhat panicky run up to G5 theory in summer, which DDs Saturday school has suddenly decided she needs to do - after airily deciding there was 'no hurry' in September. So she's now in classes with children who have done the four previous grades and started the G5 classes in September. At the end of a long day, too, which means she's exhausted by the time she hits them. However, after going into Saturday's class white and shaking, she came out informing me she made 'less mistakes than most people' (and I managed not to just shout FEWER mistakes)so confidence is restored a bit. I still think there's no hurry. She's 10, and she doesn't need to do all the grades for any particular reason.

Bassoon on the other hand is a huge hit. Six lessons in and she's on her first two grade 2 pieces. I think the main problem with this one will be that she's very small - she's not even on a tenoroon yet so it may be a long time before her hands are big enough for anything full size. Sounds less like a foghorn now though - and we're still on our first reed, which is better than I thought.