Spring 21 virtual music thread

[thirdfiddle]

New year, new lockdown, new virtual ensembles and digital exams - welcome to a new, virtual, all digital, socially distanced music thread.

This is a continuation of a very long running and friendly series of threads, dating from long before my time, and anyone with music learning kids from pre beginner to music college is welcome to jump in at any point. Thank you to our esteemed founder and to all the lovely knowledgeable folk who chip in.

PS success stories welcome too, we like a cheery post. Never mind the stealth boasting here, just boast, your kids earned it.

@WordsandMusic2020 Thank you very much.

@ilovesushi DD started piano as second instrument on the last September. She practices 20 minutes every morning before school. 10 minutes study such as scale, Hannon etc and 10 minutes piece. That’s it.

Hi teachocolate. I have a violin playing DS. For the first few years we thought piano was his first study but it's pushed down to the second study over the years. He likes playing the piano and often uses it for composition etc but actual practice happens only once or twice a week 20-30 mins each now. Ideally I would like it to be 3-4 times a week but just not enough time.

Hi @manuelandviolin I have DS plays violin and viola and just started composition. He loves composing and his teacher strongly recommends him to start piano. Do you think if it is necessary to play piano? I am concerned maybe three instruments are too much for him and hesitating to start. He is not a serious musician but a music scholar and will do music GCSE.

Hi @teachocolate. It might not be definitely necessary but I think it's good to be able to play a bit of piano/keyboard. If your DS plays violin and viola at a good standard already, he probably doesn't need to invest lots of time to be reasonably good enough. My DS practised more regularly to a certain point but now survives with only once/twice a week of practice. It's doable. Of course, longer and more frequent practice would be better if he wants to improve though.

Thank you @manuelandviolin that’s helpful information. We may not start piano lesson at least now. DS is already busy by two instruments and homework. I will just support him to get used to read bass clef

Great to read about everyone's musical DC! How much does your child practise per day on their first / second instrument and roughly what grade are they?

Just realised I seemed to have mixed up posters. It was ilovesushi who asked about second study practice! Lovely to talk to teachocolate though!

@manuelandviolin no worries and it’s always good to know how other DCs are doing.

Hi polar, if I say how much practice mine do just now it would give a false impression of normal life! With no clubs on at all and homeschooling they have plenty of time. They easily do 30 minutes of each instrument six times a week, with the odd day off if they are tired etc but it's really part of the rhythm of their life at the moment as everything else so vague. DD 1 grade 7/8 woodwind, 6 piano, DD2 grade 4/5 woodwind and piano, ( also ploughing through theory whilst school not too taxing at the moment) , ds grade 5/6 Piano. I think every day helps, if I say just 10 minutes, it's always more as they get into it. Often it's because they are not challenged enough or don't actually know how to practice effectively that they get stuck and just stop. We have phases of this and their teacher writes out what a good practice would look like. Eg, play through, put a star above any tricky bits then only practice them for a couple of days before playing through. Otherwise they do what ds does which is start at the beginning, play till you get stuck then go back to begin and repeat, not the most effective way to progress! (The first page is always very good though!)

Polar - we are shameful I'm afraid.

DD2 (11), grade 6/7 flute, 4 cello, 3 bassoon manages 15 minutes on two every day (so half an hour in total) - she believes 15 minutes is the absolute gold standard and going beyond this is actually abuse.

I suspect that she's not going to be able to continue with this attitude as she goes up the grades - not even really getting through the flute pieces in the time now. I have NOT got the strength to argue.

DD1 (13), grade 5 ish violin and viola, 25 minutes a day split between both in a way dependant on which teacher has been most demanding this week.

We try to be efficient with the time we have as it is never very much (they are both very much into doing other things and I work very much full time and so does their dad)

Thanks mini and horsey! That's really useful- I sometimes find it hard getting the right balance between 'persuading' my DD to practice and just letting her do her own thing. Nice to know I'm not the only one.

My ds "practises" for around 2 hours a day on college days and around 5 hours a day on non college days but by practising I mean he usually sits sight-reading musical theatre scores rather than practising scales/his classical piece/going over fingerwork on tricky passages. So he's not really typical!

I'm so pleased that he appears to have got his composition mojo back! He composed a simple, but fully orchestrated overture in Year 10 which was to be submitted for his GCSE free choice but then got total procrastination about his set piece. Luckily exams were cancelled before his schools' internal submission date and the teacher used the first piece towards his CAG. Since then he has done not very much.

But then he got asked by his sister's musical theatre college if he would help them with a zoom project. They are writing the script and lyrics to a musical and asked if he would provide the music and he's been loving it. His college say it can be classed towards his work experience hours and last week he taught a group of Level 6 diploma students over zoom, the song he had written to their lyrics. He's also produced some incidental music for them. It's really fired him back up again.

Good evening mamas,

Does anyone have any insight or tips on what should be included in the interview recording for JD application? Is it supposed to be in a form of an interview where someone asks questions and DC answers? Or is it just a monologue?

Thanks and good luck to everyone!

@Comefromaway that sounds brilliant!
@MissScotland we got told to answer the questions however they liked, interview with a family member, monologue. They could use the exact questions or add their own things. I let DD do her own thing, didn't want it too scripted by me! She did it kind of by saying 'I'm going to talk about what I like about my instrument, why I want to join the RCS juniors and my musical experience and influences' which was the questions given. Remind them to look at the camera and not just the screen, first take looked awful as her notes were at wrong height but once we sorted that it looked more natural. They have done loads of playing for the camera but no talking to it so this was actually the hardest bit. It's hard because if live, the interviewers would probably prompt for more eg tell me about... but here they just have to say what they think. Her teacher thought it was nice though so we'll see!

Thank you @comefromaway
We might try another video in the form of an interview, might help her. She's only 9 :-)

Oh, that's hard for a nine year old to do it by themself. My 10 year old wouldn't have much to say. Maybe ask the question then a back up question to draw out a bit more if necessary. I'm sure if it was live they would be relating it to what they said on the application form to stimulate a bit more chat. I'm sure they are adept at seeing whether it is all scripted or not!

@horseymum My thoughts exactly. Thanks!

Hope your filming goes well! We are hopeful that we can knock on the head all the outstanding ones this afternoon,
festival entries which seemed like a good idea in November!

Hi. Not extra-curricular as such.... but perhaps of interest? St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh are doing online advisory auditions. If you already have recordings made, why not send them in for an opinion? It's a really good specialist school. And they've just put a call out for recordings. There's no minimum grade requirement - it's about potential.

1st full dayback at college yesterday for ds. It was a long one 9am - 5pm (though with a 90 min lunch break. He got home at 5pm and was fast asleep by the time I got back in at 6.30pm!

Poor dd only lasted one lesson though before she was sent home. Suffering side effects of her covid vaccine.

At Mary's looks amazing but the fees assistance are on a sliding scale and my DH has a fairly comfortable salary so the fees would be massive still!