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.

Hello all! I’ve just found the new thread - slightly late!
DD has her grade 2 exam this week as another school have kindly loaned their examiner out. Means I have to actually take her though - so I was wondering if anyone has any dos/donts for the night and morning before the exam?
Best to do some practice? No practice?
Should she practice in the ‘warm up’ room?
Any advice gratefully received - I want to make it as exciting an experience as I can for her (she’s 8) without too much pressure - but still with her knowing it’s an important event!

@Pes0penguin we have not had an exam yet but when I asked I was told that there might be or there might be not a warm up room (unless you know the place and that they do have one there!), or that if you go early to practise and they see you are available you might be asked to start earlier. The website (now was it ABRSM or Trinity?) was saying the same and that you should spend the morning practising. So do they expect you not to attend school? If the weather is very good and fingers are not cold I have noticed that I need much less warm up.

Now let's have all the knowledgable and experienced people answer!

@chocorabbit - interesting about the warm fingers! Good one to remember!
They have said there will be a practice room available and her music teacher will also be there (as she’s playing the piano accompaniment)
The exam is at 9.40 so I’ve agreed with school that she just go in afterwards as it’s about a half hour drive from school anyway.

Pes0, I had good advice on this back in 2019, so I’ll share what worked for us.

• decent practice early evening the day before
• light practice on the morning
• warm up with a few scales and arpeggios in the warm-up room, and run through pieces if time, to get the hands moving and relax into the experience.

Take gloves and possibly hand warmer sachets or a hot water bottle to prevent chilly fingers.

Remind DC that an exam is just a chance to show someone else what they can do, and that the examiner wants them to do their best too.

Best tip I had? Treats and debrief in a café afterwards. A flask of hot chocolate and some biscuits is an acceptable substitute if no café option or time constraints.

As the parent in charge, plan the journey and write a list of all bits to take to avoid any last-minute issues.

@thirdfiddle it really is a good thing that I am a parent because I can push and rearrange her fingers any time I want apart from demanding a different seating position! She keeps resting her right hand on the guitar like I used to do (and I vividly remember my teacher correcting me!) and I keep raising it. Once she learns how to relax her right hand and play a lot faster there is no stopping! It's like learning to walk, why go back to crawling?

She has really long fingers and therefore properly right angled left hand fingering although practice makes it best and long fingers is not everything. In fact, I don't remember any of my tachers having long fingers.

Now she has started to use the 4th finger (pinky) more and it hurts. Let's see when she will build calluses. At least I know what to do. It's a question asked when you develop blisters. Should I perservere or rest? If you perservere for a few more days the blisters will go away and you will have a nice layer of thick skin on your fingeritps I remember studying on my desk as a young teenager and would place my left fingertips on my desk lamp's bulb and could hardly feel a thing.

Some times we spend 1 hour for 4 times a week so we have done lots more exercises than I had done. Later on definitely an experienced teacher would help but we will see when the time comes.

We have the Theory in Practice books from ebay for DD not the other reference books! But they are useless for us as they are based on exercises which I didn't know and had all been written. I thought they were just theory, that's why I bought the new "workbooks" too which saved us. I got the Taylor reference AB books for myself second hand and oh dear God, I so much prefer his TIP! But I still prefer the new Discovering Music Theory books.

I have seen that some of you want to go to specialist schools. We do not have sush an intention but what does JD stand for? And how does it work, do you go there after school, at weekend, or is it like a day school with all lessons taught plus lots of music teaching?

@OneLovelySister fabulous tips thank you! So helpful. I’ve written myself a list on your advice and will now seek out the gloves and thermos!

Pes0, British weather being what it is, you may opt for a fan and some ice cream on the day...

Sorry choco, may have been muddling the reference books with the ABRSM workbooks - we did look at the latter too but I thought the non abrsm ones were more small child friendly. Surely fingers can toughen up without blisters, you don't want to put your DD off. Violinists get tough finger pads too.

JD is junior department of a music conservatoire - they're Saturday schools with individual lessons, ensembles and other music classes.

pesOpenguin good luck to your DD! Excellent advice above. It's lovely teacher can accompany her, they will be able to tell her how much to play in the practice room too. We did more playing when it was piano and less when it was brass for fear of tiring DS out.

I think it might be a bad idea to post youtube links but since I saw so many cello players on here yesterday it was suggested and we watched FASCINATED with the children a lady playing cartoons' and shows' intros! The videos are called "Knightrider for 8 cellos", TMNT, Thundercats, The Imperial March etc. She has arranged all 8 cellos and recorded all of them separately and then joined them together! Now, that's something to play in an ensemble, although I am sure they must have other amazing repertoire too!

Thanks, thirdfiddle for explaining! Do the children still do lessons with their old teacher? During my last two years my teacher could only do weekly lessons instead of twice weekly and I feel I could have progressed more with twice quickly.

I developed blisters as an adult starting again since I didn't have a guitar for many years after I moved to the UK. As a child I never had blisters but it is a common theme with adults learning. I am sure all players of string instruments have calluses! I think that the new ABRSM books are more child friendly but then I am not a teacher. It's really great your books worked for you! It is a shame that due to the lockdown I couldn't actually visit a bookstore and see the books myself. It had never occured to me that a Waterstones might have music books and I don't know of any local music stores. Surely, there is Amazon but you can't actually see inside them and it is irritating!

I don't think it would be common for students to have a different teacher outside JD. Even at conservatoire itself friend's DS only had one individual lesson a week. Music schools may do more? I went the other way and had lessons every other week in 6th form. Teacher gave me plenty to keep me busy in the meantime!

Old member here with name change.
We turned down JD for DD to remain with her current teachers, and for other reasons but this was the main one particularly for one instrument. Really happy with the decision.

Just introducing myself, it's so great to find this thread

both my DS (7) and DD (9) are quite musical, DD plays violin and harp and DS plays cello . we've done a number of Trinity Digital exams in the past few months, DS has done G1 and G2 cello, DD has done G1 and G2 harp, and G4 violin (taking G5 this term). happy to offer any insights around Trinity exams as needed, feel like i have parent pro status for these now

i played instruments myself as a child (piano, clarinet) and am an adult starter on the violin (have done g7) although am no more than an enthusiastic amateur. i really enjoy supporting the children at home with their practice though, and seeing their enjoyment of joining an orchestra this term which they are loving.

Hi Lulu! Sounds like a busy musical household! And harp too - what a beautiful instrument to learn, your daughter will be much in demand. Joining orchestras/ bands was a real turning point for my two, they really enjoy the social aspects, even glued to the screen grumpy preteen DS. And DD is going a bit mad with it this term - she's 9yo violinist similar standard to yours.

We've only done one online exam last summer and think it's changed a bit since. DS is lining up g5 brass this term. One question you may be able to answer - is there any reason I can't make the recording first and submit the entry after?

no indeed, you can do the recording when you're ready and then making your exam booking after. Trinity is super flexible, so they recommend you book when you're ready to take the exam (or have it done already). from the moment you book, the login details will arrive within 7 days, and then you have two weeks from this point to submit.
just make sure you've read all the notes about the video process, although i found it far less complicated than ABRSM. there is no need for the children to speak, and i produce a type written programme which lists the pieces in order as well as every scale they will play. then they show this to the camera and work through the list. they do mark on the overall performance - my daughter lost a couple of marks for example for 'quick transitions' between pieces.

@LuluKentGirl

no indeed, you can do the recording when you're ready and then making your exam booking after. Trinity is super flexible, so they recommend you book when you're ready to take the exam (or have it done already). from the moment you book, the login details will arrive within 7 days, and then you have two weeks from this point to submit. just make sure you've read all the notes about the video process, although i found it far less complicated than ABRSM. there is no need for the children to speak, and i produce a type written programme which lists the pieces in order as well as every scale they will play. then they show this to the camera and work through the list. they do mark on the overall performance - my daughter lost a couple of marks for example for 'quick transitions' between pieces.

just to add, i felt the Trinity marking is supportive and positive overall, which is not the feedback i've heard on the ABRSM performance exams. in all their recent exams, the children scored slightly better than i was expecting.

Just wanted to say a slightly belated thank you for the exam tips. DD had her exam last week and (I think) enjoyed the experience although she was extremely nervous!
The debrief fry’s peppermint cream went down a treat 😁
There was a lovely supportive atmosphere in the waiting area with everyone doing a mini-clap of each other’s warm up pieces - as one of the teachers said, there’s been no performance for so long, everyone was just pleased to be allowed out!
Have realised it’s actually quite odd that DD (who started playing last Sep (2019)) has actually never played to anyone but her teacher before - and even the majority of that was on a laptop! Strange times indeed...!

That sounds like a job well done by both of you, Pes0 The result comes back quickly with the new electronic system - looking forward to an update, fingers crossed for your DD in the meantime.

Well done to your DD Pes0, no mean feat if she's never performed in front of others before. I always think just doing an exam is a massive achievement regardless of the result.

I haven't posted in a long time. DS plays piano and cello and we've just switched to new teachers for both instruments for various reasons. DS is really happy with the changes and even happier that he's starting to do some real life ensembles and loving it.

DS will be doing the online performance exam for piano this term (G5 ABRSM). There are some tips earlier down this thread that I'll look at but any other pearls of wisdom gratefully received 😊.

Kitty my dd is a pianist and cellist too! She did the G5 performance exam online last October. It was fairly painless. If the exam’s still online then abrsm has a couple of YouTube videos with tips and advice on.

I would also suggest a chat with the teacher on the playing order to make sure the programme is well rounded as they get marks for that.
We found that they were pretty critical. DD’s teacher did the recording of her so heard her programme. She said that the examiner was really picky! She did get a distinction but only just where as she’s been comfortably in for her previous exams.
Best of luck to your ds. We’re heading for g5 theory this month/start of June and then maybe g4 performance exam for the cello and/or g2 singing before the end of the school year.

Thanks Lulu, have been reading and rereading the guidelines. Currently at whyever did I volunteer for this stage. I don't want to be responsible! It does make sense for DS to do g5 as he hasn't done an exam since g2 but at his rate of practice it is soo slooow to get 3 pieces + technical work up to the line. Perhaps if there was a fixed exam date it might kick him into action.

Pes0 well done to your DD, sounds like a really positive experience - hope she gets a happy result to match.

Kitty, my tip is don't do what we did with DD last year, which was feel rushed to get something on film in case of IT fail, start trying to get a recording too early, try too many times and get DC thoroughly fed up so they don't want to try again. So this time we're going to have a sound check then best of 3 takes.

Thanks all - results came back super fast (about a week after the exam) and she got a high merit - DD was over the moon and I got to do some proud boasting
Also think the relief of not having to do the same pieces for a while has kicked DD’s enjoyment up again so she’s enjoying rediscovering old pieces/sight reading new ones.
good luck to everyone doing the recordings - we (I!) purposefully chose not to do a performance exam as I honestly can’t handle the stress/moaning! I’m not cut out to be a producer!
L

Fantastic news, Pes0, congrats to your DD!

I’m sure this positive experience (with your thoughtful support), and the great result, will be a real confidence builder for any future exams, and generally.

Well done Pes0’s Dd!
My dd currently struggling to revise for g5 theory. She needs to and I think this is the problem. Academically she’s very bright so hasn’t ever had to properly revise for much before. Can anyone suggest any good methods/resources?
Her piano teacher’s got her a book with practice papers in for the new specification but I think she could do with something else too. Normally at school they would run some theory sessions but can’t at the moment due to year group bubbling. Any help much appreciated.

Maybe get her to explain aspects of it to you QueenMabby? If she is doing past papers that might help her see which parts she's not so sure on.

Has she set herself up with a drill for things to get down on scrap paper as soon as it starts? So far we have major/minor key signatures, names of degrees of the scale, and picture of a piano. Any other suggestions appreciated! I'm aiming for DD to do it in summer holidays or as soon after as it is available.

There's an app called muso which is quite handy for practising theory. My DD also made flash cards of the terms. Good luck!