Spring 22 music thread

[thirdfiddle]

Roll up roll up for a new term of music parenting! This is a long meandering series of threads for all things musical. Please do say hi if you're new or lurking.
Delighted to see on the last thread that musical things are up and running again in the new term despite some covid nerves. Here's hoping for a smooth normal as possible run.

I'm a big advocate of letting young people choose what they play. Surely apart from Diploma level as long as the pieces selected are from the correct lists balance should not matter. It matters slightly in LAMDA exams but that is due to most of the pieces being free choice.

That's good to hear! There is one piece she would happily never play again. I cautiously said "I don't know that I love that one," and her reply was "It's relentless!" We looked up a few alternatives on youtube and there are a couple she is very keen on and we have the books already!

My dds summer project has been to listen to all the grade 8 pieces for both instruments and note down which she liked.
We've then combed our collection to find some of the piano pieces, I've sourced some wind music second hand. We'll also look on imslp for some of it. She then needs to have a try of any she likes, for oboe will probably work through 2 or 3 from each list before making a joint decision with her teacher which ones will work best to take forward to polish. They need to like the pieces as they have them for a while.

DS's teacher suggested getting the gr 6 flute book so we have been listening through and he's been working on a couple of the pieces he likes so that he's familiar with them- he will probably play them all over the summer and then go through with his teacher to agree which ones to do - I don't think that doing exam pieces you don't like ever works well, they are played so often to get them performance ready so I'd always push for ones that they liked. If it's ABRSM and below grade 8, then 'Performance Partner' is useful to listen through too.

I think they should choose, ilovesushi. DD’s flute teacher complained that she never used to pick ‘slow’ exam pieces- though I think that she accepted it was easier for younger candidates to do showy and fast than slow and expressive.

we have one teacher who doesn’t let dd choose- but she seems to make her do vast numbers of pieces and has them for a much shorter time (a term max before exam) which makes it bearable if she’s not keen.

condolences on several exams at once- seems a harsh requirement even for a scholar- can’t she delay one?

I'm letting DS choose his g8 piano. As you say, they have to work on them for a long time, so they need to like them. For his group B, we found a beautiful (and surprisingly straightforward) Chopin Mazurka, which makes me cry every time he plays it. He loves the romantics - Chopin, Debussy, Poulenc...

I heard someone say that the A list is the 'what to play' area. They're technical, but once you get the notes right, you're there. The B list is the 'how' to play - all about expression. And C you can do how you like!

Last time round, I could see one of the exam pieces had no joy for her, so we listened to a few and picked one that she loved and she got full marks for it on the exam, so it paid off! There are a couple of gorgeous ones that we have the sheet music for already so she's going to give those a bash this week. Second instrument she is pretty happy with all the pieces and it's all good to go. She was set to do that exam in the summer but was so busy we pushed it back and now have a log jam of potentially two music and one dance exams!

I used to love listening to my piano teacher spending a whole lesson playing all the exam pieces for me so I could choose the ones I wanted to play. I don't see the logic in picking for the student.

Whilst away last week Ds missed/dismissed as spam an email from UCAS confirming that he has met his offer conditions for Leeds Conservatoire. We won’t know his actual BTEC grades until Thursday but they only wanted MPP.

So, it’s definite.

Congrats comefromaway - hope he's really pleased!

Fantastic news Comefromaway - I heard it's a great course too!

Thank-you. Ds is still very low key. I think though it's because he was pretty certain that he would get the grades needed. So far everyone we have spoken to speaks highly of Leeds.

That's great news @Comefromaway. Many congratulations to your DS.

That's brilliant news!

Good luck to your daughter @ilovesushi - having just been through an exams logjam we didn't love it, but she's probably more organised than my dd2 (and perhaps less keen on endless socialising). How amazing that she dances too.

DD2 has just picked BTEC dance as an extra option but she has never had lessons, though loves musical theatre. I'm nervous, but the teacher informs me she'll be fine.

On the choosing of pieces for exams, I can see the logic, but I can also see that sometimes the teacher wants to show DD2 that something she might not have chosen might be more fun to play than it initially sounds.

She's a bassoonist as a second instrument, and quite new to it although grade 6 - so she doesn't really understand how certain pieces might be fun to play but not listen to, or sort out something challenging technically (and my goodness bassoon seems to be technical). Also there's no exam book of course so it's not a case of one of each in the book or anything.

I guess the teacher tends to start with the music she has available (and it's often a case of 'I loved this when I was your age') and then sees what sticks with dd.

She seemed to have done most of the grade 5 pieces on the syllabus before she took the exam- and has done four grade 6 ones that don't fit together into an exam set so far.

I never dare ask what the teacher's plans are (though I'm praying it is either skipping this one or leaving it a bit as we're all knackered), as she definitely doesn't think my opinion counts for much when it comes to bassoons or dd's progress, and I suspect she's right.

With grade 5 singing it was even weirder - she still had three C pieces until the week before and then they decided.. Even with flute the teacher hasn't used the books much (and she's now grade 8 so no book anyway) so it's not as simple as picking from a small set.

I guess I'm saying I can see another side to this - but possibly only with instruments/children where you won't have the pieces for very long. Grade 8 flute she had better like them as she'll have them for ages.

I'm in favour of if the timings don't work out just skip the exam. Particularly after DS had a g4/G5 logjam last year which nearly caused him to quit. He's not industrious, three exam pieces is way more practice than he usually does, and that in two instruments at once was just painful. It may work differently for your very industrious young people!

Both kids now sworn off exams for the time being (well, DD for violin only had a brief G5 toe dip). We had to change one teacher but the others are more than happy not to.

And parents opinions definitely count. In my opinion anyway😉 I'm the one that gets shouted at when it's too much, and the one who pays the bills.

Mine got his A level results this week. He needed EE to get into RNCM, his mocks and predictions have been Ds,Es & Us. He got BBD so is in! Annoyingly he was A* on performance, A on written exam but U on composition so ended up with a B. He’s still pleased as his highest mark in class had been a D’

Congrats @Comefromaway and @Siriusmuggle 's DC on getting into chosen music colleges! I am guessing there is great relief and celebration!
I'm going to see how things go prepping for three exams this autumn and we'll pull the plug on one or more if needs be. DD is a perfectionist. She's figured out what she needs to do to do well but that requires a concerted effort and I don't want to push her too hard and suck the joy from playing or make her anxious. She currently seems stressed about it before she's even put in the work, which is not good!

Amazing news Siriusmuggle - all these new beginnings are so exciting. Good luck to your daughter @ilovesushi ...My dd is very far from perfectionist - her favourite phrase seems to be 'i reckon that'll do' , so it's very different. Hope she doesn't get too stressed.

Great news on uni places, commiserations for those facing children with multiple exams in the next sessions!

DS took grade 5 theory this summer and passed so that means he can now continue with exams if he wants which is good. DD sat grade 3 theory (which is obviously less helpful) so no exams for her for a while- she's starting with a new piano teacher in September anyway so the timing is likely to be good I think. I'm looking forward to her working with someone who can focus more on technique etc as I think it will be really good for her though she might be less keen on playing what he chooses rather than Hamilton! She's also loved learning Pink Minor from the old ABRSM piano syllabus over the summer holidays so thanks for that recommendation!

New thread for the new school year
www.mumsnet.com/talk/extra_curricular_activities/4624348-autumn-22-music-thread

While I'm here, that's brilliant siriusmuggle, congrats to your DS and good luck with his next studies! Whatever went wrong with the composition? Kind of hoping that's a case of him not bothering rather than teachers not teaching it properly. Anyway doesn't matter now.

And well done northern's DS & DD for knocking off the theory exams! That reminds me I was going to pester DS to do g5 this summer, he's got away with that one then. Guess he'll just have to do it in a term time instead. DD did last summer so she gets to be smug now.

@thirdfiddle he just cba to do it properly. He’s not one for coursework which unfortunately affected all his results. Hopefully he’s learned from the experience!