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.

Great news on all the exams. DS also got his results today - 117, good marks on pieces, more ropey on sight reading and flunked aural. It's his first flute exam, he's been learning for 3 years so think he can be pretty pleased with it and I can fix sight reading with him mainly by beating the ability to count into him 🤣

Also, the point re 'no one asks what marks you got' is very true. I failed grade 7 piano, re took it and got 100. I really really scraped it and wasn't really good enough. No one knows this- people just say things like- oh, you must have been pretty good 😁

Thanks all. I think in a way it's been a wake-up call for him. He's always breezed through his music exams, and got distinctions. This has shown him he does have to put the work in (especially the dreaded scales). Though he's complaining that he only made mistakes in one out of about 15, yet lost five marks. Not sure how the scoring works.

His singing is a doddle. He's a chorister, and in his grade 5 got 150/150!

Yes, choristers have a massive advantage with the singing - what amazing training they have! DD2 has had no choirs since primary because of covid and then the school music department fell apart for a bit. She is finding the sight singing for the voice grade 5 very hard to prepare for at the moment (next term apparently)- but fortunately choirs are back for her now, and she's off to her first NYCGB residential next week, where I'm sure she'll learn loads.

That does sound harsh for scales!

Yes - counter-intuitively, practice is the best way of learning sightreading! Choristers have to sing four new pieces each service, so get very good at it.

Her residential should sort her out!

Hope so. The weird thing is that if she doesn't think about what she's doing and just sings straight off a score she is absolutely note perfect. It's when she starts trying to analyse what she's doing in front of an examiner that it all goes wrong!

She will love NYCGB - it’s amazing.

Hi,
My son has been learning piano for nearly 3 years now, lessons during term time and had plenty of breaks during covid. He has passed Grade 1 and Grace 2 but both times with a score of 100/150 (a pass is a pass!)

We are not a musical family, my husband and I have never played an instrument although I am trying to learn piano now in my 40s (something I have always wanted to do!)

Where should we go from here? I worried that if he is only scraping passes at these lower grades, he will have no hope at any higher levels? He doesn’t want to quit piano (I do regularly check to make sure he still wants to continue) and for the most part, he practises independently (normally 20 mins per day, maybe 4-5 days a week). He gets a decent amount of homework from school (just started secondary) and find it a struggle to fit everything in.

Although he practises without complaint, I feel it’s more of a “tick it off the list” exercise rather than any passion for it.

I worry that the exams have sucked the life out of learning (although he says he doesn’t mind) as end of playing the same pieces over and over. I’m going to ask the teacher if we can have a break from exams. I just want him to have fun and enjoy it! But I know anything where practise and hardwork are involved, it will not always be about fun! His teacher is traditional and went though the exams herself so I think she is of the opinion that it does help them focus and progress.

Should we carry on? Is there a time when it’s best to quit and try something new?

Sorry for the long post! Any words of advice from experienced musicians / parents of musicians would be very much appreciated!

Well done to your son for persevering with lessons through covid, it's been hard for them all. It might be worth looking at his mark sheet and seeing where his strengths are and the areas for development. If he does really well on the pieces but the aural tests pull him down, you have two options. One, spend more time on them in lessons, get the Abrsm aural skills app, get the book and CD etc. Two, go for the performance exam where you record four pieces it, no aural tests or scales. Obviously the third option may be the best which is no exams for a year or two and focus on fun pieces, with some more technical ones occasionally. Exams can suck the fun for some people. Piano pieces especially often take longer to learn so while a woodwind player who is easily at the level can pick up a piece and polish it in 3/4 weeks, for most pianists, it takes much longer to learn a piece. This means they often play fewer pieces in a year and if you spend months on just three for an exam, that can be quit boring, as well as slowing down learning. If he wants to continue doing exams, there are lots of resources on the Abrsm pages like a mock exam for you to mark etc. If he gets nervous about performing to a stranger, you can try t find opportunities like playing for neighbours or family, playing the free pianos at railway stations, playing in his class must time. Maybe try to find out what his ambition is, does he have music he likes- computer game music, musicals, folk, rock, classical pieces he hears on adverts ( you can often get simplified classical pieces if something takes his fancy). If you listen to music as a family he might develop his taste and have an idea of what he likes.
I have three kids and one does no exams, piano is his relaxation time. The other two do exams occasionally. They have all done the odd festival class which is another option to have something to aim for.
He is doing a decent amount of practice at that level, he may need help for it to be more effective eg. what those 20 mins should look like. Just playing pieces through isn't practice, it's playing. Can he isolate the tricky bars, do them hands separately, use a metronome etc. These may be things to chat with the teacher. I hope he rediscovers the joy of making music however that looks.

Hi first-time, three years to grade 2 is good progress in piano, no hanging about. For some students a bit of hanging about will give them a more solid base to progress. But don't think he's doing badly, he's made good progress. Getting that low exam marks is either something going wrong on the day which can happen to anyone - or teacher entering him too early which is not his fault. Our teacher would not enter a child who is going to scrape a pass unless the child knew and had some particular reason for wanting to.

I wouldn't make exams a big factor in playing or not playing. Might consider a different teacher if this one is only used to teaching to exams, and possibly putting him in for them at a slightly too hard level too. Does he want to play? Willing practice suggests yes. I would also say it gets more fun the further you go as you can play more cool stuff. And how long was he bashing away at the exam stuff? My y8 DS is finding it more fun without that too.

Lessons during Covid were hard. Anyone who was on here or the NYMT thread a year or so ago would have been reading lots of hand wringing about my son's lack of technical progress due to constant interuptions, developing bad habits, the teacher not being able to correct hand position etc etc.

I would consider a break from exams. My son hasn't done any although he is currently playing a a few pieces from the syllabus. My son's way in was musical theatre. He constantly played musical theatre songs. I would also agree with thirdfiddle that maybe he is being put in at slightly too high a level for someone who has only been playing for 3 years and most of that would have been online.

There is no rush. My son didn't even begin lessons until age 14 and he is now at Grade 7 standard.

So, ds is currently away at NYMT but his buttons have been pressed on UCAS (the system was down over the weekend so he had to wait for that).

Leeds Conservatoire is firmed with Salford as insurance. I think the extra Foundation Year at Leeds will be good for him to make up for the fact he is a late starter and help bring him up to standard.

He is very excited.

@firsttimemum2010

Firstly I think you should be pleased that your son has passed two exams from three years learning, two of which have been negatively impacted due to covid. All at the same time as starting secondary.

There’s a knack to getting high grades in exams which isn’t all about how musical the pupil is so I don’t think you should be concerned about exam marks. We spent endless hours with aural apps and sight reading books working to ensure our kids could get high marks in these sections. In many ways their marks were more to do with hard work than ability.

If it was me I would have a chat with my son. Find out how he’s enjoying learning. Piano can also be a useful gateway to other instruments as he moves up through secondary school and/or enable him to take GCSE music.

It’s been a tough two years which has challenged the most dedicated pupils.

I'd agree with all the above! Well done to your son. He's learning and practising in a really dedicated way, even though it sounds like the exam treadmill is a bit joyless.

Playing with other people is my dds' way into enjoying music - which is one of the reasons neither does piano, which is maybe a bit more difficult for group work. Perhaps he could find someone at his level to play duets with - either on his instrument or with a violinist or similar? Or just a book of songs he enjoys playing?

Perhaps there's an orchestral instrument that might augment his learning and make it fun (without exams for preference?) or would he enjoy playing keyboard in a school band - a lot of the pianists at DD's school do that? Great for sight-reading.

Thanks everyone for the replies, I feel more reassured now. It did seem he was banging away at the exam pieces for quite a while but with breaks as he had covid, his teacher had covid etc. His teacher has actually suggested she might change to Trinity exams. I’m not sure of the difference but maybe it would be good for a change if he does decide to do another exam. We were no way intending him to go into a musical career or anything, we just thought playing an instrument is a rewarding, fun, life skill to have. He also has been learning clarinet (exactly for the reason that it is more sociable and they have an orchestra at school) but he is not yet of a high enough level to join. Again he doesn’t want to quit that and says he wants to learn.

So I guess he just plods on, tries some new pieces and see where that takes him. I read online somewhere - a piano teacher suggesting to only learn pieces for 4 weeks max and then move on Sounds a bit more fun and would give more exposure to different types of music. Obviously wouldn’t work if taking exams though or higher grades!

Appreciate all the replies.

There is something joyless in just going over and over exam pieces. Like over-chewing some food until it becomes tasteless! The four-week limit sounds wise.

Our son really started enjoying the piano in lockdown, when he could just noodle, sight-read pieces and improvise for fun. His exam pieces were an add-on to that...

another one here adding to the comments about how just plodding through exams can be pretty joyless. My kids both play piano and my son in particular gets really bored if he has to keep his pieces until they're 'exam ready' and enjoys playing much more when there is a variety in his

oops - didn't mean to post then!

My son enjoys playing much more when he has a few things on the go and there is more variety. I typically have them playing the thing they're learning for lessons and then some other pieces for fun - things like pieces from Hamilton or Alexis Ffrench or Encanto or similar. At grade 2 he can probably learn 'easy piano' versions of songs at a reasonable pace and they'll be achievable.

The other thing is a reminder you don't have to get him to sit every grade. There is no requirement to sit anything other than grade 5 theory before grades 6 and above practical, but even that is only an ABRSM requirement. Skipping grade 3 and possibly 4 might be a better option and just work on playing wider repertoire and enjoying it?

Second this. If he likes musicals or similar then the books with the arrangements in can be a godsend. DD2 doesn't even play piano but she'll spend hours noodling about with the top lines of vocal arrangements, sticking in chords with the left hand when she can be bothered - I tell myself she must be learning something !

Dropped her off yesterday for her NYCGB residential. SO many girls...She's excited, and certainly did NOT want a kiss goodbye from her mother, and I've had one monosyllabic WhatsApp message since. Hope she's ok - it's so quiet here without the constant singing of songs from the shows...

Apparently the food is excellent @minisnowballs

Ha - glad someone's telling their family something! I got a smiley face and a heart emoji - not exactly informative!

@yodaforpresident

Apparently the food is excellent *@minisnowballs*

That’s good. Ds is at NYMT & the food is dreadful.

Mine was on a NYoS course and we got monosyllabic messages too, I think there was pretty poor signal and no WiFi for a while. No news is good news hopefully! Food was good apparently but practice rooms were cold!

I've just had
"it's not too hard. I've made some friends already. It's awesome'. And apparently she's going to have a shower before lights out at nine. So that already sounds like a vast improvement on when she's at home. No mention of food though....

Any suggestions for places to look for girls black concert wear? Woodwind player, size 6. Needs to be comfortable and practical, look good but age appropriate ( 14) Am hoping to do a charity shop search as I have had several black concert dresses like that. Have looked in M and S, Next, River Island with no luck but I don't know where else might be good to try. Also not too expensive as she will probably grow soon so might not get much wear out of it.