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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

Autumn 22 music thread

405 replies

thirdfiddle · 01/09/2022 18:11

Hi all - I thought it was a while since we've had a new thread so how about one for the new school year? Would be lovely to pick up some new families too, all welcome at any stage of music learning from out of tune singing 2 yr olds to music college aspirants.

OP posts:
Comefromaway · 26/09/2022 20:40

Yes, well done to mini. A pass is all you need.

northerngoldilocks · 26/09/2022 22:14

Continuing the theory theme, DS also passed grade 5 over the summer so means he can continue with exams if he wants to. He's been working on all the grade 6 flute pieces, but I've also written to his teacher to say we're pretty relaxed re whether he sits this one or skips and does grade 7 - will leave it to her. Was keen for him to do grade 5 as he'd never done a flute exam before, but we've ticked that off now! Would like him to do another before Grade 8 though. He's also just started lessons with a new piano teacher at his Saturday music centre so hoping that might make him more enthusiastic about it. They're having an informal concert in school tomorrow in their music lesson so I've strongly suggested he should do one of his flute pieces - having an audience and a pianist on hand seems too good an opportunity to pass up. He pointed out that he hasn't played the piece with his teacher yet, but have convinced him to go for it - I'm sure it would be better if he'd had a lesson on it, but it sounds fine and realistically its a concert for his class so its pretty low key. Will see how it goes.

DD also passed a theory exam, though it was the spectacularly less useful grade 3! She's doing grade 5 theory this year at her Sat music so she should sit it in the summer. I'm not in a rush for her to do it though as a year of technique consolidation and work with her new piano teacher before any exam prep would be good. She has the grade 7 book and is working on a couple of pieces (mainly because she really liked Pink Minor) but has told him that she isn't going to do the exam. Entertainingly he spent a bit of time trying to convince her it would be good to consider doing grade 8 at some point though - I've said it might help if she explained she doesn't have grade 5 theory yet rather than some wider exam objection!

I think in theory we might be looking at minimal / no exams this year - unless the violin teacher suggests any. DD hasn't done any violin exams yet and the teacher reckons that she's somewhere between grade 4 and 5 standard (had to ask for an orchestra form) so maybe there's a grade 5 violin exam somewhere in the future. Will see!

DorotheaDiamond · 26/09/2022 22:23

Tricks for theory - as soon as you sit down in the exam:

draw a piano keyboard
draw and label the staves/lines
write down the tone patterns for the major/minor scales
write down the circle of 5ths

thats basically a cheat sheet for most things (dd did g5 theory with my teaching about age 10…and I’m not musical) (I did it too…still very proud of my 93% in the old version with composition!!!)

DorotheaDiamond · 26/09/2022 22:24

Also you can do g5 musicianship instead of theory? Something like that…

northerngoldilocks · 26/09/2022 22:25

Also @QueenMabby if you haven't already shown your DD, might be worth showing her Anna Lapwood on Instagram/ fb/ tick-tock (depending what you have access to) as she does some super cool organ playing - how to train your dragon plus playing a gig with Bonobo!

horseymum · 26/09/2022 22:37

I think dd will have enough on bassoon this year so won't be fussed about an exam. I don't think she would find the practical muscianship any easier but trinity might be an option, good suggestion. A couple of festivals to prepare for though. Do any of yours do the rotary Young Musician? The local rounds are fairly low key, ours is still on video. It does get more serious if they progress. It's a nice gentle way to do a competition, gives them something to aim for. Other dd is working towards grade 8 but no rush. The piano pieces take ages to learn and she's working her way through a selection before narrowing it down and her lesson is only 30 minutes so she is making steady progress.

NotEvenSlightlyReasonable · 27/09/2022 12:47

Ah yes, exams! DD had reluctantly agreed to do a viola exam this year, and was told by her teacher that she's missed her moment for G1 so it will need to be G2, serves her right for attempting to duck it 😂. Scheduled it for the Easter round as it won't clash with anything. Then her singing teacher moved G4 singing from the planned summer slot to Easter, so now she'll do both at Easter.

My concern is that she'll work her socks off for singing and put no effort into viola, but fingers crossed I'm wrong. I have to say that listening to the practice noises, I'm not convinced of her readiness for G2 viola but I assume her teacher knows what she's doing so we're going along with it. Should make for an interesting Easter!

minisnowballs · 27/09/2022 13:07

@NotEvenSlightlyReasonable my only advice is not to try to do the two on the same day. DD2 did her grade 5 singing and cello two hours apart. Poured her heart into preparing the singing because it was her first one, and worked on her grade 4 lamda duologue, which was the same week. Didn't do half as much work on the cello as she should have done.

Result? Distinction for lamda, merit for singing, pass for cello. One stressed mum who is determined she'll never be allowed to do them all at once again! She has agreed to skip lamda this term...

Love that your DD is doing viola - my DD1 plays (though she won't touch an exam on it!)

Comefromaway · 27/09/2022 13:09

I remember back in the day dh did his Grade 8 singing and Grade 6 tuba on the same day!!

NotEvenSlightlyReasonable · 27/09/2022 13:17

@minisnowballs I did suggest, tongue in cheek, that we go for maximum efficiency, do them back to back and she wouldn't even have to leave the room. However, even I can see that's a bad plan 😂 I think we'll go for singing first, if possible, and then she'll have headspace to focus on viola and hopefully the boost of having done well with the singing when she does the second exam.

Viola is much more functional for her. She sings because she can't not, she's focused and driven and grabs every possible opportunity to learn and to perform. She's learning viola to have a second instrument and she wants to do that well. She likes it, and likes that it's unusual, but she won't join an ensemble, or perform, and she is only doing exams because her teacher has told her to.

She's planning on doing Lamda as well. I assume because my purpose in life is to haemorrhage money on these things? (Also does 2x dance and wants to do more and does a few other bits and bobs)

QueenMabby · 27/09/2022 15:58

@northerngoldilocks - thank you. She doesn't have much in the way of social media but I might try and find some to show her. She's more of a Bach girl herself!

northerngoldilocks · 27/09/2022 16:08

@QueenMabby mine don't have any social media so I have to show them stuff if I want to. Anna Lapwood also big on Bach so probably good to have a look at- I think she's pretty inspiring especially for younger players

minisnowballs · 27/09/2022 16:42

I just found it amusing that DD had to do the G5 aural twice - did much better on it the first time...

horseymum · 27/09/2022 17:17

Older dd did two grade 7 s on consecutive days in march. It wasn't particularly meant to be like that but she said it was fine, was in the zone. Got the same mark for aural both days. The examiner did welcome her back but they have to do it all anyway. She said she got different things but I imagine it's automated which ones they do. It was hard work but it concentrated it in one part of the year. I wouldn't want to for grade 8 due to shear volume of scales though.

makeitsonumber1 · 27/09/2022 18:56

We had two consecutive day exams with the same examiner too - annoyingly DD had grade five aural the first day and got 18/18, second day was grade four aural and 14/18. Just the way it goes some days I suppose.

TonicClonicAndTheWaves · 27/09/2022 23:42

Can I come join the bassoon chat? DS (8) has just had his first lesson at school as a part of a council project - he's got 12 weeks of free lessons and free hire for the term. On day 2 and he can actually play three quite nice sounding notes! I was not expecting how difficult it is to assemble though, thankfully they had thorough tuition at school.

He's also restarting piano with a new teacher after a bit of a confidence crisis, aiming for grade 1 piano and probably grade 1 and 2 theory this year as he's very mathematically minded. Recorder starts next week after school and he finds out on Friday whether he's got into choir. All in all its going to be a noisy house! Thank god his sister is too young for anything apart from signing Let It Go...

horseymum · 28/09/2022 08:02

Bassoons should rule the world ( well if my dd had the choice!) 12 weeks will give him plenty of time to progress and hopefully decide he wants to carry on. Is it a mini bassoon/ tenoroon? If he likes that, the big one is even better! They are fiddly to put together and it's easy for keys to get bent so do take care. They are insanely expensive though so only carry on if you can get free/ cheap loan/ hire! He will always be in demand in ensembles though.

Original poster
thirdfiddle · 28/09/2022 09:02

Sounds fab tonic! Just to say you do know you don't have to actually do all the theory exams? People are only really interested in G5. With DD she went through theory books for each grade but then just sat grade 5. In retrospect doing one earlier exam might have helped her with exam technique but hardly anyone does all grades for theory.

OP posts:
horseymum · 28/09/2022 09:06

Yes, I don't know anyone who has done more than just grade 5 theory. Elder dd might do grade 8 at the end of JD but they are too expensive. You also don't need to do all the practical exams either. Far too expensive and for many, it actually detracts from learning. Obviously they should still do scales/ aural etc as they go along.

northerngoldilocks · 28/09/2022 10:45

Another one here with limited theory exams. DS just did grade 5, DD has done 3 as she wanted to after doing the course at her music centre. DD is younger though and so thought that it might help her confidence re grade 5.

DS did a couple of classes (actually 2) and wizzed through the grade 1 and 2 books and then went straight to 5, DD more likely to be stressed by that so taking a slower route.

I think either is fine, but taking all the grades is a really expensive route.

TonicClonicAndTheWaves · 28/09/2022 13:09

Thanks @thirdfiddle gje actually really really enjoys theory at the moment and it's really good for his confidence, so I think we'll probably give the first couple a go then not bother with any others apart from 5. He's already aiming for that because his Dad never passed so couldn't carry on his ABRSM grades! He's a competitive soul 😂

One of the conditions of the free term was that we committed to a term that we'd cover, so he'll definitely be playing until Easter. Hire is through the council music service which I'm very grateful for, I couldn't believe the cost when I saw how expensive they are to buy! He's playing a Howarth mini bassoon, he's pretty slight for his age as he's short and skinny so I think he'll probably need that for a good while. I'm really hoping he wants to carry on, I got so much out of playing with others as a teenager. And yes, we're emphasising the VERY CAREFUL assembly /disassembly!

Thanks for the welcome 😊

horseymum · 28/09/2022 13:45

The only issue you might find is that he outgrows the instrument musically before he's ready for the full size instrument physically. The mini bassoon is lovely but doesn't quite have the full range of notes. The music service might have a short reach bassoon ( full size but some keys extended to make it less of a stretch) which would bridge the gap.

Comefromaway · 28/09/2022 13:46

Dh was going to enter ds's friend for Grade 3 as a half way point but I pointed out the expense and that you can now do a timed, practice exam online that gives you a result so he is going to set him that instead under exam conditions, then just go straight for the Grade 5

minisnowballs · 29/09/2022 08:03

Welcome to bassoon club Tonic. There's a lot of it about on here! DD started at 10 on a mini - switched to a short-reach at 11. She's tiny - and now 13. Still can't quite use it with the palm grippy thing. So you might have a while if he's little.

Hope he enjoys it - it took a while for DD to stop sounding like a goose!

Comefromaway · 29/09/2022 22:36

So after the first week Ds says he has been given the best piano teacher ever!

But he thinks he might be on the wrong course. He applied for Foundation year and certainly this time last year he was a much lower standard player. But something clicked from March onwards, the catalyst was NYMT & also starting to work as a band with a particular group and he has progressed massively. He doesn’t want to appear big headed but his new piano teacher also asked him why he applied to Foundation.

Ds doesn’t know whether to ask about moving up to Year 1 of the degree.