Autumn 22 music thread

[thirdfiddle]

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.

Oh surely he should ask - they'll probably be thrilled he wants to push himself - sounds like he's really gone for it and is definitely ready. Even if he wasn't or there wasn't space I'm sure they'll let him down gently!

You may remember he really struggled with his online recorded auditions back in January/February. He did a much, much better in person audition at his 2nd choice in March. I felt at the time that his recorded audition did not reflect his ability and musicianship.

After the first practical ensemble band workshop the tutor was asking him lots of questions about his experience/things he had done etc so we think maybe they have noticed.

He is going to see how things go on Monday when his next band session is and speak to them.

Fingers crossed @Comefromaway

He really enjoyed the contextual studies ensemble session on Friday. He was “jamming” with students from a range of courses from pop & jazz to classical.

how old is she? if you're going to buy one, i'd investigate wood certainly. it will likely sound much better. i played as a child, did all grades etc, and i think i moved to a nice wood clarinet around grade 5. at g5+, its worth investing to get the sound quality, so if she is making fast progress i don't see the harm in doing the switch sooner. saves a second purchase down the line. and i don't recall ever maintaing my nice wooden one 🤔

thanks for the new thread. we are trying to get back into a practice routine after the summer and struggling a bit. DD (10) massively neglecting harp, has barely touched it since her grade 3 in June and seems to be spiralling down in confidence despite getting a distinction in the exam. she is also working towards g7 violin, plus a potential scholarship audition for secondary school- hoping to hear soon if she is called to audition in person.
DS (9) adamant that 5 mins cello practice a day is sufficient...he is currently on a back-to-basics plan with his teacher after scraping through g5 in the summer. having blasted through 5 grades in two years, he really needs some breathing space so this is very welcome.

@LuluKentGirl Same here with the practice! DD is struggling to get back into a routine now that school and dance have started up again. It is hard to know how to play it as I don't want to nag and I appreciate she needs her downtime but without a clear practice schedule things get left to the last minute and that causes stress. She is loving her ensemble, loves playing with her friends and performing but is not enjoying preparing for music exams at the moment.

Practice is painful here too at the moment. Dd just has so much on that she's struggling to fit it all in. If I try and "schedule" her it stresses her out. If I don't then often practice doesn't happen!

DD2 is being motivated by the fact she has consultation lessons this week and next with some music schools. There was voluntary practice with a metronome this morning! But the truth is she's massively over scheduled and is struggling to find time for what she needs to do - and I think trying to work out what her priorities are.

The good news is that her music department does seem to be functioning again (at least a little bit) and the news of these auditions has prompted the music teacher to suggest she actually hears DD2 play for the first time (she's in year 9) so even if that is all that this all leads to it will be a massive positive.

I think finding time for practice is tricky if they like lots of activities. I have friends whose kids do so many activities, I genuinely don't know when they practice. That's fine if you are happy paying out for lessons and they may not make that much progress. ( Although my dh got to grade 8 in a non piano instrument on very minimal practice so it is possible) You all need to be fine with that. For us, we have tried to keep to a general rule of practice every day except lesson day, so that when it slips below that it's slipping to 4/5 times in a week, instead of the aim being say 3 times, then it slips to 1 or 2 times. Youngest has just two other activities in a week, then school orchestra and regional orchestra part of the year so it's fine. Middle has to fit other activities around practice! She just two low key sports activities which I think are really important for good balance in life, otherwise she would happily do more practice!

yes i totally agree - we also aim for every day/week practice and hope to get at least 4-5 out of 7 done. main issue with 9yo DS is stamina, he complains his hand hurts/too tired etc after a few minutes. for his age, (very) little and often is ok, but it's not really enough to make decent progress at his level.

DD2 does practice two instruments a day, but it's finding the time then for homework and, you know, sleep. And as they progress they need more time and I don't think she was prepared for that. Grade 8 is requiring a lot more focus on tone and stamina for her first instrument, and then she's being given grade 7 pieces on her other two (plus grade 6 for singing). It' s just too much, so she needs to choose.

@minisnowballs - glad school is upping their game!
Dd does piano about 4-5 times a week. Cello 2-3. Singing 1-2. This reflects her priorities and is mainly fine. I just need to remind her. She has a lot of tests at school at the moment - mainly sciences and languages - so is revising quite a bit in the evenings which cuts into playing time.

The challenge of fitting everything in is tricky. DS is in year 7 now and fitting in after school activities, homework and then practice on 2 instruments is tricky. Made the mistake of saying he could read once he finished flute last night and he played everything as fast as possible and packed up. Not what i was hoping for.. Agree though that aiming for pretty much every day and then if a couple get dropped along the way seems best. Though not sure with DS i've cracked any of it being more than 10-15 mins a day!

DD is more keen and she will do piano before school - again rarely more than 15-20 mins a day unless I sit with her and go through it, which is tricky before school so generally keep that for Sundays. Violin is after school and usually pretty much a play through of everything she's working on - her teacher writes out bowing exercises, what studies she should do and then what to focus on re her pieces so at least it feels more targeted.

For both of them though I think that they need to learn 'how' to practice and how to decide what to work on without me telling them, not sure how to crack that particular issue. Hoping it will come as they get older.

DDs school are doing auditions this week for a talent contest. She plays piano at around grade 7 standard, violin at grade 4/5 - so obviously she's playing the ukulele and singing 😂

@nornortherngoldilocks I love the ukulele playing for the talent contest, rather than the lesson you presumably spend loads of money on!! My kids would probably do this too. She does like her £20 ukulele!
With knowing what to practice, and how to, a couple of times I have had to ask their teachers for a bit more detail in notebook and that has really helped to have a framework. So they might say warm up xxxx with a bit of details of what that looks like eg long notes, scales in different rhythms
Play through piece, put a star above tricky bars. Play only those bars hand separately or different articulation, with metronome etc then don't play through till Thursday
Having a bit more detail helped prevent just playing through. Oh and our teacher is insistent on a metronome!

Our beloved teacher is moving on and dd is a bit gutted. We have a new teacher lined up through his recommendation though so hopefully dd clicks with her, not really much other choice as bassoon teachers are rare round here! Trying to think of a bassoon/ music related gift for him!

@horseymum - it's always such a shame when teachers move on. DD's cello teacher is technically retired and I hope he stays around at least for five more years!

Not sure about anything bassoon related but for little music teacher gifts I like The Chord:

thechord.co.uk

@horseymum thats exactly it on Uke! Not even sure ours was as much as £20 and she taught herself to play it with 'youtube'!

On teachers moving on, obviously it feels massive, but both of my kids have got new piano teachers this year and they've also both had new teachers for their other instruments in the last year. I would say that there is always a period where it feels like they're progressing less quickly than before but its usually ironing out bits of technique that a different perspective wants to work on. Also think that its probably easier to change later if you haven't always had the same teacher and to get to that understanding that different teachers will focus on different things etc

Final point is that my friend is a musician and is totally against anything 'musical' - so whilst i rejoice in threatening her with music score socks etc when she was teaching she generally preferred non music gifts! Otherwise it gets a bit like when you like cats or something and suddently everything you own has a cat on it! Think we gave the piano teacher a bottle of champagne when he finished up.

Thanks, yes I think dd will find it strange as she's used to quiet a particular style of teaching and she's quite shy so it might take a while. It's not a bad thing. I think we will steer away from a music gift after reading the comments, can see it would be a bit annoying!

Hello, long time lurker although these days I only have DD at home and engaged in musical things (currently aiming for G7 piano next term). I taught myself ukulele over the first lockdown so thoroughly approve of the uke playing! Is anyone watching BBC young musician?

I was worried about my daughter on this basis too with a new teacher but she's absolutely thriving and loves her lessons so you might be surprised.

She had been having lessons with our previous teacher since she was 4 (start of reception) and moved at the new one at 9 so start of year 5. I was worried that she would find the change hard and be shy / nervous. She says that she does get a bit nervous for her lessons but always loves them and learns so much each week. We've also upped them from 30 mins to 45 so she's benefiting from that too as the pieces are getting longer so she needs more time to get through them.

It's probably worth a conversation though about how changing teachers is obviously a change but also it's exciting and an opportunity for a different perspective and to learn different bits of technique etc. Also important to manage expectations that new teachers always have lots they want you to work on but that doesn't mean that you're not a good player, it's just part and parcel of getting that different view.

Have to say that my dd is loving lessons with her new cello teacher too. apparently the improvement in her sound quality is so marked already that she's been asked to join a chamber group next half term. She's very excited and seems to have gained confidence all of a sudden.

Still sixth cello in her orchestra though - she was hoping for a promotion, but no!

Ds’s friend has had the online audition recording instructions through for RNCM. To be sent by 28th plus online theory/aural/production test to be done by 21st. We are all rooting for him. He’s very talented but has only recently been able to commence 1 to 1 lessons again after a break of 2 years (basically when he left school).

Ds meanwhile is pleased to have been asked to play for a musical theatre production next year.

Hello all.

It's all been huge change for DS here. Has stopped being a chorister, and changed schools and piano teacher. So I've been letting him off practice and stuff for a while. His new piano teacher is quite groovy, and just has him playing that lovely second movement of Beethoven's pathetique sonata, and single octaves of scales. DS spends most of the time busking tunes and improvising.

(To recap, he's 13, g7/8 piano, g6 singing, g5 French horn).

BUT he's singing in the BBC Young Chorister Of the Year contest in 10 days time, and I can't persuade him to practise. It's doing my head in! I think it's all too scary for him to actually face. And he's hoping he can pull it out of the bag at the last minute, as he's always done when singing solos elsewhere.

I wouldn't mind, but it's going to be on the telly, and we've got people coming from all over the place to watch him!

He's also been auditioning for the school show of Les Mis, so is all about that ATM.

In fact he's next door, playing the songs by ear on the piano. Harmonies included.

Good luck herbaceousDS! Does he have a run through with pianist scheduled? That might kick him into action. Sounds like he is super musical and has plenty lined up to fill the place of choristering in due course.

Also good luck comefromaway's DS's friend! And sounds like your DS has found a great place - extra year or not sounds like he will be kept busy and learning.

We had a (voluntary) switch of piano teachers recently, I think it was the right thing to do but finding teachers who are a good fit to the child is not easy. Now really hoping neither of the new ones retire or move away! While there are many piano teachers, there are also many styles of piano teaching.