Spring 23 music thread

[thirdfiddle]

I saw some sunshine today so it's officially spring! Here's a new thread for all things musical.

With a nod to those who started the series, well before my young folk picked up an instrument or I braved the vipers of MN. This little corner is for support only, and bragging about your young folk's musical achievements is positively encouraged.

How are things looking for new year? Anyone new want to join us for a chat? Any lurkers want to delurk? All welcome from pre beginners to music college and beyond.

@herbaceous that's really frustrating. If he generally likes him I guess the other elements you can work on- scales pot or app, and app or extra sessions with another teacher for aural. You can see whole exams on the website to see what is expected. Hope he recovers his confidence. French horn is always in demand so hopefully he sticks with it.

He's great in orchestras - excellent sightreading, and his ear means his pitch is good too.

But apparently the fingering for scales can be tricky, and actually needs explicit teaching. Something I realised the night before his exam!

But yes. Lessons learned for next time.

DDs teachers don't really teach scales (well bassoon teacher does a bit) but they do check them before exams and talk about shaping, flow, and any weak points. I'd expect at least that.

DD uses this https://www.samgee.co.uk/scalespractice to practice, it just pulls up a random selection on the scales every day so she can practice them all over time.

practise... where is my grammar!

I think for French horn there are a few fingering options for each note. So explicit teaching of the best combo for smooth scales is probably needed.

Hi @herbaceous

We have exactly the same issue with a teacher. DD started taking performance grades as teacher wasn’t teaching scales.

DD has private lessons and teacher runs through them if I’m sat in the lesson but otherwise doesn’t bother. V. frustrating.

He's playing a solo in a recital tomorrow at school, so hopefully he won't be too put off his stroke.

I've (rather belatedly) done a bit of research into French horn configuration! A double horn has one in F, and one in B. You switch between the two using a thumb valve.

There are three other valves, which control the notes on your chosen horn side. But of course it's your lips which move you up a 'section' of notes, and with the horn you only need a tiny change in embrochure to change the pitch.

No wonder it's a bugger to play.

@herbaceous that’s correct, but you don’t really need to learn specific fingering for scales.

Most people will play all notes within a certain register on either the F side or the Bb side whether it’s a scale or a piece or whatever. It is possible to deviate from that if you want a particular timbre (eg using the F side for a high passage) or there’s tricky fingering in a fast passage depending on where your usual break is, but I didn’t get on to that sort of thing until I went to music college, certainly not necessary for grade 5.

It is a bugger to play though, but worth it!

By break I mean where you usually swap from the F to the Bb side (or vice versa).

I used to do from Db below middle C to F below middle C on Bb side; F# below middle C to G above it on F side, then G# upwards on Bb side. (And anything lower than D below middle C was F side, very farty).

Innnnnteresting! I’d assumed you could use either side for all notes, depending on what’s easier. The fingering charts I found gave two options for all notes. That’s what I’m
basing my obviously rudimentary theory on!

Yes, you can use either side for all notes, but it’s usual to use the same side for all notes within a certain register as per my description above. So in a scale you’d only swap between the F and Bb sides once or twice (and back again) depending how many octaves.

And 90% of the time you would always play a particular note on the same side. So it’s probably less complicated than you might be thinking!

Saturday's piano concert went well. DS did better than any of his usual practice sessions! I think he likes to perform. He was asking me whether he can still come to this concert when he goes to a music school at 11!
But he got seriously bored and maybe also tired for the second half. It started 7pm and finished after 9pm so I think it was a long time for a 6yo to sit still. He said it was hard for him not to be able to talk because he likes to talk. He told me not to take him to another concert apart from the family ones where kids can talk and move around. He's not too unreasonable is he? Luckily the Sunday concert at a music school is going to be a family one!

Well done, glad he enjoyed performing. Part of his development is also enjoying listening to others perform but increasing the time sitting gradually, a full concert is a lot if not used to it. Maybe take some paper and pens or a sticker book next time, I'm sure no one would mind that. You get used to sitting quietly the more you do it, they don't learn instantly. My kids have been coming to concerts literally since birth ( although initially only the rehearsals, then first half only with colouring sheets, then building up to whole thing over the years). Although we go to church too so they know there are times to sit down quietly.
Our orchestra did family concerts in the past where children could move around and they were ok till we did one where kids where actually just running riot. Even when the conductor asked kids to go back to their seats they didn't. The musicians hated it as the kids were so loud, we will never do one like that again as kids were so badly behaved. Shame but it's not fair on the players. We will continue to family orientated ones with more well known music, shorter pieces, nice spoken intros and maybe a quiz sheet but not having kids moving around, too many parents don't control their kids ( not saying you are like that). I think it's worse since covid.

Six is little to sit still, @chickentikkasalad - but yes, colouring sheets, book for reading quietly, etc etc all help. Mine are churchgoers too which I think probably helps the stamina.

Interesting he wants to go to music school even though he is so young. Mine absolutely would not have wanted such at thing. Even now she's not really sure about the concept. She remarked yesterday that she 'doesn't think that musicians should separate themselves from non-musicians because it isn't good for anyone'.

You can probably tell from that which school she went for - it was just as well they wanted her as she really wasn't happy with the idea of the others (maybe she will change her mind at Sixth Form).

We had a friend whose son went to choir school very young. It was, for him, a mistake (they pulled him out after his probation year despite the exceptional prestige etc) . I'm not sure what the best age would be, but as I face a future when I'll only see my younger one every three weeks I'd say don't wish the time with them at home and at normal school away - they still seem very young at 11 to me, and even at 14 I'm going to worry!

DD2 was weepy over her saturday school concert this weekend and I got an emergency text from the bathroom to sort her out and just thought 'I'm not going to be able to do this when you're three and a half hours away!'.

DC still have limited sitting and listening capacity. If they can do it subtly i tend to let them take a book to read. But with careful briefing on waiting for a loud bit to turn pages.
9 is a very late finish for a 6 yr old. Tricky when they're advanced for their age but the things they want to join in are timed for older kids. Luckily DD has always been a night owl because she's had a few of those when she started ensembles.

I took DD and friend to a children's concert once when they were 5 or so, and they got loudly shushed by the man in front of us. They weren't being loud or anything, just talking quietly about what was going on. Way to miss the point.

Glad the concert went well @chickentikkasalad - I agree six is little for concerts that finish late and the fact of it is that some children are just happier to sit and listen earlier than others! I agree with suggestions to start short and work your way up.

DD's concert (a different one!) went well over the weekend too. We had to leave before the end as she had her chapel choir to get to but we waited until there was a changeover with loud applause and snuck out the back! She did a quick change from concert dress to choir outfit in the loos and we were off!

I'd also agree that learning to sit through concerts is a skill to be developed and that at 6 its a challenge. Shorter ones are definitely better at that age though its hard when its organised via music schools etc as often a lot to get through.

DD had her end of term concert on Sat too - she did a piano solo that went really well so feeling more confident for her exam. It was the last piece that she hadn't played in a concert so now has experience of performing all 3 which i'm hoping will help. She also played in a piano trio (6 hands on piano rather violin and cello), in the strings group and sang in the choir. This was on top of her normal day so she had been there since 9 - home for just over an hour inbetween normal day and extra rehearsals and it finished about 8:45pm. Long day for her at 10 but watching a concert for almost 2 hours was a lot for some of the younger siblings there - plus the junior choir were getting a bit restless as the evening went on. It is however, an environment where everyone is a lot more forgiving of it so @chickentikkasalad your DS isn't alone in struggling with sitting to watch for so long!

Congratulations for many successful concerts in the week. Sounds like everyone had fun!
Thank you for reassuring me DS is not alone for struggling to sit through a concert. I didn't realise listening to others is also something they have to develop through time. Today he said he didn't like the pupil concert where music is on for 1 min then off for a few mins. He said he's quite annoyed by the frequent starting and stopping rather than the length itself. He said if it was an orchestra for an hour non stopping play he would be happy to sit quietly. Who knows whether he knows what he's talking about at this age! Well we'r going to watch an orchestra concert this Sunday so I shall see!

@minisnowballs I'm not that serious in what he says about wanting to go a specialised music school. He's got no idea what it is like. He just heard the name of the school from his violin teacher and that it's the top of the world music violin school and he said he will be going there. In reality you have to be GREAT to get in so I just go with him for now and hope he'll realise how hard it is when he's older. I just told him he's not old enough to go yet. He doesn't really comprehend the difference between being able to play the violin and making it sound great yet.
However he is excited his teacher said he can move onto next grade next week! He tried a few from the next book and he liked them so that's a good start

BTW the idea of bringing a book to read or a colouring book is excellent! I might try that this Sunday just in case - will remind him to be quiet when turning the pages.

@chickentikkasalad - that's great - lots of time to decide if it's the right thing for him! I'm just melancholy about the boarding aspect of specialist school at the moment, as September draws closer.

Feeling very weird here as we're about to start hosting a Ukrainian sixteen year old who is a friend of our older daughter - she'll be around more than DD2 with us in the next two years, which is such a odd feeling. Fortunately she plays the piano, so it will actually get used properly for the first time in ages. And the house will seem less quiet with an extra one in it!

Last few weeks of term coming up. DD2 is almost entirely in Matilda rehearsals (performance next week). When she isn't rehearsing she's practising for her flute exam. DD1 is enjoying a post-GCSE life but did actually pick up a viola yesterday - inspired by Ukrainian friend I think, who is certainly more dedicated than she is.

Well done all for concerts - I think we're done with those now - though DD2 has a wind band tour and a choir course this summer, which ought to be enough to keep her busy.

She's also suddenly become obsessed with Palestrina - what do you do with a child who has never had a chance to go the 'church chorister route' but suddenly decides at 13 they are really into choral music?

Her playlist on spotify seems to be a mix of Taylor Swift and Thomas Tallis, which is very strange.

I think @minisnowballs that you hope its something specialist music school can nurture!

@chickentikkasalad which school has he heard about? I have experience of one such school as a parent- all overwhelmingly positive.

@Siriusmuggle it's the Menuhin school! He's mad about it after his idol Christian Li joined the school!! I don't think DS is possibly anywhere near good enough... he's just in his bubble of "I'm the best and I can do anything if I try" of a innocent 6year old bless him

I don’t have personal knowledge of that one- I’m assuming it’s pretty strings heavy. I think the one my kid went to is the largest one, it’s fabulous.