Autumn 23 Music chat

[horseymum]

It's autumn term already! I'm sure there's lots of music going to happen this term. Welcome to anyone who wants to chat about your child's music activities, whether current or things you hope to do. It's a friendly group with experience at many different levels.( I've learned so much) No question is a daft one and don't be put off by chat about higher levels, all our children couldn't play a note once.
Come and ask about starting music lessons, which instrument to choose, exams, music festivals, specialist schools, orchestras and ensembles. We love talking music.
We also love to share music exam successes or struggles etc ( you can't always shout about these on FB!).
Feel free to do a wee intro if you want, although it's still public so only share what you want to.

Thanks everyone.
Music boarding school sounds amazing! What an experience.

School orchestras have started back here(a general one and a grade 5+ one so not super high grade but is really good fun.) They also have a flute group which she enjoys.

Our Saturday orchestra is fantastic! But for the full orchestra it's audition and grade 8 for flute so that's the goal for summer. 🤞 For now there's wind ensembles and she's doing flute in the senior one and oboe in the junior one. Last year she had a theory class in the junior slot so she is soon relieved not to be doing that!

She's come along way in a short time so I think has picked it all up well, and I'm sure all the ensembles have helped and being inspired by older years etc. (I know it's not compared to those doing high grades at 11 years old etc I'm.in awe of that!)

She has a longer music lesson now and I am hoping she will increase her practice to make the extra lesson time worthwhile!

Afternoon all!

Usual busy weekend here. DS was dragooned into the fourth horn spot in our excellent city chamber orchestra concert last night. They're amazing. He just had to be at the back and have an easy part, but it has inspired him.

Was told at 2.30 (for evening rehearsal) that he needed a DJ and bow tie! Cue mad dash around the city's charity shops for the relevant sort of jacket. Found one, but it's so vast it's like a frock coat. Still, he'll grow into it!

Then church choir this morning, and now School of Rock rehearsal.

His school show this year is Oliver. Which would have been fab a year ago when an angelic choirboy, as he'd had been a shoe in for O! He's going for Artful Dodger, in the hope they'll cast in the style of 'dodgy teen' with his newly broken voice...

@herbaceous loving the idea of a dodgy teen Artful Dodger- hope he gets it!

Is it just me that is a bit sad that theory is just seen as something to get out of the way? I find my appreciation of music, and my ability to create my own, is massively enhanced by having a good understanding of theory. I use it all the time: transposing on the fly, improvising over non-diatonic changes, making interesting substitutions, modal mixture to enliven otherwise pedestrian harmonies and develop themes etc. I know that there is less emphasis on improvisation in classical music these days, but cadenzas are still a thing.

@MelodiousThunk I think yes and no on the theory and whether its a shame. I totally agree that its a really important part of overall musical education and knowledge, but i think that the way that ABRSM have it as a barrier to further practical grades does mean that it will feel like a chore for many, together with the content of the online testing now which means that more than ever its feeling like a tick box exercise. It does give a foundation and its needed, but i'm also not sure that it particularly goes far enough in terms of any of the things you noted, and maybe that comes more through the aural tests in the exam and working with teachers to develop those skills.

@northerngoldilocks hmm, I just looked at the grade 5 theory syllabus and I have to agree with you - it looks more like "the naming of things" rather than how to use them to make music. Although it does seem to have choice of chords to harmonise a simple melody which is a good start - I bet they take a dim view if you full Debussy in the exam though!

Grade 5 theory used to be pretty rigorous and interesting - setting words to a rhythm, cadences, simple chord harmony, triad inversions etc.
It was a really useful prep for O level (showing my age) and A level music, and just learning how to correctly notate things like rests and beat groupings was really helpful to reading music.

Now that it’s all online, a lot of the value is lost IMO.

Agree with @northerngoldilocks - if it had the interesting stuff in it it would still be useful. But it really doesn't and is just tick box chords, intervals etc.

DD2 is now doing GCSE music in a great class and is really excited by the theory she's learning there- spent an inordinate amount of time telling me about basso continuo on Saturday (not that I'm much the wiser). That is much more useful stuff for playing music, in my very inexpert opinion.

If they used to require metrical annotation of a lyric melody that's actually a very useful skill (and one I'm rubbish at). The ABRSM jazz syllabus doesn't require grade 5 theory but incorporates practical theory right from grade 1 which was a pleasant surprise when DS started on it. I've been very pleased with how forward-looking it is as a syllabus, certainly more so than Trinity which is the much better established Jazz syllabus.

Does anyone have experience of the ABRSM performance grades. I'm looking at grade 5 piano next year and wondered if anyone had any tips on getting the best recording? The piano teacher recommended having the recording before entering for the exam which seems a bit odd.

Tips on recording - the practice run will probably be the best, so make sure you record it correctly. You will decide this after doing 10 others which lead to you/ your child/ your partner/ everyone in the household ending up in tears. The bin lorry will arrive as soon as you are playing the quietest most beautiful section. Your battery will run out. You will have recorded it with head/ hands chopped off.
It's harder than you think but well worth for some people as they shine in a familiar environment without the pressure of the additional tests. The stamina required is hard work. DDS teacher now recommends doing the hardest piece first and the easiest last to help this.

One happy girl in this house - off to NYO! She was surprised but happy. Commiserations to those who didn't make it this time. Now got lots of forms to fill in.

Congratulations to your DD @horseymum that is great news!
We have a happy DS here that has got back in for next year. Next stop NYO Unite!

Thanks and well done to your ds. She's now awkwardly trying to find out which of her other friends got in as don't want to post on their wind section group chat or ask directly!

DS got in too!
Absolutely over the moon for him, especially as he was a bit down about how he felt he played at the audition.

Well done, horseymum and Pollyanna8844!

Congrats to the NYO successes! DS unfortunately didn't make it, so he's pretty disappointed. He's eligible for Inspire, so will get something down that route but not sure what yet.

Aw @PinkGrapefruitSorbet that's hard. Hope he enjoys the inspire things, seems like there's quite a bit on. Rejection always feels personal but I'm sure if they got to the audition they were of the standard, just that someone else had a better day this time.

Thanks @horseymum - he will try again next year and hopefully Inspire will help him to be more prepared. One of his bassoon keys stuck in one of his pieces so he had to restart, so he was sort of not expecting to have been successful (but hoping that he was all the same!).

Oh wow, congrats to horseyDD, piccoloDS and PollyannaDS 🎉 And sorry no luck pinkgrapefruit, there's always next year, and also many other brilliant playing opportunities out there.

On the theory, yes I was also thinking it had got a lot easier being online. But I guess we kind of did the writing bits just from working through the books. We and teachers tried to do theory in parallel as we went along, but DS has been resistant to doing anything written so at least doing the g5 exam gives him a bit of extra foundation. In the end what with having worked through books when he was younger and what he's picked up in instrumental lessons and school lessons there wasn't a lot of extra to learn, but putting it all together and making sure he could do it slickly.

MelodiousThunk (such a good user name!) do i gather your background is in jazz? Jazz is very theoretical from what I understand. Grade 5 jazz itself counts as an alternative to g5 theory when it comes to accessing higher grade classical exams. G5 theory doesn't require harmonising as such. Maybe one qn of working out which chord would fit at a particular place in a melody, the options were like I, IV, V, nothing you could debussy.

In classical cadenzas are hardly ever actually improvised. Even if someone plays an original one, they write it in advance. Not least so the conductor knows when to wake the orchestra up. Though kids' ensembles are often quite good at trying to encourage some improvising, it is recognised as a good skill.

I'd love to learn more about proper jazz. My kids' teachers don't do it either, just the occasional jazzy piece from anthologies. DS thought about following jazz route at one point, but was advised to wait till he was more advanced in classical, and now he's more into video game music so unlikely to go back to the idea.

OH WOW!!! Amazing news @horseymum @Alsoplayspiccolo @Pollyanna8844 ! And @PinkGrapefruitSorbet brilliant that he had a go and got as far as the audition day... he's still young isn't he, so hopefully next year? (bassoons are such tricky beasts too... so I'm so sorry his let him down).

Is there just one day for NYO Unite (sorry that is probably a stupid question)? DD2 has a place for it on the 25th (we finally filled in the Inspire forms this week since they said she would still be eligible) but we're supposed to be away.

Congratulations for @horseymum, @Alsoplayspiccolo and @Pollyanna8844 for DC's success in audition. Well done.
Unlucky but well done for getting to inspire @PinkGrapefruitSorbet's DS. Wish him better luck next time!
Exciting to hear what's going on！

Not ABRSM in particular, and more auditions than exams but generally - work out your setup for camera/phone and test for sound quality, visibility, and no lag between video and sound. We recorded some on a phone tied to a music stand, and later on a laptop on an adjustable stand.

I would say still assign an 'exam day' to give it a sense of occasion, take 2 recordings and pick the best. (With maybe a secret backup of try again next weekend if it's a disaster). Horsey dramatically describes the drag than can ensue if you don't set an end point on potentially perfectionist kids. 😂

My dd does performance grades. She did both grades 5 and 6 piano that way. It takes stamina that's for sure!

Dd has hers recorded at school but her piano teacher has always said for recording any performance to decide on advance how many runs through to do, do them and then pick the best one.

2 or 3 is normally sufficient. No re-starts allowed!

Congratulations to all those with NYO places, fantastic news. Also commiserations to your DS @PinkGrapefruitSorbet but hopefully the Inspire days will be great and provide really good experience for next year.

On recorded exams @StuntNun i think that the reason the teacher suggests recording before entering them is that you can upload virtually instantly but once you've entered the online exam the clock is ticking and there's a time limit by which you have to have uploaded, so doing it the other way round means you only enter when you have a recording you're happy with.

Mine haven't done performance exams but family members have and found piano the worst as allowed their perfectionist child to have loads of retakes of it - whereas their other instrument was accompanied (by their mother) and they said 2 takes and that's it so would echo what others have said re trying to cap the number of recordings.