Spring /Summer 25 - Music thread

[northerngoldilocks]

Time for a new thread for spring!

Come and talk about music lessons, choosing instruments, exams, auditions, specialist schools, orchestras or whatever other music activities are going on. Everyone is welcome, from those with total beginners to those whose children are studying music at advanced levels. Ask for advice or share successes or struggles.

It's a great way to let children try instruments. Lots of music services are struggling now so it won't happen in many areas. I think they need to be exposed to different instruments though as might really be drawn to tuba etc but were only offered flute and give up quickly.

Another thank you for the outfit recommendations earlier in the week. DD wore the long black dress from Pull&Bear today and looked (and sounded!) beautiful. I think we pitched it just right in terms of elegant but also age appropriate. There were some fabulous outfits, but she definitely held her own on all fronts.

@ilovesushi - great news and sure she looked and sounded great. I rang DD2 last night and she was just lending hers to a friend who had a concert in the evening (she didn't) and she's doing an emergency wash of it before her own concert tonight - so hers definitely gets a lot of wear.

DD2 went to a saxophone day yesterday at school at which she had to 'stand with the babies'... those doing grade 1 and 2. However given she doesn't play the sax (at all) and has just picked one up from a friend of mine and took a fingering chart with her I thought this was fair enough. Don't think she's ever felt so tall!

Did she go to The Event on Saturday night,achangeofnameisasgoodasarest?
DS went back to play in his band for it.

@Alwaysplayspicc she did indeed - loved it! Was yawning like crazy when she called me last night. How nice your DS went back - how is he getting on?

Hi, just dropping in. DD 15 plays trumpet, working in grade 8. DS 13 reluctantly plays French Horn, working on grade 5. Loves playing on drums but no formal lessons yet.
DS 9 enjoying piano and working on grade 4 bassoon. It's a bit chaotic !

Ah, glad she went! We went last year and really enjoyed it (particularly the teachers’ band!).
DS’s band headlined last year and this, although they fell fouls of earlier bands overrunning, so had their set cut by 4 songs and got kicked off stage to make sure the night finished on time!

DS is doing really well, thanks. Bit of a bumpy first term, with an unexpected loss of his cello teacher due to ill health, but what felt like a disaster has actually worked out better than he/we could have hoped for - he has a new teacher who is exactly what he needs snd he’s really enjoying her lessons and snd classes (and he’s never had to work as hard!!).

Brilliant at @Alwaysplayspicc - so glad it's working out. Change of teacher always an unknown I guess, but sounds so positive. DD loved all the bands but wanted them to do more covers (I think she likes to dance to music she knows).

I suggested she gets involved next year but she's far too scared, even if she did manage to surprise everyone by belting out some Sondheim in songs from the shows last month!

Does anyone have any tips on getting young people to practice properly? My DS has been learning his grade 5 piano scales since September and he still can't play half of them without errors.

We used the cup method. Write all scales on pieces of paper and fold them up and put them in a pot. Have an empty pot alongside. Each practice pick out say 5 and do them. If it's right it goes into the spare pot. If not good then it goes back into the original pot. Once all scales are in the second pot - start again and aim to get them all back again! Worked for my dd.

When my kids were younger they used to like practicing scales to fun backing tracks instead of a metronome. I only know of an app with backing tracks for strings but I am sure they exist for piano.

We go for a rather more harsh approach running up to exams of all the scales once a day (with the book if they like) and then a random selection (cup or sam gee generator) after that.

My DSs teacher says looking at the book teaches them to remember the 'shape of them' - so i'm keeping it in the process in case it helps.

DD had a scales chart with one letter a day so day 1 all scales and arpeggios starting on an A or an A flat, day 3 all starting on a C or a C sharp etc etc. All written out with a box to tick to say she'd practised them and chart produced at the weekly lesson. Not popular but it was an uphill struggle to get her to practice them. She only really turned it around when she turned up early for an ABRSM exam and heard the teacher doing the accompaniments practicing scales etc and realised that they weren't just a torture invented for children.....

They are very tedious, and not even that rewarding once you get them right. DS has opted for performance grades from g8 onwards to avoid them!

It can be a vague motivator to do the scales of the pieces you're also practising, so the link between playing proficiency and scales can be linked.

We use the cup method and an app called Smartscales (which unfortunately is only for strings and piano) but you can pick separate/ slurred and even notes/ long tonic, and play along with a few different backing tracks at whatever speed you want to go with.

Thanks @QueenMabby but he can't play any of them right first time. He seems to think it's okay to take a couple of goes to get the notes right and I'm fed up of hearing his teacher tell him he's done the fingering incorrectly.

Backing tracks sound good @indigopotion

I like that idea @Londonmummy66

Thanks for the app recommendation @yodaforpresident

Maybe some slow practice with book to check fingering is all correct first but then try to ditch the book. Mine have never had scale books for wind instruments, always been taught to work them out and use ears but the book is definitely needed for piano fingering I think. Some people work better with pressure!

The piano grade 5 scales are made up of groups of keys that use the same fingerings, so the first thing to get your DS to do is really recognise which keys have the same fingerings.
The second thing Id say is that he should start looking at the keyboard as a map - the black notes are grouped in 2s and 3s, so the 2 black notes uses 3 fingers, and the 3 black notes uses 4 fingers (I hope that makes sense - it’s easier to demonstrate than it is to explain),
so eg, Db major right hand - you don’t generally play a black note with thumb, and Db is in the 2 black notes group, so start with 2,3, then thumb, and then you’ve moved into the 3 black note group so you’ll use 2,3,4.
Eb major - the same.

Sorry, I meant to say - Eb major is in the same group, just as an example of what I’m saying; there are others too so your DS needs to get this into his head, looking at the keyboard - it makes learning fingerings so much more logical and easier.

Thank you @Alwaysplayspicc that's very helpful. I find it really hard to spot when he makes mistakes in the fingering so that will make it easier for me as well! It seems so stupid to lose marks in the scales when they're just a memory game with no need for dynamics or expression!

Its worth saying that for piano they don't actually 'have' to use the fingering in the book - but they do need to play them legato / staccato etc and have shape and phrasing and realistically the correct finger pattern facilitates this. The examiner isn't sitting next to them watching - they are listening to the sound, so if they get their fingers slightly wrong but can achieve the same sound its not the end of the world. The reality though is that the desired sound and flow is most likely achieved with the correct fingering and so cementing that knowledge is really helpful.

I get mine to play through really really slowly to make sure secure before being allowed to speed up. For your son this is probably the best thing to do - hand separately and then together, slowly and with the correct fingers. Once its right play it maybe 3-5 more times rather than moving straight on.

My son switches fingering much more than my daughter and you can hear it in his scales - i end up sitting next to him just saying 'no' every time he does the wrong fingering at times - but this isn't a 'fun' approach for anyone so perhaps not one to recommend

There are also additional marks on scales beyond the 'press the notes in the right order' for phrasing and 'shaping' but realistically those are at the edge of the mark scheme! The key marks do come from playing the right scale!

Thanks @northerngoldilocks it's so frustrating for his scales to be letting him down when his pieces and aural tests are so strong. He's weak on his sightreading because he has a good memory and learns pieces very easily so if his scales are poor as well then that's potentially a huge chunk of marks gone. I'm on the verge of saying he shouldn't do the exam next term but, on the other hand, he needs to get another exam under his belt at this stage or he'll be playing the exam pieces forever.

@StuntNun if he's not doing the exam until next term he also has plenty of time to improve his sight reading. There are loads of things that you can do - including exercises, working on key signatures etc but i've found that for DD the thing that makes the most difference to her sight reading is just doing more of it. We now do something most days - not necessarily from the ABRSM exam sight reading book - just any music we have that's easier than her playing level.

At the moment she's playing through some random compilation book that has film soundtracks, covers of pop songs and classical options and she just plays a new piece each day. Sometimes its very good, sometimes less so but its just keeping sight reading as a skill she's working on. DS does way less sight reading and as a result his piano sight reading is less good. I think that piano sight reading is much harder than single line instruments in general though. Both of mine find flute / violin easier though the challenge of making the tone beautiful on violin is very real!

This might help so long as there's a decent interval between now and the exam to work through it https://www.amazon.co.uk/Improve-Your-Scales-Grade-5/dp/B0092FQ5NA