Aaaaaaaaaggghh - The Scream Thread!, Sign in here if you've had a bad week... Options

[Seer_Green]

Now its my turn for a moan. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Daughter has brass lessons with the school music service. A few weeks ago we received a letter advising that she was ready for her next grade exam, and asked us to fill in the forms.
SB

What music is your daughter playing from? Has she got the book where you only buy the instrumental part or does she not have her own copy and the teacher is lending it to her?

Sadly, these situations are very common and I constantly find myself picking up the pieces from such scenarios.

[Swell Box]

I'm not sure what they mean by "not making special rules..." - are they talking about giving the name of the pupil who has the music or letting you have the music at all?

Is the music hard to come by? Is there any chance the library would have a copy?

I think they meant they didn't want to give a student an unfair advantage because they happen to come from a household where other family members also play instruments. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

The music isn't hard to come by, and we would have happily bought it if we had known this would happen. However, daughter was given a copy of her music to learn, with a CD accompaniment, and that was it. She asked for, and was promised score for the accompaniment, but it never materialised.

We have now found a copy elsewhere, which we should get today, so she will be busy learning over the next few days.

SB

[Pond]

I wonder if they meant they just didn't want to go to any extra trouble for someone, by lending out music they would not generally lend out.

Do you get the lessons free or subsidised? If not, maybe there is a more sympathetic teacher out there that you could change to, who doesn't treat pupils like some kind of factory production line?

[linda.ff]

I think they meant they didn't want to give a student an unfair advantage because they happen to come from a household where other family members also play instruments. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

What odd thinking! Advantage over whom or what? This isn't a competition.

How on earth is it "unfair"? Who to? (Sorry, to whom?) Next they'll be saying practising is cheating.

When it's all done and dusted, it might be as well to try to make some discreet enquiries about the policies and viewpoints of your Music Service, because if there had been any suggestion, when my children were learning, that they were being levelled with other pupils, I would have stopped the lessons and gone elsewhere. Your only competition as a learning musician is with yourself, surely?

[Norway]

Regarding the school music service; what baffles me is that the staff seem quite indifferent to the concept of encouraging youngsters to do their best, especially when many are of an age where they are losing interest in playing their instruments.

I would have thought a school music service would be delighted that a parent or sibling was willing and able to encourage a student, but sadly this doesn't seem to be the case any more. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

SB
[/quote]


If anyone wonders why people end up teaching instuments they don't normally teach or play, this is the answer. The school instrumental teaching is not good in my area, and I get a fair number of refugees. Despite my protests that I'm not a specialist in this or that, and suggestions about finding a private specialist teacher, my piano pupils' parents want me to teach their children the school instrument too. And to date it has worked out very well. Provided they are honest about their limitations, and know when and where to seek help, good all round musicians who can be bothered can contribute a heck of alot.

[Swell Box]

I think they meant they didn't want to give a student an unfair advantage because they happen to come from a household where other family members also play instruments. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

What odd thinking! Advantage over whom or what? This isn't a competition.

How on earth is it "unfair"? Who to? (Sorry, to whom?) Next they'll be saying practising is cheating.

It seems to me to be a kind of 'social levelling' mantra, which we have experienced in the education system before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

What concerns me is that our daughter enjoys playing her instrument, but is at an age where it would be easy to get out of the habit. If she does badly in her exam next week I wouldn't be surprised if she gave up playing, which would be a great shame.

SB

[linda.ff]

It seems to me to be a kind of 'social levelling' mantra, which we have experienced in the education system before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

I thought music exams were the last bastion against some of the worse aspects of this. For a start they're not age-related - and HOW I wish all the other subjects they do in school could somehow be examined at a level in which the pupil ought to have a reasonable chance of passing. We don't enter pupils for grade 5 at the age of 13 whether or not they're anywhere near ready for that kind of work, but they mostly do GCSE maths and English at the same age, even if they're very poor at it.

[UnnaturalHarmonics]

Totally agree. Single Level Tests are a nod in that direction, but it doesn't alter the fact you might be in a class of nine year olds and capable of the work of an eleven year old, or vice-versa. There are some kids who could benefit from being kept back a year or two along the way, not because they're necessarily 'stupid', just because they're not ready. It's just not the culture here though.

Fractions are a classic example. Some kids just don't 'get' fractions at school. Yet ask most hungry adults whether they'd prefer half a pizza or an eighth of a pizza... at some point along the way, the concept has gone in. They just weren't ready the first time.

[Norway]

Swell Box, what is the piece? I may have it. (PM me if you like).

[sbhoa]

I'm not sure what they mean by "not making special rules..." - are they talking about giving the name of the pupil who has the music or letting you have the music at all?

Is the music hard to come by? Is there any chance the library would have a copy?

I think they meant they didn't want to give a student an unfair advantage because they happen to come from a household where other family members also play instruments. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

The music isn't hard to come by, and we would have happily bought it if we had known this would happen. However, daughter was given a copy of her music to learn, with a CD accompaniment, and that was it. She asked for, and was promised score for the accompaniment, but it never materialised.

We have now found a copy elsewhere, which we should get today, so she will be busy learning over the next few days.

SB

You mean they all share the same legal copy for the exam and are not expected to buy the music?
I'd have got a real book with piano accompaniment almost as soon as the child soon started learning since I have the advantage of knowing know how it all works. I'd also have considered accompanying myself if able, particularly if there wasn't going to be more than one rehearsal.