;Agggggghhhhhhh

What do I do today - I don't know where to start? There's too much...

.. for starters, I suppose, I have to drive my car 10 miles to the garage with a fully blown exhaust so I'll be waking all the babies in a 50 mile radius!!!!!

Drive in a higher gear where possible to keep the revs and noise down?

It's an automatic car but I aimed for that and it wasn't too bad - phew.

Anyway, what are babies doing asleep during the day when they should be out earning a living......

I don't get my car back until Saturday but OH is away so at least I can use his (even though I prefer mine ) Or I could just stay at home for a few days and get on with some work

This isn't much of an Aaaagh, more of a sob, cry, sob, sob, worry etc etc

And there isn't a crying emoticon



Had my flute lesson last night. I think it was the worst flute lesson I've ever had, ever (apart from one I had ages ago, the first time round I had lessons, but I don't want to mention that )

We started with sightreading- went better than I thought, much easier than piano. Still messed up rhythm though.

Then did the odd scaley things, like diminished, pentatonic, dominant etc... these were ok.

Then went on to aural and it all fell to pieces :'(
We started by identifying cadences within a piece. This was bad. Then did intervals and that was absolutely absolutely awful. Then did the change in a piece, and I was so thrown off by intervals that I mucked most of that up too- should be ok in the exam though.

My teacher assumed I'd know it all from music GCSE- but I'm only in year 9, and we're doing like a pre-course thing which includes some GCSE stuff.

We'd done a bit on cadences at school, so that was alright-ish. The ones we'd done at school were easier examples though.

And the intervals were so bad I felt like crying. I could hardly identify any. The only ones I could get each time were minor and major 2nds, and minor and major 3rds. But I don't even know if it's called those. I was just kind of hazardously guessing.

I couldn't do perfect 4ths or 5ths, or identify major or minor 6ths or 7ths.

My teacher didn't seem concerned at first, and thought I'd catch on eventually. But I didn't. And got nearly all of them wrong.

We didn't have time to go through the 2nd piece accompaniment, so I've never played it with that because she hasn't learnt it before now. We went through the 1st piece and it sounded terrible because the piano was really out of tune, and I kept going wrong. The study was ok though

Then we went back to intervals. Messed up some more. Then we gave up.

I asked mum if I could have an extra lesson, so instead of having one a fortnight like usual, and 1 a week, like we did this week, I really feel like I need another one next week, 2 in one week. My teacher said it would be fine. Mum wasn't sure.

But when I got really upset in the car on the way home she agreed.

Sorry for the really long post. I'm just so worried about the exam now. I was aiming for at least a merit before, but now I'm hoping to scrape a pass

bobziekins - you'll probably find it'll "click" before the exam Good luck, and the extra lessons beforehand are probably a good idea!

I feel so drained... I fell asleep on the train and almost missed my stop on the way home... oops! Going out for a meal with friends tonight and I'm sure I'll doze off and end up with my face in the soup!

Bobziekins - the aural is only worth 10% of the total mark, so having problems with the intervals won't mean a huge difference in the mark you get for the exam. Playing the pieces accurately, with a nice sound and a feel for the listener will get you many, many more marks.

Lots of people find intervals hard to recognise at first. If you could tell the difference between some of them you are doing well. To tell perfect 4ths and perfect 5ths you need to keep two tunes in your head: We wish you a merry Christmas (which starts with a perfect fourth) and Twinkle, Twinkle little star, which has a perfect fifth between the second and third note - ie the 'kle' of the first twinkle and the 'twin' of the second twinkle! Then when you hear the two notes, see if you can start either of those tunes with them.

You can use other tunes for the sixths and sevenths: My Bonnie lies over the ocean starts with a major 6th; Close every door to me from Joseph starts with a minor 6th. If you know West Side Story, There's a Place for Us begins with a minor 7th, and Maria with a major 7th.

But above all, don't panic, and good luck.

OK. I've had enough and I'm sick of it.

To those people who have to remind us yet again that they are marvellous as musicians and teachers because they went to music college:

There are other ways to learn music and people who didn't have those opportunities are NOT second class citizens. Many of them are making far more effort to be informed and up to date both in teaching and in music-making than some people who are resting on the laurels of a music degree obtained some time in the last century.

Try having some humility and respect for people with other experiences, and you may find yourselves a bit more easy to live with.

You never know, it might even open you up to chances to improve your own musicianship and teaching skills.

I've said before, the worst teacher I ever had was a graduate from the same music college as the best teacher I ever had.

And I've had very good teachers who have not been through any conservatoire door ever.

I have had conversations this evening with a number of people who are very good musicians and very good teachers who are thinking of jacking it in as they are obviously not up to your exacting standards.

Awwwww thank you so much to everyone for replying and being so lovely
You make me feel like crying again, but out of happiness because you've all been so nice! :')


Solari thanks for being so supportive, I'm hoping it will all 'click'

Andante that's a brilliant way of doing it! I've just been singing them through in my head, and have tried them out on the piano. I don't know the west side story ones, but will search them. Thank you!

And Flossie thanks for PMing me, it probably is the stress tightening the embouchure.

Ooohhh, you've all made me so much happier!!!!!!! And it's all so simple, what you've said.

I'm off to the happy thread...

Glad it was helpful.

I hope it'll get better. I'm sure it will and the aural tests are difficult anyway so as long as you say something it won't be a disaster

It's weird how the pressure of an exam makes things fall into place at the last minute You'll be fine!

In fact I feel like I've come off the boil a bit since I've done the exams. I'm making a lot more mistakes playing at home now???



Wrong thread or did I miss something? :S

Isn't this the scream thread?

Fair point but I thought it was meant to be posted in that "other" thread regarding teaching qualifications

Mea Culpa.

I'm back to have another whinge This thread has become my best friend.

This time you don't have to reply though. Seriously, don't even read this. I just want to get it off my chest, without people (i.e. my parents) giving me sayings and la ti da phrases, such as "It's not about the goal, but the journey you take to get the goal" which is very pretty, but funnily enough doesn't ACTUALLY help. In fact, I'd love to be able to talk, and no one talk back to me. My best friend lost her voice for a day. It was BLISS, I could talk all I wanted and she couldn't do a thing! Yeah, she hated me by the end though...

Back to the whinging- I'm so shy it frustrates me
I've been going to this drama club for over a year, and STILL haven't made any solid friends! Ok, I accept that they're mainly all 16/17 year olds and I'm 14. There are a few 15 year olds who I can chat to, but nothing like my school friends. I mainly sit there sketching or listening to an ipod, half smiling at their jokes.

And they all COO at me. Yes, COO, as in AWWWWW.

I was standing there on stage last year, when I'd just started, I was meant to be chatting because it was a party scene, and I'd been put with this 15 year old (I was 13 back then) we were chatting about school, and siblings etc, and I thought "Wow, I'm actually talking to someone!" Then she goes and spoils it all by saying under her breath "You are so cute" I said "WHAT?" "You are so cute" "Me?" "Yes! You are actually like the cutest thing ever. You're adorable!" So I went red and said "Don't say that!" Now whenever I say anything, literally anything, they all look at each other and smile, and go "Aw" under their breath

Anyway. Thanks for the opportunity to post this rant. You don't have to reply, cos you're probably thinking "I don't care about your needy pathetic problems". So yeah...

It's frustrating when people won't take you seriously because of your age. I'm sure plenty of people have been through this at some point It's really not an unusual thing - I remember being extremely frustrated when I was in my early teens because I've always been strong-willed and known exactly what I want.

Being treated like some sort of novelty because you are the youngest in a group... I can see that becomes extremely annoying! Can't you try to encourage some other people your age to sign up as well?

Now, I thought I said don't reply. I feel like I'm being treated like some sort of novelty because I'm the youngest in a group!




Well, the thing is, there are others the same as me now. I've got a friend who I've known since I was about 6 months old who comes.

But nobody else got any parts who are my age. And now I've got two rehearsals a week, from 7:30 till 10:15 with a bunch of people I don't know very well.

I'll get to know them better though hopefully, I did in the last play, but that was only a cast of under 10, and they were all nice. This is 20 and there are scary big boys

*ignores post* (you asked for it!)

Ok, ok.

I'm in a funny mood tonight. I think I need to go to bed soon, or else I'll start posting even more things which don't really make sense.

Weekend soon, YAYY

I know I should go to bed being on earlies, but I just can't get to sleep until the wee hours lately. I'm constantly tired at work.

Too much on my mind I think, I really need to pull my thumb out and book a holiday!

My college seems to be in the process of deleting all my emails, not that I particularly care about them. The slight problem is that one of them had all the details about times and rooms for leavers' day tomorrow, so now I don't have a clue when or where I'm meant to be going.

Run around the college like a headless chicken screaming frantically, until someone asks what's wrong. Then cry, sob, scream some more, and tell them that you're lost and don't know where you should be. They should be able to find a timetable for you

Either that or just phone a friend...

Sorry, maybe it's lack of imagination, but I just can't imagine Sarah doing that!

Especially after she's had a litre of Pimms dropped on her foot..... (see random thread for details)

She could just hobble around a bit... not quite as dramatic as running but hey ho!

I would phone a friend, but I don't think I actually know anyone in my form to ask them what's happening for us, as it's different for each of the 40 or so forms in our year. (that sounds really bad - we have a 10-minute tutor period a week, so you don't necessarily know anyone in your form that well.)

I will have to go in early and walk round randomly until i find my tutor, if that fails, I may have no choice but to run round screaming.

Why on Earth would your college delete all your emails if you still might need them?!

That said, I suppose its not very unlikely. I had a most intimidating email from the Uni Network Admin people yesterday demanding I delete stuff off my user area because I'd gone over my 1GB file storage allocation. All I can say is I'm suprised its taken to the third year to get there! So anyway, I then had to fill in a load of forms asking for more space, including my reasons. Not heard anything back yet, so perhaps they aren't compelling enough!

It's leaver's day today and most people finished exams ages ago. We were warned that they would be deleting things, but the impression I got was that they'd wait until after today at least. Seems not though.

ARG! I didn't have time to learn a new piece for a concert so now I have, it's either learn it in 2 weeks or play the same thing i've been playing for ages.

Is there nothing in your repetoire from the last couple of years that couldn't be refreshed? Might be better than playing something you've done a lot lately, or rushing to get something new prepared. Maybe something you've learnt half of, or a few movements of, that you could learn the remainder of?

I started it and I think it's going to be fine. If it isn't then I have the one I played a lot of as a back-up

Sounds like a good plan. Hope the preparation and concert goes well.

I'm meant to be playing at our departmental end of year barbeque this afternoon, and it is rather wet. There is no way I'm taking my recorders with me, and I'm not sure that my flute would appreciate the damp either. There was going to be four of us playing and we've spent the past few weeks practicing together for it. Even if my flute could take the damp the other people's wooden stringy instruments probably wouldn't fare any better than my recorders. I suppose we've had fun playing together at lunchtimes...

I still need to show my face at the barbeque though, so I think I'm going to get rather wet...

Barbeques in the rain are the best!!!!!!!!
I love em, nearly every time we've invited grandparents/friends over for a BBQ, it rains.

We sit huddled under this plastic cover, munching our hotdogs and burgers, while it plummets down next to us, then we all rush inside with the plates and things.


I love England

I don't mind the rain myself really (it's better for me than it being really hot), but I don't want my recorders to crack or anything.

It is entirely an outside event though and the venue is a half-hour walk away (if I take the short-cut across the fields) and there isn't a bus or anything. So that's going to be at least 2.5 hours of standing/walking in the rain, and probably 3 hours or more.

No back up plastic recorders?

I appear to have lost the letter from Durham with all the details of what to do after results... oops! Fingers crossed it might turn up before then.

Argh! People who think they know everything! Some people need a bit more humility!!!!

*Exhale* That is better.

Hope the weather cleared up in the end Flossie - how did it go?

Is that the one which turned up among your music?

Fingers crossed you never need it.

Yup that's the one although it was tucked in with load of really old birthday cards which I'm sure I haven't been near for years, so how it got there, I really haven't a clue. I wouldn't have been quite so surprised if it turned up with my music.

My dad got a new telly last week.

I bought a DVD of Chess for a ridiculous price online the other day. I came home, and it'd arrived, but my parents wouldn't let me watch it while they were awake, because they don't like musicals. This is despite the fact that they watch total rubbish, reality TV 24/7 (except when my dad is watching football) to the point that I no longer set foot in the living room most of the time.

I've just been interrupted by my mother, then my father shouting at me for waiting until after they went to bed to watch my DVD, because the new TV vibrates against the wall (despite the volume being low) and wakes them up.

I hate being at home. They knew I was desperate to see it, I've already had to watch it in two halves because I have to wait until they go to bed to see it, and they go to bed late, and yet they were still too selfish to let me watch it while they were awake. This despite the fact that they're constantly flicking round channels with no idea what to watch (knowing only that it has to be inane).

Euck.

argh! I need to know

Very underrated musical : ought to be brought back to the West End again...



It's Big Brother season again

I can sympathise with you not wanting to watch such things lucky...

You could try using headphones, I guess to shut them up

Ugh, when I go round my sister's she is always watching some reality rubbish "I'm a has-been, get me out of here", "Big (load of) Bother", "Britain's Meanest Cross-Stitchers" or whatever they are!

As for Argh! - I did something I shouldn't have last night and think I might end up with an ear-bashing

I have subconscious habit of putting things in stupid places... I've found my house keys in the fridge before (I must have put them down to grab stuff for a sandwich)

I am guessing you are a Kerry Ellis fan seeing that the most recent DVD of chess to be available in the UK is the Albert Hall version, released in the USA first and shipping over here for a high price prior to the UK version?

Also you have a DG quote...

Is the DVD any good either as a representation of the musical, or a DVD? Ihave never seen this musical but people say it is good...j

B-C: I hate reality TV. With my sister it's often worse than Big Brother - she even likes those "when animals attack", "World's most botched plastic surgery programmes". I want Chess back on the West End too!

Solari: I would have used headphones, or my laptop, but just the first time I watched it, I wanted my lovely, big-screen tv Surround Sound experience...


PhoenixRiverSong
I am an Idina Menzel fan, I have nothing against Kerry Ellis, but Idina is THE Elphaba. Kerry Ellis is a very good singer though. She was good as Svetlana, she hit all the right points of emotion I thought. Idina Menzel is an obsession of mine though, and she played Florence (the main woman) in the DVD of Chess. It is the Royal Albert Hall one though.
I also like Adam Pascal who played Freddy, and was in Rent, and Josh Groban was good too, as Anatoly. Everyone performed really well I thought actually. I'm kind of desperate to take "Merano" to my musical theatre group now, and see if we can manage to learn it. I'm not really a big fan of all the stuff we sing in traditional choir, and in my musical theatre society we usually get solo songs which have just been arranged for SATB. It's interesting to find one that was written that way, that I really love.

I thought the DVD was really good, it was a bit odd, with digital images of chessboards and the like coming up over the musical interludes, and there were a few rather odd scene changes, but the talent onstage was pretty phenomenal. I cried pretty much all the way through - it was a concert version, so shouldn't, perhaps, have been as touching as the full acted out version, but somehow it was. Probably due, again, to the talent onstage.

Ok- I think I heard Elaine Page on the radio talking about Kerry and Chess. I didnt know Idina was in it too- but that and your quote also makes sense!! Sounds like youre enjoying it. I must try and catch a live version one day!

What do you need to know???

Oh brain I know kept Hitting the wrong notes so stop telling please.
As a result of silly brain annoying me I've managed a 15 minute practice playing.
Ohhh my teacher won't be happy with me