Yesterday one of my 9-year-old pupils passed me her theory book for marking, saying "I had a bit of trouble with my transportation". I was taken aback for a moment until I realised that she meant 'transposition'!

Anyone else got any amusing music-related sayings from their younger pupils?

Last year I asked a 9-year-old what the sign was on her music immediately after the treble clef (meaning the key signature). After a bit of thought she came up with "the bar code"!

I think I rather amused my grade 8 examiner by the way I so obviously envisaged chords as "crushed" appegios etc...

Tamsin... how? well I presume you were not playing chords on the flute...??

Asked a young pupil - after he had played a piece - what key was that in?

D minor, he replied.

Closing the book, I asked him, so what was in the key signature?

B flat he said, but there are C sharps in the piece too, they are the kind that are not anyones fault.






Took me a minute and it clicked. They are accidentals!!
SO funny.

I AM sorry...I just saw this on another thread, another forum and it qualifies under the topic title I do hope! Almost **** myself!

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QUOTE (luke43 @ Jan 7 2005, 10:51 AM) Some early cor anglais were bent because to allow the player make it easier to handle. Now it is just the players themselves who are bent

Porbably quite untrue - just caught me off guard. About the last thing I expected to see on a topic about the CA

i loved that, i couldnt stop laughin!!

QUOTE (violincjj @ Jan 28 2005, 08:17 PM)

Took me a minute and it clicked. They are accidentals!! SO funny.

hehehehe!

bless!

Not only pupils come up with the funnies.
An english teacher was helping to admininster a concert at school.

One of our wind quintet fell sick and we said we'd have to cancel our spot. When he asked why, the flautist said because theres only four of us.

He said "but surely four is more than enough for a quintet, no?"

.'.

QUOTE (Neon-lights @ Jan 29 2005, 06:05 PM)

Not only pupils come up with the funnies. An english teacher was helping to admininster a concert at school. One of our wind quintet fell sick and we said we'd have to cancel our spot. When he asked why, the flautist said because theres only four of us. He said "but surely four is more than enough for a quintet, no?" .'.

I can't help the fact that the idea of a chord is completely foreign to me! I would point out that you only have to know about triads (ie squashed appegios) for grade 5 theory.

Please don't get me started on dominant and diminished scales... squashed! Or as my crash-course-in-aurals-teacher recieved: blurred chords! They sound blurred to me ok!

At this point I might point out that the GCSE music syllabus probably deserves a lot more credit than it gets: look what happens to those of us who didn't take it...

Talking of accidentals, what worried me once on a composition course was the tutor talking about incidentals. Not funny.

QUOTE (Emma C @ Jan 29 2005, 11:04 AM)

Talking of accidentals, what worried me once on a composition course was the tutor talking about incidentals. Not funny.

I thought you DO get incidental notes, i.e. passing notes, leading notes, hanging notes etc.

QUOTE (tamsin @ Jan 29 2005, 11:03 AM)

At this point I might point out that the GCSE music syllabus probably deserves a lot more credit than it gets: look what happens to those of us who didn't take it...

Yup, you turn out good, unsullied by the educators (mostly failed teachers) and politicians - your development as a musician is far less important to them than having their names on the roll of honour in the depatment foyer, and paying the rent, I can tell you.

Cynic? Nope - real.

Hey, those crushed arpeggios can be lovely. Tell you what, the Neapolitan 6th is SO juicy. Try it with a little ice and lemon. Diminisheds taste like medicine so you need to add sugar as you crush em!

QUOTE (Rhapsodin @ Jan 29 2005, 02:15 PM)

Diminisheds taste like medicine so you need to add sugar as you crush em!

awww, I love diminisheds!

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I can't help the fact that the idea of a chord is completely foreign to me!  :ph34r: I would point out that you only have to know about triads (ie squashed appegios) for grade 5 theory.

lol... I struggle with chords too, Tamsin. I am better at the horizontal reading of music - along the melody line - than vertical, the chords - my piano teacher despairs of me sometimes...

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He said "but surely four is more than enough for a quintet, no?"

d'oh! priceless!... even if he didn't have any musical background, you'd think the guy would have come across "quin" in words at some point....

Several recent gems:

1. Two pupils discussing a recent competition: "We won; we got this Stink-tion"

2. New school band rehearsal: "Who's going to stand at the front and be the constrictor?"

and, possibly the best

3. Nervous clarinet candidate with exam scales: "Shall I play it slunged or turd?"

One of my young pianists was this week busy discussing with me his potential to do well in his Grade 1 exam coming up next term.

"If I try really hard" he asked, "can I pass with extinction?"

For his sake, I hope not!

(However, I do think he stands a reasonable chance of Merit though possibly not Distinction).

I have a pupil learning a grade 6 piano piece called 'Prayer of the Matador'. Recently she referred to it as the 'Prayer of the Mediator'!

btw she's 17.

hehe Rosemary- i think i said it correctly in my exam!

When I was at Uni 20 years ago the college orchestra's programme announced that it was performing Mussorgksy's tone poem, "Night on Bear Mountain". It sounded pretty grizzly, too.

lol. I was surprised when I found a copy of that on cd, and it was entitled "night on bare mountain". I always thought it was 'bald mountain'. Why the difference?

QUOTE (scoobydog @ Mar 5 2005, 01:15 PM)

3. Nervous clarinet candidate with exam scales: "Shall I play it slunged or turd?"

That's a reaosnably common one.

When I started teaching one of my pupils (6), she introduced me to some of her siblings

'This is Nara, we found her... and this is the baby, but she doesn't do much, she only wiggles'

QUOTE (uberzoldat @ Mar 6 2005, 12:03 AM)

lol. I was surprised when I found a copy of that on cd, and it was entitled "night on bare mountain". I always thought it was 'bald mountain'. Why the difference?

Maybe it's something to do with differing translations?

Well my son can only remember the difference between crotchets and quavers by thinking of Quaver crisps (which are a bit curvy and wavy like the tail on a quaver), and he calls Minims "minimals" because they've not had their heads filled in!

Best quote ever - during an exam - examiner asked for Csharp minor in sixths - candidate replied
"I don't DO Csharp"
and rattled off D minor instead!

QUOTE (cecilia @ Mar 6 2005, 01:06 PM)

Maybe it's something to do with differing translations?

Indeed. Bare and bald are roughly the same thing, whereas calling a bear bald would likely result in a smack in the chibbs.

I think I heard somewhere about minims being compared to Moomins (anyone remember them?) as they are white, and it sounds similar.

I have to admit I've said the 'slunged or turd' scale thing before in an exam!!!! A good friend of mine has a habit of drawing pairs of eyes with glasses to indicate when to concentrate, or look up at the conductor. He recently drew the pair of eyes on a students piece of music and had to deal with a very angry mother ringing up demanding to know why he'd drawn a pair of boobs on her daughters music! hehe

Oh I draw glasses on music all the time to help me to know when to look at the conductor but I've never thought of them in a dodgy way. I remember when a conductor once said "draw a smiley face on your music to remind you" and a friend drew a Gallery of Horrors!

THE MOOMINS!!!!! i love them.......*ahem* i used to love them.................

One of my seven year old pupils asked did I want her to shut the gate to keep the cat in. He was half way up a tree before she got to the gate.....

Today a 12-year-old boy I was teaching said "I'm just going to sort out my G-string", then saw the funny side of what he'd just said and collapsed laughing. His fellow-pupil, a girl, also burst out laughing and I have to admit to joining in the genral hilarity - it was the expression on the boy's face when he saw the joke.

Violinia

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I'm just going to sort out my G-string",

Lol. I remember once discussing names for our school string group and this girl in my year suggested that we call ourselves 'The G-strings'! Whilst our music teacher had a good laugh, she didn't go for the name and we ended up being called 'Highly Strung' instead!