They're in.
And I immediately burst in to tears.
LCM Grade 8 drum kit.
91/100
What a massive contrast to the Trinity Rock & Pop result from Dec 2016. 44/100
I REALLY didn't expect this result. So SO proud of myself.
Posted by
susiejean
on 06 April 2018 - 16:18
They're in.
And I immediately burst in to tears.
LCM Grade 8 drum kit.
91/100
What a massive contrast to the Trinity Rock & Pop result from Dec 2016. 44/100
I REALLY didn't expect this result. So SO proud of myself.
Posted by
edgmusic
on 01 September 2017 - 21:07
As I am on line
Apologies if you are not.
But are you trolling? It's against forum rules.
If you want to 'retire' do it. It's your decision. Go get a "low status role working for a big company". [/size]
How can we offer advice as you have the figures to make a living out of teaching or not!\[/size]
Stop wasting people's time.
[/size]
Posted by
susiejean
on 19 January 2018 - 09:33
RESULT!!!!
A very nice man gave me his email address and allowed me to scan him in a completed form.
Phew.
Posted by
Maizie
on 28 May 2015 - 15:36
A benign meningioma.
Essentially, if you had to pick a type of brain tumour to have, it's the one you'd choose. And it's what I've got!
Future discussion will take place with a radiologist about whether to treat now or monitor and treat later if necessary (there are good arguments either way) - but it's all suddenly gone very relaxed and non-urgent (growth being ~1mm per year).
I'm really looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight...the 27 days since the 'you have a brain tumour' phone call have been somewhat intense!
Posted by
BadStrad
on 15 November 2018 - 01:10
It may not matter to the teacher but it should matter when I am the one paying for the lesson and if I do not do the homework then I am wasting my money because I am not progressing properly and not getting my monies worth.
If you are that bothered make time to do the work. Get up earlier. Read the score on your commute or listen to a recording if you drive. Mentally practice in your lunch hour, etc. There are lots of ways you can work on your pieces away from your instrument.
You can't blame your teacher if you haven't done the work. You're a grown up according to your forum name so your teacher probably figures scolding you like a child would be counter productive. If you think you are getting away with something, it suggests you know you could do more. So do it, don't blame your teacher.
As I say to my pupils, "I see you for *one* hour a week. If you don't practice what I teach you between lessons, you won't improve. Your choice, your money."
As others have said, it is okay to take a slower pace because you have commitments that take up your time but that is not the same as blaming your teacher because you didn't complete assigned work when you could have. If you really can't find the time to practice, you need to discuss that so practice expectations can be adjusted. Slow progress is better than no progress but you have to be honest.
Posted by
jenny
on 23 April 2017 - 16:48
I just got a follow up email from him - he's now an airline pilot living in the channel islands. He closed the message by saying 'Thank you for setting me off on a hobby that I am still enjoying 47 years later!'
Posted by
Bantock
on 07 October 2014 - 08:01
Posted by
ma non troppo
on 19 March 2018 - 09:25
Posted by
Flowerpot
on 04 February 2015 - 23:28
Posted by
Misterioso
on 13 June 2014 - 13:13
Thrilled to bits today to hear that younger son has got a 2:1 in his B Mus!
It's been such a long journey for him due to various complications along the way so this is Seriously Good News!
Posted by
Aquarelle
on 19 December 2018 - 20:26
Well, it was yesterday actually but I was too exhausted to post. We have now done the Christmas Celebration and it was - dare I say it - brilliant! I can't believe that we got through it without a single hitch. Even the angel Gabriel (see Random thread) finished his daily temper tantrum before the parish priest arrived! The children reading the script did so with lots of expression and passed the microphones from one to another without dropping them. The nursery class did their sheep act on all fours with the shepherds realistically chasing them back into their fold. The half that were not sheep were little angels and they danced beautifully and the choir, who had to sing while the angels danced, actually watched me and not them. Gabriel, the Three Kings and their camels and the Guiding Star all made their entries in time to the music and in a dignified manner. Mary and Joseph and the innkeeper mimed their parts very clearly. The recorder players were careful with their D's and F sharps Best of all from my point of view was the singing which was enthusiastic, rhythmic and only rarely a little flat. They nearly brought tears to my eyes when we got to the last note of the last song. Every child in the choir was watching me and they held the note steadily to the end. And then there was this big, communal smile!
There are times when this teaching business gets one down - I have my irritable and despairing days and sometimes think it isn't worth the bother. And then you get a day like yesterday and you think there couldn't be a nicer way to earn your living.
Posted by
hummingbird
on 17 June 2018 - 19:35
Not a teacher so I hope you don't mind me replying, but this reminds me of when I first started learning the clarinet as a complete novice at music. I started off thinking that the notes were the most important thing, but my teacher kept drumming it into me that the rhythm was much more important than the notes. I can't remember if my teacher used this analogy but it's like being able to undrstnd a sntence even if it's wrtten wthout some of the ltters, whereas if youu set her ig htlet tersb utwi theth ewr ongs paci ngan dpun ctua tio nitsv erydi ffic lttou nde rsta nd. That's the difference in importance between letters/notes and spacing/rhythm - perhaps your parent would understand this analogy too.
Posted by
Bagpuss
on 20 May 2018 - 07:54
Perhaps the title of the thread was unfortunate but it is unlikely seriously bad news would be put out on the teachers' forum so maybe it's a bit harsh to shoot the OP down in flames.
As teachers we've ALL been where the OP is now and sometimes, when our defences are low or we've had a rotten run then this sort of thing DOES seem huge.
I do hope the OP can find an alternative but if not let's hope the student goes for it all guns blazing!
BPx
Posted by
Latin pianist
on 05 July 2016 - 17:43
Posted by
Impressionist
on 12 September 2015 - 19:36
Good Lord, Mickey, you sound like my 16 year old. The majority of people contributing to this forum are people who can form a coherent argument without resorting to personal insults and can take on board some constructive criticism.
Posted by
Impressionist
on 12 September 2015 - 19:23
Posted by
UnnaturalHarmonics
on 10 November 2014 - 10:45
Posted by
BadStrad
on 03 September 2018 - 12:38
It is impossible to say what the causes and scale of someones suffering may be and so any comparison is pointless. Everyone has a different tolerance to individual stressors. I was recently chatting to a fire fighter. I could not imagine coping with having to run into burning buildings. The fire fighter could not imagine coping as a teacher.Seriously?
I think anyone who fears for their mental health in a job like private music teaching should consider other options.
I don't expect this to be a popular opinion but taking up piano teaching after working in the NHS for a couple of decades I can hardly believe the joy in the autonomy of deciding for myself how I will do things, even to the extent of choosing my clients. Not a thing I could do in my previous career, however bad they smelled, however challenging their behaviour or hopeless the case.
I'm sorry - the stress levels are just not on the same graph.
Posted by
BabyGrand
on 30 March 2016 - 16:43
Well, I just wanted to add a rather unexpected update to this. Two weeks ago this girl was asked to play something in a school end of term concert, so I helped her prepare a piece. As usual, we had battles, this time with Dad wanting her to play a harder piece that wasn't ready, and her being typically resistant to playing the way I asked. I forgot all about the concert after the lesson, until Mum texted me straight afterwards to tell me that she had played really well and did everything "exactly the way you have taught her"! I wasn't sure what to make of that, but when she came for her lesson the next day she did indeed play beautifully - better than she has done for ages, and was actually doing everything I have spent months asking her to, whilst she refused to do it!!
Then Mum called me yesterday about something else, and couldn't wait to talk again about the concert. She said that there were other children playing much harder music than her daughter (which has been a sore point), but to her they didn't seem to play it very musically or use good technique, and for some their music seemed too hard for them. She said it was obvious that her daughter had been taught to play well, and even the music teacher at school had commented to her that she had noticed how my students were always well taught.
AND she said it now makes sense to her why I'm not in a rush to move on to harder pieces all the time and want my pupils to play the music at their level well before we move on, and develop good technique, and she's really glad that I do things the way I do!!!
So, I may still need to win Dad over, but at least it seems like Mum is finally on board! Hooray!!
Posted by
Aquarelle
on 08 January 2016 - 22:50
Well, we did it. We bussed 2 coachloads of over excited children up to the retirement home and got them up the stairs to the first floor with the remaining stage accessories - and fortunately without any accidents despite the pushing and shoving. I was somewhere around the middle of the queue with a helpful little boy giving me a hand with a heavy bag. By the time I got into the communal room there was absolute chaos. Children were taking off their outdoor gear and leaving coats and jackets all over the floor and one of my colleagues and a mother who had come to help were putting out the stools for the choir and the children were all trying to grab a seat. What everyone had forgotten was that I have had the choir seated in five lines, with everyone knowing exactly their place – so that those involved in the mime could exit and enter the choir without pushing and that the readers would know exactly where the next person to need the microphone would be. When we did it at school I had them lined up in an adjacent classroom and when everything was in place they filed in in an orderly fashion. The head teacher got panicky and said it didn’t matter how they sat and I said it did and I also needed to be able to get to and from my music stand and the two CD players without walking over Mary and Joseph! It was difficult for me to do my bossy boots Aquarelle act with other teachers making such a mess of the preparations but in the end that was what I resorted to and I finally got some sort of order and calm. Then I sorted my own music, flute and access to everything.
Our audience was about 60 strong. Some of them sat in armchairs but very many were in wheelchairs. I should say at this point how grateful I am to Splog and Hedgehog who had warned me that we might not get much overt response. I knew what not to expect and that I must remember that lack of response doesn’t mean lack of appreciation with this kind of audience. I was glad to be forewarned. Most of the residents didn’t seem very responsive but there were some smiles and that made it worth it.
Once the muddle was over we got started and somehow I suddenly found a great surge of energy. I’ve no idea where it came from – maybe children are the best anti-depressants- but the whole thing just came to life. It went well, no hitches and most the choir watched me most of the time. We had a short prayer session led by the parish priest and he suggested that the audience should applaud the children which they did. The clearing up was slightly less chaotic than the setting up and as far as I can tell we managed not to forget anything. The staff of the home gave the children a slice of cake and a glass of orange juice and when we left there was a lot of waving from the children and the residents.
Then of course, the bombshell I thought might fall - did. “You will come back next Christmas, won’t you?” Well I have now seen what kind of audience we have, what space we have. And incidentally I found that if only they had shown me, there is a wide corridor leading to the canteen where we could have parked the children and their outdoor gear in an orderly fashion while setting up the scene. I also know that if we have to do the Celebration for two very different audiences next year I am going to have to make some adjustments to the kind of script I write and the way I present the work to the audience. It was the head teacher who presented it this time and I think I have learnt what not to do! Actually I have, in the end, learnt quite a lot from this experience; I am no longer depressed but I am knackered and am now going to bed! ‘Night everyone and thanks again for all the support - those vibes were a great help!
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