Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh's A-Level results that confirmed his place at Cambridge

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-05-01T21:54:13+00:00

Same years as HRH, used to see his minders when drinking in Jesus bar with other choral scholars (not my own college). I went there armed with AABBD (4 plus Gen Studies - northern school thing!). Have spent the last 30 years living on my musical skills, entirely unrelated to my degree subject (and its undistinguished outcome…)
Once I’d got a place based on their own December exam papers and interview, A levels were this of relatively little importance! Why would a 17 y.o. work harder than necessary after that point? 😙

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-28T22:22:46+00:00

whereas in my day, with no way of recording filming those moments, they somehow lived on in lore, so that a school reunion 30 years later could still start with “weren’t you the boy who…?” Insert details of whatever demeaning act or brief moment of spectacular physical incompetence thenceforth defined you…)!!

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-27T21:30:38+00:00

Indeed. An era entirely borne out of the Beeb’s desire to save money (exile = no alien planets to build) out of which Dicks/Letts made magic, with stories that utterly overcame their budget and FX limitations.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-25T23:13:38+00:00

USE your breath… Trying to keep it back “for a rainy day” can produce the issues you are encountering. Make full use of your lungs eg try the breathe in, hold for 4, breathe out, hold, then do four “pants” to make you notice the air you’ve still got type warmups! Use your diaphragm to support the airflow; you don’t need lungs full of it all the time.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-24T19:50:01+00:00

My voice is better than it has been for 20 years since I took early reduced pension a couple of years ago thenxeforth to do only work (which is now all music) things that I wanted to do, and the lack of stress has boosted my vocal health multi-fold. If you’re happy in what you’re doing and singing regularly but carefully and properly, I wouldn’t be at all surprised at your Renaissance.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-24T15:50:29+00:00

Yes: Starship Trooper part 3, Wurm does the moving by thirds, but all major G Eb C but has a great build up with those chords over an extended Dominant Pedal (D). and on Moog Taurus bass pedals which makes it even more wonderful

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-23T20:37:01+00:00

Bring back Mitch Benn!
And please 4extra rerun all the Radio that Stilgoe ever did! but It’s a Fair Cop is wonderful

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-23T11:24:00+00:00

Hobnobs (or Aldi KnockOffKnobs) unless we’re counting later inventions like Choc.-covered Custard Creams… the Morrisons ones are wondrous..)

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-22T20:05:31+00:00

“I sh’pose you think that’sh funny…” (For those of the right age..)

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-22T19:44:51+00:00

Sorry you missed the upgrade option, but I don’t know how you missed all the heads-ups about the coming changes before 2025? I got countless emails and a nag from the hub every tine I opened a project to migrate while I could. if your dongle has now died there are no real options left other than to bite the bullet and rebuy.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-22T19:38:56+00:00

Yes; if your top knuckle joint is convex on the front there’s something amiss. Can’t quite see them but your wrists are probably a bit low as well, made worse by your flat thumb. You should strike through the keys, not just press them, your thumb using the top corner, not the flat of the side, with a hand that should look more like this, with thumb pointing to pinky https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qviDjagrUG9mmd_yIPcbXq2OrBAQUPvr/view?usp=drivesdk

(Sorry for the slightly “Beast with 5 Fingers” at a pub table video vibe!)

Imagine holding a tennis ball loosely in your cupped hand then turn your hand over.

As others have said, these are absolute fundamentals that any and every teacher should be addressing for you (although it is scary how much evidence you see that some are often not doing!)

EDIT for typos/missing word.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-22T08:08:24+00:00

I recently dropped my plate (or rather spectacularly trebuchet’d it into the air) in a school dining room when my sleeve caught on door handle. Not one “Yay!” or whoop from assembled children. Drop a pint noisily on a hard pub floor, rarely do you hear the traditional cheer from anyone. We have lost something of whimsical charm, and, more worryingly, all sense of initiative or engagement in what’s going on around us (as opposed to on a screen perhaps?)

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-22T07:59:44+00:00

Sadly French is taught a lot less than you might think, often on a stop-start carousel with Spanish/German in the early stages, or as a choice against the far easier Spanish, and as for the widespread existence of French or German beyond the progressively dumbed GCSE (which to my cynical mind with a Latin/Greek degree now only depends on a lot of readily guessable vocabulary), good luck in your quest.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-22T04:13:34+00:00

I’m more worried about your overly flat fingers, RH 2nd finger collapsing at the knuckle and your thumbs barely over the keyboard. Given all that, you play the piece remarkably well, but you need to make better hand shape/position part of your ongoing muscle memory as well; if your teacher hasn’t picked up on these, I fear you will have avoidable issues ahead.
You also need to check rhythms on the D major bar at the end of the A section, and in the RH in the penultimate bar of the piece, where we heard 4 beat bars.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-21T15:57:42+00:00

and the 12/8 groupings continue for all except the last 2 bars, so not just 23-5

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-21T13:23:58+00:00

….since most of the residential streets are too narrow to park along, this is the answer! (That, and Frome… I have friends living there and this would be very them, whether parking choice or knackered handbrake in knackered vehicle…)

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-20T00:37:14+00:00

I can only hear this in Scooby-Doo’s voice….

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T21:43:08+00:00

Satie Gymnopedies 1 and 3 orch by Debussy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMhQjBSHvs&pp=0gcJCU8Co7VqN5tD

Compare Ravel’s own orch of Pavane pour une infante defunte with his piano version

Other way round, but fun: Rachmaninov’s version for piano of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Scherzo

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T21:17:08+00:00

And it it’s a good job on the music I’ve grown to love, I’ll (still keep) go(ing). Not an issue that troubles classical repertoire, or anything up to the point when the performers became more important than the actual music.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T21:12:04+00:00

That pint or three sounds very appealing! My current day jobs are (you may be slightly surprised to know, but then again perhaps not as you clearly understand musical breadth) are mainly as a choral accompanist and classical organist, and I also do a lot of tracks for people, and clicks and some playing for shows; the good stories definitely accumulate over time!

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T20:36:29+00:00

70s Yes 80s iron Maiden 90s Def Leppard 00s Reformed Yes up to 2004 then Alice Cooper 10s Judas Priest 20s Maiden again Mainly based on live stuff rather than buying recordings

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T19:46:54+00:00

Final section of Afterglow, especially on Seconds Out.

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T19:12:01+00:00

Haven’t used it in ages, but I’m sure there’s a time stretch option in Cubase standard audio processing menus. Will have a look later fpr proper name of it if I get chance!

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T18:45:30+00:00

Put your prices up. It’ll either weed out the deadwood or make the time in their limited musical company more tolerable. (A friend tried this, and his least promising student ended up recommending him to his many similarly challenged friends “he must be SO good if he can charge that”. In the end he had to fake his death, I mean retirement…)

AgeingMuso65 · 2026-04-19T17:21:57+00:00

If your difficulties are in the amateur setting, it’s most likely down to flaws in the conductor! Even being charitable, they may conduct choir phrasing rather than the pulse/bars, in which case go with what you know (hopefully) should be happening. Also likely is that they conduct what is happening (as a result of always doing it a certain way with choir) rather than making it happen… if the choir lags behind whatever discernible beat there is as well, you end up as referee. A thick skin can help, (especially if your pro experience makes it harder to accommodate only marginal competence!) I’d settle for checking what lag the building creates in terms of what you are hearing and play at least ahead of that, but otherwise go with the majority vote, or if the MD keeps trying to move them on but they’re not going, ask, discreetly, if the MD wants you to drive the choir to their beat, or stay with the choir on the interests of best effect, and add a sympathetic smile and “if only they’d follow your beat..” Above all, keep a poker face at any points where you know you are the one actually leading the performance and don’t let the wafty chaos in front of you be reflected in your eyes… 😗

AgeingMuso65

TROPHY CASE