Any parents with G/T musical children?

[disorganisedmummy]

Hi,as the title says I'm looking for parents who have musically gifted children for some advice. This is our situation.
Ds is 9,10 in June. He has Aspergers and possible Dyspraxia. He plays violin and has so for 4 years. He is about grade 4 standard but we've just been told that he has perfect pitch amongst other things. Now I'm not suggesting that he is gifted/talented purely based on that but I'm told it is quite rare. His Autism has obv given him an edge musically. It's not so much his playing ability as you can see by his standard but his ability to read,reproduce and other similar things. If I'm honest,I'm not really sure. He plays in 2 county orchestras as well as council run Saturday music school. He has 2 lessons a week plus a theory lesson. We're very happy as is he with this arrangement. Our issue is the future.
He is at an Indy school which goes upto 16 which he adores and we are v happy with. We've been told to consider specialist music schools (we're in the South East) and definitely to consider Saturday music Conservatoires at the music colleges in London. Ds's passion is music. It is all he thinks of and it has changed him in ways you can. It believe. He wants to go the RCM/RAM for Uni.
Does anyone have experience of putting their kids through this sort of thing? Sorry for the essay!!

[disorganisedmummy]

Bump

[user789653241]

I know there are lots of musician mums, I hope they respond!
Sorry my ds isn't musical, merely just started.

[Helenluvsrob]

Your in the wrong place. Try re posting in extracurricular.

He's certainly of a standard to consider a specialist musical education if it's right for him. Does he sing as well as play? Those of us on extracurricular re music would absolutely understand how it's changed your lad - it's magical isn't it ! Singing saved my ds for singing under low level but soul sapping bullying at primary.

[disorganisedmummy]

How do I re post? Please tell me I don't need to type the whole thing out again!!

[user789653241]

Start a new thread in extracurricular and copy and paste your whole op?

[Shantotto]

If you report the thread you can ask mumsnet to move it.

[UndramaticPause]

My dc is y6 and grade 4 violin and singing, and working towards grade 5 theory and tbh I couldn't give a monkeys about what uni they go to. They're at primary school!

If you're in the south East the London conservatories do Saturday schools for school aged children and in most counties they run audition only youth orchestras

[UndramaticPause]

BTW I was equally ahead musically at primary school and ended up failing music a level because I got bored of it by then, life got in the way. I'm not saying that will happen to your ds but he's got 10 years between now and uni. Let him grow.

[Musicaltheatremum]

My daughter (now 22) has perfect pitch too. It's actually quite irritating for her at times as she hates hearing things sung in the wrong key. She doesn't think this makes her a gifted musician but it can be useful.(she plays piano and is just at the end of a BA in musical theatre). Grade 4 at his age is good though. To be honest if he is good I would keep the general education going and let him do music as an extra curricular activity. He has a number of years and can progress to a good level.

[DeoGratias]

He seems to be doing very well.

Perfect pitch is a genetic oddity but fascinating. I have perfect pitch as does my brother. Our mother had and on the other side of the family my chidlren's father's grandfather did. It does not necessarily mean you are musical . I sing a lot and if you have to transpose it can make things harder because you hear the key as E major and it's not simple to sing it in E flat etc but it certainly means I am just about th ebest sight singer I have ever come across as you can pitch the notes fron your head not just in relation to the note before so it has its uses. 3 of our children won music scholarships at 13+ but we avoided specialist music schools not least because their father did music and finds it hard to make much money in it and wished his family had encouraged him to keep it as a hobby. I am a lawyer and lots of us have classical music as a great hobby to have. We know a lot of children who have gone to the specialist music schools and there is nothing wrong with them but my personal preference is a very good academic private school with good music to keep your options in life more open as people change.

Most people who make music a career end up teaching which demands a lot of good personal skills. Not that many make it into orchestras. All 5 of our children got grade 5 theory around the age of your son, certainly 10 or 11 and it would work working on that too as then he can pass the higher grades of ABRSM exams. It would be worth his taking a second instrument as well as violin too or at least doing singing exams as most children who do music well tend to have 2 or 3 instruments.

[conkerpods]

Hi,I'm a professional musician (in an orchestra).
I would recommend Saturday morning at one of the colleges over specialist music school (I went to specialist music school aged 10). I hadn't even heard of the RAM/RCM etc at his age.
I have perfect pitch although I would say most of my colleagues do not. At school we were doing a minimum of an hour Aural lesson a day,so much is learned with practice that those that don't have perfect pitch have extremely good relative pitch. Perfect pitch is problematic when you are playing at baroque pitch or you turn up at a venue and the piano is tuned wrong!
However,as an orchestral violinist myself the perfect pitch is useful,especially in contemporary music.