New Year Music and Musicians Thread

Fleur: after this exam we will do some none exam and deep in technique practices too, my tutor also suggested playing more Bach, hopefully it would be a nice break(or for someone like me thinking of skipping grade 4 as we are quite bored of doing every single grade-sat pre-grade also)

Green I am sure your DD will do great! I do wish we could swap also though as I want her to move on, already got the books for the next step in her music development as suggested by her teacher, she'll add Bartok to her technical exercises next to Burgmuller and Czerny and play more Bach some Tchaikovsky, and whatever else she may decide on the way.

Thank you NewLife! Silly question: the income stated in the link, is it before or after tax? Also when you apply what documentation they want to see? Pay slips, employer letter?

Newlife,thanks very much for the link and info. We're down south (South East) so feel that that school is too far away. We're looking at Purcell which is much closer and would mean that ds could come home at weekends. They do the scheme there too.

Their min grade requirement is grade 5 for violin which I would think would be the case at most schools. We're planning on looking round it at their open day in October. Ds is currently grade 4. Would you say he should be at grade 5 by then or ideally a little past it,working towards grade 6??

If it is feasible financially we would be looking for ds to go from year 7 or 8. He is now year 5. It's so hard to know what to do for the best. The London Saturday music schools would leave him with virtually no down time as Sunday's are taken up with the 2 county orchestras that he plays in.

Fleur: wish we could swap, I do feel like we need another couple of weeks to be ready

I'm not sure the link I posted worked, if you click on the above the listed schools take you to the exact page you need.

NewLife can I also please have the PM with your Dd's school link so I can understand the fees? Thank you!

This may help others thinking of the specialist schools.
www.gov.uk/music-dance-scheme

I meant dancers not singers, excuse my drugged state, I'm full of cold and had lots of medication

MADS, is a government scheme for talented musicians and singers and is available to anyone who has a g&T child who attends one of the schools.
There are approx 8 of them throughout the UK.
It makes it fairer for children whose parents may not earn so much.
Everybody is assessed for the scheme on entry to the school and you receive help with fees right up to 190k earnings.
I'll pm link to dd school then you can see how much you'd be expected to pay.

Pardon my ignorance but what is MADS?

drummersmum

She absolutely loves it, that's all I can say really.
A few teething problems initially more so with academic work, but she's getting there now
As you can imagine I hated her not being here at first, but have got used to that now.
The holidays are long too and she is still on half term, 2 full weeks.
Then less than 4 weeks until Easter.

MADS is great, newlife4me, you're right. A small miracle in these times, and I hope they keep it going.
Hope your daughter is blossoming.

drummersmum

I know all the music schools are different, but if it's a school that attracts MADS this is neither a scholarship or a bursary and is a bit fairer for all wrt fees.
Fees are paid on a sliding scale dependant on income with allowances for other dependant children in the family.
I know of cases where the school have ended up paying the parents
It works out about the same as what we were paying for lessons, transport, tickets etc before she joined the school.
If you earn under 20k you have all fees paid, uniform, transport to and from school etc.

disorganised, in our case FWIW, over the years the issue of DS (Year 9) attending Saturday music academy has popped up again and again. It was recently mentioned again by one of his teachers. The reason it has not happened and may never happen is:

• he is so involved in the music of his school - two classic orchestras, three jazz ensembles, choir, plays, etc - there really is no point in adding one more ensembre or one more orchestra to his life. However, you say the music department at your DS school is not well set up, so yours may be a different case.
• it's definetely not cheap. Luckily, DS already gets some of his music tuition covered by a music scholarship at his school. A no brainer in terms of cost.
• the homework really increases in secondary school. Combined with the amount of extracurriculars he is involved in, family time is almost nonexistent right now. And GCSEs are around the corner.

Having said all this, if he came to me and said he really wanted to do it, I'd shut up and try to make it happen for him. That's for sure.

If we hadn't had the chance of him going to his school at 11, we may have considered boarding specialist school although I'd never be able to afford it without a bursary, and the ida of sending DS off really turned my insides upside down and sank my serotonin to below zero.

In your case, saturday school may be an option. I would not be put off by the level of other players. There are things in music that cannot be measured in grades.

Thanks Rasberry! Good luck to your DC's at your music festival too xx

DS1 did James Bond for trumpet Grade 3 10 years ago. Can't remember what DS2 did for trombone grade 3 4 years ago!

Interestingly, DS1 is doing Grade 8 tuba next month. Having a scales avoider he is doing scales this time, ((didn't for trombone grade 8 last year). His teacher reckons the studies are getting harder and seem to be pushing people towards scales

DS did James Bond at G3 too - the syllabus can't have changed that much in the last 8 years.

They can do scales - it's just that they have the option of doing the exercises instead.

thank you both so much for your replies.

Having a look I think it's probably the Trinity one.... I know the James Bond Theme is in there as I've heard it enough flipping times :) Who knew scales weren't compulsory!

He is very pleased about the lack of scales but I'm rather going to miss shouting through "I haven't heard you practicing your arpeggios yet" whilst I'm cooking dinner.

Thanks again

Hello disorganised

I think I was on your other thread too, but if not I'm happy to answer any questions or help in any way I can.
It was the best move for dd and she is thriving both musically and academically.
The teaching really is second to none bcause they don't just have one teacher.
DD has 3 just for her woodwind instruments, then harmony teacher, singing teacher, etc

It would have been so useful if I'd actually put a link in as Mumsnet has not yet enabled the mind reading function (good job too). LCM syllabus page is here:

www.uwl.ac.uk/academic-schools/music/lcm-exams/download-syllabus

Or it could be a LCM recital grade, there are no scales in those either. That's four pieces plus either sight reading, viva voce or a fifth piece. Again, there's a repertoire list so if you know what your son is intending to play you can work out which board it is.

If he's taking Trinity exams there is an option for exercises rather than scales. I know this because I have a scale-avoider who went with the exercises all the way through. The advantage (from my son's viewpoint) is that you don't have to learn anything because you have the music in front of you.

The link to the Trinity syllabus is here:

www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=1044

If you look for the G3 trombone pieces and recognise some of them then you'll know that you are on the right track.

can I sneak in to ask a music exam related question....... ?
DS1 is starting to work towards grade 3 trombone. His music teacher is arranged through school so apart from sending off a cheque I've not had any contact with him. He is year 7 and has been with this teacher since the start of the year.
DS had a lesson today and tells me for the next exam he wont need to do any scales or arpeggios at all. This to me seems unlikely but its a long time since I sat a music exam. Google is not helping....... is there a board which would do an exam like that?
( I suspect DS1 is just fed up with me shouting "I haven't heard your scales yet" as he prefers to practice pieces and jazz stuff more)
Thanks in advance and frankly I'm in awe of how talented all your children seem to be!!

Pradaqueen well done to your DD.

We are gearing up for ours next month.