September Music and Musicians Thread

Wow, I'm late to this thread! I have dd who is turning 10 next week just going into year 5 who plays clarinet.

She had her first lesson back yesterday and her and her teacher have selected pieces to use for grade 3, hopefully this term. I had an e mail from her teacher saying they have selected pieces "that are within her capabilities". I'm not sure how to read that, does that mean they are picking safe pieces rather than those that would challenge her? Is that a good plan?

Dd was offered a place to learn bassoon at a Saturday school but we have unfortunately had to turn it down, she is gutted so we are hunting for local bassoon lessons and also starting theory lessons this term.

Sorry to hear your dad is not well prada I missed that part. I hope he recovers quickly!

Pradaqueen You can sell this as the test run so she gets through the newness of the process at one that you're not heavily invested in.

I am sorry to hear about your dad, it must be a really stressful time for you.

Alexandra two pianos, I would love another piano in the house. And a harp. And a marimba. Oh and a cello.

Prada at the card. I'll have to buy it for my friend. It is perfect!

Is miniprada taking the SW Consortium today by any chance? Good luck to her! DD will be this time next year and the thought fills me with dread. I can't decide what to stress about more, DS's GCSEs or her 11 plus.

Morning everyone. Waiting outside the first 11+ exam. Miniprada has had a wobble this week as my Dad is seriously ill so I think we won't be passing but never mind the music dept is not great and we are out of catchment so only an extraordinary score will get her a place. Anyway, just bought this birthday card for my friend which I thought you guys might find equally as amusing...

Poor Dd2 feeling frustrated with her current orchestra.

Under previous years rules she would have moved up to higher level orchestra based on ability. But now, not only has she stayed down (decision to split by primary/secondary rather than ability), a lot of younger kids with no prior orchestra experience have joined her orchestra, and it is back to square one.

Happens every year, but previously she could (just about) tolerate it for a few weeks as she moved from thirds to seconds to first.

This year she is so fed up. I have spoken to orchestra manager to see if they can do something to continue to challenge those poor kids who they kept back.

She will do exams for first time this year so she can audition for more advanced orchestras for next year.
Fingers crossed that tomorrow is better than last week.

Alexandra Two pianos!

Greenleave ha-ha, this is what I thought yesterday :) The boy is getting famous :)

Alexandra I have terrible piano envy now! I bet it's lovely!
Only at 'doesn't like concerts'! He's just playing hard to get! Yes, that sounds very like DS and his little 'friend' when they were in year 4.

alexandra how fabulous. You can now play two piano pieces.

green 11plus we had to do sunday mornings and whatever ww could during the week.

Alex: that's very nice!
Only: it's lovely that they tell us everything now isnt it!

LooseAtTheSeams, aaaah, cannot stop laughing at the marriage bit . Dd calls that other boy her enemy but giggles all the time when she talks about him and I already know that he likes chicken, bananas, apples, ABBA, etc.... I don't think she knows that much about her own brother! I asked her if he attended summer concert at school where she played violin. She said no because he didn't like concerts. Obviously she missed her chance to impress him with her talent
She knows too much about him taking into account they are not even in the same class!

Ah, only I know what you mean! And I think your DD is much more like another girl who was more amusing. She once managed to mouth something silently but clearly from her mum's car from some distance, which impressed ds1 no end! They complained about each other so much that her mum and I were convinced they would end up married! it is that age and they do grow out of it!

Its all so complicated!
Glad to hear that Loose's son is now happy in new school
Only: the first time I heard a story on the otherside and they are still so young to be fully aware of all this
All: I had sorted myself on maths over the weekend and tonight I was in an eager mood(toddler went to bed early, hubby wont be home till late) that I will have an hour with her for maths. It has gone downhill, we havent sat down together since this April. She made many mistakes, simple ones! She needs to do some small arithmetic exercises daily to be able tobe back on track. We dont have time!!!! So hard to keep up with everything. We are not even in yr5 with 11+ prep yet! How did you do it all?

LooseAtTheSeams sounds like my dd There is a boy in her school she would not leave alone. Tbh I think she is in love with him - I am a woman and I just feel such things . But obviously at 8yo- she cannot handle it very well. She comes to him and says nasty things and of course he is very upset. I had to talk to his older brother once and to explain that probably there are some feelings involved.... He looked at me like I was totally mad. The complication is that the boy is black and of course there is always a worry that he may take her comments as racist's which I also had to explain to her. I was very pleased to see how upset she was by the fact that some people could be discriminated by the others based on their color skin - it has never occurred to her of course.
Oh, god, will they ever grow up??

Interesting discussion indeed! I was going to say earlier that DS1 had a pretty bad experience of primary school for some time, partly due to some pretty nasty teasing and comments from a couple of girls. It got so bad one day he was sick because of something one of them said and the next day I went in and told his teacher what he told me. It was very well handled and the last 2 years were better.
He and all his friends felt that the boys were always blamed, often unfairly, and put down apart from one female teacher who was more sympathetic. I could see what they meant. One problem was no male teachers, I suspect. So, feminist though I am, I have a lot of sympathy for boys in our education system and despite preferring mixed schools, I totally supported DS1's choice of a boys' school where he has made lovely friends and, just as important, he has had his confidence boosted.
DS2 is another kettle of fish. Naturally sure of himself and quick to answer back! But in his year, there were a lot more boys than girls so the dynamic was very different.

I have got both and I feel a bit overprotective over DS from an emotional point of view. I feel that throughout his life he always bottled it, started school at 4 being a summer born and never cried for mummy, moved whwn he was 4 and had to make new friends, never complained, and now I can never truly guess what he is feeling. Maybe not much because he seems to be a straight forward person.

DD on the other hand cried her eyes out when she started nursery and school, always had the same friends, she is drama overall but she shows you clearly how she feels.

I wouldn't change either of them, I would like DS to open up emotionally more to me. But he is a teenager and he has always been like that.

My DS was a very easy child (and DD very hard work) but that's largely a matter of personality. He's Kevin the teenager now though lol! DD at 15 is quite civilised and mature. If you met them, you'd probably guess at an age gap of 4 years rather than a year and a half.

Re languages, it's largely a matter of opportunity. Everyone can learn a second language given the chance, although some learn more easily than others. My experience of bilingual kids is that confident verbal kids do learn quicker, probably because they are prepared to have a go and therefore get more practice. And musical kids probably benefit from their listening skills.

Vocabulary is the key though. Grammar mistakes rarely matter, but you can't express yourself without a decent vocab.

drummersmum I have both - a girl and a boy-and I totally agree.... Oh, little madam is such a hard work, her brother is soooo much easier....

By the eighties I mean we teenage girls were a bit more sheltered than now. I think.

I spent 14 years in a single sex school. The truth? We were all desperate and obsessed with boys (but it was the eighties). When I left I thought boys were Gods (far away, mysterious, all mighty and not for us to understand). A few months into a coed sixth form all mystery was gone and I saw the less scary truth

ealing
As the Chinese say, you need the Yin and you need the Yang. They make up everything there is!

Just to add, those going for all girls school options, nothing against them at all. In our case 14 years in one was just not appealing for DD.