October Music and Musicians Thread

I am having a wow mother moment. DD took up singing last year and sat G4 in the Spring. She had to choose another instrument as part of her scholarship and I (wrongly) thought voice would not be a "real" one, on top of her violin and piano, commitment wise. I had no idea she could even sing until I heard her in a summer concert.

We're now on half term also known as music catch up. I have just heard her practice her G5 pieces for the first time, accompanying herself on the piano. One german, one italian piece.

I owe a huge apology for ever thinking voice was not an instrument as such - I had just never been exposed to it before as she does all her practice at school, though when, I haven't a clue. We are now really feeling the value of that piano that was the cause of so many family rows in the early years...so pleased we stuck with it through the many brick walls and tears!

I always tell DS that I'm his Pepper Potts (for those of you who don't know Iron Man, shame on you).

Green you're so absolutely dedicated. Your DD sounds happy and confident. And you work full time. Give yourself a pat in the back and a bunch of . And get your DH to do his bit

Radio.

My silent mumbling mantra used to be oh how the mighty have fallen. I can't even think that anymore because that would involve me having an ego, had to relinquish that too!

So many of us on here that have taken similar paths to support our DC!

green: you're doing a great job - you just need to ride through the dark days...

I think I am my kid's PA 🤔

never.

If I win the lottery, the first thing I will do is hire a person whose sole job is to deal with utility's companies. Having not had to do it for well over 15 years myself, I soooooo want my PA back!!

"In reality, the only thing I have missed about my job is the PA."

I want a PA!



Green - i echo everything Prada has said; the guilt of whether you are doing enough seems much worse in the intense land of 11+ etc; we didn't do the state exams in the end, and have focused on the indies but with odds of 10-1 sitting for each place, it is hard not to worry about whether we should have tutored etc, and means we have to do multiple entries to be sure of having a choice. I too have had to step back career wise, and don't regret it (Well i do sometimes actually!) but am so looking forward to life post Feb. Just be kind to yourself - there are many roads to success at this point and your dd seems incredibly bright and engaged, which is what these schools want, not just scores.

Waffle - good luck with getting the audition slot back; sounds like DD is super ready and you can then relax for half term :)

Aww Green, don't be too hard on yourself you are doing a great job with your children! In reality, I have put my 'real' career (corporate, high power) on hold these past two years as I knew it was not compatible with supporting 11+ entry (although I am aware this sounds mad when you write it down). I have enjoyed every minute of being around more for miniprada and cannot ignore the fact that she has been the better for it as opposed to having a nanny (who was absolutely lovely). I know I am very lucky to have the choice, many don't. In reality, the only thing I have missed about my job is the PA

Fact is, we can't have it all and I've stopped trying. Most of the research and decisions about childcare fall onto the mother in most (not all) families. Combine that with doing a job well, fulfil pressure to make social engagements, rush about to extra-curricular and raise your children it's no wonder you feel swamped Green!

Chill out today and have or Baileys!

We have a very reluctant singer and completely out of tune(beat) singer too!

Today has been a busy day, hopefully we will have a chance with the violin tomorrow so a little practice before Monday. Also the person who is doing the exam feels no pressure as she thinks "its similar to the school Orchestra audition" which is a good think. I had to tell her that some other similar age children play much better and practise for the audition longer so we deserve it if we fail. She finds it a complete fair.

Prada: do we have to wait until March to find out about the result? The main point is its a great practice and confidence boost to her Indie exams in few months time. MiniPrada is such a warrior, we(mostly me) feel so much pressure with 11+ and not much we (me) could do about it right now. The worst case we will do more Indies andif its needed, we will move.

There are down moments for me these days when feeling I am an utmost looser everywhere, work and socialwise. I'd like to burry my head in the sand and not think. So right now I need to sort couple of things out first, my mind isnt most focused on Music/Academic for now.

I have two refusers also in my older DC, one reason why they stuck to Trinity.

Chorister DS2 - easy marks!

Another vote for audition asap Waffle.

DS2 enjoyed his organ introduction, and he will have the occasional opportunity to play in church. But I have said lessons only if he drops one of his existing four!

We spent an hour filling in the NYO Inspire form this morning, so fingers crossed he is offered the residential.

DS will not sing, no, no no, not ever. When he went away for a week with a group I didn't point out that the timetable included "choir" and it wasn't my problem that he didn't look at the timetable until he got there. That was a valuable lesson on being prepared. On the day they were quite clear that everyone was going to sing, no exceptions and it turns out that he has a lovely singing voice (I know that I am really biased). He was fine with it because everyone had to do it.

Waffle the location and availability of accompanist makes it tricky doesn't it? I think if I was in your shoes and she's fit to do it, I think I'd be asking if they still had the original slot. Part of my reasoning is that I like these things out of the way as soon as possible.

Fleur, I have a singing refuser also which is bizarre seeing as she does musical theatre exams at school. They are funny things aren't they!?

Good luck waffle on the audition.

*muddle not middle

Yes she's done it before and got full marks in grade 1 it is just to remind her so she doesn't get confused as grade 3-5 is harder so she might get herself in a middle thinking it is harder than it is really.

I hope they still have Goo's slot!

Loose yes very silly, she does it with the piano teacher even though the clarinet teacher is much more...inviting, she is able to act silly with her and less strict than the piano teacher so you would believe she is more at ease with her. Maybe she wants to do it with her piano teacher because she's more strict and she doesn't really take no for an answer. I don't know.

Ooh driving I like the Penguin as well! I like jazz and so does DS2 but I think the Jazz exams are harder for each grade than the usual ones. If he wants to do jazz grades later, it might well mean finding a different teacher so at the moment I'm not looking at them. Maybe for me later on...
Fleur that's funny, DS2 won't sing for his piano teacher although seems to agree to do it for the cello teacher. No idea why!

Thank you Waffle DD's teacher tried all she could, she sang together and so on, DD said she'd do it with her piano teacher because she's known her for 3 years. We've agreed that the piano teacher will cover a bit before the exam and we'll also do it on the app and DD promised she will do it in exam, she was just too embarrassed to do it in front of the clarinet teacher. Silly really but there you go.

I hope you convinced Goo to audition this week seeing that she is ready.

looseattheseams, what about the c piece The Penguin? dd2 is drooling over it!!
dd2 has just mentioned doing the jazz exams, but as a foreigner who never did any exams and a dd1 who , like me isn't into jazz, it's completely unknown territory (and actually don't really like jazz.........).
Will have to d/w her teacher I suppose.

Waffle what do you do when your pupils refuse to sing in the lesson when doing aural practice? DD is refusing completely to sing, her teacher moved on but I guess is annoying...

Clarinet lesson this morning, DD practised more last week and we can see this in her lesson. Her teacher just said how impressed she is, checked her practice book and went "ah, you have practised more".

Apparently she's almost ready for the exam, she'd pass or merit if the exam would be tomorrow so plenty of time to aim for merit/distinction.

No discussions of piano exams at all, still going through repertoire, scales and sight reading. Which is good as I can see such a difference in DD enjoying playing different styles and the way she is taught technique is so detailed. She will do a competition in January, haven't decided the classes yet.

Prada there's always quite a bit of shuffling round on waiting lists as well between March and August, so don't worry if you go on the waiting list for a bit.
I bought DS2 some more piano music for pieces on the C list for grade 4 as he finished Bow Chicka Wow Wow! He has two more pieces on the go now and I am listening carefully in his lessons in the hope that one day I can play them, too. There's Kabalevsky In the Gymnasium and Foreign Correspondent by Elissa Milne. I like the look of her Pepperbox Jazz book. His teacher wanted him to play more pieces so he can choose the ones he likes best for the exam. I think this is a great idea; although it's a bit expensive buying more books, he will definitely benefit from more variety!

Prada what a great result!
We had a smilar issue with distance to school counting against us for the superselective. It's a funny one, "your child has passed but may not get a place". Fingers crossed for miniPrada! The indies should be a walk in the park now as they really care about all the extacurricular she already brings with her!

Waffle it sounds as if Goo's really on the recovery. That's great.