November Music Thread

se22mother, wow< Paul Harris, this is very cool!
drummersmum congratulations with grade 8 drums done!
"Prada", oh these festivals.... many funny things happen during the festivals... I always try to take them as a possibility of public performance....

Fleurdelise you reminded me about violin Christmas carols book which I am on a mission to find now....

Greenleave your dd's scales reminded me that mine requested to buy her all the violin scale books to grade 8 . She said they are fun

Pradaqueen I am impressed with your dd and her wish to get a higher marks for theory exam! Well done her!
Dd's teacher was saying buy grade 5 papers and forget about grade 4, she knows it more or less. I asked- how about getting distinction, and his response was epic - what for? He is a professional musician who never got a distinction in his life....

Disorganised I am reading about your ds's experience in Guildhall but keep forgetting to ask-why Guildhall? (is it in London?) Why not - RAM, RCM or Trinity?

LooseAtTheSeams I feel the same when reading about Green's day - she manages to fit sooo much in it, it makes me feel totally disorganised :))

I am horribly behind again, in spite of my intentions to keep up with this thread...
drummersmum, thank you for remembering about me when it comes to the books :). I made a note of "Play It Again", the other book about jazz which I am not interested (just yet :)). I will wait till dd starts jazz lessons and then may convert :)

raspberry - it is totally ridiculous, if the consequences weren't so devastating for the kids then I think it would be hard to keep a straight face at all the bullsh*t they are spouting.

Seriously its at the level of me being told
"Mending, you must understand that we have to use our money where there is highest demand"
so then I ask
"how have you assessed demand"
to be told
"I haven't"
I suggested he might consider for example a questionnaire, his response
"that's a very good idea"

also teachers can't travel to my kids school because that would take up valuable lesson time, but no it is not discriminatory to offer lessons in school time in the only other school in the district, thereby actively preventing kids in our school from participating because "there are more kids in the other school"

Thinking of you Shaky.

Fleur DS2 developed a bad habit of playing with his clarinet to the side at one point, not intentionally, and received warnings about not turning a clarinet into a flute!

Mending that sounds ridiculous.

sounds scary shakyisles!
closed holes for us

in other news I've just been told the district is removing the kids access to music lessons because they are provided by another district. They are offering no alternative provision and private teachers simply don't exist (because of the district music school system....) If we go 'privately' to the district where they have lessons now the cost to us will increase by at least 15 fold......

I am hoping that the district that provides their lessons actively want to keep them (all three are dedicated, turn up on time, do any extras that are requested and are performing 'above expectaions' so there is a chance....) and might give us some discount. There are at least 4 other children in the same situation so there will undoubtedly be a local 'council of war' to fight to keep our provision. It seems bonkers that apparently the way to increase numbers in the music school is to remove kids provision but hey what do I know....

I am NOT a happy bunny today

The world has been shaking here. The kids have a few days off practise and had to be more careful about where they've put their instruments.

Flute shopping! Exciting! Open or closed hole?

I think we're going to be flute shopping soon too

Well DD keeps putting the clarinet sideways and pretending to play the flute... I told her not to even think about it.

Happy shopping NeverEver! I love instruments shopping.

I have now googled that! Haha...

What does open hole and closed hole mean?

drummer DS2 wants a drum kit but there really is no room. We may consider an electronic kit.

Waffle Year 7 and going for grade 2. He does play quite nicely.

Consider yourselves lucky, wind ladies. The cheapest decent ride cymbal they had the other day in the shop we went to check out was 300 pounds. And that's just one cymbal in the kit...

Waffle Would you have any advice what to look out for in a flute?

raspberry DS1 wants a flute and I told him to ask his teacher and that's what the website the teacher recommended said ... Maybe second-hand is the way to go! But I don't know anything about woodwind instruments. I guess if I buy from a reputable shop it should be OK?

Waffle I am genuinely amazed at how well Goo has coped (and how beautifully she plays) with those braces! I imagine getting rid of those blocks will feel fantastic!
Just came back from parents' evening for DS1, which had a lot of positive comments about music. I can tell he's feeling ok about his bass guitar exam on Friday because he actually smiled when talking about it!