January Music Thread

trumpet been there (for many years!) but I finally got to the point about a year ago where I can listen to DD perform without feeling almost sick with nerves - and holding my breath at potentially dodgy bars! She likes getting a bit nervous because she says the adrenaline helps her performance.
School audition for DD today - but no grade 2 books here waffle! If it's in the same room as the pre-audition I will be able to hear every note - which is good because I know if I ask her how it went I will just get 'uhhh, yeah, fine'

Good luck bythesea!

Aww Green - we'll miss you!

BeBesideTheSea hope it goes well today and you get good news I totally agree that it's much worse being a parent watching from the sidelines I get so nervous on their behalf when ds did his nco audition I had to go and stand outside so I couldn't hear him play !!

OMG that was long. Sorry. DH is away (in a different time zone) so I clearly needed to get it all out!

Sorry!

When Goo misses a day, she's then a nightmare to motivate,... it will take Goo until early next week to find her rhythm again and stop arguing with us.
Waffle thank you so much for posting the above
That is exactly the same we have with DS (just 7). DH thought he was being super nice letting him slack off practice over the Xmas hols, but Ds is so much happier when it goes well. Which it does if he practices every day.

DS plays recorder - just had to buy a new one as the original didn't have two holes at the bottom (?F). So glad he likes recorder... New one cost only £13!!

We still haven't had the G1 results (hold up as ABSRM have moved offices. Apparently).

And he had his Chorister audition today (he is already at the school, and will stay whatever). He doesn't think he did well enough to get in. But that is somewhat his personality. He was satisfied with his singing , and recorder piece. And was v pleased with his singing back a note from a chord (he says he got the bottom of all the 2 or 3 note chords). But he had to sing back a melody and it took him 6 goes to get it right. V morose. He has never done that before in his life - not sure if they take that into account. I feel like if he doesn't get it it will be my fault for not preparing him. But I am not musical, and all we were told was to learn a simple song, make sure he knew the words, and be.prepared to play a price if he played an instrument.

It took.him (and us) such a long time to decide he wanted to go for it, now he really really wants it. Child taking an exam is so much worse than taking it yourself - I had no idea!

Still, should know tomorrow (external auditions tomorrow). Not sure I can wait that long... Especially if his friends (classmates) get in and he doesn't

Just checking in. Only read the last few posts. Is it too late to wish all musicians and parents-of-musicians Happy New Year.

How lovely to see you, Wafflenose. Thank you for starting such a thread. I have recently joined and am getting lots out of it.

drummersmum - Welcome to the self-taught club! I played a bit of Für Elise years ago as the first go of my piano playing. Obviously I didn't have any appropriate skills to play the piece well so didn't really enjoy playing and stopped learning further. When my DS started taking piano lessons, I played together with him. He loved me playing with him - bless him he was so young that he didn't realise how bad I was! When he started learning G1 materials, I stopped playing with him. A couple of times in the pat, I had a go at Czerny. My DS improved a lot since he started Czerny, so I thought I would follow what he was doing. But it was too boring that I've never learnt beyond No. 4! From the experience, I know I should not jump into a hard piece and would get bored easily with dry pieces. So this time, my plan is to learn lots of G1 pieces. They look manageable with light amount of efforts and also fun to learn/play. Today I learnt the fist line of Mozart's Minuet in G. This is going to be my piece of this month!

Loose, how dare you, all the best! My teacher reminded today that there is still an available slot for me starting from this term so I could start. I know I should! I am just so lazyyy!!!

I am taking a break from facebook and all network chats and now including mumsnet for ...6 months. Just need to spend the little time left in the day for reading. Will find you all in 6 months everyone!

Wow! I am even more impressed with Rara! Well, I have taken the plunge and entered for the grade 4 piano exam - gibber!

Wafflenose, in fact I wouldn't dare to feel insulted. You have given me (under a different name) good advice about dd and recorder .

No no wafflenose. Not at all. It's just that I feel that we live in a differnt world. Dd has changed school so things have changed. Before she just managed to get 30 min piano every 2 to 3 weeks. Lessons for her other insrtument was at her previous school and given by a TA who only taught dd the same cords over and over again, so she got bored with it.
Another teacher taught recorder, children were playing with their hands swapped around (I guess they were mirroring the teacher....).

Kutik - associates/reserves and the regionals are absolutely part of the NCO family 🎶🎶🎶 x

Hi Acme. I appreciate it's a long way north still, but I can thoroughly recommend the Wind Section in Edinburgh. We did a 200 mile round trip and it was worth it.

We were trombone shopping, but DS1s friend also went there for his Conservatoire clarinet.

Kutik I've just been sent an nco email they said that they will send out the music for our regional orchestra in Feb after the first rehearsal ( ours isn't until the weekend).

kutik I've also started self-taught piano after years of putting it off. I want to get a good base this time (tried to rush it a few years back) learning and understanding the different keys so I have gone back to DS' s first books before grade 1!

Icouldbeknitting - Yes sorry I meant 'county' without R. Thank you for the explanation. It's all clear.

Kutik73 Do you mean county rather than country? That final R makes all the difference. If you live in a single tier local authority rather than a two tier district and county set up then you won't have something with that name. I live in a county that ends in a --shire, here the local education authority (through the music partnership) runs several area-based Saturday music schools each with a wind band, chamber orchestra or whatever else they have players for. In addition to those are the county wide orchestras and the county wind band. The playing standard for those is higher because they have a wider base to audition from, it's like a pyramid with six or seven groups at the bottom feeding into the county ensembles at the top. National groups will have a higher standard still, because they have an even bigger pool of players to draw from.

Hello ACMEinc, I am also very new to this forum so very pleased to have a fellow newcomer. My DS played clarinet a bit at school and loved it, but his main instruments are piano and violin so I'm afraid I cannot give you any useful information (but just wanted to say 'hi').

Just a quick (and again very ignorant) question... What is 'the country music service' or 'the country orchestra'? I often hear those words but no clue what they are. For instance, my council runs a music service and they have an orchestra aiming for young talented musicians (G5 + and Y5+). There are also those reputable youth orchestras such as Stoneleigh and Thames. Are they a country orchestra? If not, what's the difference? Wherever it says 'country' or 'national' it sounds as if they are more selective or better standard (for me).