April Music Thread

drummersmum that was such fun - thank you! Lovely technique! DH even came in to have a listen!

he opened it to repair some issues and I couldn't help myself I love watching the hammers.. needless to say I am going to have to pay for someone to come and fix it as some aligning is wrong and requires know how!

Fantastic piano 👐s drummers

DS having some fun
vimeo.com/214048552

Pique, so nice to hear your DD has such supportive friends. DS's primary school is not particularly musical, but he is quite fortunate that his year group is exceptionally gifted (lots of academically able, sporty and musical children) and he has a few fellow musicians who play quite high standard for their age. However, the secondary school DS may go is so focused on sport (and academics). I didn't see any evidence of musical activities at the open day. It actually comes across a bit too macho. I am slightly worried the negative impact on musical sort of boys in the school.... I am really hoping DS finds friends like your DD's.

I was thinking that you can usually trust them to make their own choices, but sometimes you have to ensure that it is their own choice not a reaction to peer pressure or a wrong idea that some misguided, overconfident child has put in their head.

We were really lucky in Y7. DD was the only girl from her primary school in her new form, but acquired a new bunch of friends who are very good to each other. They encourage her in everything she does, especially the piano.

What is this thread doing so far down on the main page? Bump

I hope dd will not drop any of her two instruments in secondary but she is more and more interested in various sports so you never know.

I agree waffle though I have been impressed with how well ds has managed his time , secondary school is a shock and I'm not sure that I would have let him do an exam in the autumn term. Parents evening tomorrow so I will finally get to chat to the school music teacher about what else ds could be doing. His playing seems to be on another level after the nco course it's really inspired him !!

DS did recorder for three years in primary then we told him he had too many instruments and he agreed to drop it. It wasn't really his best instrument anyway, the teacher's report was always the same after mentioning a few issues: "But he has an outstanding sense of rythm". That in itself was an indication...

Forgot to congratulate gez8 for a great first grade.

As they grow they naturally start dropping certain stuff and focusing on other. That goes for hobbies too. DS used to draw comics, write stories, build Lego for hours etc and now it's all music. It's normal though can feel odd to us. Mind you secondary school is so much work that it ends up forcing this narrowing naturally. As I only have one child, after every drop there is just this big hole filled with memories.

I'm sure she will go back to playing it at some point Waffle. Although not put off exams yet ds was impressed I think that his tutor on the nco course hadn't really done any music exams after grade 5 because his teacher didn't believe in them . I have been telling him for ages that while some ( e.g. Grade 8 trumpet and grade 5 piano ) will be useful they are only part of the picture .

I'm sure Goo will still play recorder but I can understand the reluctance to do another exam for a while. However, I suspect once grade 8 flute is out the way, she could be quite amenable to a couple of high level piano exams!

We need to trust them to make their own choices. I remember when my daughter's school friend stopped gymnastics. It was amassive massive deal. She was in line to take part in the olumpics I think if I remember correctly, certainly doing UK championships and it was her whole life and her parents but at 14 I think it was she just decided she didn't want it any more and how brave of her just to stop it like that! She did well at school and all worked out well but it can be hard (never mind hard on parents who have spent a lot and given a lot of time).

The recorder is a really good instrument to get most chldren playing at primary school. I am ure my boys learned so much when they were very little just from the class recorder lessons. I remember mine even to this day from my own schooldays in the 1960s (I still have my recorder from then).

Waffle, I understand the dilemma. DS expressed interests in taking up other instruments in the past. For instance, he really enjoyed clarinet when free lessons were given to his class for a year. He wanted to continue when the programme ended and I had to persuaded him to drop it. In an ideal world I would like to let him do whatever interests him. But he had/has plenty on his shoulders already. He is a I-want-to-try-everything kind of boy, so this sort of dilemma will always be with him. Being able to prioritise things is a skill he has to learn...

Waffle, I'd quite like a term with no exams and no auditions, but that doesn't seem to happen in this house!

Well done miniGez and I am happy to hear this thread helped.

First day of school yesterday and dd already couldn't fit music practice. She went to band and by the time she was home she was shattered so decided there's no point.

Ah, yes when the boys' voices break! So sad in a way. My youngest had grade 8 singing by then and a music scholarship. The school at 12+ in a sense recruited him for his treble voice (he was also one of the youngest in the class and quite small and thin so looked like a good bet for a couple of years or a year) but it broke almost right away. The twins had passed grade 7 and also won a music scholarship at the same stage but their voices went too - one before the other. So I was particularly pleased to sing with one in Messiah recently - he sang bass. I wish they all sang with me at home at the piano every day which we did always when any of the 5 children had a music exam coming up. However it will never leave them even if they aren't of an age when singing with their mother accompanying them is what they want to do.

I do think that music can be the one thing that some children are good at and sometimes being good at that then makes them realise they can actually do other things and they do well at those others too. Also the one on one attention from one music teacher where parents can afford that (or even from a parent) is nice for them as well even if they don't seem to appreciate it at the time. My last child didn't do too well in his school entrance exam. They let him in anyway (along with his twin who did better) and look at him now - aged 18, they both got AAAA in AS levels last year. I was so surprised I thought they were joking when they called me. It does show how children change from 12 - 18 and if we write any off when they are younger that's a huge waste, not that any parent writes a child off but school systems can.

I remember when I went with our university chamber choir years ago to sing in a Welsh national eisteddfod (someone mentioned above). It was such good fun. I hope my twins sing at university (there was no choir in my school so university was a whole new world of singing for me). I will stop writing on these threads soon as when the twins leave school in a couple of months that will be the end of the era (30 years after my oldest went to her very first monrning nursery school).

On maths, I always liked it and music theory but I was just that sort of teenager,. However I don't think there is necessarily any overlap. Lots of musicians aren't good at maths. I do hear music not just in an emotinoal way but a patterned way in my head though and the keys (as I have perfect pitch) so it's quite a structured listening in a sense I think for me which might have a maths connection. I love fugues for example - so clever, just as so much of maths is intriguing.

Great news Gez8

Lovely news Gez8 !