May Music Thread

Icouldbe you must have been so proud and it must feel strange to hear strangers discuss your child's biography

Prada good luck with the exam and I hope mini pill recover quickly.
I thought miniKutik is in year 5, same as dd, going into year 6 which makes it quite important for him to attend the open days. Not sure about private school auditions though as we're sticking with state schools.

Dd's piano teacher told us she requested the first week in July for the exam, hopefully she'll get it as I think dd will be better prepared for her exams. The teacher said she's not worried at all about dd and that she is in a really good position. Well, let's hope she won't start messing everything up 2-3 weeks before the exam as she usually does.

Prada I hope it all goes well both for the exam and the school trip. They do recover quickly so here's hoping for a super-swift improvement.

DS did his concert where he was the named soloist and it all went off well. It was really strange standing in the queue to go in while the lady behind me was discussing his biography in the programme with her partner. Fortunately she did not have anything to say about my spelling or grammar (because it was perfect, no infinitives split, no rambling sentences with many brackets. Not at all like my Mumsnet writing). He has another concert tonight where he's doing a duet - I know this only because I was talking to the mother of the other player last night.

Oh goodness Prada hope mini Prada is ok good luck for today hope she enjoys her residential ( and comes back injury free and ready to take her ballet exam !!)

Well done minitrumpet and all the results. Busy week getting ready for G7 violin later today. Miniprada has a temp of 102 😱 Since Thursday so she's a bit tearful but the teacher has organised a special visit so she can do the exam before her school residential trip and half term (which has a ballet exam in it...) fingers crossed!

Kutik - for what it's worth I think as your little chap is going into Y5 not y6, I would let him go to the JD this term and you go to the open days. He can audition next year for the music director when he is more established and settled at the JD? He is so talented I'm sure he'd be a shoe-in anyway! And remember that music scholarships without combination with an academic award are more about school life participation and developing a love for music. They are not worth many £'s off fees (usually amounts to free lessons on a first study). Applying for one though in a competitive application process does allow the school to see what your child could add to that school' life so applying for one is a great way of making your child more 'appealing' if there is a 'tie' in scores. If it genuinely will be a struggle to afford the fees, make sure you chat to the bursar about bursary awards and understand what you will need to evidence to be eligible for one.

I agree in my experience that most London/south east state or grammar schools will not allow any visits outside of the open days so it is a tricky one to navigate. The independent school will have it's best bib and tucker on as it is selling itself and it is a business. At the state school I'd be seeing the level of music attainment, participation opportunities etc. The reason miniprada is not at the super selective grammar school she was awarded a place at was because music did not feature hardly at all in the school life and at this point music is very important to her. Just my perspective having just been through the whole 11+ thing this school year. Hope it helps!

drummers, the music scholars' taster day is for a private school. It's where my DS wants to go most. But secretly it's not our first choice as any private school will be a great financial burden for a modest income family like us. It is still the first choice among private schools though. DS will probably apply for two or three private schools. So yes, the school is quite important for us. But I decided to prioritise JD so we are not going to the taster day...

I feel we shouldn't cancel the open day at the state school though. It's possibly our first choice but we may change our view when we see the school (it happened a few times in the past so you never know how you feel about the school until you actually visit). So we will probably miss JD in the morning to attend the open day and dash to JD straight after.

Well done miniTrumpet!

Yay! MiniTrumpet congratulations!
I write down DS2's piano practice tasks on a piece of A4 each week because for some bizarre reason, if it's written down, he does it. If I try to tell him, he argues!

Congratulations minitrumpet!!!👍🥇
kutik, it´s a tough one. I agree with others that an open day missed is not the end of the world. However, DS attended an open day for potential music scholars at his future school and they did a "mock" audition with one of their scholars which showed him exactly what the audition would be like (aural, etc). Funnily enough, a year later he was the one to do the mock to demonstrate the next year's intake!
Will they do anything like that at this school? OTOH you may sacrifice jd and then think open morning was a total waste of time... How much do you like this school? Is it in the running?

Thanks all - DS seems pretty normal not to be so efficient.

Oh my God I missed that little Trumpet got a place at AYM! Well done!!!

I need to supervise dd and "remind" her of what her teachers asked her to practice otherwise she's done in 20 min. she quickly plays through regardless of mistakes. Not always, she does have moments when she thoroughly practises but these are less than the recklessly done ones.

She doesn't mind practising it's just that she doesn't know how in depth she needs to, when I sit on the sofa and read her diary telling her what she needs to do it takes her an hour+.

to trumpet and also Mini, lovely results ahead of the weekend.

I learnt your posts on ear plugs with appreciation, we will keep an eye on it too. We were also told off once in a recent festival that the left foot should also be well rested on the floor otherwise it isnt good doing pedalling for long time.

for trumpet's boy!

Massive congratulations on miniTrumpet! Yours were going through the first round of audition process when mine was also just starting. So feel like I know your DS and that I was always waiting to hear the outcome. I'm so happy for you. What's a star he is.

DS's piano teacher will kick me out of the weekly lesson in very near future so I really need to help DS improve his way of practising without my input while I can still sit with him in the lesson.

Kutik I still go through with ds what he's supposed to practice and keep an ear open to check he's doing it!! He's getting much better now but ds also likes to play things really quickly!!
Waffle we sorted out ds's trumpet through the vat free scheme and it all got sorted really quickly
However I'm now slightly concerned that we may need to upgrade again as we found out today that ds got a full AYM place starting in September he's sooo excited !!
we shall see what they say about his not professional grade trumpet his teacher is quite convinced that it's more than fine but ds said he was the only trumpet on his nco course without a professional instrument

Cross post here - but I very much endorse what others have said about the importance of the 'gut feeling', the 'can I work with these people?'... And I wouldn't be very impressed by an independent school that didn't see the value of a personal experience like this either.

Thank you for your advice Jeelba, but I already asked them and both rejected to arrange an individual visit...

How about arranging an individual visit on a school day? You could see the music department in action, meet the Director of Music and play to him/her and discuss what is expected of music scholars - and what the school offers them! Schools are usually very happy to offe this, especially to potentially excellent scholars...

Oh and, he can't practise SLOWLY - another discovery.

By the way, I would like to share what I recently discovered... Nothing interesting, sorry, but I need to pour this out somewhere...

After gathered some useful advice here, I started sitting with DS when he practised, and guess what I learnt the reality of his 'practice'... For instance, he does 'selective' practice, which means he ONLY plays where he likes or pieces he loves, or plays whatever he liked listening to the radio last night, or anything in his head at the time. After making obvious mistakes he calls it 'perfect' then move on to another piece to again just play through (with mistakes here and there) then announces 'all is done' in a happy voice... Basically I learnt how wonderfully optimistic he is.

But..., SERIOUSLY??? How could he achieve all the stuff with those poor techniques of practice???? He is 10 soon, so for normal people it's time to start giving them more independence. But before we lose all the parental influence, I guess I need to give him some input and help him plan his practice more efficiently...

I must say, sometimes he does his practice very well, like reminding himself what he was supposed to learn or practise. But it's once a long while that happens...

Thank you string and earling. The voice from experience is so so helpful. We decided to miss the taster day but will keep our eyes wide open during their general open day so that we won't miss out any necessary information!!

Waffle, I already called them. Unlike other state schools in my area, they don't do any individual tour. They said their annual open day is only time parents can come to see the school....

On the go at moment kutik so just a quick response. DD got offered a scholarship with her school without attending their Music Open day.

String's point re your son getting a feel of music departments/Heads is very valid though. Another school DD did their open day with, including playing, resulting in her securing an audition with a reservation of her not wanting to go there if an offer came back, for a number of reasons. Her gut was working as it should do, even at that young age.

Kutik - our JD does the ensemble and orchestral auditions over the first two weeks so are quite important, but on the other hand rehearsals don't start until a couple of weeks in. So i would check with your JD wether yours is the same, and what arrangements they have for those who aren't there (there are always late arriving people). I guess it depends on whether you want your lessons to start asap or you can wait a few weeks (for us start of term is important as NCO etc auditions will be looming, and our lessons stop at end of June) - but you may have other arrangements.

I agree with Waffle that it won't make a difference to the audition result necessarily but there is no doubt developing a rapport can ease some children in; we had a brilliant pre-audiion experience at one school that really gave dd a sense of what it would be like to work with them, and other people came in to meet her during it. So i don't think it is just about them meeting your DS - it is about him working out if he would like it there. One school shone out for DD in that process - the variations of the philosophy of different music depts was really more marked then we expected (as non musical people). So your DS is going to fly in any audition as you now know, but he might just want to get to know them some more too?

Very helpful view, Waffle, thank you so much. That was my main concern as well as what JD pointed that DS missing the very first days of those settling periods. We can see the facilities and hopefully be able to see some people in the music department on the general open day, so we will skip the taster day and let DS enjoy JD on the day!

There is another Saturday taken up for another school in September. It's their once a year open day for all who are interested. It's a state school and actually our (so far) first choice. Unfortunately it's the actual first day of JD... We only miss the morning and DS can still attend JD in the afternoon. But I am not sure if we should go... Ahgrrr.