May Music Thread

If DS had stopped at school he would have chosen his A levels in the December before he took his GCSEs. They had option blocks so the
choices were limited by what could be timetabled. As they didn't offer A level music among the options he looked elsewhere and ended up at a much larger sixth form college. When he went for the interview in March he said what A levels he would like to take, the students had a two day taster session after the GCSEs had finished based around their choices. When he enrolled in August he made a firm decision as to his choices. As it is a much larger set up they run multiple classes in the more popular subjects so there are no option blocks and less chance of a subject clash.

He chose music for obvious reasons, law because it looked interesting and english because I strongly advised something that he could teach at GCSE. It was a close thing between english, history and biology but he didn't fancy dissecting fish and when he looked at what they would be covering in history he decided that english was the least worst option. He also took music technology to AS, when he starts back next week that will fall from his timetable.

So far it has all much more laid back than the grind of GCSE, he has hours of free time (or "study periods" as the college and I like to call it) and the exam period has been positively chilled compared to last year.

Hello Mistigri, nice to hear from you, best of luck with your moving.

Have a lovely time Kutik! (And I just googled roll up piano too).

fleur and Icould when did you DC have to choose A levels options? Before Easter? And what have they chosen - this second question is just being nosey and interested

I'd never seen it in my entire life 😧🎹

Fleur, if you google it you will see lots of different models and grades. We have one with a pedal. It's not great, but ok with sight reading or scale practice. I must say it's more like a toy for DS. He loves making mad noise with it....

Sorry, enjoy your holiday kutik family, I am under shock to hear piano practice can happen on holiday

Omg what's a roll up piano?! (off to google)

Hello Ladies! Just to let you know kutik family is enjoying the surprised holiday in Cornwall! No much music I'm afraid. Instead we are enjoying golfing, body boarding, rock pooling, fishing... I brought a roll-up piano and violin just in case, but no sure if we have time for any practice! Luckily both piano and violin teachers never expect their pupils to practise during holiday so we won't be in any trouble.

disorganised, not sure if our experience is of any help but just wanted to say DS has never done any violin exam. He did a few with piano but violin is his first study so more important. So far we haven't had any problem with it and to my eyes he is progressing very well and very happily (free from exam related stress).

Welcome back Misti and good luck to your dd tomorrow! Happy to hear news from you.

Just poking my head round the door to say "hi" ...

(We're moving and I'm up to my elbows in paster and paint).

DD has her first ever serious music exam tomorrow (end of French conservatoire second cycle for piano). Has been a bit of a rush to get ready in time with school trips and visits to her boyfriend. Plus she hated the compulsory piece, a very contemporary piece by Christian Manen which even after 4 weeks of repetition I still can't tell if she's playing correctly. At least she has spared me the expense of buying the music by playing it from memory.

I feel for the neighbours (though less so since they spent the whole of a Sunday digging up their drive with a pneumatic drill lol).

She is also playing Debussy Arabesque No 1 and a Schubert impromptu. Much easier on the ears!

I havent been able to read all posts in detailshowever wanted to say that I feel sad that you are leaving the training Orchestra. Petra. I so agree on every term time 2 hours Sunday, it is ALOT to us, many times I memtioned here that I hate to loose her any weekend minute. However, for the last nearly 3 terms with the Orchestra, we love it, we love everything about it, we joke about a piece that we "dont like", about some days we dont get the jammed cookies during short breaks. We are very looking forwars to the rehearsals/concerts.

On the other note, there hasnt been music practice however someone is enjoying her books so much that I had to stop to get her few more for this mid term break

Thanks, Pradaqueen. It is very very helpful. My DD really like Bohm from List B. Your DD choose this as well, so I now think that may be a good choice for my DD. About List A, she would like to choose Bach, but I like Mozart. List C we still have no ideas.
I will tell my DD about your list C piece and ask her if she want to challenging herself.

Drummersmum that's really great to hear. Thank you for your message. I have bought him some Bach concertos to be practicing at home with a few to finding some other similar ones so if anyone knows of any concertos/sonatas/duets or such like that are that kind of level please let me know. He adores Baroque music and has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of what composer is from what era of music and knows a great deal about each composers' works so should all help.

Hi Violinandpiano - miniprada just did G7 violin and she did the Mozart and the Bohm and then chose the Gershwin from the alternative list as the teacher thought that these were a. Technically the most challenging and therefore she would learn the most techniques and b. A diverse repertoire for festival use.

Hope that helps. The Gershwin is a bugger by the way and sounds terrible during the first stages of learning!

Disorganisedmummy my thoughts on grades for what its worth is not too worry and as a general comment we are too obsessed with grades in the UK. This is especially true of many parents who can't see beyond ticking off the next grade. I have experience of other countries that produce a lot of wonderful musicians and they don't follow a similar system. If your child is progressing in the right way and having fun that is the most important and even auditions for NYO and BBC Young Musician don't actually require that you have taken grade exams.

Hi, everyone,we need your advise. We need to choose grade 7 violin pieces. I wondere if anyone had yet formed any views about these pieces. Which pieces would best suit a 9 years old DC. Advice and suggestion would be most welcome.

Drummers and Rapidly - agree with you on the wide range of ability and the fun in GCSE music! DS1 loves it - he seems to have taken to the composing despite being a bit slow to get on with it! The historical periods are really interesting. He's got a couple of friends in the group who are also at the grade 6-8 range but they definitely don't feel they are being held back.
Interestingly, though, the school has decided to set music from year 8, which didn't happen before. I think it's got more to do with behaviour rather than ability - some of the beginners are really keen and get on with the work but some aren't and don't settle very well in class. I am pleased the school takes music lessons seriously, though, there are a lot of demands on their resources but they do see it as valuable,

Disorganised that's great, the county orchestra is great news, as that's what he really likes. Being ahead of your peers in music at secondary school doesn't necessarily mean boredom. It depends largely on the teacher. DS has loved the music lessons, because they did fun things like composing soundtracks then shooting videos to go with them, etc. The activity was fun and that's what mattered, even if the content was below his level. Now he's really enjoying gcse because they listen to different historical periods, talk about them, analyze, etc and then of course he's composing a lot which he already did, but the composing is something each child does to their level and the teacher is never going to bring their level down, on the contrary. What I'm trying to say is that the fact that he knows most of what's being said doesn't impact on the enjoyment because he loves music, so who wouldn't want to be talking and working on what you love most?

..and congratulations on the seat in the county orchestra.

Disorganisedmummy we're looking at conservatoire/university for 2018 entry. Whatever I tell you know will be so out of date by the time you get to this point that it will be useless, as time goes by you need to keep an eye on the entry requirements for whatever he wants to do so that he doesn't accidentally close off any of his choices. As I stand here now, the conservatoires DS is looking at talk about being at least of G8 standard and they will determine that by audition. The universities (some of which offer courses with a large element of performance) ask for ABRSM G8 or equivalent qualification. My sweeping generalisation is that if you're aiming at conservatoire you don't need the exam, if you think you want to study music at university then you do.

I wouldn't worry about it until after GCSEs, there's still plenty of time then for a swift G8 if needed. He is still very young, exams are not all there is to music and if he is set against them there is nothing to be gained by pushing him down that route. Everything Ds has auditioned for has asked for a certain grade standard, for those not taking exams a letter from their teacher is the equivalent.

Loose,ds is so funny- he was quite unemotional about it but I suspect that's nerves in a way. He has a full day rehearsal on Saturday an hour away from where we live so we're all going up there for the day. They're rehearsing for a concert on the 1st July and the Orchestra leader said that he would be fine to play then after 1 rehearsal and will send him home with the music but ds has refused to play in the concert and said he will watch but I'm hoping he will change his mind once he's there. It's a big step for him.
Re his teacher-her reputation goes before her locally. She has a waiting list and all the sectional tutors at the 2 orchestras he is in said she is one of the best in our area so v lucky to have her.
Thanks for all your advice so far. So good to know that we don't have to have grades. The one thing ds has said is that he'd like to be Grade 7 standard by the time he starts Year 7 in September which his teacher has said is achievable. He loves doing theory which is great and he leads the second violins in the 2 orchestras and string ensemble plus music school so hope this will help. The only issue is that he is so far above nearly all the kids in the senior school already (he is at an Indy school that goes up to 16) that he will likely be bored stupid in music lessons for a while but we will have to see how that goes.

I think if grade exams don't motivate the child then don't do them. I would imagine just doing grade 8 is fine as well. But what a lovely thing to get into the county orchestra and have three residentials! He must be over the moon!
DS1 is off to rock band boot camp this afternoon. It's at the college where I work so I'm going to hide in the office while he makes a lot of noise! DS2 is doing tennis for two days.

I don't think you have to have done the exams ( just be at the required standard) though ds's teacher thinks that if you don't have a well known teacher for your instrument ( so having lessons say at a jd) then it's a good idea to have at least grade 8 so that potential music colleges will have some sort of "proof" of ability alongside your cv