(Mostly) August Music Thread

kutik I have personal experience of risk sports, so I can see that DS - although he enjoys jumping bikes and it obviously looks spectacular - isn't much of a risk taker. Your DS sounds quite similar, mine is a bit of an old man too ;)

How big is a violin case? Does it fit into the carry-on luggage size?

DD has a travel guitar that is currently at my mum's in the UK because of the difficulty of flying it home. I might just sell it and buy a new one!

kutik have you seen the thread running about flying with violins?

Drummers this particular course is UCAS points but I would agree it's not very rare they count.

Alexandra We sometimes watch adverts over and over again, anything with a brass band in it is immediately a candidate for live pause while we work out who it is (it's not always a single band so can be tricky) and who we know.

Congratulations TheSecond, I see you elsewhere on here on a regular basis.

We've had yet another email this week about concert wear for female performers. DS is on tour next week with a group that he's never played with but it would appear that inappropriate dress for performances in churches is a major concern for the organisers. I'm glad that I have a boy where you can't go wrong with shirt, tie, trousers and shoes.

Alexandra hope the Boy had fun... show biz time!
Kutik, no, not my homeland, we were here in the UK which never ceases to amaze me, so much beauty everywhere. DS took his practice pad, sticks and metronome - everything fits in his case! Love the "Mrs Violin Seat" idea

Re sports, DS loves badminton most of all right now, he naturally gravitates towards safe sports. Next year he's finally allowed to drop rugby - yay! - and has chosen to try golf instead...

Misti, so true re your comment on risks in sports. DS always appears to be so primitive to me so I'm constantly worried about him. But I've started to notice others seem to think DS is rather sensible and mature. For instance, his class teacher described him as a little adult (an old man trapped in a 10 years old body). I hope others are right and he is actually not so stupidly fearless as I think!

Well done to Mini Second!

MomOf Two, lovely performance! And yes, lovely dress!

Have you been back to your homeland drummers? We are also going to the middle of nowhere very soon. DS doesn't go anywhere without his violin so we were planning to take it. However, we stupidly booked BA without checking their policy on musical instruments. I called up to see if it's negotiable, especially it's only child sized one. But I was politely advised to book another seat for violin (apparently under the name of "Mrs Violin Seat") or trash it into the hold....

Second many congrats that's super!!
Taggie very welcome! And kudos to you for teaching your DS yourself.
momoftwo thanks for posting, lovely video and playing and if I may say so, lovely red dress
misti that's so funny, DS and DH are always having fun with the Gnu song!
raspberry I am so glad for your goddaughter. I thought UCAS points were useless in reality? Lots of people on Mumsnet saying they are irrelevant, and doesn't a university place depend on A Level grades only?

We've just come back from a few days in the middle of nowhere, just green fields and horses out the window. So much nicer than London (I think I'm getting old). DS has been composing his choral piece today and drumming a bit...

Hello! Can I join in? I am a longtime mn'er, but have name changed a few times.

I have two DS. DS1 (12) plays the piano. He enjoys it, and plays well, but is more into maths, physics and coding. He is working towards his grade 5.

DS2 (9) plays the violin and piano. He is also a chorister. I teach him the violin myself, although I am not a professional teacher! He hasn't done any exams yet, but I am thinking of grade 6 or 7 violin this year - probably spring term. I have also put him down to audition for the NCO, mainly for experience as it is so competitive.

I am so thrilled to find this thread. Teaching DS2 myself, I feel a bit isolated sometimes and I've already enjoyed reading about all of your musical DC's. :-)

I posted DD2s solo from Dublin Suzuki camp on YouTube channel.

My first ever YouTube posting!! Yay!!
Probably won't get video again until next solo, not allowed to video her practicing...

Aww. Ds is home for a night or two and a lot of this is happening !

They are onto the British bedstead men now. 😂

Fantastic news Second.

Thanks Misti. She is going to study Psychology.

Got back from holiday today to find that DS2 got distinction (132) in his Grade 6 clarinet exam. Really pleased for him.

loose yes Justin is great. We discovered his videos a few years ago when DD googled "how to get your pick out of the guitar" ;)

French system suits DD because of much later specialisation - she would hate A levels (they would suit DS though - he'd happily drop everything except maths and physics!). DD in contrast is planning to do a higher education course that allows her to delay specialising for at least another two years.

raspberry well done to your niece! What is she going to study?

Misti looks great! Many thanks. It sounds like your school system is very different to here but it's clearly working well for your dd!

loose check out justinguitar.com. Very good progressive course from total beginner through to good intermediate and beyond.

DD has been a year ahead of her peers since primary - she has done the normal secondary school cursus. It's relatively common for students to skip or repeat years here leading to wide age ranges in a single class - in fact it's not unusual for the gap between the oldest and youngest in a class to be more than 2 years.

Well I had a very happy goddaughter yesterday, whose Grade 8s just gave her enough UCAS points for her uni place!

She's very glad she's done them.

Misti lovely to hear that you're working on piano and I do hope you get the lessons.
Your DS's school sounds very intense! DS1 will be 16 in November and revising for GCSE mocks! He has the advantage of being one of the oldest in the year.
I was interested in your DS learning guitar. DS2 has been playing guitar a lot this Summer holiday, just teaching himself on a bargain acoustic guitar from the local music service and an electric guitar owned by his dad, who deliberately left it out so he'd play it!
We've offered to pay for some lessons so he gets into good habits. My only condition is that he keeps up practice in the other instruments. He's pretty good normally at fitting it in and as he's only going into Y8 there won't be too much school pressure to worry about.

No practice at all going on here since DD16 has been away for 2 weeks with her boyfriend's family and doesn't get home until August 31st! It's good empty nest practice ;)

OTOH I am working on reviving my piano skills in case an adult place is available at the local "conservatoire" this year. And DS14 is busy cramming a year's worth of guitar lessons into the month of August (started last week - can already play all the open chords, accompany simple songs and has one pentatonic scale down pat!).

I do think that expectations, ability, parental support and good teaching have far more effect than age. Not discounting the slight effects of age on the population as a whole

Yes, this - big source of worry for middle class parents, most of whose children are unlikely to see any difference due to age, except the practical differences pointed out. Age differences tend to magnify disadvantage (social or in terms of underlying ability or learning disbility); where there is no underlying disadvantage, I think age is largely irrelevant.

In DD's class (selective class in a French lycée) the two students who consistently get the best results across the board will start the equivalent of Y13 aged just 16 and 15 1/2 respectively.

From DD's perspective the main difference is practical - driving, voting, being considered an adult for financial purposes (she will only turn 18 right at the end of her first year in higher ed).

kutik re sport, DD is not sporty AT ALL, but DS who plays guitar has been racing BMX bikes since he was 6. Fortunately he is a naturally prudent rider (which means that although he is able - currently ranked third in the regional classification in his age group - he will never be national standard). He's never had a BMX injury. It depends so much on personality, attitude to risk taking, ability to assess risks, and to ride within your ability, etc.

Day 1 of Camp 1 was a big success! But very intense, an awful lot packed in. The two pieces that weren't revised were no problem in group setting.
DD2 really enjoyed herself.

DD has broken her collar bone 3 times but she was never doing anything dangerous at the time! Just unpredictable accidents first at nursery, then later in holiday club then at middle school. We've had it all checked out - X-rays and MRI and they said it was just bad luck 🙄

Does anyone else have dc going to the NCO U11 residential this weekend? DD2 is going along with the 2 other bassoonists that she did U10s with. They all have the same teacher now and play together each week in a double reed group, so have got to know each other, but there is a fourth one this year and it's a boy.... They are not sure how to deal with that.

Just arrived at first of two consecutive violin camps. This one is in Dublin, just DD2 and myself. We fitted in some Retail therapy on the journey up. DD2 got lovely red Jack Wills dress, reduced from €169 to €51!!! Great start to the camp. It's a little big, but she's planning to wear it for her solo regardless.

We received a review list weeks ago, and just focussed on her top 2 pieces from that list. Oops, she has groups on 2 earlier pieces too. And we left books at home for DD1 to practice... I have advised that expected response to any problems is 'I got a lovely new dress! Take the rough with the smooth and don't complain to me!! Ha ha

We leave here Saturday night, 2.5 hours drive home and 10:30am flight following morning to Southampton for Bryanston Suzuki camp next week. DD1 coming with us. Second set of bags all packed and almost ready to go!

Fingers crossed for two very enjoyable camps!!!

DS1 got to black stripe. His club didn't do a lot of external competitions, or possibly they did and we weren't involved! There plenty of girls involved too.

He wasn't fantastic at it, but enjoyed it. He gave up when he had to go into the adult classes as they were on the same night as his concert bands. And not bothered enough to find a different club.

DS 2 got to green I think.

I liked it because in the children's classes, you bought so many lessons a month and could go to which fitted each week.