(Mostly) August Music Thread

Had a piano lesson last night and the focus will be on one piece till the potential audition in 4 weeks time factoring in the fact that her teacher is also on holiday for a week.

Woke up to the news delivered by a friend that there's been a death (17 yo) at Reading festival. She was asking if DS is ok and I had no clue, the following 20 min until I managed to talk to him have been a nightmare!!! He's fine thank God! If anybody has DCs there I hope yours are ok also, such a sad news.

I love seeing them after time away from their instruments. Our holiday this year has been to family, who are very musical, so she took her clarinet and had access to a piano (and a beautiful acoustic bass guitar, double bass etc etc) and yet within minutes of coming through the door, she had slung everything down and gone to her piano.

Back from hols and caught up with the lovely piano playing by Miniealing, I am jealous!
After a week without instruments, DS2 scampered up to his room to play guitar and bass boy was reunited with his bass guitar and practising this morning. He's now wading through his geography homework but with frequent snack breaks!

Knowing how difficult/how long it takes it is to find a good teacher, I would definitely start looking now. For DC3 I have found even the summer holidays (too) long without teacher. I wonder how many noticed mistakes she has picked up....

Impressed with miniealing and also the violinist (not sure who she belongs to but she's really good).

That's all the new stuff isn't it? Nothing else shows up on my side.

Morning all!

irvine personally I wouldn't leave him without a teacher for so long even if you find somebody and explain that come January he's moving back to his old teacher (only if 100% happy with her, personally I wouldn't be so happy being let down so last minute).

I think learning on his own for so long is inevitable he'll pick up bad habits at such an important stage of learning, it is in my opinion more important to have a good teacher when the foundation is being laid than later on.

I'm off to the YouTube channel to see all the new uploads.

It's still on the channel Prada; and thank you Alex and Drummers; she's relaxing a little more now!

Thank you for advice.
I really can't decide what to do. He has been learning piano about year and half now, but I realised he only had proper teacher less than half of that time.
I will see how it goes, but I think I will take advice and start looking for different teacher as well.

Did I miss the video from miniealing?

irvine, if your DS is so attached to the teacher, you could wait but I would say within a definite period of time.

The exactly same thing happened to my friend's son a few years ago. His teacher had a baby in August so they had a term break as the teacher said she would be back after three months. She didn't come back. My friend innocently waited without any research for a new teacher so she finally started searching for a new one after the long wait. It took a while for the boy to settle with a new one. My friend still talks about it and feels bad that she didn't find an alternative teacher sooner.

As a mother myself, I can easily understand the teacher's change of mind. Having a baby is a life changing event. No one can predict how things go after the birth.

So I would let DS wait if he really likes her, but would start researching now just in case.

ealing loved the vid too! Nice rhythm and humpf, she's doing so well in spite of the hours swimming!!
irvine is he the type to keep up practice in spite of not having lessons? Some children need a teacher for practice not to slip...?
misti great news on guitar, lots of raw talent then.

Hello! Need a bit of advice please.
We got a new piano teacher around April, just around him taking grade 1 exam. Soon she suggested he start practicing grade2, which he did.
End of July, she had a baby but reassured she will start lessons again in Autumn. Now we received the email she isn't coming back until at least new year, so we are stuck. Similar happened last year, the teacher suddenly left for personal reasons, and he had keyboard teacher for while, and prepared for grade 1 DIY.

He isn't bothered about doing exam later, maybe spring or summer next year, and says he wants to wait for this teacher to come back rather than trying to find a new one.
But this means he would be without a teacher for quite a while. I am worried he may develop bad habits etc.

Do you think it's ok to carry on practicing on his own without any teacher for quite a long period of time? He says he has quite a lot of list of songs he want to learn including grade 2 songs and others.
One thing really worries me is if the teacher decided not to comeback after all.
He loves piano and practice daily but it is just one of his hobby, so I am quite happy for him not going further in grades.

Thanks Misicdoc. In that case I may go for youth as DS wont be even half way through 10 years old at the time of the concert. He is 145cm though. How tall is your DS?

Kutik my son is a tall 12.5yr old and went into an adult NCO tie this summer. The youth one was fine for the last two years.

Saving already for secondary school uniform here. Thankfully primaries have no uniform, but — insanely in a country where 1/4 children grow up in poverty— secondary uniform is like something out of Enid Blyton here, all of it special and completely ridiculously expensive. We can choose from the state schools that demand boys play at least 4 sports each, as well as having ordinary, dress and PE uniforms; or the private school that demands slightly fewer sports uniforms but the dress uniform is a kilt at $350 each and the blazer costs $300... even the sodding socks are $30 a pair...

Our uniform is pretty cheap but I'll need to give DS2 money to buy a new school blazer on the first day of term. The cast-off I had planned for him has paint on the hem that won't come off (thanks DS1).
Otherwise it's shoes that are pricey but I think we're ok for most until half term. The awkward bit is trainers and football boots for DS2 as he has the most awkwardly shaped feet and football boots are usually too narrow - rugby ones two sizes above his usual seem to be the way to go!

Prada we have school blazer for uniform too. The naming is fabulous. New sports kit arrived this week fully labelled. Not cheap though, I feel your pain.

I went to a private secondary school and when I am doing our uniform shop I always think back, relieved that I'm not doing one like when I started there. The blazer alone, back in 1994 prices, was more than I've ever spent at the start of a term! Though we are only on primary school uniform..... This year I am hoping we can get by on just a new pair of shoes and some more trousers. She grew like a weed last term so had to have a whole new load of uniform. Their school uniform policy is quite specific apart from shoes - they are allowed free choice in shoes as "their area of individuality". It does make the shoe shop easier.

I feel everyone's pain on the uniform front. I am £570 lighter 😱 Not including shoes, trainers, coat (can be any though) or bag...And compared with other mums I have spoken to this seems quite a lot cheaper. I did buy 2xskirts and 2x jumpers and a full summer and winter kit, swimming kit and both PE bags. The new School uses schoolblazer.com and everything arrived with labels sewn in already (including socks) so I feel a bit better about that. A significant % (50) of the girls receive financial assistance and i am given to understand that this also applies to uniform and trips.

I just watched some BBC proms jazz and there was la lad with pink hair playing the sax, I loved it, does anybody knows who he was? I want to hear more!

Misti that is impressive of your DS to become so proficient so fast, well done to him.

Waffle any chance you can start commuting our way? Dd decided you MUST become her clarinet teacher. She keeps asking to listen to the recordings and repeats the same question each time "why can't she be my clarinet teacher, she sounds so nice".