(Mostly) August Music Thread

ooh...bit bold happy there. Sorry!

Hello to the newcomers and to those returning off lovely holidays!

I have finally managed to catch up on some of our channel clips - thoroughly enjoyed the music making from, to name a few: red dress (I know I may have to go back a few threads to find out who's mini that is!); MiniDisorganised; String; The Boy; Mistri; Green; MusicatHome x 2 lovely DS'; Goo; Fleur). Loved the Hurlstone piece (but can't remember who's she is) and very sorry to have missed Drummer's boy's* piano but understand if clips are put on temporarily for viewing.

I am still DD less away on swim camp, but in between being home she has been enjoying practise, though she says she misses school orchestra dreadfully. It's all about company for her...

Just popped in here for the first time this month and seen 668 messages! Can somebody summarise in a few sentences please :) Any big percussion news I have missed?

She has been loving making the grade clarinet pieces and some sound fab

Thanks waffle- she is doing both

Welcome new people! Sorry not to name and so on, I am still readjusting and trying to keep up.

I need to start preparing dd for NCO audition, it should be end of October which should give her some time to go over the pieces with her new teacher, she'll be ecstatic when she'll hear what I am dropping on her.

No practice last night, back to piano this coming Friday so tonight I have to actually bite the bullet and get her to practice, it will be shockingly bad after such a long break.

I think we need to properly revive one of her grade 5 piano pieces, probably Summertime, as her MAT is in 3 weeks time and if she gets through the audition is in another two weeks. So potentially she needs a piece ready in 5 weeks.

Thursday is results day for DS and being stressed is an understatement at this point, I keep dreaming of getting there and finding out he failed all his exams. Which is ridiculous as he is academic but nevertheless I can't control my brain.

So in summary:

Thursday GSCEs results day
9th Sept academic test secondary school dd
12th Sept MAT
W/C 25th Sept hopefully audition for secondary school
End of October NCO audition - this one not that stressful as we know we decided last minute and the chances are pretty slim.

Can I go back on holiday and return end of October?

On the subject of NCO : how long do audition pieces need to be at u10? Dd can't decide whether to go for two contrasting grade pieces, or one grade piece and something different.

She has started (over the last week) to lean her head away from the violin chin rest on one particular piece and refuses to correct it. Anyone got any tips to correct thus please. It makes her so angry (poor neighbours last night) I'm virtually tempted to leave it for the teacher in 3 weeks.

Can I jump on board? DS (age 9) has been playing the trumpet for a couple of years and DD (age 7) is due to start the clarinet in September. I've given her my old one and she's just been practicing putting it together and having a tootle. DS is happy to do fairly frequent-ish short practices on his own. He doesn't want any corrections from me, which I get, but sometimes I have to bite my tongue. I'd be interested to know how far you supervise your kids playing.

We have the piano tuner here now. I'd love to know how you learn to do it. He says he doesn't have perfect pitch - uses a tuning fork just for the A then works through the intervals.

I'll stick to tuning guitars (with an electronic device lol).

I think DS was using Unisys but I'm on my phone now having just dropped him off for day 2 so I'll have to look that up later.

Icouldbe,

Thank you so much!

DS is not currently considering music at university - up until this point he has seemed most likely to follow a fairly conventional Modern History / Politics degree path (currently doing a few days with our local MP), and I can't see that changing as his choice for the 'uni' route. So it's definitely 'Jazz performance at a conservatoire' that is the route of interest.

He does have youth jazz acquaintances who have followed this route - but the most recent is so outstanding in any context that it's hard to tell how high the bar 'really is', if that makes sense?

Will come up with some sensible questions to pm you with. Am amused by the fact that WhatUni, though it does list the conservatoire courses, doesn't give employment stats for graduates in the same way as, say, the history degrees do!"

knitting 19k steps with lots of hills is a serious amount of walking!!

Icouldbe, your DS baked cookies??? It may be because my DS is only 10, but it grabbed my attention more than the knowledgeable information on uni/conservatoire! I would love to have a son like that!

19,000 steps here yesterday *Momoftwogirls2", many hills too.

can't my other thought was that the conservatoires DS is looking at are less hung up on G8 than some of the universities are. Conservatoires select on audition rather than exams passed so it matters little whether he's got the piece of paper with the assessment on. One of the uni music performance degrees DS looked at would only accept you onto the course with G8, if you didn't have it when you applied you would be transferred to the non-performance course and then moved back if you took the exam before the course started.

If he's interested in music at uni, look closely at how much performance there is in a degree with "performance" in the title because in some places it is very little. At one open day they had the timetables for the performance and non-performance courses and I was struggling to find much difference between them in either timetable or assessment. "No student shall book rehearsal rooms for more than three hours a week" on the corridor wall near the practice area was also telling.

I'm sorry if I was a bit abrupt yesterday - it was one of those days where there was a choice between five hours driving or wandering around a small market town for six hours while DS did something musical. I took the walking around option and I'm not sure it was the right choice for me. I get to do it again today, I'm taking a book and my knitting as my feet are protesting before I get my boots on.

I can tell you how many applicants there were for how many places but not right now as it's day two of rehearsals for the european tour. DS baked cookies last night for the section.

Fab results indeed mininiggles!!

We are now 1 day into second Suzuki camp. DD2 had a fabulous masterclass, topic was playing with expression (Vivaldi A minor 2nd mo). She also had great Group class. DD1 had a very good masterclass, and a not so great group class. Lovely music at orchestra. Libertango, I love that melody!!

And I walked 16.5k steps!! Going between dorms and main building many times during the day. Food quite nice, so I'm hoping I'll get at least 10k steps every day!!

Thanks for the welcomes. Amazing marks Nigglsnotes :-)

I am starting to think about DS2's NCO audition. He is 9 (not 10 until May), so I assume he is aiming at U10s or training orchestra(?). I'm not sure how it works with violinists.

How hard is the sight reading? I think his pieces will be okay, but he can be quite random with sightreading. Some days he does really well. And other days he makes loads of weird mistakes, or simply stops counting.

Also with the short study piece, how long do they get to 'learn' it. He is much much better given 10 minutes or so.

And - does anyone have tips for making him more consistent with sight reading? Thanks so much in advance!

can't PM me if you want details as DS is doing conservatoire applications this year (not jazz though). He can do that together with UCAS, the offers for conservatoire come out before the deadline for submitting the UCAS form. He doesn't have a year to decide, this time next year he will be six weeks away from having to submit the application. Conservatoire applications are very early (end of September), he could start planning open days now because if he waits until June he will have missed them. You can book an advice audition if you need an idea of whether he's of the right standard, I think some places will knock the cost of that off the audition fee if you do then apply.

can't there is someone on this board whose husband is a pro jazz musician who will be able to help, she has changed her username though and I cant remember who it is .

It is hard to make a living in jazz. I know a few pro jazz musicians via our guitar school and they all have day jobs or teach (or both).

can't - I'm unable to give you any advice, but DD is moving to a Sixth Form where she'll get far more music experience. One thing they want her to have is a distinction at Grade 8 as that'll be the last music qualification she has on paper, even tough she'll then be working on a diploma.