(Mostly) August Music Thread

We're back from holiday and I am already back at work. I need to catch up with the thread but just wanted so say hello.

OK, life in the can't household took an interesting turn while we were away on holiday and actually had lots of time to talk to one another.

DS - just about to go into Y12 - announced he wanted to consider jazz music courses once he leaves school, as an alternative to university.

Despite my family containing those who work in the music profession, they've all gone into it post 'normal' university so this is untrodden for us. It's not 'urgent' - ie he's got a year to decide - but OTOH if it's a wholly unrealistic dream then it might be sensible to knock it on the head early as he's going to have to work like a Trojan to get the A-levels he needs for university, and that might conflict with sensible steps to take if he's going full-tilt for music ie Saturday conservatoires, holiday courses et al.

Anyone with experience of the UCAS Conservatoire system? Can he do both - ie normal UCAS AND Conservatoire, just with different timescales and different personal statements?

Also, is this route only viable for very, very, very able musicians - ie lots of Grade 8s at early ages and lots of national-level courses and experience by this point (so NYJO Academy Big Band, or similar)?

DS takes grades as and when needed, retrospectively rather than as a way of working towards the next level [ie he and his teacher will decide he's now easily Grade 6 standard, and he needs grade 6 for entry to senior county ensembles, so he does Grade 6. They've already planned for him to do his two Grade 8s over the coming terms]. He plays in the senior county jazz orchestra but hasn't auditioned e.g. for Saturday conservatoires.

So he loves Jazz, is good at it within the local / county context but has tested himself no wider, is taught by a jazz specialist [total accident, that one], is probably lagging in formal evidence of grades vs his current standard and is going to do Music A-level.

Thoughts? A clear 'no way' would be really useful at this stage! He's talking Birmingham, Leeds, maybe Glasgow, Manchester as they offer the clearest 'Jazz' routes. Open to the idea of a Foundation year if someone can reassure me that it's funded!

Waffle there are good deals on gear4music at the moment. I was thinking of upgrading dd's clarinet as soon as a property sale goes through and I have spare cash ....Do you think it is better to take her to a shop? Sadly we aren't eligible for assisted purchase.

I'd echo Waffle with regard to easy marks from learning scales. After a series of merits, DD1 decided to put the work in on her Grade 6 scales and scraped a distinction for her oboe. And when I say scraped..... she got 130. Now having to learn them all over again for Grade 6 sax which is likely to be next term. Hasn't started her Grade 7 scales yet though.

There was something on here about scales changing. Would that apply if DD1was to do Grade 7 in the spring off the current syllabus, does anyone know?

Dropped DD2 off for NCO U11 yesterday. She met up with her two friends and was off. Nearly forgot to say goodbye to us! Then on the way home managed to get through before they shut the motorway. Apparently a coach had been leaking diesel for miles and there were a number of accidents; we saw the result of 3 of them. Combine diesel, rain and speed and it's an unpredictable cocktail!

Amazing results, MiniNiggle!

I usually phone up the airline to double check in advance as I don't want to find out at the counter that the violin has to be checked in (so too late to leave it at home). We have never had a problem before and I thought most of airlines were OK with violin as it'll fit in the overhead storage. But it seems BA has quite a strict attitude towards musical instruments, I'm afraid. I spoke to three people at BA and all of them said the same - either we would have to buy a seat or check it in.

To be honest, DS often doesn't play much during home-away for the obvious reasons (too many fun things to do!), so it was not the end of the world. But usually-not-so-supportive-towards-music DH cancelled BA and re-book with another airline which has rather generous policy on musical instruments! I thought DH was quite happy that the violin would have stayed at home...

Anyway the problem solved and all we have to do this week is packing! We have a few London outing days this week and again lots of tennis. The packing has to be done in early mornings or late night!

Those are fantastic marks Niggle. We were listening to a long interview with Stephen Cleobury recently: apparently he wasn't initially very good at sightreading (but does rather well these days as an organist and pianist).

DS likes the recorder so far! DH and I were playing what we could remember and DS was grinning away and was very happy to chew the mouthpiece and put his fingers in the holes

waffle I admire that you've been able to teach her this far. They are fierce little beasties, these determined children of ours. TheGirl has just recently decided that I won't go into her music lessons (which is good because it won't be an option in sept anyway). That decision has in fact worked amazingly; her teacher has commented repeatedly on the increased concentration, ownership of the lessons, determination to try new things.... it's just "right" for us now. She's taking much more ownership of her practice too- she likes to try tackle it on her own more and more now.

After nearly 5 months wobbly, her only top tooth has come out (the other was knocked out 2.5 years ago), so this weekend has been about learning to play her clarinet with no top teeth.... it's going better than feared!

We got a cheapy copy of the Titanic score in the secondhand book shop the other day so she's on a bit of mission to learn most of that!

Waffle that sounds like hard work and not dissimilar to dd who debates anything I say

Fantastic marks niggle. What pieces did she choose?

No, she practises just fine but has to reinvent the wheel at every turn, won't play things like This because she prefers them like That, doesn't like to be told anything, or for me to play along... ever!

Mine are both like this, which means that I rarely get involved in practice at all. You must have the patience of a saint!

DS is driving me mad at the moment with incessant questions about playing the guitar, to which he mostly doesn't like the answers. He has been playing a week and expects everything to be perfect. Yesterday we had lots of moaning about picks and how they slip in his fingers, he doesn't want to hear that much of this will be resolved with time.

OTOH he is very driven - a week and a bit in, and several hours of practice a day, and he has mastered all the usual open chords, pentatonic scales in several positions, strumming patterns, blues chord sequences and rhythms ... and can play without looking at the neck which is quite impressive at this stage IMO.

I had planned to sign him up for a beginners class in September, might have to rethink.

14/18 is ok for aural, in practice it means that maybe one question was wrong (e.g. rhythm/time), and there were small errors in one of the other questions.

Have you tried an incentive scheme with Rara?

Talking about clarinets, I was at a car boot today and one trader had some old recorders and clarinets. The recorders were German, moeke and Horner and a very long plastic yellow one. The clarinets were wooden and with names in arcs across the bottom. I did think about taking a photo to see if anyone was interested, but thought at 8am on Sunday, people had other things to do!

Hi Waffle, her marks were:

Pieces, 30/30, 30/30, 29/30
Scales, 18/21
Sight reading 19/21
Aural 14/18

Very pleased with the sight reading, and it sounds like the aural isn't as bad as I thought. DD is the most nervous about that, so in exam circumstances it is probably very nerve wracking! Obs I told her she was completely fabulous.

Oh, and DD would love to play netball. She is a little clumsy, and I wonder if it might result in finger injuries.. but I have promised to search out a local club.

We are practising Romance from the Gadfly and she is trying to incorporate a little vibrato. Very early days but she was quite encouraged that a few weeks of practising next to a wall to keep the violin steady seems to have paid off. It is baby vibrato though!

Just received the comments from g4 violin exam and two pieces got perfect marks (140 total) and the other piece only lost one mark. Then a few marks off scales but the aural was 14/18. I understand this isn't good? We need to work on this probably, but I am terrible at aural.

Hello, and welcome Taggie.

It is a bit quiet this week, isn't it? Holidays and music camps. The Suzuki camps sound amazing, full on, but a real opportunity. There was one 10 miles from us but we aren't doing Suzuki method, although play from the books, and staying with musical child would be too difficult with other DCs and DH.

Congrats, Second, to your DS.

We haven't yet been stopped with dd1s violin Even though it exceeds cabin baggage size on an airline that basically says they dont accept things that are oversized.

Thanks for nice comments about DD2 playing and the lovely red dress!

Kutik, different airline, but party of 10 violin players just boarded a small regional plane (Stobart air, for Aer Lingus), and they accommodated all violins plus 1 viola.

Checkout the tips on the other thread.

Also, we had 3 separate flights with Ryanair recently, and they also allowed luggage with bigger dimensions than their cabin baggage. We took a chance with one of the cases, and didn't have an issue