NCO 2018

Mini mine also answers to Moo!

😂

And mine, I swear, has the nickname Moo.

😊😊😊

Hehe, Goo and Noo! Love it.

Even at 10 my DD is still very reward focussed, so when she’s going through a bad patch I tend to up the stakes a bit. We do still use reward charts (although they are more sophisticated these days with mini- rewards at certain milestones and big ones at the end - perhaps a trip to See a musical). It could just be she’s gotten out of the routine and is enjoying the extra time she finds she has? I’m sure if you can find a way to get the routine back, the love and enthusiasm would return. Noo professes regularly that she wants to be a musician but HATES practice. Even though she knows one won’t come without the other... I can almost see the turmoil inside her little head! We’re having a rest this week as audition was Tuesday - I know next week will be hell on earth when the hard work starts again!!! So it’ll be double rewards next week...

That's a bit sad Eroica but not unlike Goo this year (she is 12 next week). She played for about 50 hours at NCO, then gave herself a few days off, then we went on holiday, then she went to my mum's etc. She's only just getting back into the swing, two months later, and that's because she had a sudden realisation (this morning!) that she needs to pull her finger out if she wants to get back in.

I would recommend some fun playalong books such as the Guest Spot series, or duets if she has a friend/ sibling/ parent who can play an instrument with her. Also, the concert suggestion is very good, and setting some short- and longer-term goals.

Ooh, and Christmas music?

Would taking her to a really fun concert, or signing her up for an exciting workshop help to get some enthusiasm back maybe??

So, audition is now imminent, and DD has practised twice in last two weeks. She has barely played at all since July, when she had her grading.
Any ideas to get her back into it? I'm not too worried if she doesn't make NCO, she's done it before, and loved it. But it's more the loss of the love of music that she had previously.
She's not even a teenager yet...

Mines 7, she got her cello for her 6th Birthday, so has been going about 18 months now. We have a few temperament challenges, so things aren’t as easy as with big sis (although she’s arguably more talented...). Will be taking G2 at Christmas 😊

Aww, how old? Rara is 9 and has a half size cello, which is a little bit big. She started on a 1/8 when she was nearly 6. Clarinet replaced recorder a year ago, and she has just started working on her grade 3.

My smallest is a cellist too 😊

In case anyone surfs on in to page 10... we were talking about SWMS then, not the NCO! Different kettle of fish entirely!!

Clarinet and cello. I think it's a formality tbh... they have pretty much said they'd love to have her.

What are her instruments Waffle?

I hope she goes well.

Yes she is, se22. They like to hear everything they can play. Neither DD really plays the recorder any more, although it was first study for both of them for so long!

Good luck Rara . Is she auditioning both instruments?

Ordered loads of new books at dd's teachers requests for both instruments. Hopefully that is it in music expenditure for the time being

Good luck Rara!

Eek! accommodating (sp.)

The next official round of applications opens in Jan/Feb... I filled in an application form for Rara last spring, and she bottled out. I know there is space in the baby programme, so I emailed them. They are being accomodating about it because she has some SEN and couldn't cope with an audition back in the summer. We'll see if she goes through with this one.

Waffle, that’s really interesting.... been thinking about junior departments for my two but it would mean giving up their beloved theatre school. This could work!

South West Music School. It's our local answer to a Junior Dept, as it's nearly 100 miles to our nearest one. They don't meet weekly, but the baby ones have six Sunday workshops per year. Goo's group have mini residentials, a mentor, a budget to spend on courses, and first study lessons paid for. I teach Rara's less able friend, who got in this year, and then I kind of went, "hang on...!"

Rara's getting well into music at the moment, which is lovely. It ranks below reading and making things, but she wants to join the town children's orchestra too. We tried to talk Goo into it to make my life easier, but she pooh-poohed that idea. Oh well, we're pretty busy. Lots of auditions and things coming up.

Waffle, is that an orchestra?

I know, I know. I have tried to explain that it is actually quite rude to burst into tears of misery to see your sister showing happiness with a new present, but it falls on deaf ears. Luckily this drama unfolds at home.