NCO 2018

No Radio, waiting for Cambridge. Did you manage to extract any info from your minimusician about how it went.

I will be offering a small bag of sweets in the car on the way home...

I take it yours was auditioning today Radio? What instrument, and how did it go?

Hello, anyone else's dc auditioning in London today?

Finally....

Goo is going to play Hypnosis by Ian Clarke, and half of the first movement of the Mozart Concerto in D, to include the cadenza. Glad she has finally figured that out, with 3.5 weeks to go.

Oh dear, Goo is doing hockey this half term, and she's clumsy!

Oh Icould I hope so too just waiting for ds's ds's hockey accident!! ( at least it's not rugby this half term )

Doesn't it come around to this time of year quickly? I wish you all the best for the weeks ahead, hopefully there will be no last minute PE accidents or illnesses to add to the fun.

Three weeks for us too. DD2 had her lesson last night having missed last week's one (and a week of practice) due to her Year 6 residential. Was dreading comments from the teacher, but she came out while DD was packing away to say she was really pleased with progress and the way DD had moved on. Still not perfect yet, but a strong base to work from. She is generally blowing harder these days - which is good with a bassoon ! - but that may be because she has grown over the summer and her lung capacity is increasing.

Good luck to all DCs.... auditions start today! Grateful at this end that we have 3 weeks to go as neither of my children have their pieces fully ready although they are getting there. I am accompanying them and have just realised that one of the pieces needs a lot of work - so some added pressure!

I don't think they have a clue how much of our brains/energy etc juggling their little lives takes- but that's ok! It's taken a lot this week, I spent most of Sun-wed dealing with various music or ballet related situations/first days/dramas/paperwork!
Her 2 pieces are sounding good though, she's taken on board some helpful feedback. She's playing them both tonight at the concert, Grave for the first time publicly, so we shall see how she gets on!

It's very difficult balancing it all isn't it . although I often think ds is largely oblivious and it's me that's juggling it all !!

2 weeks for us. Had really hoped she'd have grown at least one front tooth by then but no such luck. So audition with clarinet half out the side of her mouth it is . It's tormenting me by being right there but not actually cutting.
We don't have a back up plan. Her two pieces and that's it. They are needed for a concert tomorrow and she started JD last week so we focussed on getting her ready for that..... she reallllllllly wants NCO though.

It's always good to have a back up plan Waffle. In fact ds's teacher had a really good idea yesterday and said that really for something like this he should have a number of pieces that he can play and then almost choose on the day!! This won't be happening this time ( I think who knows) as he's either got grade 7 or new stuff which isn't ready yet plus a couple of other pieces that he could play which are about the right level. In future though I think it will stop him getting so worried we shall see . Good luck for 25 th it's dd's birthday so we are off to Harry Potter world ( without ds who's away on a music course -) it's lovely to devote some proper time to her sometimes though we do miss him )

Oct 25th here. Programmes and back-up plans almost decided.

She’s 10, auditioning for U11 on violin....

Hi everyone! Wow, I feel late to the party this year!!! 11 days until DD’s audition and I must confess, the nerves are kicking in. She’s had the most wonderful year at Regionals and we are both desperate for her to get back in! More pressure second time around eh!? She’s worked really hard and there’s been a massive gear-shift in her playing since last year, but I’m guessing that’s true for most of them....

Ds's teacher always seems to know what to do ( thank goodness) I think he's feeling better about it all now good luck to everyone auditioning over the next few weeks

Ds is on Thursday...

Ds has his on 10th he really wants to get in again but recently changed his mouthpiece plus has been doing some really tricky high note high intensity playing at school, these 2 things seem to have affected his playing ( in a negative way) luckily teacher is now back and is coming round for an extra lesson so fingers crossed it all gets sorted . If not there's always next year ...

DD has hers next week, minimama, on Wednesday. She had her first lesson since June last Sat and has sorted one piece with her new teacher (just started JD this term). She's going to play some Mozart variations as her other piece, has nailed the theme and almost learnt all but one of the variations this week - she'll select the variations to play with her teacher this Sat. She seems pretty horizontally laid back about the whole practice thing but I know is keen to get in again so may do a flurry of prac on Sun? Too last minute for my rational liking but seems to be her way of doing everything.

We have a date for DS's audition. It's 24th Oct so he has some time to prepare. It was a last minute decision to enter and the sight reading will need work so we're seeing this more as an experience this time. However, my mini musician is getting more excited by the day!

So who's first to audition, does any one have one next week? It occurred to me yesterday just how fast it's coming round. We are just over two weeks away now.
Happy practising to all the minis preparing away xxx

It's at the start of half term Trumpet, so 3 1/2 weeks. DD2 had no practice last week due to her school residential, so we are trying to get her back in the swing of things. Also encouraging more practice on her guitar. Having stagnated for a couple years since doing Grade 1 due to changes of teacher and her bassoon teacher's major expectations, she has had another new teacher who wants her to do Grade 3. Changes in teacher were not sought by us; music service teachers, one of whom left due to ill health and another who has gone to continue his guitar studies. New one seems very nice and very well qualified too, so we'll see. They have over 40 children having guitar lessons at DD's school, nearly 10% of them!

Yours must be quite late on then double . Ds's is in 2 weeks time thank goodness can't wait for it to be over his teacher is away which then leaves me to encourage and make helpful comments ( this never goes well) !!