September Music Thread

Thank you Schwanengesang I will have a look.

Green it's sad she hasn't got friends at school who are really into their music.
Kutik grrr...!
I have to agree that young drummer is superhuman! And very lovely! (He'd probably be quite embarrassed to know about his fan club!)
Poor, poorly DS1 isn't even at human strength today - totally felled by cold and headache, off school and will have to miss all the percussion stuff tonight. It really wouldn't improve his headache!

herts, yes I also hold great admiration to minidrummer, but my recent conclusion is he is not from our planet.

Another clash is going to happen this Saturday. There is an open morning for music scholars at a private secondary. DS already missed great deal of lessons last Saturday (and it was his first day!), so there is no way he'll misse JD again. I asked DH if he could take DS to JD so that I could attend the open morning. Eventually DS will go alone, but he is still very new and is in the youngest group there (primary school), and also children have to move from one room to another (ground floor to 5th floor and a bit of sprint between two buildings) between lessons with no break. So, ideally one of us stay there for any help he may need. But I wouldn't ask DH that much. All I asked him to do was to drop DS there in time and he could be off to go wherever he wants. I would come to JD as soon as the open morning finished anyway. But, his answer was..., 'I've got to go cycling'. I'm sure he would have happily dropped whatever he planned for himself if it had been DS participating for a race/match/training!

TheSecond that sounds like a lovely service! For Singet dem Herrn, the Herreweghe-conducted recordings are generally the ones that are easiest to sing along with if you have a little time to learn the music.

Drummersmum hats off to him (and you) if can continue with that schedule. The people who end up with say 10 really good GCSEs/3 good A levels and success at JD/into music college have my admiration and especially with percussion/drums which is so much more work than just one instrument. I know my son would not be able to do both.

Green DS1 was claiming as he's done G5 theory he shouldn't need the catch-up classes - not what the email from school said!

Mini: wow!! That is a very impressive for young Mini!
Loose: did you mean DS2? I remember it was your DS2 who is doung G5 piano and learning theory.
School group music lesson: I dont have any problem with her having fun nor hope for her to get alot from these lessons. Her year unfortunately isnt really into music, none of her classmates plays any instrument to any grade(2 are playing violin and giving up, no practice hence no progress). The other yr5s play piano however around grade 2 and are not really into it. None of them are interested in music either which is a good thing as she never speaks about her music at school.

I had a choral scholarship at university. Still sing now, although not at that level.

I've been invited to a reunion evensong this Saturday and agreed to join in with the introit & anthem. Both will be unaccompanied as the organ is being renovated. There's a 1 hour rehearsal beforehand.

Introit: Monteverdi's Cantate Domino (Fine. It looks straightforward and sounds familiar; I think I may have sung it as a child treble).

Anthem: Bach's Singet Dem Herrn. (I've never sung it, it looks long & complicated. I have to pull this off by Saturday?)

Charish, foundout: thank you, have just bought few books, NVR is our enemy to kill for now. I cant make her to do anything until I am home which is 6.30pm at earliest. Dinner is around 7. We could start from 7.30 for 10mins then bits of violin/piano practice before bed. Thats my devil plan. We might have to stretch bed time till 8.30. This girl needs to be waken up every morning, 7.30 is the earliest she could wake up. She then spends 30mins in the bathroom half sleep.

Drummers: bought the book too, I should start flickering through it, thank you.

Oh dear Kutik, drummers: these are truly busy time schedule. Its although amazing they can fit all in and most importantly they love what they are doing.

We had a good practice session this morning. I roared to top of my lung then the 3 yrs old tidied up the play room(only for 30mins, I have just done it again), the husband helped with bits of ironing and the elder one pick up the violin and didnt play the whole pieces. Piano are ok too, we need to start on the 3rd piece though. Scales are so behind the schedule. We learnt 2 pages in one go to make up for the forgotten ones. I was hoping to record something tonight however we just had a very long chatty (relaxed) dinner as someone decided to prepare (with daddy's help) a roasted dinner with Eton mess as dessert. That took away 4 hours after she got back from her Orchestra rehearsal. I dont complain though as now I am writting this in a calm, quiet house and enjoy the 1 hour quiet Sunday night to rest.

Drummers: do you mind if I ask what documentary channel would you recommend. Occasionally there is one in BBC2, we although never have our TV on so we often miss. Should I just check the tv schedule each week and record the one I like. I am hoing for these quality family TV time.

gum = gym....

Mine is also doing homework now!

DH did a triathlon today and came 2nd in his age group. He is on way home now, but once he enjoys his cuppa, he will probably head for the gym before dinner (I told you he is mad).

Once everybody finishes their business (DH = gum, DS = homework, me = housework...), we are going to have a sushi party to celebrate everybody's effort (and just enjoy Sunday evening)!

Ha ha string thank you for the welcome.
kuti this teacher sounds so good for your DS. Also having Fridays back!
loose I will ask DS how music gcse is going when he finishes homework. He seems under no pressure at all... is that good or bad I wonder

Kutik that's so lovely with the teacher! DS2 has been very lucky that his teachers 'get' him. It makes a huge difference. I'm glad you DS is getting a break on Fridays so he's raring to go on Saturdays.
Drummers frankly I'm not sure - I thought it would be for composing. DS1 seems to think they're theory lessons and he might not need to go but the email definitely said 'catch-up'. I think he'll have to go, G5 or no G5 theory! He is up to date with art at the though - the teacher is pleased at the moment!

Drummers welcome to our weekends 😱 Dd's schedule this year has 5 hours without even a 5min break - and three hours before that with two 30min breaks! But they d0 love it.

drummers, mine loved it too - although he missed a lot of lessons due to Year 6 test and school visit scheduled on the same day. DS met three of his teachers (he will see all of them next week as he can attend all day then). He loved them all, but especially his principal teacher. She said 'I think I got how our lesson together would be!' half way through the lesson. DS has a character and it seems she already got it. DS seems to trust her immediately which is so important for the young age.

DS used to play football far away from home on Fridays (coming back at bedtime), then get up early for Saturday school next day. His Friday is now free as we changed the day for football training, and wakeup time is the same as before - it just changed where he goes. So it's not too bad for us. DS's day at jd is not as intensive as minidrummers yet that also helps. When it gets more intensive I hope DS still enjoy it and fly through like minidrummers!

Thanks loose - and hope for a quick recovery for your DS1.
The Sunday homework is accumulated from afternoons of orchestra, big band, lessons, etc plus jd. But I must say he's diligently flying through it. After all, it's his call.
What are the extra music gcse lessons you mentioned in the other thread for, loose? Are they for composing?

drummers that's a busy schedule but how wonderful that he loves it! Although boo to the hours of Sunday homework. That's mean.
The house is echoing to the sound of DS1's sniffles - and we're going to a concert tonight so I keep playing him with lemsip.
DS1 is making progress with 'Cool' and his theory homework but no cello practice apart from the ensemble and I'm too tired to argue. Will nag him tomorrow!

Trumpet, I totally agree with you. Although DS didn't get excited with the quality of the lessons, it was as still such an opportunity for him as otherwise he wouldn't have had a chance to play clarinet. Children were also encouraged to take it home, so if anyone was keen they could have done extra practice at home. So I do think it's a good system no matter if you are already an experienced musician or not.

What DS didn't enjoy most was being made to listen to the same thing again and again. But DS missed a chink of the sessions as it often clashed with DS's (paid) violin lessons which was good in a way (so he could escape from 'the listening')!

This weekend we have been finally able to see how much jd will change our lives. Friday evening used to be "relaxing" time. DS comes home at 7:45pm after piano and badminton. Normally we would have dinner and watch a movie or a documentary together. Now it's quick dinner, prepare bag and mallets for jd, go to bed. Then Saturday morning, early wake-up like for school, another packed lunch (I used to have to prepare five a week, now it's six ) and off he went. I was ready to pick up the pieces when he came home but instead he called at 5pm to ask if he could stay one hour more to practice the technique he had learnt in the lesson! So he was back at 6:45pm... Sunday comes. No sleeping in like he used to if he could, because of the accumulated homework. Alarm clock again. Seven homeworks to catch up averaging 60 to 90 minutes each. Rest? A walk? Music practice? When?
But...........the boy loved it. So what oh what can I do but to obey?

Clarinet and trumpet - you were both lucky. DS got free group lessons on the fife! By the end of the year there were about two children who were able to produce any sound out of it. As you can imagine, it was the first and last year for the fife at the school. Unfortunately it happened to be DS' year.

green when we were preparing the 11 plus I found this book immensely useful. It's VR, explained very well, and it helped a lot with technique: www.amazon.co.uk/Verbal-Reasoning-Technique-Parents-Secondary/dp/0954285328?tag=mumsnetforum-21 It made it so much easier!
On the other hand, all the "how to" NVR books I looked at were quite rubbish. When it comes to NVR, I think you just have to learn by doing it. The more you do, the better you get at it - pattern recognition, similarities, mirror images, etc. That's why the concept of a fixed IQ that can be tested is - also - rubbish.

Kutik I agree whole class free lessons are very basic- however without them trumpetboy may not have ever discovered the trumpet- his teachers quickly recognised his potential and moved him on ( to lessons that I paid for !!)

The free clarinet lesson may sound fab, but the truth is the ratio of teacher/students per session is 1:30, and it's of course designed to cater for those with little or zero musical background and also those who has not so keen, so it's painfully slow and basic. DS was deeply bored when the teacher endlessly talked about things he already knew and the same exercises were repeated over a long period. But DS loved the instrument, and entertained himself by playing something he knew by ear (music given was all very very simple).

Hi all, don't think I've been on this thread. DS has cheerfully announced that he and his teacher have decided that next term would be ideal for Grade 8 Jazz clarinet...

He doesn't do every grade in his instruments, so his last clarinet grade was Grade 6, with Grade 6 Alto Sax a couple of terms ago. Ho hum. If it's anything like the others, he'll play a lot of pieces, I'll realise which his exam ones are when I start hearing a small number of them really regularly surprisingly close to the exam, then he'll take it.

Will reserve my stress and nagging for AS levels (his school still does 4 full AS levels in Y12, then on to A-levels in year 13) if I can....

Yes Charis, that's what I keep suggesting, we had the Bond ones. You could quickly see how the scores increased as dc came familiar with them, without having to spent loads of time.