October Music Thread

Loose, glad to hear homework hasn't been a problem. Your comment is my hope!

Misti, my DS may be similar kind of creature to your DD - always jumps into things without thinking the workload and hardship attached to the choice, but she is managing all fine that's amazing...

drummers, if my DS is as perfectionist and determined as yours, I may not be worried with his choices this much. Unfortunately he is quite opposite...

To be honest, 1-2 hours homework should be manageable as long as you are sensible for choices. But DS has a great gift to forget we have only 24 hours a day so there is a constant battle with time. I'm OK with him juggling things all the time as long as he is enjoying the things he does. But his growing love for music makes me worry. I don't want him to regret he takes up so many things only to realise much later that he should have narrowed down his activities/studies to make his real dreams come true. My 10 years old is not very aware of consequences (suppose normal), and I am not confident enough with my judgement to put my foot down in his choice.

Ha! Just saw Waffle’s comment and realised October has gone. Incidentally, Green, DS1 had only done grade one drums by the time he left primary school - if it hadn’t been for these threads he might not have got a lot further!

Also for Minigreen this is the age when there is so much new stuff going on. She may also be slightly out of love with exams rather than actual playing but it can weigh on the motivation to practise!
With DS1, I assumed art was his thing at Minigreen’s age but he’s totally obsessed with the bass guitar now! Much less interested in xylophone than he used to be - I think even their interest in particular instruments changes. Still loves drums.
Oh, as for theory - yes, my mistake was to hang around so DS1 left very early without checking his work - he could easily have picked up a few more marks if he’d stayed. However it was a pass.

Green, minigreen isn't even at secondary school yet. With rare exceptions, I don't anyone knows whether music is their child's "thing" until they are teens.

DD16 stopped playing music completely for a year when she started secondary school, I never expected her to play again. DS14 had never shown any real interest until this summer!

Your time has not passed, by the way. Your DD is talented, and it is never a smooth ride for any of us!

Ha, Green, as we left the village in the car, there were teenage boys in scare masks in frozen poses on the pavement. Very spooky, as the car headlights hit them! As we went round the village, one poor teenage boy, about the same age as DS, 15, scared DD(7) so much that she burst into tears. He immediately took the mask off and looked sheepish, but I told him not to worry about it as DD is quite dramatic. Fuelled on adrenaline and sugar she stormed past him!

Thanks Mending! I have been trying however really our time has gone.

Niggle, I could do with barbecue and hot dogs too, yumm! I managed to bring them out too, we had a full bucket, there were some "statues" jumping on you and the girls screamed to the hill, loved it.

I think I better check about leaving DD at large school!

My DD's, 7 and 10, have just got home from trick or treating in local village. There were several parents, prams, children everywhere. Had a great time, very friendly village - there was even a barbecue and hotdogs for the masses!

Trick or treating... those were the days, the dressing, the excitement. They grow

kutik I just realized today was CAF deadline? I hope you feel happy with whatever you put down

green i think you definitly being here! You have lots of useful points and insight and minigreen is clearly musical - ive seen the videos! I can't imagine trying to get dd1 to sit a theory exam......😲

In other news ds did a lovely performance in his concert and is now out truck ør treating with a large wooden axe 😁

I stayed - DS had never done any formal paper exam before and yes it was at a rather large high school so I wanted to be accessible for DS. The waiting room was packed so assume many parents stayed but not all of them. Suppose 10 years old would be okay but ask them just to make sure?

Green, it goes in waves I think. I look at it like surfing: you have to be in the water to catch the next wave. Maybe in inspiring concert?

G5 theory next week today. Thanks for the tip about staying in the room! I will tell DD I will be back in 2 hours. By the way, she is 10 and the exam is at a local high school. I have to take the other children home and go back for her. This will take around an hour. Can you leave them there at primary age?

Well-done Drummers! The experience he had was priceless, I could only wish the same for mine.

Theory, I did tell mine to stay however I think they all need only 30mins or something. Mine took it when she was 8 yrs old and staying for nearly 2 hrs would have been too long(she never had a written exam in her life before). We might be the only one here who only did G3 practice however went for G5 theory by then I guess, nearly 2 yrs passed and we havent gone past G5 practice.
Mine said she didnt like playing last night, she said its boring...we all know she didnt mean it however I know she doesnt love it as much as many of us on here. The thing is we dont really love anything in particular (yet) at the moment which is very hard to encourage either practice or start revising for 11+. I told my husband that we need to focus on the piano exam in 3 weeks then she could start with her academic side. I really feel I am hanging around in a wrong place here as we are neither musical nor devoted nor trying.

Thanks everyone. Homework is definitely interfering with music here. Like big time. But it wasn't so much in years 7&8. But we knew it was a very academic school and he loves it, so that's the juggling.

Misti you’re right - it was very easy for me to specialise in sixth form but DS is having quite a dilemma. He is trying to keep music as one of the options if he can at the moment. No final decisions until after GCSEs!

Oh and drummers well done to your DS, shame he didn't win but sounds like a fab experience.

Kutik my DD is much older and we're not in the UK but keeping the balance right between school, music and other activities is a real juggling act. Music is definitely suffering this term. It is probably her
last year of formal lessons, although that may depend on what she chooses to do next year (still undecided - we are supposed to be weighing up the options this weekend). It is very difficult for all-rounders. DD essentially needs to choose between a maths-oriented course (she is v good at maths, probably one of the two best maths students in her very large senior high school), a humanities and social sciences oriented course, and an arts oriented course. Thank god we are not in the UK because it's hard enough to narrow down the options in Y13 let alone Y11 ...

Much easier for kids with a strong inclination towards a particular subject. My DS wants to study maths/ physics - in fact we have known since he was tiny that this is what he will do. Music is just a pastime for him.

I'm with everyone else over G5 theory, I dropped DS off and told him I'd be back fifteen minutes before the end so if he was finished early he might as well spend the time checking the paper.

So far homework has very rarely interfered with music Kutik and I get the impression some of last night’s deluge could have been done over half term! DS collected some that he should have had already.
My experience has been that homework is generally finishing off work, doing a worksheet or an extended task that could be done in stages (my boys like to leave it to the night before!) so it should be possible to keep both music and homework ticking along OK.

Oh poor your DS, Loose! I'm really scared of the workload at secondary school... DS was (and still is) a typical all rounder. He loves everything he does, and is good at what he does. But he is rapidly changing. He liked music always, but not as much as he does now. The value of music seems to be getting greater each day. I mean, literally he seems to like music more than yesterday! He is more willing to give up other stuff for music. I'm struggling to keep the balance as he is still too young to decide his future. It may be a phase, but if not, I'm not sure how to keep the balance at secondary school... I really hope homework is manageable and DS still has time for music. I'm sure he would hate to miss a rehearsal or lesson for homework....

What a wonderful experience drummers - very well done to your young man and I bet he was brilliant!
Poor DS has missed his percussion tonight because of a surge of homework but he should be ok for the rest of his activities this week.
No theory for us - DS2 will probably do G5 next year.