November Music Thread

You lovely lot, thank you. She's gone in today. It's a mad virus, headaches only last week, fever 36 hours over weekend, and TODAY the sore throat commences...but she's chosen to go in. Sorry folks with poorly DC if you too are experiencing the illness drip feed that this one appears to be.

I am waiting to see if she makes it through to 4.17pm slot without bailing!

Go miniwoolley, that's fighting spirit for you.

Good luck miniearlng!

Good luck MiniEaling!

Purge? Should I be checking the DDs for this purge? What are the symptoms?

Good luck to miniEaling - grade 7, wow!

And the curse of autocorrect strikes again - lurgy rather than purge!

And get well soon to those with the purge

Good luck to mini Ealing!

Ds is also now in bed ill ( not at all surprising given his hectic weekend and he was already ill anyway) Another full on musical weekend to follow so hopefully he will be feeling better as it's a chamber weekend with 1 player a part !! I need to help him plan November better next year Hope mini Loose and Rara feel better soon and that mini Ealing has recovered enough to take grade 7 today . Good luck mini Ealing

Aww... hope Rara feels better soon. Brave girl!
DS1 missed all his music stuff last night due to a headache - not helped by 2 1/2 hours extra after school art activity although I gather it was very productive. He has bass guitar and drums tonight but I’m sure he’ll be fine!

Definitely best when driven by the child - great attitude Miniwoolley!
Sad lack of cello practice this week and DS2 has a lesson today. He’s got homework to finish tonight but after that no excuses!

I have seen Goo and a wonderful little girl on the channel, such beautiful performances, there was also a little male violinist and his performance was amazing, so enthusiastic, miniGreen playing is such a barbarian to compare, it was a huge treat to watch them all, thank you!(although I am sorry I missed who was whom apart from Goo).

Woolley: we were told that it would be a surprise if she passes with her last violin exam. The night before we went to a lesson with a new teacher and she said we shouldnt sit the lesson the next day. She decided to still go for it at the end(while I thought she shouldnt and my husband and my piano teacher thought she should), well, she had a merit, her pieces marks werent too bad, her scales and aural were pass marks as usual. We were so glad that we did it to be honest, the feeling that we could move on.

We went to a piano concert tonight, we had front row seats and the usual jaws dropping.

Wanted to wish miniEaling the best of luck for G7 tomorrow, with that much of sport, violin and academic, she is such a warrior.

Its our turn next week here!

It's always best when the determination is coming from the child. Great spirit, miniwoolley!

I'm a relatively surprising turn of events here, dd has become absolutely insistent that she will do the grade 4 exam, maybe because I have given her the option not to...

She practiced for two hours tonight, and a lot of it sounded worthwhile, so I've said we will decide at the end of the weekend, we shall see.

Hi Double, dd had a great time at Big Double Reed Day, thank you so much for the suggestion!

She found the performance class a little boring, they ran out of time for her to play but the rest of the day she was very enthusiastic about. As for me, I'm so proud that she managed to find her way round all day etc and have a good time despite knowing absolutely no one. She has had anxiety issues in the past so this felt truly massive!

It was also a good time to remember that music is fun after our clarinet experiences of the last week.

The latest e mail from her teacher is a little more positive, and also leads me to believe that she may have stuff going on in life, so I will give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

I'm feeling guilty about the practice that dd can get, sometimes I know I could give more but working 40 plus hours a week and being a single parent, it's not always easy.

found..., with 3 active DCs with different commitment, I don't think no one see you any less organised.

Re, doing lots of things rather than concentrating on a few things, it reminds me my friend's boy who does different sport every single day. His keepy uppy may not be as refined as his friends dreaming to be a footballer so practising crazily, or he may stay at stage 5 a bit longer than those who are in a squad and swim most days, but it's a small price for what he is getting. He loves all he does (I suspect he wants to try more but unfortunately we have only 7 days a week). His parents want him to be active physically, so it ticks their box.

My obsession with having a proper dinner together is partly because of my upbringing but also partly because we are such a small family without any relatives nearby and having DH always away means it's mostly DS and me during weekdays. It can be too dry without any family meal time.

We have an advantage though. We both work at home and can fit the hours whenever (which means we work Saturdays and Sundays...) But it also means we can eat when DS can eat. And I cook a lot because that's the culture I was brought up in.
Although sometimes I really don't feel like it...

NCO results by Email this year- not out yet obviously.

Well, Kutik, maybe (well, definitely) I am more disorganised than others here, but we struggle. I try at least on Sundays to have dinner together but often don't succeed. Just had a quick count and 3dc together have about 30-35 hours /week with outside school activities/volunteering/parttime jobs (excluding travel time and competitions).
Older dc prefer to eat at the end of the day, while that's too late for the youngest one.

As far as practising music goes, they all prefer to do lots of things rather than concentrating on a few things. That has resulted in eg dc not being as far advanced in music as some of dc here, but that's what they preferred.

Gillybeanz , if you fancied a trip to Cardiff, WNO is doing Tosca next February. There isn't really a bad seat in the Millenium Centre - I'm not a fan of heights but even the gods aren't too awful. Obviously, all tickets are cheaper than London prices, and there's a Future Inn and Travelodge close by.

gilly, I can only talk about ROH in Covent Garden as that's where we normally go. My sport mad DH is actually a great opera lover (surprisingly...). We sometimes buy the balcony tickets as it's not too expensive yet still great views.

Double
How lovely to hear that your DDs enjoyed and did very well at the Big Double Reed Day. What's an experience for little musicians.

It seems more people with older DCs still manage to eat together in the evening than I anticipated. I hope we can manage also. I just don't know how often unexpected, unplanned events come up at secondary school. My friend's DD started secondary this year, and in theory her DD is supposed to have enough time for homework/music practice/family time after school, but she was complaining that somehow something keeps coming up and things haven't been handled as planed. She says there are lots of new skills DD has to gain and get used to. For instance, she is supposed to check her homework information (submit day and so on) online. It shouldn't take more than a few mins then she can just get on with her actual homework. But somehow it takes ages for her to go through and pick the information she needs to gather. Small things like that end up pilling up and eating up any spare time.

drummers - what a horrible experience for your son and his friends. Hope they are feeling better about it.

Woolley - how was the Big Double Reed Day? Did your DD enjoy it? Both my DDs got a lot out of it today with DD2 being brave enough to play in her performance class. She said "I knew you'd be a bit cross if I didn't play so I decided just to have a go". She's very shy, so it was a big thing for her - coupled with the fact that she has only had the piece for 10 days, so very much a work in progress. Her teacher said that the person who had taken the performance class was very complimentary about her playing, so that put a big smile on her face . Meanwhile, DD1 was fold she had good intonation, so she was pretty pleased with the day too.

Good luck miniealing !

DS2 did 5 lessons for 1 term last year, but always knew he'd have to choose at the end of it. He was doing piano, clarinet, trombone, voice and added organ. He dropped clarinet at the end of term and then voice in the summer. Voice never really impacted on practice time because he did most of his singing at Cathedral Choir anyway.

Its definitely taken him longer to progress than if he had played fewer (and also not been in the Cathedral Choir) but he has enjoyed it.

He is starting euphonium next week, free school music GCSE lessons, but it is totally just for fun and experience.