November Music Thread

Thank you Trumpet, that's really helpful. Weird as it sounds it would be easier for us to commit to that than a weekly commitment.

Do you know what sort of level they take from?

Trumpet plays with AYM . They are quite different to jds as you don't have your lessons there and rather than having lots of regular orchestras / ensembles to play in each course looks at a different musical style or focus and lots of the work is based on improvisation and composition. They often hold workshops in the early spring term so keep an eye out for those if I hear anything I'll let you know. They hold auditions in march and April/ may . it's a 2 stage process the first is a typical audition the second stage is a day where you get to work like an AYM student. There are 2 types of place offered - apprentices are often younger or less experienced and have set weekends to go on- ds is doing these as well this year and is really enjoying them . The full students go away for a number of weekends and week long courses in the holidays . It is a massive commitment and the students are expected to turn up to most courses that are offered - ds after Christmas will have no half term holidays and will be on AYM courses for a week at Easter and 2 weeks in the summer but for apprentices it's less of a commitment. Ds absolutely loves it . all of the other students are lovely ( though mostly older than ds) and I think he really enjoys the social side too as well as learning loads . Hope that helps

Well done MiniTrumpet!

Dd is still practicing clarinet hard, and it has been serviced and fixed, so we are erring on the side of doing the exam. Stubborn, disorganised, leaving things to the last minute...can't think where she gets it from!

Bassoon accompanist practice booked for Saturday morning and exam on Thursday so we need to remember that too! I hope the practice goes well, I hadn't realised the benefits before of having a clarinet teacher who is also a piano teacher and we have had a lot less opportunity for playing bassoon with the piano.

I'm sure I have seen mention on these threads before re Aldeburgh Young Musicians? Can anyone share their experience of what it involves.

Dd is desperate to do more music but a Saturday music school is not viable as her father refuses to take her on the weekends she is with him, and I think it is important that she continues to spend time with him and her sister so we are looking for alternatives.

Ds is very happy thank you for the congratulations I'll pass them on .

drummers, I think a job opportunity in an orchestra looks very much slim, even for highly committed young musicians.

Waffle, why do you prefer music to law for Goo? Job satisfaction? Or you feel Goo would be happier? DS's previous violin teacher wants his daughter to be a violinist. He knows the hardship of a musician's life. But still he thinks she would be happier to pursue music than spending her life in the city.

Waffle: I will tell her so tonight, I will show her our teacher message too so she knows she has to try. Thanks so much for your kind words too, Waffle.

Wow, trumpet whats a wonderful news, congratulations to miniTrumpet!

Kutik: :)

Fantastic, Trumpet!! Always nice when a school recognises talents other than academic ability.

Trumpet

Green, DS’s piano journey is nothing impressive. I feel almost embarrassed that I gave you a wrong impression.

To begin with, it was 15 mins every fortnight with neighbour’s nanny who could play piano. We didn’t even have clavinova at the time. We were using half broken keyboard. The nanny didn’t use any music book. She wrote down a couple of notes on a sheet and let DS play. A bit like entertaining a child rather than teaching.

Just after we got clavinova, the nanny stopped coming so I found an alternative one on the internet. I chose the one who lived local.

She gave DS a lot of new pieces almost every week. I reckon it was partly for sight reading but also partly because DS was so impatient that he needed to be kept motivated with new stuff (a typical restless boy). BUT it doesn’t mean he was given Mozart or alike. He didn’t do Twinkle but did plenty of baby stuff! Lots and lots of easy ones that even I could play. So pretty a normal setting, nothing ‘wow’, I’m afraid!

Grade exam was lightly suggested because the teacher thought it would be nice to do before getting even busier at secondary. But exams don’t play a role of motivation nor a goal for DS, so it may not happen after all if the schedule doesn’t work out. We’ll just see how things go next term.

www.emimusicsoundfoundation.com/index.php/site/awards/

This just popped across my news. It's bursary funding of under £2,000 for instruments/equipment for individuals under 25 in full time education, funding for schools and funding for courses and training for music teachers.

Trumpetboysmum how lovely. I needed some good news today so thank you for sharing that.

👏👏 trumpet'sboy!

Thank you drummers we are quite pleased and I can say that on here

minitrumpet that's fabulous

Really interesting reading everyone . Who knows where ds will end up but despite my concerns about him making a living I won't put him off - sometimes I think you really do just know what you want to do with your life and you at least need to try and find a way to make it work . The level of student debt though is pretty scary . Ds's teacher always exercises a lot of caution ( which as he is still only 12 I think is right) but I did say to him the other day - what if he does just know if that's the case then maybe we should be focusing more of our effort in a musical direction ? For now school will continue to want him to do well in everything !! So we will keep an eye on things and help him to spin all the plates . At least he doesn't play piano where hours of practice are expected .
Hopefully ds will also feel more positive about school today as we've found out that he has won a prestigious award at school for showing musical promise !! At least I can point out to him that at least some of the teachers at school do " get" him as I think you need to be nominated by a few teachers for the award

Ha ha herts the other day we were discussing options with DS and he jokingly said "I could also marry a rich girl". Unfortunately I think he's a romantic at heart

Waffle: just checked with my teacher and he said, yes ofcourse she could ask to do that, thanks so much, we didnt know. He although mentioned( or reminded me) that the sight-singing marks will still be lost, I didnt know there was sight singing.

Kutik: your start for piano was really impressive compare to us. For nearly 2 years we were on Twinkle, nursery songs, sharing lessons with the neighbors then the neighbors were too bored, they dropped then I changed to our current teacher and he has been with us till now. I really had no idea about her music progress until I joined this thread(and without this thread then I dont know where we would have been in music now).

Floot, Drummers, Herts, Misti...everyone: your posts are gold I agreed.:)(and yes I was a baby by mid of the 80s :))

The only professional violinist I knew started on violin at 16. He is very succesful and lives very wealth off(however his parents were very wealth off and his grand parents were millionaire at their time, so not too sure whether it was 100% self-made for him though). He is also a member of Athenaeum Club.

My ignorange with grade is we consider music as a great hobby to pursue and to progress, each grade is set as a challenge to measure our overall learning progress...its purely for fun(however she might not agree with me when she practises). That was all. She can drop once she is done with G8(which in my eyes means the very basic has been learnt) for piano and whenever she wants with violin(which also means stop going to her current Orchestra). I havent thought further about GCSE, A level or career yet. May be because for us we have been only ableto plan 3 months ahead( it goes with childcare plan as we both do long hours and her sister is only 3yrs old). For now my plan is: piano exam in few days, Christmas holiday childcare, Easter holiday childcare.

I think you stand more chance freelance.
There is always work but you need to be a net worker first and a musician second.
We managed it on just dh's earnings and still could if we wanted to, but it is a lower income and not for those who like a lifestyle full of luxury.
He also never stops working, there is always a project on or applying for funding.
He has managed to cut the teaching right back from when the dc were older, but when they were little he taught at a couple of prestigious schools.
Teaching is very little now and on an ad hoc basis, nobody regular really.
He spends a lot of time practising, does some arranging, not for money so much as for his own colleagues in particular bands.

I'd say a good proportion comes from depping and the odd bit of orchestral that comes in.

I couldn't imagine him doing anything else though, and it seems like dd has made her mind up that she's going to follow.

Interesting Floot - yes agree on the portfolio career point although it does seem that for a lot the portfolio ends up being 90% teaching! :) (without saying too much somebody I know who was a leading soloist still seems to spend 75% of time teaching) Not necessarily a bad thing as long as eyes are open from the beginning.

waffle

I think music is a hard business, I know my dh recommends his pupils don't go into it professionally if they have something else they can do.
I suppose there's a point in there somewhere.
Law will pay a lot more than working as a musician.
I was surprised to learn how little the rank and file are paid in the main orchestras, it's practically unheard of to just play for a living.

herts, it's a very difficult question to answer. I would guess that in my year group, both grad and performance course, probably 75% or even more are still working in music, but not necessarily all performing for a living. As I said further up the thread, the majority of performers have some kind of portfolio career to support their income.
When I went to music college, they took in 2 or 3 flautists each year, because that is how many they needed for the graduate orchestra. Of the woodwind students in my year, I think maybe only 1 is not now working in music, 25 years on.
I wonder how those statistics compare to graduates of other subjects?

If my DS does end up carrying on with music professionally in some way I'm hoping he ends up with a rich wife who works in the City or something similar :)