January Music Thread

Oh Green I do hope you feel better soon and I'm sure stress has made it worse. I was thinking of your mini the other day - so good to hear she's forging ahead. I liked the fact her playing soothed you.
Hugs to miniEaling, too.
Well, DS1 had to skip marching band today due to excessive homework but did make it to the percussion lesson. He may have to miss another band this week but the concert is out of the way and schoolwork has to come first this year.
Cello practice is going quite well, though.

to you and your DH Green. I thought I hadn't seen any posts from you recently. Hoping everything works out positively for you.

to Taggie and mini and teenage Ealing.

Here is another sick bug who has been in bed the last 3 days, the throat infection really caught me this time, I have another couple of days on antibiotics so hopefully it will go away once the dose is finished( so far it hasnt worked, it could be the stress that I was having which didnt help). We have been dealing with family stress as well( my husband chronicle illness progressed really fast recently and its time to make a life saving decision. We now have to reconsider the private option for her too as if he wont be able to work then whether I could afford her fee. In theory yes I could, with a lot of scarification compare to our current living standard.

Regarding to music, it hasnt been our priority since Christmas, she is learning couple of Ciramosa sotanas (around G7 level), progress has been slow or she has been on silience mode so I couldnt hear. Violin picks up a little, our teacher is still skipping lessons(for example there will be no lesson the next 3 weeks as she travels abroad for 2 weeks then we travel 1 week abroad too for midterm). We made up by couple of whats apps records for our teacher to check on her practice. Surprisingly, the sound of the piece she is learning is really sweet. I am laying dead on my sofa in their library room and listening to her practising now and it was a pleasure, the first time I realised her violin practise actually has calmed me down.
We went for a 10+ exam recently and she didnt do the VR well(we only just started from Christmas). For example we didnt know it was a standard GL test with a separate answer sheet and 80 questions for 50 mins. She took time to figure out the answer sheet and just went question by question and when time was up she didnt finish them all. It was missing exam technique on timing as well. We had learnt the lesson now. Fortunately she was still invited for an interview so now we are waiting for the result. It means there will be a guaranteed place from yr7 and the successful candidate will only need to attend the scholarship test next year with few other successful 11+ candidates(all 25 for 10+ and top results 15 for 11+). I have a little hope but we wont be dishearten if we didnt get the 10+ offer as we could try again next year. We havent started on NVR yet however I have all books we need so I plan for NVR studying after midterm holiday.

Oops - sorry for the double post!

Thank you all so much for the lovely messages and for sharing your own stresses and strains. It really does help.

Sipping a cold gin and tonic and contemplating spiccato boot camp Mozart E minor sonata tomorrow morning. Lovely .

Thank you all so much for the lovely messages and for sharing your own stresses and strains. It really does help.

Sipping a cold gin and tonic and contemplating spiccato boot camp Mozart E minor sonata tomorrow morning. Lovely .

Taggie - your weekend chimes with me. You aren’t alone!

Ealing- I hope your dd manages to pick her way through this and come out even stronger.

DD2 did her last school audition today. She was openly more nervous for this one than for the others and said she’d made some mistakes, but we’ll have to wait and see. She’s back there tomorrow for their academic scholarship assessment (strange as we didn’t fill in the application form), but she’s managing to do that then DH will take her to meet up with the group from school for the concert.

Oh totally alexandra im a northerner in terms of the uk, it's just i now live in rural Norway

Thanks Trumpet; Drummers

ealing they don't only pale, some actually rot!

Ealing for your dd its tricky being a teenagers

to Taggie for her mind blowing weekend. You really are not alone, and have many nodding heads on this thread to your story!

Lots of good news being shared - well done to those who are coming to the end of entrance exams/auditions etc. The choice part is just as hard, but hope you all get the outcomes that match your DC.

All relatively quiet here due to no exam pressure this term. Waiting to hear if shortlist made for seniors music comp and general prep for forthcoming concerts; orchestral and ensembles. Her biggest dread is being asked to perform in Year 9 assemblies due to a handful of alpha boys being particularly unpleasant of late, and attempting to destroy her confidence on all things music related. Doing my best to make her see that her not following the herd is their key issue with her, not her music per se, but it's a rocky dialogue at the moment and asking her to hold her nerve is easy for me to say, I know.

Urgh - teenage life. But whilst some things are worse e.g. the narcissism/change in engagement created from SM, some things never change, so hope she can believe me that the odd bad eggs really do pale into insignificance in later life.

taggie none of it was your fault. Regardless, we've all felt like this at one point or another. It's really unfair because we forget how many times we get things totally right, we support, we remind, we fight the odds, we take the nerves, we're there for a cuddle, we're there for a push.

Loose Ds would do the same !! He hates taking tablets. Taggie we all have weekends like that and folk I am quite worried that all that ds is doing ( plus self inflicted pressure about school exams) is pushing him close to breaking point at the minute. But as long as we are aware of how they are feeling and coping and they know that they can say if they need to stop then they will be fine - I know that ds will bounce back and all will be fine once his school exams are over- though I will feel quite drained by the drama of it all 😀
Taggie if it makes you feel any better I've sent dd to school today even though she's not all that well - ok but not great- because we have no bathrooms currently and probably no toilet at home for much of the day today !! I told her to try and excuse herself from swimming if she feels dreadful but explain that I had sent her in because if the lack of toilet- half expecting call from the head later about sending her in but I really wasn't sure what else to do !!

To make everyone feel like they are better parents than me, I was just excavating food wrappers from the Batcave (DS1's room) when I found drugs. Not illegal ones but the antibiotics he was supposed to take when he had a chest infection. As he doesn't like capsules he'd decided to hide them behind his bedside table. I reckon it's about 3 days out of a 7 day course!

Taggie - no, you did brilliantly - you were brave and phoned the headteacher, your DS had the resilience to bounce back in the second, harder piece in the festival (probably all thanks to you) and you had the presence of mind to keep him going with apple and crisps. We've all been late and embarrassed at one time or another - life happens. You're not responsible for the length of evensong - it was tiring but he'll know now that mum can't be held responsible for everything. You did far more this weekend than most parents achieve!

Taggie, bless you.a very tough weekend. I'm sure we've all been there at one point or another, I constantly fear 'breaking' my kids with all that they do, but you get through it. Try and snatch some rest (for both of you) where you can and don't beat yourself up. And remember, there are very few highly successful people who didn't have someone pushing them along in the background 😘

Taggie- I wouldn’t worry too much. Sounds like you just had a bad weekend- it happens x
We all have them

Well done to mini! I so admire all you manage to do with your amazing dancing/clarinet playing/supermodel(!) DD. I don't know where you find the energy

kutik sounds like you are very happy with all the school options open to your DS, which is great! Most independent schools have entry points also in year 9 and the L6, so you could always re-think in a couple of years, depending on your circumstances and mini-Kutik's developing interests.

Right - hope you don't mind if I have a little grumble... can't talk about this stuff irl as it is all either self-inflicted or my own fault. Whole weekend was a fiasco. First, DS forgot his violin at school, so I had to make arrangements to get it back (very stressful, scary experience of ringing headmaster on his mobile- although he was super nice and understanding!) and he missed two days practice. Then he played in his first festival this weekend. Rather randomly (or perhaps lack of practice) he played the first piece at half speed and reverted back to bad posture, which I have been trying to correct for years! He recovered himself and played his second, much harder piece well. But not surprisingly, he didn't do brilliantly - although he did get a commended certificate. Then DS was late for choir (really 'not done' and big fail for the choristers to be late, esp y5's who need lots of practice). Then, I had forgotten that there was a super long and popular evensong and I couldn't get a seat, which annoyed DS, who likes to see his 'fan club' when he sings. Actually, if I had realised about the long evensong, I would not have entered him for the festival as it was too tiring. Then, I got confused on the way home and failed to navigate round an accident so we didn't get home until after 9pm and DS had crisps and an apple for supper in the car - which is all I had. And we nearly ran out of petrol. So today, poor DS is exhausted, I am exhausted, and we have another super busy week ahead.

I am beating myself up for being a rubbish teacher (poor choice of festival piece, persistent bad posture) and a pushy violin-mom (exhausted child, no real reason for doing any of this) and disorganised (no petrol, no time to fill up, marking not finished). Boo hoo .

Thanks for 'listening'. Nice to get it all out, as it were.

Kudos - blame the phone

waffle many thanks for the zapping!
I was at a Wagner gala, the whole of Das Rheingold whithout intermission! At a certain point they bring out nine percussionists to play some hammers to emulate the sound of forging the ring. It was so cool. And that was all their job. After doing that a couple of times they just left. They had seven harps!!!! We were lucky to be invited I think the ticket for the seat I had my bum on was about 300 pounds...
folk I wouldn't draw conclusions for just one teacher... but avoid him/her!
mending I'm sure I've told you that being exiled North has been my fantasy since childhood. Kufos to your DD.

Taggie, we haven't got an official offer yet so can't negotiate the fee! To be honest the school is spoilt with many able and talented candidates whose parents can pay the fee so I don't think there is any space for negotiation. But I'm not sad about it. I'm actually very grateful that we have a good state option. Apparently it's a good school. Well, we'll find out very soon!

No alas but there were 4 amazing percussionists in one of the orchestras thAt dd was in - plus the pianist doing v snazxy things with the piano strings! I must admit I love a real good wind orchestra with the full number of instruments/members. The repertoire is just amazing!

Stringchild at some point we should all try to meet up!
(Did your concert include six drummers drumming?)