January Music Thread

Get well soon kutik and minikutik - lots of nasty bugs going round atm

kutik forget the sashimi today and give him some chicken soup

Get well minikutik

Congrats on the chorister place and i hope the sickness is short lived kutik.

No music news here, although fitting all the practice in is a bit tricky 3x2 is 6 sessions a day so some of them are errr 'effective' (a eufemism for short 😁) dd2 has named her bass boris and was thrilled to find out her teachers bass also has a name, he's horace

Congrats miniQueen!

DS has been unwell with high temperatures this week (and I feel he is gradually passing that on to me...). He missed his beloved after school clubs - football on Monday, swimming on Tuesday. It seems I have to inform the orchestra that he cannot attend today's rehearsal now.

I think Python's experience sums up the chorister experience very well. It is a terrific training in efficiency. After all, not many children would feel themselves slightly at a loose end in the last weeks before scholarship exams . Hope mini-Python is having plenty of fun with his organ practice.

Queen - looking forward to hearing more about your DD's musical adventures.

Congrats Queen - you are starting on a great family journey. We've just come to the "end" of being chorister parents (hi Taggie); but don't regret any of it for a moment. DD finished 2 years ago, DS has just stepped down. He is struggling with how to use all his time this week already and it has only been 2 days so far! (a lot of organ practice has been done! scholarship auditions this week and next)

However, what is clear is that having been a chorister will never ever leave you. They will have an identity and a community for the rest of their lives, any time they want it. My uncle was a chorister, and didn't sing much for years - but much later when his daughter got into singing at school, he went back to it and I think his timetable is often "if it's Day X then I'm at Y rehearsal".

Hi Taggie - she got a distinction in her Grade 2 cello last term so that's going OK and we should probably start piano soon too!

Congratulations to miniqieen

Congratulations queen! DS2 is a chorister, and it is indeed an amazing opportunity - albeit hard work

Does your DD also play an instrument?

Thanks all - I'm sure I'll be after all your knowledgeable advice in the future!

Fantastic news Queen. I have an ex Cathedral chorister DS2 and there are several other current and former chorister parents on the thread. Its an amazing opportunity.

Congratulations to your daughter. My dd is a chorister at music school, it’s quite a juggling act, feel free to pm me for info if helpful.

Congratulations to your DD Queen! A major achievement.

Don't know if this is the right thread to post on, but for various reasons can't 'show off' about this in real life, so thought I'd share here: DD1 just got a chorister place at music school today and we're delighted. All change for us in September!

A day trip to Oxford Kutik? I could think of many worse things to do

Thank you folk.

Hello kutik we go to Roger Claridge in Oxford, he's marvellous and I really trust him in terms of instrument value etc x

Originally I thought I would buy from a shop in London for easy access but now I'm thinking to expand our hunting area and go further if necessary. Would you let me know if you have any recommendation please? It's for violin.

We are normally away for 6 weeks in summer for the last 10 years (apart from last year) so we need an instrument that can come with us. For this reason Piano is forgotten completely in summer - too heavy to take with us! I'm glad it's not his first study otherwise we may have had to re-think of our holiday style! 1 - 2 weeks would be fine but 6 weeks complete blank every year would be a pain for the first study? DS is not yet to be that diligent nor sophisticated to be able to do silent study!

That is a worry with a borrowed instrument, I don’t let dd outside with hers alone but with a cello there is less expectation that they will cart it about themselves!

Thanks! I emailed the music hub so will see what they say. I'll check Take It Away. We spoke to Benslow last year. DS could get a nice instrument from them. But we decided to buy rather than borrow at this stage. It's nice to have your own if you can. We like to take violin with us on holiday and it will be a problem if the instrument is provided by Benslow.

There's also the 'Take it Away' interest free loan scheme and Benslow Trust who loan instruments which might be worth looking at.

Kutik - we know quite a few who went through the scheme who don't have their lessons at school or at a hub; as long as the (state) school is willing and the instrument is for lessons then they seem to have met the criteria? worth exploring