August Music Thread

floot I hope you manage to resolve the neighbour issue - we are in a terraced house but luckily are best friends with both our neighbours so they don’t object to noise (and with six DC that’d have to be a deal breaker!!). We have however put a thick sheet of styrofoam between the wall and the piano (even though it’s not a partition wall) because it seems to make the sound generally much more gentle and quiet, which means it can be played after the younger ones or next door neighbours go to bed. Maybe give that a go and let next door know you’re doing that so they can’t argue that you’re not attempting to appease?

Really glad everyone’s enjoyed NCO outings! They sound amazing. This thread sometimes makes me wish DDs had more time for music. We’ve had quite a lot of writing a musical (a huge ongoing project with their friend) and a little bit of playing with the new found accordion this week but other than that it’s been mostly meeting friends, watching films and reading. From tomorrow they’re off to Portugal for a surfing holiday with our NDNs. It does include the musical writing friend but that’s as close to music as they’ll get It’ll make for a quiet house again. DD3 has been practising her violin a little but just does 5 minute bursts - I feel she’s too little to focus for much longer and want her to keep her enthusiasm.

And at our mixed (mostly) comprehensive music, sport and drama are all cool among their own crowds I believe. Any extra curriculars are very encouraged and celebrated which I think squashed any potential issue.

hapsburg 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Howarth's is not far from All Flutes Plus and RAM, so you can imagine the trouble I got into as a post graduate flautist at said college! ( I absolutely haven't got spare headjoints and footjoints tucked away in my knicker drawer from those days...no, not at all ...😉)

Howarths is VERY dangerous. A bit like Olivander's - last time we went in DD was adamant that one of the bassoons had chosen her!

Ds goes to a mixed school but music is very much accepted - I think many dream of following in the footsteps of a very famous ex pupil so it definitely isn't an issue . I think it showed them all that it is possible to do something different with hard work talent ( and a lot of luck !!)
Ds kind of presented himself as a musician when he joined in year 7 and so amongst his peers I think it's just accepted that that's what he does just like others cycle or swim or play football . He seems to have a fairly high achieving group of friends with an eclectic mix of interests and so that definitely helps !! Plus Ds is also very sporty and so is always keen to join in with lunchtime football

Dc is at a boys' school so thankfully there isn't a cool factor / girls' area issue. I can imagine that it could be a problem

Wow, my kids would love to visit howarths! Bet it is fun.

DS is not a neat writer. Achieving good presentation was his main target at primary school. He is quick and confident and boldly makes lots of careless mistakes... Yet, he is great at any sport he does and plays piano and violin well for his age so I assume his fine motor skills mustn't be so bad. But he is definitely not a stereotype of young violinist/pianist... He has a mad scientist appearance too when his hair get long....

Melting, I was just going to say the same thing as double, you can play both in the same exam, saves money! My dd did grade one on both in same exam you choose which one you do the sight reading on. If she is keen, we will do another one like that, happy for her to keep up her recorder alongside the oboe.

Thank you waffle - that's what I will go with, a gap of one candidate in between.

She will be sitting for Grade 3 on the treble but haven't quite decided yet which grade for descant. Am going to see how she goes over the next month or so. She seems to prefer the treble so she may well have caught up with the descant by the next time.

no experience with 2 recorder exams on the same day. However have 2 dc who have had 2 music exams on the same day and the both preferred a bit of a gap.

On holiday - with guitars! It's proved useful as siblings sniping at each other were diverted from evil to quite good when I suggested they tried to compose something together. Not sure exactly what they were up to after that but it wasn't squabbling!
DS2 had a good piano lesson before we headed off and I think he'll take his G5 piano next term, then a big push on theory before G6 cello exam. I really want to get him back in a good practice routine but it's hard with a 13 year old who wants to sleep until lunchtime and then hide in his room till dinner! And he's at least 6 inches taller than me!!

Re girl-boy differences, girl-boy stereotypes tend to push girls into having more focus on fine motor skills and boys into having more focus on gross motor. I imagine this might lead to boys being ready (or perceived as being ready) to start musical instruments later on average. The ones in DD's class learning instruments going into y2 are exactly the three children with neat small cursive writing.

There are also cultural effects. Some places music isn't seen as cool for boys. One teacher friend deliberately got one of his "tougher" boy pupils to demo in assembly and found that more boys then signed up for the next year.

Pottering back into practising here after holiday. I've also got them both working gently through grade 1 theory as a holiday project. Interesting comparison. DD is neater and more accurate but slower, and more likely to ask for help. DS whizzes it off but makes lots of mistakes. If nothing else at least DS won't forget how to hold a pencil over the holidays - not a keen writer!

String when DD was at Rossall with Main last year their tutor said if he could have fitted the whole section in his car he would have taken them out to eat, as they should not be expected to work as hard as they were working on that food!! Sorry to hear it has not improved.

Hope everyone is having a good summer and that those DCs who are at NCO/other music courses are enjoying.

I have been cracking the whip a bit on practice since we have got back from holiday although the DCs have also been on a watersports week so they were fitting in practice and theory before and after that each day.

They are off to my parents tomorrow, they are taking theory papers with them and DD is taking the recorders. I have also recently bought a digital piano to keep at my parents so they now have no excuse not to practise piano while they are there (evil mum).

My latest faff is what to do about booking DD's recorder exam(s). I am looking at December Trinity dates. This time, DD will be sitting exams on the treble and descant but different grades. We will be going with the same accompanist for both so I am trying to cut down on the amount of time we will be asking of her - especially as this will be a weekend date in December. That means definitely booking for the same day for both exams. I know you can choose the date with Trinity but I can't remember from last time if it is possible to choose the timeslot and if it is possible whether it is best to go for two consecutive slots or leave 1 or 2 in between to allow for a warm-up... any recorder players/teachers have any advice please?

Just did some sums on the programme (can you tell that I am avoiding some really dull admin tasks?) and under 12s are 30-40% boys, where the upper figure has all gender ambiguous names or ones where I am I sufficiently familiar with them to know which sex they belong to. So a bit higher than I had thought (I couldn't see all the Trombones and double basses from my seat!). Under 13s on same basis about 30-35

But you are right that they aren't evenly distributed. DC's horn section was all boy last year and has only 1 girl this time and trumpets always seem to come out half and half.

Perhaps the red skirts fill the eye!

Not sure about ratio over the whole orchestra but trumpets on under 13s are 50 50. In main orchestra though only 1 girl!!
Over the under 13s as a whole there are plenty of boys certainly Ds had never complained about there being too many girls ! - I'll have a look on Saturday

I was wondering about this too. It is about a third boys in U10s.

Although it doesn’t feel like it used to Be 50:50 across the Orchestras combined when they last published an analysis - I did notice many more boy 1st violins last night compared to last years U12s where there only seems to be 1-2. Interesting question?

Does anyone have a theory in why there are so few boys relatively at the NCO. Eyeballing the concert last night it looked like barely 20%. Are boys less gregarious?

Great to hear all the happy news on NCO. DS has never done any residential course before and as has been so away from all the musical activities since school finished I am not sure if he can cope with or enjoys the intensity of the course. In fact he may have forgotten he is actually a pianist/violinist! He is coming back to uk two days before the course starts and is going away again for a week straight after NCO, then after a few days of resting at home, he’ll start a boarding school...

Great about the under 12s - no trumpet boy is in the under /13s this year . Really pleased he enjoyed it more than he thought he would . Ds couldn't wait for me to leave on Friday and said I wouldn't hear from him - I took that as a good sign !!

DC reckoned the food there than a this school but I don't think that is a very high bar!