September 2018 Music Thread

Hello all, just a quickie as cooking tea, before HP. yes, even at 14 she cuddles up to watch
The restricted Library in PS was filmed at her school, she takes pleasure telling people this.
I heard two kids coming out once and one said to the other, do you know that Karl Marx and Engels met here, on the old bench in the library.
The other said, wow I didn't know the Marx brothers came here.

Yes, we have revision cards, summaries and good marks in her books. I will back off now.

Patrick
Don't worry about Maths or anything else, I'm only on dd case as she has a history of little confidence and not trying, vicious circle stuff going on. If she usually managed I wouldn't be this obsessive.
mine is loving Macbeth, thanks for the comments loose you always make sense.

mm....day 22 of Sept and my first post. Prompted by the lovely trip down memory lane of that first thread. Waffle, you deserve more than a gold star for keeping this going for so many years. And I know the teenage years are tough, reading back I think I had more challenges with DD at 10 than I do now at 15. But now, she has more challenges with her peer age group and friendships, that I have become the go-to person to talk to. Not sure I like this period either as I can't fix things for her (especially when she feels so lonely) but know she also doesn't want to do some of the things that her peers are experimenting with, and has to keep strong at school. So we're counting down the years to when she can possibly move to a less cliquey environment. Loves the school, hates the environment. What a dilemma. I hope Goo grows in confidence with the fab programme in place for her.

Such volatile years, but they do fly by! Good to see you back Green, lovely to hear of newcomers and new starts to school/JD etc.

Tabby: wow, just wow on your DD's hours of stuff. But she sounds like she's a fabulous juggler, and the only advice I can offer up (and mine has never been as busy as yours!) is any dropping of activity, if possible, should be their decision (even if engineered behind the scenes by you). They then don't get to hide behind you when they reminisce or mourn the loss of activity by saying 'you made me give it up'. The management of school workload, health, organisation, clashes etc should naturally flush some of these decisions out, but, it is so hard for a child to cull when they love all of what they do. Good luck!

Dd1 started at our JD equivalent last month and apart from the start up parent info meeting, the only thing i attend is the lunchtime concert that is open to the public.

The concert today was a bit special as dd1 performed with her quartet - they've only been together 4 weeks but did a brilliant bit of haydn today

So lovely to hear of everyone's JD experiences! Brings back memories of my own 6 years at JD, which were some of happiest times of my life, and I'm still in touch with friends I made there, thirty years later. ☺
My sister and I started at the same time, so my mum travelled with us and stayed all day for the first couple of terms, then travelled in with us and left us to come home alone, then stopped travelling with us at all. (We lived 30 minutes outside of Waterloo, and attended GSMD, so a mainline train and then "the drain" to Bank on the way in, and bus to Waterloo/ London Bridge and train to Waterloo East, and mainline from Waterloo on the way home). Eventually, there was a gang of us travelling all of part of the way, so it was very sociable.
I'm a bit sad DS won't have the same experience, as we are too far from London.

Truffle, that is so fantastic! What does your DD play and how old is she she? - is this the first time she's applied? Fingers crossed she does well in the next round - so exciting!

Please everyone's jd days are going well
Truffle great news how exciting

Patrick definitely too soon to worry about maths - it's quite normal in Y7 to go gently to half term and then it all changes!
Alexandra lovely to hear the Boy's first day has gone so well - but what were the chances of a pool table being there??
Truffle - and good luck for the next round!
Misti well done to your DS - he's clearly flying with his music!!

DD is over the moon to have got through the first round of NYO auditions. She heard yesterday she has got a final round audition next Saturday so she is excited and flappy all at the same time!

We're not getting our hopes up as there is a lot of competition for the places but it's been a good experience so far.

Hope everyone enjoys their returns to JD today . Yes if Ds decides to go to JD at some point then after the first couple of weeks I don't expect to even travel with him ( he certainly won't want me around) and will just go into London if I fancy doing something or meeting up with friends . This is part of the reason for waiting there's no way we could have been fair to his sister, work and sort out the building work with one of us going to London each week . Right off to do some painting now

Druid DD also has 9-4 with only 15mins break. I send food, but she has a choice between going to the loo and eating!! Bacon and eggs at 6.30am, eat a banana on the way in the door - then eat at end of day!

Cat we are definitely not required during JD day - I think DD would be mortified, although she is 14 so a little older than some on here.
The only extra thing she has signed up for is theory, although there are other optional things too - choir for example. So she has an hour lesson on each instrument, an hour chamber group on each, orchestra, theory and General Musicianship.

DS also brought a lot of homework for this weekend. He's meeting his friend tomorrow afternoon so better finish them in the morning!

Putting the volume of homework aside, I'm a bit concerned about some comments DS made on their academic studies, especially Maths. It's his favorite and strong subject and school told us he would be challenged and stretched and it's possible due to the small number in a class. We discussed about their academic side quite a lot prior to starting the school as it was one of my concerns. I was made to think it's all good. But DS moaned he had to wait a lot until others finished (he usually works really quickly) and some challenging work was given at the very end of each lesson so he felt a bit bored. He's been there only for two weeks so I assume it's still getting to know phase for the teacher and hopefully it'll be more personalized later on. Or not?

Should I address this concern to the school before it gets a major problem or it may be too early to conclude their lessons are not challenging enough so should wait for a few more weeks/months?

Exciting news for your DS mistigri!

Good luck to Noo starting JD today and to everyone returning after the summer break.

DD also has her first cello lesson today since the end of last term. I think she's feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to fit in music practice with the volume of homework from starting secondary - 7 different pieces of homework this weekend and none of them are short.

folk, it may be very soon that you won't be required even during break! Enjoy while you can!

catkind, it's exactly like how school works. You can drop off and pick up or older kids can do all the journey alone. But some younger kids may need a bit of help for the first few weeks as they have to move from one to another very swiftly and the building can be like a maze. Kids with large instruments need sherlpa... I attended ds's violin lesson last term and sometimes choir, aural and orchestra but it's not because ds needed my help but because I wanted. Many lessons are not open to parents, like his piano lesson today!

Wow mistigri, that sounds really exciting!

Now I'm intrigued as to how JD works. Had rather naively assumed it's like school and you drop them off at the beginning and pick them up at the end. Do parents stay with the younger children and ferry them between lessons? Do they have to sign up to extra things apart from their individual lesson or does everyone do the same?

Good luck to all returning to JD today. This thread is a really interesting read 😊

Good luck at JD for those starting today

DS's guitar teacher who is a pro jazz musician has set up a project with his music school to create a jazz/blues/rock group that will aim to perform 1-1.5 hour shows three times a year and also do some recording. DS has been invited to play guitar and keyboard. He's the only non-adult participant and I'm thrilled for him.

I used to attend DS's 1-1 lessons. Now I haven't even met his new violin/piano teachers at school and I missed the time I spent in the lesson rooms. I thought at least I could still attend lessons at jd. But his new piano teacher at jd said no. So I'm sitting by the window, reading a book. Feel like the time of independence came earlier than I wished!

We are back to jd today too. DS comes back home on Friday instead of Saturday to make it possible. It's nice to have him back one night extra but I was not sure if it would make his life too manic. But DS said it's so nice to have the extra night at home and he was so happy to see old friends at jd this morning.

He's having the first piano lesson at jd at the moment. Apparently they are going to discuss how to handle the two piano teachers situation (DS got some messages addressed to the piano teacher at jd from another at school). Interesting to find out what they decide!

Good luck to all those starting and returning to jd/music center!