October Music Thread

crazygirl, your DD is definitely the exception - top marks to her! 👍👍👍

Littlelad, the drinks are on me...as long as you only want a coffee! 🤣

Floot I'm playing the Charlotte Church album now on Tidal. Happy to help - don't spend it all at once!

Floot Daniel who?

My children get sick of hearing me say, "I was at college with her/him", Littlelad. 🤣
It rather comes with the territory, when you've been to a music and drama college and had a career in it - my favourite is that I was at college with Daniel Craig ( we graduated in the same ceremony!) and I'm still being paid royalties for playing on Charlotte Church's first album. 😆

Floot How cool is that - I'm suitably impressed!

disorganised it sounds as though the feedback was really positive, hope mini is not too disappointed and you can enjoy half term

Wow Flootfoot that is a great post. So true on many counts.

Flootfoot lol that is so true. Ditto at competitions. We were at one where my DS was first on so had instruments set up for his performance but warm-ups were still going taking place on stage. One girl (and her teacher!) went over and actually moved my DS's instruments around. My DS went on stage and moved them back to his set-up and came back to sit down. They did it again. We just gave up and let them do what they wanted until warm-ups had finished. It was so silly and pointless.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1835038043211149&id=191956057519364

Littlelad, Sarah was at JD with me. ☺

That judge had it spot on, Herts. If anyone ever wants evidence of one upmanship between ( young) musicians, just listen to what they are playing in the 10 minute warm up before youth ensemble rehearsals start...😉😂 Its very rare you'll hear any kind of scales, tone exercises, slow passage work etc - it'll always be that really high, fast bit, or the cadenza of the concerto they 're learning. 😂😂😂😂😂

I'm going to post a link about competitions and the idea of prodigy...

I'd like to recommend sarah-willis.com/horn-hangouts/

If you don't already know, Sarah Willis is a horn player with the Berlin Phil. She's also just been appointed as International Chair of Brass at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Her 'Horn Hangouts' make for fantastic viewing for all and, of course, for brass players in particular. DS has become a huge fan of Arturo Sandoval since watching the episode featuring him - what an amazing character he is! I can't wait to watch some more of these with DS over half term.

Oh and Patrick might be best to talk less to some of the super-competitive no doubt tiger mums at DS's school. Well at least not worry about what they say about music. At the recent drum competiton my son was in one of the judges told everybody afterwards he felt they were all worrying too much about the others and therefore playing more aggressively (louder, more beats, faster, etc) than they did in sound-check. He said need to worry about your own playing and forget everyone else as always a better drummer than you within a hour's drive. (maybe not always true but get his point.) Always somebody practicing more, in more competitions, with a better instrument, seemingly more confident, with more of plan, more organised etc. I can understand as I do it myself although I try not to. My DS is at other extreme (too much now I think) and basically doesn't care about anyone else (in a nice way.)

I wouldn't take the 2 hours a day comment too literally. I guess what he was trying to say was that DS needs to practice a lot more than he is doing at present in order to get in but if he just said that then it wouldn't get your attention. Also practice doesn't have to be the same everyday - 1 hour on a schooldays, 2-3 hours Sat and Sun, even more perhaps over holidays.

Patrick, I think we can all be ‘guilty’ of getting bogged down in our own issues at some point, so that we end up in our own little bubble. Let’s just draw a line under it and move forward.

disorganised for you and DS for coping so well with a hard week.

I second others' caution about the 2 hours a day. If mini-disorganised is able to do 2 hours of concentrated, high quality work then it is fine. But few 12yos can do this, in addition to a full school schedule.

Otherwise, too long practice sessions can embed bad habits. It is better to focus with the teacher on what needs to be done to address any issues raised in the audition feedback. Lengthening of practice should come out of this discussion with the teacher. For example, the teacher may recommend an extra 10-15 minutes a day of scales/technical exes.

Do let us know how the lesson goes.

for all on the thread coping with family challenges, past and present.

Good feedback and the fact that the door has been left open is a really good sign Disorganised. I'd take the practice time thing with a pinch of salt. What they will be looking for in February is some clear improvement, so basically when your ds goes back you'll want them to say 'I can hear that you've been working hard since your last visit'.

crazy I know how hard it is doing it on your own. My first wife became ill after the birth of our daughter and I cared for her and brought up daughter on my own for 11 years. I also trained to be a teacher towards the end of this time - I have no idea now how I managed! I've now married again and have lovely ds. Life is most certainly easier with two, although my DW complains that I do everything, cooking, cleaning, organising etc. This is clearly as a result of my previous experience. It also explains why I feel happier on Mumsnet rather than Piston Heads or similar!

I totally relate to the “get myself so far down a hole “ !! at the moment, and sometimes need to give myself a reality check that I can probably sort stuff out and that any decision I make isn’t going to be so catastrophically disadvantage ds that it won’t all work out in the end . But why oh why does it all have to be so complicated

Absolutely, Folk! It applies in both directions. ☺
Sometimes the small things are HUGE, but sometimes they're just...small, in the grand scheme of things. Empathy and understanding and a healthy dose of perspective usually does the trick. 😉

What I love about this group is that we are all in very different situations, all have very different families and problems, but we all have musical children in common, and hopefully understand the highs and lows we all go through.

Absolutely Floot! But sometimes we all need that reminder to be a little more mindful of others' situations, in every facet of our lives, not just here. Sometimes I can get myself so far down a hole and to have a good friend say 'hang on a minute.....' can shake me out of a tricky place. The thing that's so great about this group is that it's a safe and supportive place to air all of these things.

Disorganised it's been a tough week for you, I know! Noo doesn't do that much practice (an hour of violin, maybe another 45 between viola and piano on a good day) but it's very focused. We haven't had any complaints so far...:

Crazy - I get it 🙃