January to March 2019 music thread (Title edited by MNHQ)

Sorry to keep going back to this topic but was still thinking of the hardship of music career. DCs who achieve high musically when they are still quite young tend to be bright and do well academically. So it may be no brainer for them (and parents?) to look for different directions. I know a few DCs who got grade 8 distinction for several instruments while they were still at primary school and none of them have never thought of music career. Interestingly they all happen to be heading for medicine!

Gosh which diplomas require all that? Trinity only say dress as if for a recital, no colour or length specifications, and I thought they were the stricter board on dress.

I looked on the Trinity website and it says: Dress, which should be suitable for a public recital (jeans and trainers are not considered appropriate dress)
So thank you so much for giving me the heads up!
We are going down the Trinity route as the Perc list on Trinity is so much more interesting than the AB list. And it sounds like way less extra stuff for Trinity, too. Bonus!

I’ve had to learn a lot. The programme notes component has now disappeared from ATCL and LTCL (from the next session), making them far easier to achieve than ABRSM diplomas for younger players. There’s is so much reading, academics, analysis etc in ABRSM diplomas, the diploma boards are quite different now.

Diplomas! Apparently supposed to be full length dress AND age appropriate. Black
Blimey, I had no idea I suppose I just thought it was like another (harder) grade exam. Oh well, thank you for letting me know. Sounds like normal concert wear will be fine rather than the usual hoodie!

Charlie bird Parker is a great example of someone who was just utterly dedicated. It’s hard to decide whether to let them spend hours and skimp elsewhere, or whether to keep everything in balance. I mean - kids nowadays are supposed to do an hour of sports/fitness, plus at least an hour’s reading. Plus homework. Plus something to benefit community.
Someone needs to work out a way of fitting more than 24 hours into a day!

Talent, money, good teachers and supportive family would all play an important part but I would put sheer love of the thing and hard work above everything else.

You've got to love what you are doing and that'll be the motivation to be better each day, not to reach highest grade quicker nor to win a competition, but simply be better than yesterday's yourself.

And hard-work... I think extraordinary work-ethic is so overlooked, as if it's almost proof of lesser talent. But it is a lot rarere to possess, definitely a lot more than 'musical' talent.

For instance, places like JDs and specialist schools are filled with so-called musically talented and hard-working DCs. Then you will see maybe one or two who have a totally different level of dedication and work-ethic and those are the ones who shine most in the environment where musical talent isn't rare. You know it, yet many can't apply themselves to that insane level. It's not that others are lazy, but extraordinary work-ethic is a talent itself. Perhaps the most important talent to 'make it'.

None of our greatest musicians left their footprints in the history with natural talent alone. Almost all had extraordinary amount of motivation and work-ethic.

Diplomas! Apparently supposed to be full length dress AND age appropriate. Black. But we had to go dark blue for one child and very dark red for another. Tea length. As in nice lunch time concert.
But Licentiate is supposed to be an evening concert style - so that will need to be full length. So I guess we will be getting something made.

You see, boys have it so much easier!

We spent months trying to find the right exam dress for diplomas
What, wait, you need to get dressed up to do your diploma?! Is the usual hoodie and jeans combo a no no

Money. And time.

Even music costs a fortune nowadays. We spent months trying to find the right exam dress for diplomas. I think boys have that a bit easier!

I love the clarity online from the exam boards, these days. Back in the day, when I was putting children in, you would get some very weird exam results, sometimes. I love the breakdown for marking online. It’s very helpful.

Ha, very true boykeepsswinging. Even at our early stage.

Third And money ... lots of money ... whether that's through coming from a wealthy family, a family making sacrifices for their kids or through scholarships a really good musical education ain't cheap.

I think musical success takes a combination - sheer love of the thing, talent, hard work, good teacher, family support.

Shaky I always say that DS has benefitted greatly from having an outstanding teacher. I know exactly how lucky we are - we have struck gold. Without a great teacher even the most talented kid ain't going anywhere ...

It was actually from me talking to the examiner, prior to Christmas. He’d just told his son not to take ‘A’ level music, despite being a good musician. He said it was heartbreaking, but he knew people that...
And that was when he explained about them Uber driving.

On a side matter, don’t you just love it when people don’t equate hard work with results. I keep hearing how it must be great to have talented kids - but actually they work really, really hard. That’s how they got there. But no...apparently it was all in the genes. Sigh.

I meant to add, that at dd school they have classes on networking and she has been doing this for a couple of years now.
It's mostly fb she uses, but has lots of followers on Twitter too.
it's a must for publicity too, just upload your gig dates or concerts, maybe some photos of recent work.

Herts

That's so true, and it can be a difficult balance too.
If you have something important on that you need a good focus for, you can't be teaching kids their CDE's and listening to bad tuning, all day.
But you can't afford to put all your eggs in one basket.
Dh is currently writing a study book, programmes for masterclasses, arranging for big bands, touring with the BBC twirlies and Jazz gigs.
When he's quiet he has instrument repairs as well.
It's not what I would call a comfortable living, but it keeps the wolf from the door.

Herts, I am glad to hear that you know quite a few musicians who lead a reasonably comfortable life by juggling various roles and projects. It may not be great for someone who pursue performance only career, but I think the juggling jobs as a trained musician/teacher suit my easily bored DS better. He is a natural multitasker and he would probably enjoy it rather than being stuck in one profession. Definitely a lot more enjoyable (for him) than being in an office or lab.

I guess those who manage to make a living from juggling are still very fortunate and many others struggle plentily but nice to see there is a hope!

But doing Uber is a totally different story. It's very sad unless there was a reason other than financial difficulty...

Yes that is sad on the Uber front although I know quite a lot of musicians (several with both partners musicians) and most of them seem to have a reasonably comfortable lifestyle especially once get into 30's/40's. That said they do a lot of teaching in addition to performing and are quite entrepreneurial with a portfolio of lots of things going on - solo, ensemble, bands, orchestra, teaching at various schools, teaching privately, teaching on courses, judging competitions, composing, arranging etc. It almost seems like business skills (marketing, legal, financial, social media/SEO, website, graphics) should be compulsory for musicians who want to make it a career.

I think managing focused for 45 mins is pretty good for that age. Mine doesn't. Occasionally when he's so into it, yes, but usually after 20 mins he would say 'tired' and seek for a break... Most of his practice happens away from home now I have no idea how he is dealing with it. I imagine staining out of the window is part of his practice routine!

Shaky, was it you who mentioned someone in the big orchestras and teach are doing Uber due to the hardship of making a living from music? That's seriously disheartening. Nothing wrong with Uber but, even teaching alone cannot bring enough money...? After all the training and discipline....

I mean she took her ATCL in year 7 term 1. So she is trying for Dip at the end of year 7.
I guess how long it takes to prepare is really up to the amount of work she can put in and what her technique is already like. Also, whether she’s aiming to do as well as possible!
We did a lot of choir and a Capella work that year too so she found the sight singing quite easy compared to what she had been doing in the groups. That is well worth doing!

greenleave my daughter took hers in year 5. She was ‘disappointed’ with her mark, but still got a distinction! I would definitely split up the practise times. My daughter started doing 45 minutes and then went to an hour and up as the exam got closer.
We did aural practise every day, as those are not exactly easy. She also did lots of scales practise as there were 95 scales with three different articulations! I kept a chart so she could see her progress, which really helped. And she did sight reading daily too. So her practises were regimented so nothing got missed out.
Also, it’s about trying to keep it fun and remebering that as the exam looms, that you just stay the course!
Miss 12 now has her ATCL in year 7, and is trying to take her DIPABRSM in year 7 too. Thought that’s more likely to be in y8, as the Viva Voce requires a huge amount of work. We’ll see how much work she does...

She has been playing playing G8 pieces level for some times now however hasnt had exam for a long time since G7. Her teacher suggests her to take it. They will be choosing pieces next lesson. She is truly not a morning person. I will suggest 30 mins in the afternoon then 30 mins in the evening, thanks for a great idea.

greenleave could she do a bit in the morning and a bit in the evening or a bit straight after school and a bit after supper if she needed more time to cover the material? Does she definitely want to do grade 8 at the moment at all? At the end of the day the bulk of it is learning some nice music that she'd probably want to learn anyway, she doesn't need to enter till she has a programme learned and ready to polish up. How long that takes depends on whether she can basically sight read the notes/fingerings/bowings or it takes months to work out section by section.

Hi Shaky, how long do we need to practise for G8 if we could only do 45mins aday. We have all the time in the world(yr6 and state school, almost no homework) however her retention and focus drop massively after 45mins.