Autumn term 2019 music thread

Great news! Her bag has been handed in. I need to go to a different depot to pick it up.
Hopefully everything is still in it! Thanks for your words of encouragement everyone. I think we need to review her bag and how it works.... and love the idea of a mini gps.
Dd is dyslexic so she is often forgetful... might be perfect for her.

I'm sure I've seen gps trackers somewhere - when I got a full size violin for DS, I remember considering getting it.

Having had a nightmare of lost luggage before (Not instruments thankfully) I make sure every case case in the house has a luggage label with phone numbers and email addresses on...

Dds violin teacher left her extremely valuable violin on a train once (with no name label) and did get it back...so there is hope!

I do wonder if there is a market for very small gps trackers to attach to instruments...

@Thistly sorry to hear about the forgotten instrument. It's something my brother did regularly when we were at secondary school and the instrument always got back to him eventually.

It's probably worth posting on Facebook and Twitter in local groups, ideally with a photo of the case/bag so people know what to look out for. I know I've seen posts in Facebook groups where a member of the public has posted to say they found a flute which they've taken home and will take to the police station tomorrow, or a trumpet that was left at a bus stop and was handed in to a local shop. In both cases, the instruments and owners were reunited although it took a few days for contact to be made. It's because of this that all our cases have personalised metal/dog tags with initial.familyname followed by my mobile number fixed to the outside so no initiative is required should either DD forget to pick up their instrument.

Thanks for your messages!
I have been to the depot and the lead driver said he hadn't seen it, and he would have. I could try again tomorrow. I have 2 more leads to follow.
I have prior experience of successful reunification with lost items on public transport so I will pursue it to the limit.

Inside, most of the music has phone numbers written on it, so anyone wanting to return it could have done so.

She will learn (I hope she will also learn that she doesn’t need to take ALL her music books with her to her lessons, just the ones she needs. Usually she gets lifts, but I was away for a few days so she had to use the buses....

Was there anything on it/with it that might help a member of the public return it to her school (assuming she’s school age) after half term (assuming it’s been half term where you are)?

DS got off the bus without his instrument once, as he told it he was swept along by the press of bodies rather than wandering off and leaving it. I was lucky in that it was a contract bus, as soon as the bus returned to the depot it was found and they rang the school, the school rang me (DS was the only possibility given the size of the case) and I fetched it in time to return it to school for his lesson. After that I attached a large luggage label with my phone number on so the coach company could ring me directly (not that he ever lost it again).

I hope that yours is sitting in lost property somewhere waiting for you to claim it.

@Thistly sorry to hear that. No experience of instrument loss but DD left her PE kit on the bus and it turned up about a week later. Definitely agree with @Lotsofmilkonesugar that in person visit seems to work wonders.

Sorry to hear that thistly what a nightmare... I would try going down in person to the bus station where the bus terminated, I had success finding my daughter’s school bag there although they denied all knowledge over the phone! I think things tend to be put on a shelf and forgotten..

Hi boys, thanks for the sympathy. I got a no off one possible bus company, the other i will contact tomorrow. I will then get in touch with the insurer. Yes it is a specialist music insurance, and I hope it will all be ok. Of course the instruments will never be the same and she has lost all her personal notess etc, so she is gutted.

Oh no Thisly how annoying! I guess you need to contact your insurance company ASAP and take it from there. Do you have specialist musical instrument insurance? Have you contacted the bus company? It might turn up (fingers crossed).

(I mean a claim from an insurance policy)

Hi, has anyone got any experience making a claim for a musical instrument loss? My dd left her bag on the bus. 😭 If anyone has been through this, it would be super helpful to know a bit about the process.

I believe you can also get pTrumpets (sounds a bit like a dinosaur to me!!!)

Wow, thanks everyone for all the interesting thoughts about choosing an instrument

I have seen pBones! The mother of a very little chap told me all about them, when I asked what was the instrument her son had brought along to a workshop at an LSO family concert (it was a pBone mini).

Looking them up online, we happened across this marvellous by Christopher Bill which we all love (I’m certain Prince would’ve approved). And, , we discovered the excellent , too.

DS is still too little for a full-size trombone of any sort so I’ll remind him about the pBone mini. He’s not yet six, but with his older DSis playing an instrument, I worry he’s missing out a bit. Seb Skelly brass inspo playlist at the ready

thirdfiddle, we’ll see what spring brings. I hope DD isn’t right at the end of the exam period again; there’s only so long a family can listen to three pieces over and over, so the earlier the better!

The same four instruments were considered rare here a few years ago. A rare instruments day was organised and then they selected children who then received free group lessons on that instrument for a year. This is how dd got started on the bassoon. She is lucky now that she has joined a school with other bassoon players so is still able to choose to play her clarinet in some ensembles. Last year she was the only bassoon in the junior orchestra but another one has started this year.

Dd plays in dh’s band when she can too!!!

At Brass Academy over the summer every front row teumpet/cornet was female...I think all bar about 2 in total were!! In that instrument anyway! More mixed in others tho...

@PetraDelphiki that's brilliant!

DD1's brass band has only one female in front row cornets and only one male in the back row, the main and the wind orchestra at JD has all males in its brass section, the big band is half and half but the brass chamber groups tend to be one female and four or five males.

DD2's brass band (not the same one as DD1) has no females on the front row, one on repiano and two on third. She plays in a concert band in which she is one of two female brass players. In my concert band, there is only one female brass player too.

FWIW in brass all the first cornets in dh’s band and all but one of the thirds are female...3 men in seconds but that’s all! Dds Orchestra is 4 trumpets - 2 of each...

The endangered species instruments according to DD1's JD are trombone, French horn, double bass and bassoon. She gets free lessons on double bass as a second study because of this.

Both my DDs play brass instruments and are in demand as a result. The trumpet and trombone are very versatile and play pretty much every genre whereas there's not much call for French horns in jazz or in brass bands (where trumpets are swapped for cornets). It's noticeable that the adult brass world is mainly populated by men and we've found that as the DDs join more advanced ensembles, they tend to be dominated by male players... which may or may not be off-putting/a selling point!

Not posted for a while but the discussion on instrument choice is really interesting. DS plays the piano (which he loves) and chose cello for a second orchestral instrument. He was completely set on strings rather than wind, no idea why but he was adamant! He preferred cello due to the range. He's also quite drawn to the idea of the double bass but I've said he can look at that in future once he's big enough to lift one!
DD is only 6 but we've talked about instruments. She's had a go at the piano but I'm not sure whether she'll be keen enough to take formal lessons. For some reason she's keen on the idea of the violin.
In terms of cost, we hire DS's cello from the local music service and it's very reasonable.

I agree that it's really important that your kid chooses an instrument they want to play rather than have something imposed on them, that rarely ends well. I just meant if you were looking at, say, flute or oboe I'd pick oboe as it's less popular.

Although there are fewer slots for bassoon and oboe in orchestras there aren't that many people playing those instruments across the country. Viola has also been mentioned as has Tuba. Orchestral Percussion (rather than drum kit) is also in short supply and you don't need to own a set of timpani, unlike Harp, also in short supply but expensive instruments and you need a large enough car!

Orchestral Percussion is another of those instruments where you can play in lots of different ensembles depending on your musical interests. And I agree that Double Bass is another super useful instrument across lots of genres, particularly because the fingering for string and electric bass is the same so it's easy to move between the two.

Good luck with your musical adventure, it sounds like a lot of fun!

I think they need to be drawn to an instrument to enjoy it. Double bass is rare and you can get small versions. Can do solo, orchestra, jazz etc. Also orchestras can take several so not limited in the way oboe/ bassoon is. (Usually only 2/3 max) They can be played in a windband too though, so plenty of opportunities. Orchestras are always looking for viola players, so that is another, and French horn. It depends on the type of music he likes and what he is drawn to. My dd1 knew she wanted an orchestral wind instrument so we found someone who did a trial lesson of flute, clarinet, oboe and bassoon and she picked oboe without hesitation. She already played recorder so it was a natural fit too. DD 2 liked cello and bassoon so obviously liked the deeper range. Handily she chose bassoon which dd1 teacher also does. They are doomed to be the only ones in our region though so only do something rare if they are ok with that.

Also, I've tended to find I've not had much say in the choice! I tried to get DS2 to play clarinet as we had free lessons and an instrument via a friend. He got to Grade 7 standard on it but picked up a trombone on the way and that was it! I really didn't want him too as DS1 had just switched to trombone. DD plays sax, but dabbled with violin and cello. DS1 started on trumpet but switched after Grade 5.