Autumn 22 music thread

I think we’ll need a pinned post showing what all the various kids play in here!

we’re in Manchester! Doing the filming and stuff for Young Chorister. Naturally, everyone is AMAZING, which I think has fazed DS rather as he’s used to being the best!

He had a mentoring session with actual Aled JONES this afternoon, and an interview with Kate Botley. Singing his semi final piece tomorrow. I’m not expecting/hoping for him to win, but would like him to get through to the final! Three of the five will…

Hello everyone, I have a 12 yo wind player who is waiting to hear from projects and u13. Has anyone heard anything for u13 (this year's yr8s)? I'm guessing we didn't get projects because people seem to have had projects offers already. She did projects last year and loved it

And congrats @thirdfiddle on your DD getting into projects, that's great! DS auditioned for projects last year but got offered U13 instead (they really needed bassoons!).

Hi @minisnowballs oh, that's a shame she's going to turn it down, but Inspire will be brilliant I'm sure. DS is hoping to try for that next year when he's too old for NCO.

Yes, he loved NCO U13s last year. He didn't know anyone else that was in it - in fact we'd never even heard of it as a thing until his teacher suggested he try out for it. I was impressed that he went off on a week long residential with 100 kids he'd never met before, but he had a wonderful time on both residential weeks and now has a few good pals he's looking forward to seeing again this year.

It really improved his playing as well to be in such a good orchestra. He joined last year at grade 5 level (they really needed bassoons!) and is now working towards grade 8! The motivation of seeing the others playing so well really inspired him to work harder, as he is comfortably the strongest in school orchestra (which is all he had to compare it to otherwise).

Is Inspire a complicated audition process? I need to figure out how that works so we can plan the preparation into all the other things he's doing this year. I think I read it's rolling auditions all year, is that right?

That's great news @PinkGrapefruitSorbet. Congrats to him. Did he enjoy last year? I think dd2 is actually going to turn NCO down. It clashes with her wind band tour and another holiday she wants to go on - and of course having only done projects before she doesn't have the emotional tie for her that her much-loved wind band does.

I wonder if she's making a huge mistake doing this, in terms of how she's viewed for things like NYO in future (though she is doing Inspire this year on bassoon) but, as I have to remind myself, this is her journey- she very much always does things her way.

I'm a tiny bit sad - would LOVE to see her do this - but trying not to show it!

Congrats to your DD @minisnowballs! My DS is also in NCO main on bassoon this year. I can't believe both the residential weeks are in Dorset again this year, same as for U13 last year. We are right up north and it's such a long way! I really hoped that we might get a different location for at least one this time, but no!

DS is also big on over scheduling and I had to draw the line at committing to driving him between a choir and one of his orchestras every Saturday so he could fit in most of each rehearsal even though they overlap. He's already in two school bands, two county and one regional orchestra (plus NCO) so this was one thing too many. When he starts GCSEs next year, the music classes will be 7:30am, so that's a bit of help.

Today dd2 has gone in with a cello and a flute (cello to help out with a concert her sister is in). We do seem to have gone from 'no school music at all' to 'all the school music all the time'.

DD2 is having to do GCSE music after school and in lunchtime which really doesn't help as the sessions keep clashing with everything else. There's only so much she can just catch up on by being musical (she's not a pianist and they keep using keyboards) and she's missed two weeks out of six now.

She also ended up giving up piano completely.

I'm afraid we didn't manage it and sent dd to full time dance/MT school on a hefty bursary.

We have the same problem! Dd2 came home from after school dance company, did her home work, went to musical theatre club and then did her music practices (well the ones she hadn’t done this morning).

The only saving grace is we live in London and she’s really good at getting herself about (and also school is very near home). Lots of homework is online so she can do it while she waits for buses. But it’s hard when they don’t want to give stuff up and keep adding more on.

@QueenMabby before school slots sound amazing! That would really open things up. I can't see that happening here so I think I'm just going to have to find a couple of extra days a week 🤷‍♀️. Your Dd sounds like mine, and I love the enthusiasm for trying new things, but the unwillingness to let go of anything is also familiar.

My dd is an over scheduler. It's tough. Dd has three music lessons a week, plays in two orchestras and sings in two choirs. She also does piano duet and will start in a chamber groupe after half term. All this is through school though which helps. She then does dance and netball outside of school and is studying a gcse off timetable after school two days a week.

Luckily a lot of her music is before school (a 7.30 start one day a week!) which helps free up after school slots but she'll be starting a school production after Christmas and I've no clue how we'll fit that in too. We've had a lot of upset over not wanting to give things up. She genuinely loves it all which doesn't help.

Ds only has one or two hobbies and he's in L6 so can get himself to most things which does help.

Dd has had some periods when even after school has a timetable! It's not ideal and I don't know a better way to do it.

Following on from @minisnowballs above and potential residential clashes. Scheduling and how the bloody hell..?

DD is primarily a musical theatre kid, she does two choirs and a weekly singing lesson, a weekly viola lesson. 2 dance classes a week and a musical theatre class once a week. If she's in a show there are rehearsals and she's currently in two so that's ramping up to three rehearsals a week. Now she's found an acting class she wants to do. She also wants to start a new, more advanced dance class when she's ready, but that clashes with rehearsals when she's in a show. Quite apart from the truly terrifying cost, where am I supposed to find the time for her to fit it all in? How do all of you do it and how do you do it with more than one child?!

There's quite a lot of stuff been vetoed by me, this is just what's got through the screening process!

Thanks! She didn't do a great audition, tbh, so I wonder if it was more of a case of them knowing what she could do (from projects last year, where the woodwind tutor was a bassoonist and of course there aren't many of them)... rather than them loving her audition.

She is a lot of fun and quite musical I guess, but quite a new bassoonist (started two and a half years ago) so it seemed a stretch.

Just seeing what the residentials clash with now!

Congratulations to her mini. What a great confidence boost

Congratulations @minisnowballs that's brilliant! Even if she doesn't want it, that's such a confidence boost and helps make all the practice seem worthwhile!

Wow @minisnowballs that's fantastic for your dd! Congratulations to her.

On NCO - DD2 has just been offered a place in the main orchestra - which is a bit of a surprise (we were expecting projects). Will be intrigued to see whether she wants it.

@thirdfiddle I decided not to audition DD in the end re NCO - wasn't sure that her violin playing was really at the right level and also it looked like it would clash with Sat music stuff or holiday orchestra (can't remember which) . Mainly though i think i was trying to avoid more expense at the time of the auditions! She's really improved since then though so might try her next year when she will be 10 so will be interested in feedback from the process.

@thirdfiddle, I suppose we are- NCO application has been rather eclipsed by events here (she has NYO Inspire and other things so probably won't be doing it even if she gets it - she's costing far too much as it is right now! ) but we haven't heard anything yet.

She's older though - and only applied on her second instrument. Did enjoy projects last year. Meanwhile she has LSSO audition, apparently (I don't even know which instrument that's on, but her HoD has asked her to audition) and has to decide whether she auditions to two of the specialist music schools, both of whom saw her on informal visits recently and recommended she do so (she didn't like the third so hasn't played for them).

Big decisions - especially since I felt we were being presumptuous even looking...It's been a weird couple of weeks.

@minisnowballs love Your DDs style in the school talent competition! Sounds rather like my wedding, where the organist played our Vivaldi piece for signing the register and then segued smoothly into Elvis. Good luck to her next week up there on her own with no accompanist.

Yes, very good luck to your son @herbaceous - that is such exciting stuff! Gavroche is a great part too. They must be delighted to have a smaller strong singer.

Loving the idea of Dance Monkey. Dd once did a talent compBach piece or other, and they waved her through. However, she then segued straight into Baby Shark after the first two lines in the actual thing. And the children stood on their benches and sang all the words. It was bedlam. They never let her do it again.

However, she is getting to play at school next week in an informal concert. It will be the first time ever - she's year 9 so that's been two years of nothing at all.

Teacher initially said she would accompany but has baulked at the grade 8 piece - so she's going to have to do it alone. Fingers crossed it goes OK.