Spring 23 music thread

@herbaceous he plays flute, but has mostly played piccolo in NYO this year

How amazing. What does your DS play?

We watched a bit of the prom just now. We know, vaguely, a couple of people in it, and managed to spot them. Such a huge orchestra, but they were amazing. DS is now inspired to try and join!

@minisnowballs thanks so much, yes we are hugely proud given we know exactly how much effort and hours of practice he has put in. We’re a non musical family and he doesn’t go to a specialist musical school so he’s been so committed to getting to where he is (also made the BBC young musician wind category final last year!). NYO really has been life changing for him, both musically and socially, and I couldn’t encourage people from trying out more, it’s an incredible experience.

I've just watched the NYO too. Outstanding. Such talented young musicians. @Pollyanna8844 you are right to be proud!

I'm hoping DD will get to audition next year - though under no illusions about how tough it is to get in!

Oh my goodness…just watched the NYO
prom! Incredible ❤️❤️❤️. The Strauss brought a tear to my eye. Beautiful beautiful solo from the leader in Beim Schlafengehen.

My NYO days were some of the most fun musically I’ve ever had. Would love my kids to get to experience it some day!

So proud @horseymum. It's the most important thing in his life and he worked so hard for this concert tour. They are doing something new this year and everyone who gets to the assessment day is invited to NYO Unite (1 day) in October.

@Pollyanna8844 I bet you were all so proud. They all looked like they were enjoying it so much. Dd is auditioning this year ( just for experience, her teacher thinks she needs another year). I think seeing people she knows in it makes it a bit more like something that could just possibly happen. The singer was amazing too. Thoroughly recommend watching it with your children if you haven't already.

DS was in it! He had an amazing time and loved watching it on Sunday night. By the way, speaking of inspiration, the co-principal bassoon was in year 11!

Didn’t see it but a mumsnetters son was in it.

Anyone watched the NYO prom which was broadcast on Sunday? Only seen the first half so far but they are amazing. Dd is loving spotting friends from jd, it's do inspiring seeing young people doing this. Youngest dd loved the huge bassoon section!

@horseymum congrats to her - that's amazing. We have GCSE results next week which DD1 is now stressing about. Music was a nightmare because no teacher from year 8 to year 10, so it's one of the (many) I'm a bit worried about.

DD2 seems to have made it to choir where she is being trademark uncommunicative - I got a good morning this am on WhatsApp and that is it. I had a long chat with her new houseparent earlier this week, when she asked whether DD was likely to tell her if she was struggling with anything. I had to be honest and inform her that she totally wouldn't.... going to be interesting I think!

Hope all those getting a level exam results today are happy. We had ours last week in Scotland, all happy in this house. Dd only dropped two marks in nat 5 music. ( a bit like GCSE but more ceilidh music questions!) To be fair, if you do any music outside of school it is fairly straightforward, especially as they took composition out for COVID. It's back in this coming year so she'll probably find higher a wee bit harder.

To be fair they actually had a form for liftsharing (they are very much the most organised music organisation we ever come across), but nothing for the trains. DD2 has a very active NYCGB WhatsApp group but they NEVER talk about anything useful, like who is going on which course.

I wish all these things had parent groups you could join as I only found out some of dds friends from jd were going to something down south when I saw the desk lists and it was too late to arrange joint transport or even being on the same train. It's all gdpr though unfortunately.

National Youth Girls Choir, @herbaceous - probably not one for your DS!

Didn't know of any NYCGB in York! That's where I live!

During the pandemic, any other adult who was interested in DD2 was a total bonus (we were both working very hard and she wasn't getting any input from school). I'm grateful to the music teachers just for that! We've been very fortunate with them all, so far!

Anyone else's off to York for the NYCGB course tomorrow? DD2 is getting a train there alone and picking up a cab. When I rang the taxi firm to book one he remarked 'another music one, is it?' - shame they can't organise it so that they all go together!

I think the relationship with a music teacher can be a lovely one as long as it's healthy. Having someone else in your life who listens just to you (or a couple of others) for a dedicated period of time and wants you to do well is really powerful. We've been really fortunate that all our teachers have been lovely. One piano teacher is minimally communicative as he has loads of pupils and a younger family but he still takes an interest, it's just not the same level as the woodwind teacher! I enjoy the time with my recorder pupil. Makes me think I should do some more exams and look to teach more in a few years. Nice visions of sweet little kids wanting to learn recorder and realizing reality is probably not like that! I have taught in a school so know it is challenging!

Dd too. She's crushed by harsh criticism but her teacher's so ridiculous with her comments "minimabby - you sound like you're playing in a fish tank" (smudgy pedal) or writing funny things on her music to remind her to do things they've spoken about that dd is not upset by it.

Dd is also a perfectionist. What made her want to switch cello teachers was that he "wasn't aspirational enough" for her. He was happy with good enough and she's just not.

@QueenMabby dds teacher is like this now- he'll ask for a video then send really detailed feedback. He's very particular! But she thrives on it.

DD's piano teacher covers all kinds in her one hour. Mostly pieces but up u til she took it, she would weave theory in to every lesson. Scales, arpeggios etc are done every lesson. She is also an absolute perfectionist (in a lovely way) so will drill down on the pieces.

In lockdown we used to send her recordings and she'd send me these hilarious voice notes saying things like "MiniMabby that was beautiful. Just one or two little things. In bar one...." they'd be sooo long!

I think that it really depends on the teacher as to how longer lessons work. Our old piano teacher used to struggle to fill 30 mins but his technique was mainly to listen to each piece once and point out maybe one thing 🙄. For the last year on grade 7 she has had 45 mins and they've been really intense and she didn't really think she needed any more as they got through a lot and there's a question as to how much more she could take in. From Sept she will have 1 hour with her new teacher which feels about right on piano grade 8. Also piano stamina doesn't seem as harsh as woodwind!

She's been having 1 hour violin lessons for the past year too- but that was mainly to make it worth the violin teacher travelling to us. She is excellent at breaking the lessons into sections though so it never feels too much, so they'll spend some time on a study and learning a particular technique and then another chunk on pieces etc. i was worried it might be too much for her (she was 9 when they started on this, but it's worked really well).

DS has 30 min lessons on both instruments - not sure how much that's because CYM don't push longer ones as harder to schedule or if he just doesn't need longer yet. Piano plays grade 6 pieces comfortably and flute grade 6/7.

That must have been quite the workload @StuntNun! I’m not musical in anyway so didn’t have that pressure.