Autumn 23 Music chat

@horseymum huge congratulations to your DD. Well done!

My DS had 1:1 to start with and went to a string orchestra a year later. I think it worked well as he had the foundation from the 1:1's. If we were to do it again I'd still start with 1:1 but join the orchestra earlier. He loved it straight after trying it once.

Hi, from my experiences, I would say 1:1 is important as she does need teacher put attention for fixing bowl holding, fingers..
a bad habit takes very long to be fixed. Also 1:1 will make faster improvements.

Actually, both of my daughter started with Kodaly and group lesson when they 4.5-6.5. I have to say it’s very gentle way of discovering music and of course very very slow but very enjoyable. There weren’t much attentions for fixing each child bowl hold, fingering in group lesson.

My first daughter moved to 1:1 after and in a year she got to grade 5 dis,then audition and got to conservatoire at 8. But it was a year of hard work and I wished I could put her to 1:1 much earlier.

@horseymum huge congrats to her! That's great news...

DD2 has just changed her NYO Inspire dates to the earlier woodwind ensemble btw, so she can do something else, so I suspect they may finally get to meet.

I got an absolutely frantic text from DD2 yesterday afternoon- she'd got out of a rehearsal for her school show to find herself on the list for the woodwind performance class. She had nothing ready and no idea. And she has an unexpected. masterclass on Tuesday- and since she's been focusing on contra she has nothing ready.

You'd think they might calm it down a bit in her first term. But no.

Managed to get her off the woodwind performance class but I'm not sure her dept head was very impressed. She'll have to find something for tuesday. But two masterclasses in the first term seems a lot to me. Especially with a symphony concert next week and school play and advent service beforehand.

It's horrid when she's worried and so far away. But when I email her teachers she gets cross because 'they'll think I'm worried. and I'm not'. Yeah, right.

@tictoctictoc welcome! Would the music academy do a cello lesson (in groups) as well as the general stuff? Mine learned cello in groups first and then one-to-one. Group was slow, but fun. Ensembles are where you make friends - but will need one-to-one at some point I think or no progress will be made. Sure there will be someone more knowledgeable along soon though!

Hi I just posted this on the education board then found this thread out! Hoping for some wise wisdom :)

Hello, I have a 6 year old daughter wanting to learn the cello. What is the best way forward..?

She could learn 1:1 in school or at home.

Or she could join a music academy for young string players. They don't have 1:1 lessons but have small group teaching, Kodaly, ensemble etc going on.

For a string instrument player, is it necessary to learn and play in an ensemble?

Snap minisnowballs!! Ridiculous instruments really 😂

Think that my response to DSs concert was this 😬😬😬! They're pretty informal but not THAT informal.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. There is probably a happy medium somewhere between my kids and their level of prep! DS will obviously go far though as will never waste any extra effort 😆

@georgedawes I'm the same. I remember having to try and repair something minor over FaceTime with DD's teacher during Covid. She made me get a hammer and keep hitting one of the keys really hard. I found it terrifying, and she just kept telling me to hit it harder. (she was right, obviously, but it was frightening!)

Wow @Alsoplayspiccolo ! That's frankly unhinged.

Laughing at your DS @northerngoldilocks ! Going for the laid back approach, has some advantages..!!

Pirate playing contrabassoonist sounds a good photo OPP @minisnowballs 😁

Bassoon now fixed, quick repair in the end but goodness they are annoying instruments. Doesn't help we have no knowledge about them and are far too scared to attempt minor repairs when needed in case we cause even more issues!

Lovely to hear about concerts happening.

We have week of clashes. I'm not sure DD2 will be attending any actual lessons this week, and it appears that the music and drama departments haven't really thought about how much the school play rehearsals and performances clash with the symphony orchestra rehearsals.

Suspect DD will be attending symphony while dressed as a pirate (perhaps appropriate for the contrabassoonist)... she's spending a lot of trying to work out who and what to prioritise.

It isn't always obvious from up here what she should be doing.

@georgedawes sad to hear about the instrument - fingers crossed fixed soon. There's always something with them!

impromptu because he forgot about it rather than it being an actual surprise to anyone else

What are these kids like!!!!!

@Alsoplayspiccolo - that is staggering and horrifying in equal measures. So glad it got sorted out for your DS but wowzers. Also maybe time for UCAS to introduce 2 step authentification! Hope the audition went well.

@Comefromaway hopefully getting to do the rehearsal softened the blow of having to give that work up - sounds like it will have been a good way of getting credentials too.

@chickentikkasalad well done to your DS on the reserve place - guess its just waiting now to see if one comes up. Also @georgedawes commiserations on the broken instrument - i hate it when that happens, always at the worst time! Hope it can be sorted quickly.

We had an 'impromptu' lunchtime concert from DS on piano at his Sat centre this weekend - impromptu because he forgot about it rather than it being an actual surprise to anyone else! I'd have probably made him practice slightly (lots) more had I known, but it was fine. Its the end of term sharing concerts next week so hoping to get there for those as would be nice to see him playing the flute too. Its also the first DD's Sat music Christmas concerts on Sat evening - she's playing a piano solo but is much more prepared than DS (low bar!).

georgedawes, I can't say too much but let's just say " a woman scorned... "

Comefromaway, your DS sounds like he's doing absolutely brilliantly!
It's really great that he chose to do the film orchestra rehearsal, even if he was terrified - that sort of experience will stand him in good stead and the fixer will definitely not forget his willingness.

Congrats to @Butternutissquashed and @chickentikkasalad DC! Great results.

Also glad your son got to do at least a bit of the show @Comefromaway .

That's horrendous @Alsoplayspiccolo . I hope your son is ok, what a horrendous campaign. Why on earth would someone do that? I appreciate you probably can't say more, but it sounds hideous.

Instrument problems here - hoping the blooming thing can be repaired before all the Christmas concerts...

Oh dear @Comefromaway - technical assessment doesn't sound like much fun. Over soon though - hopefully the performance will trump any problems there.

I think the fact he has a technical assessment after Xmas (which he failed last year) and his piano lessons are focused on that rather than what he enjoys doesn’t help.

The technical assesment is only worth 25% of the module so he’s fine as long as he gets a high enough mark on his performance which last year he got in the 70s for that.

Wow @Comefromaway how brilliant for your DS that he got some time with the show he had to turn down too. Sounds like a totally bonkers weekend but hopefully he's now super proud of himself and shaken out of feeling down about stuff. He's obviously amazing to be so in demand.

So….this weekend has been rather mad for Ds.

he was a bit down last week. Finding it hard to get motivated. Can’t see the point of the academics. Hates practising scales. Finding it frustrating that the show he is conducting is with tracks not a live band.

but he went down to London on Thursday (conservatoire gave him the time off) to play in a concert. Got last min tickets for Elf Thursday night and turned up to the rehearsal Friday.

It turned out that every other player had west end, national tour or similar credits including playing with some famous pop stars. He was so motivated to be playing alongside them. (As a keys player his advantage was in getting the job that most were tied up with panto contracts).

He got the train back Saturday morning and when he was 15 mins from home got a text asking if he could be in a certain city in an hours time. To get a taxi and they would pay.

you may remember he was gutted to have to turn down a tour with a film music orchestra due to being contracted to the musical theatre show in a few weeks. Turned out they desperately needed someone to cover a rehearsal. So he went and sight-read the synth part to a well known film score.

he still can’t do the shows but he was buzzing (& terrified). Then a taxi back to play a gig with a covers band. Due to the snow he finally got home at 1.40am and had to catch a train back to conservatoire this morning (slow train due to strikes) for a rehearsal this afternoon.

I fully expect him to crash tomorrow but luckily his driving lesson has been cancelled & his lecture is online.

Congratulations to your Ds. I can’t believe the person hasn’t stopped their behaviour. You’d think they’d be frightened of potential prosecution.

@Alsoplayspiccolo that is totally totally horrific. Your POOR DS. I m so glad they managed to get it sorted, but what a horrific stress. I really hope he's OK and being cared for. I cannot imagine why anyone would do that - but perhaps that's my naivety.

Well done on his first offer!

Thanks, thirdfiddle.
We know who did it, as the UCAS discovery opened the lid on a whole series of previous incidents that no-one had connected - other online tampering, harassment, coercion etc.
However, we can't get concrete evidence without actioning the police complaint - there is a huge amount of circumstantial evidence - and we don't want to put DS through the stress of a prosecution, so we've chosen to have it logged and recorded for now.
We have the option to action the complaint any time in the next 6 months and may well do so yet, as the person in question hasn't stopped their behaviour, despite being warned.