Autumn 23 Music chat

That's so hard @Comefromaway ... hoping his loyalty will be rewarded in all sorts of ways.
I'm a freelancer myself (not music!) so I understand the stress...

Oh that's so tough!

He thinks he is going to have to turn it down. He is gutted (even if you haven't heard of the orchestra you will have heard of some of the stuff they have been involved in) but I guess this is the life of a freelance musician.

The professional opportunity is 4 dates in different cities) plus a rehearsal.

Gosh that's tough comefromaway. I take it the professional opportunity is one day that isn't flexible in any way? I have no idea what to do, but sure alsoplays has given good advice. Your ds sounds like he is in demand!

In his position, I would contact whoever fixed him for The amateur show, explain the opportunity he's been offered and ask whether they would release him. He can tell them that he wouldn't ordinarily renege on a booking, but that the other offer is obviously an amazing opportunity.
If they say ges, great, but if not, he will still make a positive impression on the organisers of the other work for honouring his commitment.

I will say, though, that loyalty doesn't always go very far, so he should bear that in mind and think about what works best for him in the first instance.
Amateur work will almost always only lead to more amateur work...

What do you do when you are offered an amazing opportunity but it clashes with other commitment.

It happened before for ds with NYMT. After he played for their concert they asked him to play on Chess which was a fantastic opportunity, however it clashed with a wedding background music gig. He ended up doing NYT and send dh to dep for him at the wedding.

But this is a bit different. He is supposed to be conducting an amateur show in December (backing tracks not a live band though) but has been offered an incredible professional opportunity that clashes.

I set up an instagram page after DS was on telly last year, as thought that if any impresario wanted him for fame and fortune, they'd need a way of finding him. It's still there, but pretty inactive now!

I also made a Youtube channel, linked to the insta page.

My youngest had her own page on my FB account from 13 as she was a harpist and started getting work for background music for parties. We'd post together so I knew what was going on although it was her page. It also meant that I got the messages inviting her to play and could take a view on whether or not to pass them on......

I kept a separate word doc for each of them on what they'd done as it was way too much to remember. Came in really handy when applying for sixth form scholarships for the younger one as I could attach it to the music scholarship applications.

Ds began his own around the age of 15.

So glad all enjoyed the NYO stuff. DD2 was only offered a day when we were on holidays so sadly missed out. Shame as it looked fab. However, she did get to do the double reed day at RAM yesterday, which was most exciting. Nice that she got to play in ensembles with adults (plus a few people she knew from Inspire last year who are now at RAM) - and she now has a correctly fitted bassoon harness to try (thank you Howarths) and a shiny reed box that holds the newly prescribed nine reeds..

She was too shy to offer to try the contrabassoon in a workshop front of everyone - and I was a bit disappointed to see the teacher noticed every young boy there and not the young girl when asking who else wanted a go but she wasn't exactly putting herself forward. She's going to have to play on in SLYO 1 apparently so really wanted to try in advance - at least she got some tips from watching!

My favourite thing though was the entrepreneur who had been a RAM oboe student for a year and then studied aeronautical engineering. As a result he's set up a business making 3d printed reed making equipment to order... a brilliant example of how to mix different interests and strengths, as well as very environmentally friendly as the knives take standard Stanley knife blades. I have no need for any of these things but thought it was so clever.

NYO unite is also open to 11-18 year olds so it's a wider range than Inspire as that starts from 13

@horseymum glad your DDs enjoyed their day. DS had a great time at the Brighton one. I believe the NYO Open events are grade 3+ which opens it up to lots more kids as Inspire is grade 6+

@Teapotkitten

Where we are there seems to be a bit of flexibility about where you live in relation to the music centres. We have one close by but many of the people we know seem to travel to one of the smaller ones in the county due to personal preference, class times etc.

As regards teaching quality etc, it varies by teacher. Some of the best local music teachers seem teach at our music centre. Spaces are limited though due to the ensembles which all happen on the same day.

The drawback we found with the music centre was that lessons are only on Saturday term times. So, at the moment there is a 3 week gap for half term. However, I do think that some people make private arrangements with the teachers at times like this.

So, I think there’s no hard and fast rules. We’ve always taken the view that we find a teacher that fits and then work out the logistics from there. ----

Sorry- realised I answered half the question - in terms of whether the teaching is better in a music centre vs private it's impossible to tell until you're comparing individual teachers but I do agree that with a local authority music service you lose a bit of control over the lessons that you can retain more privately.

For both my kids we moved to their sat centres for piano but esp for DD, only once she did a trial lesson and we had met the potential teacher, which differs significantly from how the process would work at our council music service where you'd be allocated. My son's sat centre is somewhere in the middle whereby they allocate teachers but I've swapped them when they haven't worked out (and am now v happy with both)

We are near the border of another London borough and I enquired about DD joining their orchestra and they said it would be fine. Can't recall if there was some priority for those in borough but otherwise no issue (we didn't take it up in the end but may do in time!)

@Teapotkitten is it worth getting in touch with the other county's music centre and explain your situation? They might be okay given that you're only 4 miles away! There's nothing to lose anyway.
Luckily our music centre is quite close to us but I don't see anywhere saying the pupil has to live in a certain area! Maybe each one runs differently so it's worth a shot.

It's worth asking I think teapotkitten - don't think ours mind where you live to be a member, but you wouldn't be eligible for some bursary funds.

Thanks all, looking at the website they do have a beginner orchestra and some other groups that are separate to the lessons - but from what comefromaway said I'm a bit concerned they won't let us join anyway seeing as we're just over the county border. Our county's service doesn't have much and everything they do have is located miles and miles away from us, whereas this other one is only about 4 miles! It's so frustrating.

My son's private piano teacher worked for/ran our local music centre. As above the music centre services were available to any young person who lived or went to school in the correct area, regardless of where they had lessons.

Where we are, no, music centre teaching isn't particularly better or helpful for opportunities. It's often the same people at different times of the day/week as private teachers. I prefer using private teachers as then I have control of who we get rather than just getting allocated someone.
Our music centre you can apply separately for their ensembles, and then you're in their system for any other opportunities than may come up (they sometimes do theory classes for example or solo performance opportunities). They've been brilliant for both kids & neither have ever had lessons there.