Autumn 23 Music chat

@herbaceous 😂 Don’t worry I know what you mean and how wonderful would it be for the country to have a prime minister who was a musician!!
@QueenMabby I suppose that’s the crux of the matter: do they want to study music or not. So hard to tell at age 11! Other activities (club swimming, riding etc) have fallen away to make room for music (always DD’s choice) but it’s nice to keep some balance of activities going and we would only want to drop subjects that DD definitely would not continue with (Art and Gymnastics are prime contenders!!).
@northerngoldilocks Most of the clubs are music-related ones which DD loves so tricky to know what to drop!
@Pollyanna8844 yes, good point re injuries thank you!!
@londonmummy1966 for DD the opportunity to practise little and often during the school day to minimise risk of injury was one of the few upsides of Lockdown. Shame the school were willing to lose such a good musician rather than make that concession for your DD..
Thank you all for the helpful advice!

You don't sound twatish at all @herbaceous. I knew what you meant anyway!

Want to edit my post above - I sound a right twat. I don't mean he really is going to be prime minister! And re practice, just that he is a 'seat of the pants' type of chap, who scrapes through. If he wants to go to music college he's going to have to change that.

DS isn't sure what he wants to do - could be music, could be becoming prime minster. Could, of course, be both! But keeping all options open is of course the most difficult!

Practice does take something of a back seat. Maybe 10 mins a day on average for each instrument? Not including his ensembles... He's not doing badly though despite little practice. Piano teacher reckons diploma this summer!

@herbaceous - us too. No rotational lessons. Our subject lessons are only 40 mins for a single anyway which doesn't help dd with a 1 hour piano lesson and 45 min cello lesson. Those (and singing lesson) all happen before school along with string orchestra and chamber choir.
Duet, chamber group, sinfonia, chamber orchestra and more chamber choir rehearsals happen at break, lunch and after school.

She's also doing an off-timetable gcse (one lunch, two after school) and does netball, ballet and tap outside of school.
This means that practice is often very squeezed.

HOWEVER, dd does not intend to study music so she would never want to drop any of her academics to make room for it. That makes all the difference I think.

Interesting. DS is a music scholar at a private school, and how he's in year 10 is not allowed to have instrumental lessons during 'proper' lessons. So he has to fit in piano, French Horn and singing during lunchtimes and breaks. Plus orchestra, brass group, senior choir, chamber choir, barbershop quartet and piano trio. Poor chap hardly has any actual breaks!

Seems they want him to 'play a central part in the musical life of the school' but no concessions made on other subjects...

@CelloMumFlums DC were allowed to practice in their lunch hours but school were very hot on not having them wandering around unsupervised in lesson times so they had to go to a supervised "free period room" but were allowed to do their homework there which freed up time for practice. They were absolutely adamant on not letting them practice in free periods though even when the head of Junior Guildhall phoned the headmistress begging to allow DD1 to do so to alleviate problems with a wrist injury. It was one of the biggest reasons for our decision to send her to specialist boarding for 6th form.

@CelloMumFlums DS was allowed by his state school to practise flute instead of doing PE lessons for year 10 and Year 11. The school were extremely supportive to our request. As part of our request we pointed out that we didn't want DS to get injured playing sport as that would be a disaster for his music!

@CelloMumFlums when my DS went to an open day at a local indi for potential music scholars, some of the kids there had provision to practice during their lunch break which is really long to facilitate lunchtime activity clubs. However, at his state school comp lunch is 45 mins so would imagine any chance of provision for practice is limited. The flip side though is that he finishes school at 3pm and even with an after school activity is done by 4 which does give plenty of evening to do practice. He 'only' has 2 instruments though so its easier to fit in . Could practice in school at lunchtime be an option for your DD? Otherwise might be a case of trimming down the number of clubs to give more time?

Thanks - will have a look

That’s super helpful all, thank you. @londonmummy1966 you read my mind re Art! Some PE was next on our list so will check how much is compulsory, thank you. Did your DC stay in school and practise or were they able to leave and attend external music lessons/home practice? I suppose it gets harder once they reach Year 10 as, unless they do fewer GCSEs, they will be back to having a full timetable again… 13.5 GCSEs sounds full on @minisnowballs Def a good move! Good point re the downside of compulsory practice periods too.. I suppose the grass is always greener!

@CelloMumFlums I suspect this will depend on the type of school and resources. DD2s large London comp did not allow it - despite various music teachers within the school begging them to let her. The argument was it 'set a precedent'.

It did mean that when GCSE music moved to an afterschool club so DD had to have an extra option in school time as well DD had no time at all, and was taking a load of GCSEs that she really didn't need or have any talent for (BTEC dance anyone?) to fill all the option slots.

If she'd stayed at this school she'd have been studying for 13.5 GCSEs which wouldn't have left much time to practise.

It is one of the reasons why she wanted to move to a specialist school. Though a private school might have been able to accommodate practice periods I guess.

I would advise you at least look carefully at the options she takes. Art is massively time-consuming for example. DD was doing Latin instead of an MFL which was a less time-consuming option.

At specialist school she is even allowed to drop RE, which gets her more practice periods. Not sure how this is even allowed, but it is! That said she's emailing me in a MASSIVE grump this am because they were on a school trip til 11pm and she wasn't allowed to get out of early morning practice today so having practice periods isn't always a joy!

Good luck

@CelloMumFlums I managed this for both my DC. The negotiation was to drop art (on the grounds that a) it was ridiculously the most time consuming subject homework wise by a verrrry long way and b) they were doing an artistic subject anyway) and to drop a MFL - it was quite easy for DD1 who was the more demanding musician as she wanted to drop French as it was confusing her for Italian but it really helped as her younger sister and the other music scholar in that year were able to coattail on to that and also drop a second language they weren't taking to GCSE. Things not to tr are to drop PE or RE as they are mandatory subjects

Thank you for this lovely group with so many helpful tips and comments!

DD plays cello, piano, sax and is a chorister. She absolutely loves music and would happily spend most of her day playing in ensembles, singing and practising (she attends Saturday music school and loves attending music courses in the holidays). Since starting secondary school with increased homework and clubs, she’s finding she doesn’t have as much time to practise her instruments as she would like and I wondered whether anyone has successfully negotiated with their DC’s school to drop a couple of subjects (i.e. that they have no intention of studying for GCSE) to free up some more time for practise or do you need to go the music specialist school route for this to be an option? Grateful for any experience/ suggestions, thank you!

Oh well done your daughter 😍.

And yes great to know the sky won't fall in if we don't do service it each year!!

She has her grade 8 flute in a few months and I did wonder if we should do it for that - but also when a good time to do it is as she won't want to be away from it or readjust to it too close to he exam.

We're also having to book her brace tightening around the exam date when we know it!!!

The oboe guy is so lovely and has asked if he can hear her play when we go and pick up as he often has the oboes currioured so its lovely to hear a customer play. Of course we will. She's nowhere near as good on the oboe. I think he must have taken pity on us as he's not charged as much as I'm sure he should have done for fixing it.

Thankyou all x

@CupOfCoffeePlease whilst I'm sure its best to service annually we certainly haven't done so yet, in fact it was the fact that I really did need to think about getting DS's flute serviced that made me think about getting him a new flute (though that's an extreme reaction to paying for a service but i figured that if he was getting a new one anyway there was no point paying out for the service and could put that towards the new flute). Most students I know aren't servicing their instruments every year, I'm sure if you're a full time music specialist or professional its different.

DD played in her Saturday music school concert on Sat - it was mainly grade 1 / 2 standard kids on piano or violin and then weirdly her piano trio - 2 of whom seems to be preparing for grade 7 and DD who is working on Grade 8 pieces so bit of a weird mix. She was also way more nervous for this than she had been in earlier concerts, perhaps because she wasn't one of many kids playing around that standard and with the others being older, but she was one of the older ones and playing a more advanced piece so weirdly felt the pressure. She did play beautifully though and its all good experience for her. She has the local competition next week but this was a different piece, so time to really work on brushing up the competition option!

@horseymum Just to say thanks again for the tips and advice - in particular letting us know that the examiner doesn’t say “well done” after a piece was really helpful to know - my daughter said she was glad she’d known that in advance.

@minisnowballs all those things I agree!! Yes all seems reasonable and the suddenly isn't!

12000 flute?!?!? We struggled with the 300 pounds... And yes picalos have been mentioned too.

You're doing amazingly and love you're giving your foster child the opportunities too 😍

We're south coast and went to a repair/person recommended by her oboe teacher. He specialises in oboes and clarinets I think. Doesn't need to advertise as he gets enough work from his connections!

The good news - he asked what our budget was... And I think he's given us some of his time for free which was really kind of him so wasn't as crazy expensive for us as was fearing. It needed a lot of work.

I think the normal mot fee is £120
Our clarinet one (different person) was £96
I can't remember the flute....

Does everyone service them every year? That would be over 300 if we do.

I'm not planning on buying any instruments now (we got a second hand yamaha flute that we were told could go to grade 8. She's made noises about a better/silver (?) head but after the oboe debacle that won't be happening.

Thanks everyone. She absolutely loves music and it's only for 3 more years...

@stuckasastuckthing Dawkes in Maidenhead is good.

We'd also be interested in any recommendations for oboe servicing around London or south east. Thanks!

I think they maybe need the music for the examiner to look at during the performance - that was the case for my DC singing (with another board though)