Spring /Summer 24 - Music thread

@herbaceous that's tricky. Our school orchestra conductor usually invites a couple of music teacher mates to boost the orchestra, a violin or trumpet or two etc makes a good wee difference. Never to do a solo though. Hopefully he gets another chance. I love faures requiem too. I kind of want it at my funeral even though it's firmly Roman Catholic and I'm not.
@minisnowballs I'm quite laid back about taking mine out of school for concerts. I just write an email saying 'as part of her music training, X is attending x concert.' It's sufficiently vague that they could be playing or listening. I don't think they are that bothered considering the other problems they deal with. I'm not asking permission just informing them! I think they usually end up being authorised but either way I don't stress. I appreciate it's difficult at a specialist school and you don't want to burn bridges with people. I'm less fussed about our school! They let sporty kids out all the time.

Thing is, his voice is often commented on by the singing teacher as being already an exceptional baritone. He could at least have been asked to audition!

The parent's choir is great. Such a mixture - ranging from really experienced singers down to those who can't read music and have never been in a choir.

oh @herbaceous that's a shame, but maybe given his voice is relatively newly baritone they wanted to give him some time? Love the idea of a parents choir - funnily enough they don't seem to keen on that at DD2's place- don't think any of us would add much!

DD2 is off to Oxford tomorrow to play in some double reed thing at Christchurch. she's been back less than a week and I've so far only had to email to ask whether I can have her back for the Eurovision song contest weekend if they aren't going to watch it there - thus yet again cementing us as the most lowbrow parents in the entire place (already had official permission denied for the Taylor Swift concert - but we're taking her out anyway).

Thanks @northerngoldilocks I won't hold my breath waiting for the result then! My DS's practical exam came back in less than a week last month for his grade 2 Singing for Musical Theatre.

We had a lovely concert last night. School choirs, plus parents' choir helping/hindering singing Faure Requiem! Also staggered through Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, with good old cat Jeoffrey.

Bit cross though. The four solos in the Britten were all done by kids at school (all excellent singers), and the soprano solo also by a pupil. But the baritone solo was done by a paid professional. DS could have totally knocked it out of the park. He does so much for the school musically, and this would have been a nice reward. He's rather hurt... Not sure whether to say anything or not...

@Bearyinlove congratulations for your DD's solo performance so young! Glad she enjoyed it! Sounds like it's time for some giant leaps of progresses as well!

My 9yr old played a violin solo at a showcase last night. Was so lovely to see her so happy and confident, i suspect its an age thing! Solo opportunities are a rarity as her age in our part of the world so could be quite some time before another arises thats not just in front of her primary schools.

New books and new techniques this term after a spring of her being poorly and then missing her grade exam due to sickness! Decided not to keep doing same pieces any longer, she was ready in December/ Jan so just starting to feel like it was holding back progress.

Thank you @horseymum and
@northerngoldilocks @rusticrose and @chickentikkasalad - all
good advice!

His teacher has suggested that we aim for 15-20mins a day which was why I was going for two sessions, but they are mostly 5mins each of actual playing atm - maybe will go down to just the 1 before school. He has been absolutely desperate to play the violin but also I think imagined that he’d be maxim vengerov after a couple of lessons 🤣. Definitely focusing on keeping it fun but he gets frustrated when he can’t do something right immediately (one of the reasons I think learning an instrument will be so good for him!).

Im a brass player and was 10 when I started so much more able to direct my own practice and it was completely self driven from the start so this feels completely different. Violin is so much trickier at the beginning as well - so much to think about with holding violin and bow as well.

Loving reading about everyone’s musical kids on this thread!

Is it true that ABRSM performance exam results are sometimes available within 24 hours? I'm currently checking the portal hourly just in case!

@rusticrose, Saturday works for us as DS just got the idea that Saturday is a super busy day. We cram most of the music stuff and cycling(his other big passion) and swimming on Saturday and leave Sunday free. His other activities plus piano lesson and practice fill in the weekday evenings anyway. But I only have one child, it's different when you have 2 and every family routine is different. Hope you find whatever works for you.

Warm welcome to @Compsearch and another young violinist! I'm not as experienced as other mums on this thread but can share some of our experience for reference. My DS is now 7 but he started violin when he was 4.5. For the first half year or so (I can't remember ) he used to do 10 mins each time and only 2-3 times a week or whenever he fancied it. Gradually and naturally that became an every day routine. I think in the beginning it's important to make it fun and not like a chore. Once he had a routine I tried to make sure he sticks to it though. Does it make sense?

@horseymum A20 min journey would be a dream! We live fairly central but the music school is further north. I think the teaching style has really helped my dd so I'm reluctant to switch to a more local teacher (she could have lessons in school which would be so convenient but without the extra activities I don't think she'd be as engaged).

@chickentikkasalad Thanks for the insight. I think we'll probably have to consider Saturdays at some point, but wanted to avoid committing to weekends for as long as we could.

For now I've put in a request to have all the classes on one day, but they might not be able to schedule it, so we'll wait and see.

@Compsearch my DD's practice is 10-15 min a day now (5+ days), but when she first started it was just 5 mins and it was a win just to get her holding it. Sometimes she was reluctant to practice and I'd sing or play through the exercises myself (I'm not a musician). But it meant that it wasn't sitting in its case and at least she would hear the pieces.

@Compsearch enjoy the journey wherever it takes you! Mine weren't as young when they started but before school worked for us at primary. Also, I used to get her instrument out and put it together initially as otherwise it seemed like a bit much faff ( bassoon, so lots of bits and plenty of faffing) Although they do need to get used to it too.

Hello! Joining as my dc1 has just started violin. He’s always wanted to play but we waited until his 6th birthday to make sure he was really ready. Only 3 weeks in and I think the initial enthusiasm has already faded now the reality of practice has set in, so I’m glad we waited (and maybe should have waited longer?!).

How much practice do your little ones do? At the moment we are aiming for 5-10 mins x 2 per day but finding it tricky to even fit that in sometimes.

@rusticrose no insights here but will watch the replies with interest!

@rusticrose glad your DD is enjoying it now. My DS started at a similar age. I can't offer any useful advice but can share our experience. It seems we have the opposite routines. Mine does music mainly on Saturdays at the music centre (only 10mins drive). When he was 6, he did violin lesson and the string ensemble on Saturday morning. But they were not together, more like early morning and lunch time. We could come home in between or sometimes he stays there and listen to other bands playing or read a book/colouring or play with friends. I'm not sure he could focus for 3 lessons quite close together after school at that age.
Ideally I would split it to different evenings but you have quite long travelling time I wouldn't fancy either. Good luck with the decision!

It sounds like she is enjoying it more now. Once they are able to practice it starts to fall into place more. However, for us we have only done activities which fitted our family schedule ( preferably going to the same things or sharing lifts!) and didn't massively inconvenience other members eg having to eat tea in the car etc. Never travelled more than 20 minutes for things but that's easier when you live somewhere central. I think mine would have been too tired at 6 to do 3 classes after school. You have to weigh up if she's enjoying it, it's important to you/ her, it's not overly impacting the family. Mine didn't start lessons till 7/8 and still do fine but I appreciate many string players start earlier. Is there a teacher closer by? Good luck deciding. The youngest will want to do things too eventually so it will get harder.

Hello again! I posted on the previous thread but mostly lurked as I didn't have much positive news to share. My dd is 5 and we started violin lessons in the autumn, and the first term was a battle to establish a practising schedule! We've turned a corner and she's used to the routine now, and she's had a couple of short performances at her music school.

She does after school lessons and a musicianship class, and next year she'll be expected to have an ensemble group too. Now I have to decide whether to try to fit it all in on one evening (a lot to focus on for a 6yo after a day at school), or to travel there on 2 evenings (50 min each way and we need to sort childcare for my youngest). Just wondered if anyone else had a similar situation and what they found worked? There is a Saturday option, but not keen on that as she does a different activity at weekends, and we like to have family time.

He had a gig that night! We went to him and he borrowed a few things of ours plus a couple of friends lent stuff to get him through both the gig on Daturdsy & the theatre run this week.

That's terrible @Comefromaway A very harsh lesson indeed. Was he still able to perform the following day?

Not huge value but he was gutted about his new in ear monitors going. Also his audio interface