Autumn / Winter 2025 Music

I have a y7 (11 yr old) who is really keen to write her own music. She has a chrome book and an iPad. Can anyone recommend good software for this? And what other kit would be good to get her a basic and accessible production set up? I have no idea where to start.

@Compsearch - fascinating read. I must show it to DD as her cello apparently used to belong to Julian Lloyd Webber - must ask her if it remembers his performances! I think it really did as there are some early BBC recordings of him playing a "ladies cello" which has a distinctive stain on it which matches the stain on DDs.....

@horseymum funny you should say that - I read this article yesterday and think I will buy the book - I also love these stories (some very moving ones here)

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n18/thomas-laqueur/a-different-life

I love hearing about the instruments moving round people and then finding out where they have gone. More people know each other where we live so it's more likely there will be a connection. Just think of the joy each instrument gives as it passes through all these families!

Also loving the story on the upgrade to the violin sound! I remember DD2 being so excited when she went from a (quite nice) Zeller half to an amazing medio fino 3/4 - never did so much practice in her life before or after! what was lovely was getting a card from the girl we eventually sold it to who thanked her for it and said how excited she was by the better sound too....

Compsearch, loving the big violin big sound excitement. We got a couple of years aged 6-8 out of 1/2 size. It's partly about when they need a better quality instrument too though - if it has a good sound then there's no rush to up-size. 6' blokes don't all have to convert to viola after all.

welcome back @thirdfiddle!

My DS moved up to a half size violin today - his 3rd violin in the 18 months he has been playing…surely will slow down a bit now?!

It is SO much louder and he is absolutely loving it. I’ve just had to remove him from the bathroom where he was playing because he liked the echo (his bedtime was 1 hour ago!!), but the enthusiasm is really lovely.

Welcome back @thirdfiddle, yes he is playing grade 8 pieces but with a grade 6/7 technique. He just loves sight reading and especially difficult pieces 🤣. Never has the patience to learn things properly though!

Hello - just checking in again, I've dropped off a thread or two I think. I have casual brass player DS, just started 6th form and finally has a school orchestra to join. And increasingly quite serious viola DD who is y9 and waiting on result of her last ever NCO audition and thinking about what to do next after that or if it doesn't work out. Both in theory working on grade 8 but more interested in the ensembles.
Great to see you're all still going strong.

Crazy that chickentikka's DS already playing grade 8 music, I might take that as a sign of how many threads I missed except I think it may just be him being unstoppable!

And so sorry to hear about siriusmuggle's DS being messed about like that. Anything involving auditioning can turn on a nothing but no excuse for poor communication when they must know how much it means to young people.

I'm surprised that isn't the case. back in my own schooldays we paid a nominal fee (I remember it was £1 per term) which covered insurance.

I don't know if anyone is with Cover4Music. I have been told they ar not good. I did take out a very cheap public liability policy on behalf of the band that ds used to play with because the hotel we were holding a Christmas party at needed proof of public liability. I don't think I'd trust them with instrument insurance.

Ds needs more professional level insurance now including public liability. There are things that he wouldn't bother to claim on of course.

I don't think I needed a proof of value? One I did have a value on a formal loan agreement, the other her teacher told me the value, but it was a standard woodwind instrument , so easy to check. May be harder with strings which are more individual, eg 18th C violin!

Ds takes care of his own insurance now but he is with Lark. Apparently a lot of ex Allianz staff work for another company called New Moon and they were so helpful when I called but unfortunately for ds they don't cover laptops and mobile phones (Lark will if they are primarily used for music). Might be worth getting a quote from them though if your needs are more usual.

Lark will cover ds for when he loans his equipment out which as a keyboard programmer he often does.

@northerngoldilocks I hadn't noticed that when ours renewed. Thank goodness DD2 has recently attained the lofty heights of 16. Thanks for flagging!

I was down at Music Hogwarts yesterday for DD2s lunchtime concert. Tell me you're overloading your Sixth Form specialists without telling me you're overloading them - she had to introduce the concert, play her piece, disappear deep into the music department to play in a quintet rehearsal because it had a bassoon solo part even though she'd told them she'd been scheduled into a conert, and then return on time for the final applause.

She was slightly late and out of breath and then got told off by the deputy director of music for not 'managing her clashes' (she had, but her teacher ignored her and insisted she came anyway)

Yes, I had to update them about under 16s, was never asked when making the quote. Also they assumed I owned them all when two were loaned. Definitely need to read carefully. It was simple to update though.

If it’s Subdial, my DS had the same issue last year. It’s really hard, not least because London can be a pretty tough city to live in.

achangeofname, that’s so sad to read. I hope things get better for them. Still early days.

@Musictimesthree practice is ok- they have a lot more contact hours so he does it when they’re out or he prefers to go into college when possible now.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest that sums it up.

@Siriusmuggle we had a dilemma where the best college for social life was definitely not the best for teaching quality and employment prospects. Decided to go for the teaching. Also not sure about sharing with non music students, concerned the practice would annoy them!

@Londonmummy66 it’s not PCV.

Hopefully as @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest it just takes longer to get started at conservatoire and the friendships that result are firmer.

We looked at lots of factors when he was considering which conservatoire to go to- uni wasn't even on his radar. One thing we looked at was the number of students as he's a socialble person. Fortunately his long standing first choice ticked all the boxes. Interestingly he only lived with musicians in his 1st year as he lived in halls. Year 2 he lived with friends from primary/first few years of secondary school. Year 3 one of the same friends. This year he's with a friend doing chemistry at one of the other unis in his town. He's got friends at conservatoire and at all 3 unis- too many social groups really.