Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

Exciting to have a new musical beginning! 5 is still tiny! When you only have teens left, the little 5 yr olds look like toddlers going into school.

Is she currently learning in school? That potentially gives you leverage.

As you may be aware, X is learning the kazoo, is making great progress and [insert achievement here]. As a result she will need a longer lesson. We're reluctant to do this in school and miss more lesson time.

We have been offered the possibility of a lesson after school - this would however require her to leave reliably promptly. Would it be possible for her to come out at [5 minutes early] on a Tuesday to avoid getting tangled up in the queue?

Happy to discuss etc etc.

Schools are generally friendlier about leaving 5 minutes early than arriving 5 minutes late, child just needs to pack up efficiently and isn't missing any instructions.

@678socks this is v common in my kids state primary for things ranging from sport to ballet to art club (none of which are priorities for the school) - I’m sure won’t be an issue.

We’ve started looking for a cello teacher for my little one (who is 5 so not that little anymore!) and not sure how we are going to fit everything in next year!

I’d just casually phrase it. ‘Would it be okay if I took her out a bit early’ etc. Or just tell them you’re doing it!

How should I phrase it? I am sure they wouldn’t want a longer lesson in school so this is the way to achieve that… whilst they celebrate musical achievement it isn’t a big thing (unlike sport), probably because so few do it… so not exactly a big priority for them.

@678socks - we did it for years twice a week to get to cathedral choir practice

@chocolateisnecessary thank you, fingers crossed then, they can be a bit tricky!

Yes @678sockswe’ve done things like this and it’s been allowed. Other parents have for sport etc too.

Has anyone managed to get a state primary to allow a child to leave a few mins early once a week to attend a music lesson? Basically in order to make the timing work we would need to get the child five mins early rather than queuing up as normal. Couldn’t finish work early enough to be at the front of the queue, people start queueing 45 mins before the doors open…!!

Hope you get a good solution, we've changed teachers a couple of times and it always works out. I think organists/ church pianists have a special " noodling ' skill where they just improvise on hymns etc. Not sure you can learn it and it probably doesn't follow any theory rules. Our friend could do it whilst having a chat with you beside the piano. Also non organ hymns often just have a lead sheet nowadays so they need to improvise the accompaniment.

@DitheringMusicParent - DH didn't really learn how to improv formally as he could just do it so his teacher sort of went with the flow a bit. It would be worth asking about formal keyboard harmony exercises as part of his lessons and see if the teachers think this is helpful.

Continuo is a skill of its own (as you play the bass note in the left hand and improvise the harmony with the right - following the figures takes a good couple of years to get familiar).

@DitheringMusicParent - that is tricky. You could also find that he reassesses his view on boarding later though. DD2 would never have boarded at 9 - but she was quite happy to go at 14.

Good luck. I know nothing about organs, but it sounds very impressive to me!

@Londonmummy66 Ok - move to better teacher currently under negotiation. Then we see what Teacher A has to say, once Teacher B knows what Teacher A's saying... then we see whether we need to involve the minister or not!

Out of interest, if you have and are married to an organist: at what age do they start doing improvisation and continuo properly? Where do they start? From already having grade something theory and already knowing harmony and counterpoint? DS can harmonise chords over the top of hymn tunes (as per fairly bad fauxbourdons), and can make up (fairly bad) descants for final verses of hymns, but he hasn't actually got a clue what he's doing and can't really improvise... For Teacher A that's enough, but I'll be interested to know where Teacher B wants to start.

@DitheringMusicParent OK so having had an organist and being married to one.... first you ask the vicar of the church where A is DoM if your child really does have to leave the choir if they change teacher - I imagine that they will say that is not the case. Then stick with their being a chorister there as it is good experience. Or see if they could join the cathedral choir instead.

Move to the better teacher - a non negotiable which ever way it goes.

IF they are grade 6 at 9 they should be grade 8 at 11 and able to accompany services in any church in the area - contact the diocesan organ advisor and ask if there is a local deps list they could join.

@horseymum I've probably come across as seeing it all as a financial transaction, eek. That's not what I meant. The church is great, it's a very kind and thoughtful community based on very sound principles - and I say that regardless of belief. We would be genuinely sorry to have to leave. The opportunity coming from the organ scholarship isn't the 20 lessons a year as such, it's the opportunity to have a serious and meaningful place in a community like this - as well as gaining loads of musical experience. THe problem is that the musical experience is only partly there - there's the organ scholar panic-learning and performing a gazillion pieces a week aspect, but he's not learning to do it properly.
There are no summer courses here, but i've got to the point of desperation that I was going to bring him to the UK for a couple this summer, until Trump, oil prices and UK passport rules got in the way...

@Siriusmuggle yes, he got into a few. Unfortunately we live way too far away, can't afford to move and don't want to split the family up (DH's job isn't easily transferrable and he has no desire to move back to the UK) and DS decided he was firmly anti-boarding after doing a few successful auditions.

So - while it might have worked, musically - we now have to take the typical local path of cobbling things together until the viciously competitive postgraduate level where they go overseas and discover how poorly prepared they are compared to the UK/Europeans who've had all the things like choristerships, music schools, youth orchestras, summer courses, worthwhile uni degrees, organ scholar positions at uni, etc.

Dd sang in a local cathedral today where the organ was a semi-tone sharp. The choir did a good job despite that!

@DitheringMusicParent have you looked at specialist music schools as a way to get him into school? They are well geared up for ND students and he’d probably fit in well. I think it’s very un Christian of the teacher to insist he leaves the church regardless of belief.

We have a music packed few weeks as we hurtle towards the end of term, love the variety!

Tricky situation as for us, church music is worship, done as service with no money involved but I appreciate it is very different in different traditions. I would try to separate church - what you get/ give to/ from the community whether faith is involved or not, and lessons. For us, the priority would always be the church community but obviously that's not the same for everyone. Organ is also very tricky as church is likely to be where the best opportunities lie. I also wouldn't stress too much as 9 is still young, mine hadn't even started the instrument they do at conservatoire at that age. Are there opportunities for summer courses etc where you are ( I sense not in the UK?)
Playing for hymns etc and leading a congregation is definitely a different skill to playing yourself or even for a choir,it's amazing how much a congregation can drag you! I hope you find a good solution, things always change as the years go on and something else might turn up. They might decide to be a rock musician playing drums but I firmly believe no music education is wasted whatever they do.

Yes, we're paying (the organ scholarship covers 20 lessons a year), and yes, I agree, she's treating him as an organ scholar despite him being 9 and actually desperately needing teaching.

I think the approach I need to take is to say he needs much more explicit instruction in e.g. technique (...and everything else...), and as A is unable to cover that in the time available, are we allowed to seek a second lesson per week from B.

Are you paying A for these non-lessons or does it come with the organ scholarship? Just wondering if A's objections aside it could work just as well with proper technical lessons elsewhere but continuing these as mentoring sessions to cover his organ scholar duties? It already sounds more like a organist/organ scholar relationship than a proper teacher/pupil one.

It's a very tricky situation, sorry you are going through this @DitheringMusicParent

If A is denying your DS access out of pettiness, I would question her personality, not teaching skills... and I think it would be very difficult to trust such a person even if she was an excellent teacher.

Does your DS enjoy the social aspect at the cathedral? People on the spectrum don't necessarily need or even notice these nuances but everyone is different of course. It may also change in teenage years.

@Compsearch unmet needs at school (AuDHD), constant illness when at school, and harsh attendance policies. He is doing fine with Cambridge curriculum homeschooling. I'd like him to get back into school, but the way schools are going here (aping the worst bits of the UK, even more incompetently) that may be pointless.

It would be better if Teacher A could be a bit less incompetent generally. The lack of plan and dumping close to everything (like choosing exam repertoire and teaching it, teaching of improvisation, transposition, hymn playing, harmony, continuo, theory, aural, scales, sightreading...) on the parent, while constantly feeding the kid 5 new pieces a week and then not wanting to hear them again by the next week, is driving me nuts.

Basically all he's learning to do from her, is sightread badly with zero clue about what he should be doing musically or technically. Pieces accompanying the choir (inevitably given to him 4 days before they're being performed) are learnt to note-perfect panic level, never learnt to any level of musicality. Things like basic fingerings and pedal technique are getting in the way of him playing the really difficult diploma level Bach pieces she's putting in front of him. She praises him for being able to play difficult music, tells him not to worry if he has to fudge bits, and tells him how cute everyone will think he is... totally the wrong approach! If he's playing difficult music he should be able to play it well... GRRR!

Ah sorry I thought he was 7! Still I think it’s not an easy decision - it might still be better for him in the round to stick with teacher A for now, though ideal would be if teacher A could be a little more accommodating!

Age 9/grade 6 is still early stages and there is so much time for him to sort out technique. The most important thing is that he’s happy at this age imo and the musical stuff can be sorted later. Why is he being homeschooled?

@Compsearch I think it's mostly just pettiness. I'll need to talk to both B and A. I agree 9 is young, but he's being really badly taught by A and has a ton of terrible habits of technique. So he really needs to lose those habits ASAP, since he's doing Grade 6 exam this year and is playing pieces up to diploma level. Thus the teacher in London telling me to take it seriously and change his teacher ASAP!