Or is sport more important than music?

[Azquilith]

Having an argument with DP about our DS learning music in the future. DP was in an orchestra at school - do kids really play in orchestras any more? Surely it's a bit 1950s and playing sport is more important for development and making friends?

[motherinferior]

Well then you noticed there was an orchestra.

[treaclesoda]

It might be free to have a kick about in the park, but in general sports cost a lot of money too. Kit, transport to training, fees to a club. If money is a struggle, sport is just as inaccessible as music.

[treaclesoda]

Can't resist, because I know now that this is a wind up, but I dare you to tell a professional double bass player that it's a big cello They won't be pleased!

[feebeecat]

Nearly two? Getting a bit ahead of yourself here.
Why not wait and see what he likes - just a thought. Of my two nephews, one loves all things sporty and is in teams both in and out of school. The other not so much, but plays three instruments & is in two bands outside school - how their mother keeps up with who should be where and with what escapes me

[Azquilith]

He's only two but I'm stressing about good schools (we're in London) and have to worry about local admission criteria and then extra curricular activities and sport and music and all that money to pay out. Music just for me is something you listen to on the radio and not have to pay to engage with.

[treaclesoda]

Yes, those people on the radio were born magically able to play music, none of them learnt the skill. It juet magically happens by the power of radio waves. True fact.

[Panzee]

You've made me realise we never had a school orchestra.

[motherinferior]

Kids don't go to school till they're four. Even in London. A decent school will offer a range of activities. My kids' local primary (yes, in London) has lots of sporty stuff and a hell of a lot of music.

[motherinferior]

Really, Panzee? Was it a private school? State schools all seem to have them. Certainly all the comps I know do.

[DiaDuit]

Surely by that 'logic' sport is just something that is on tv that you watch and dont have to pay to engage with?

[ArfurFoulkesayke]

Good schools will give your son lots of exposure to sport and music, and shouldn't value one over the other. Either will cost you money anyway.

[thecageisfull]

Weird thread

They are not mutually exclusive.
Some people enjoy one or the other, some both, some neither.
Not everything you to do has to get you somewhere.
Some sports are solitary, some music is sociable and vice versa.
Some instruments are cheap, or if not at least they are often a one off purchase. Some sports kit is very expensive and often has other expenses (transport to daily training at 5am for example). Sports kit tends to be high turnover. Neither football boots or racing swimwear lasts long in this house, the piano on the other hand...
Your baby is not a weird science project.
Literature kicks both into a cocked hat anyway.
How the hell have you not seen an orchestra in the past 60 years. Have you never seen a band, or a bloke in a subway with a guitar, or noticed the soundtrack on a film or heard a theme tune on TV?

[doubleshotespresso]

music just for me is something you listen to on the radio and not have to pay to engage with



OP do you have no soul? Have you never paid to attend a concert? Your posts astound me....

[squoosh]

'Music just for me is something you listen to on the radio and not have to pay to engage with.'

I'm weeping for you.

You remind me of Mr Gradgrind from Hard Times.

'Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.'

[KatyMac]

OK so it's singing & dancing not just music but DD is going to study Musical theatre

When she has finished she could be a performer or a teacher, she can create or produce

Her great grandmother died at 91 with her piano in her room playing the day before she went into a coma - she didn't learn until she was in her 50s. There wasn't time for Music or sport in her childhood.

DD also sails, does gymnastics, swam miles, cycles, does athletics and runs - why is it either/or surely both is essential or at least the possibility of both

[SecretNutellaFix]

Do you never find yourself moved by music? Do you never watch a film that is heightened by an incredible piece of incidental music?

Take some time out and actually listen to music. Sometimes just having it on in the background often means you tune it out.

[UptheChimney]

playing sport is more important for development and making friends

Completely unreasonable and ignorant, if you're thinking of competitive team sport scarred from years of netball

Music gives your DS a life long skill which will give him extraordinary powers of concentration, and popularity at parties, whether he's able to strum a song on a guitar or pick out a tune on the piano. He will get girls (or boys) with doing that, if he wanted to!

Sport will lead to injuries, a sense of failure if he's not good at it, and if he is good at it, an overweaning macho masculinity.

But then my DS had a great time playing in an accordion orchestra when we lived for a bit in Europe.

Or he could do both?

[Deliaskis]

Another one aghast that anyone really thinks this way about music. I spent time at school playing team sports and music, and eventually the music won out, a it can be hard to properly commit to both, with training/rehearsals on the same days etc. I travelled to half a dozen countries with school and youth orchestras, including the first 'east meets west' massed European youth music festival after the iron curtain fell. That was pretty enriching.

As an adult in my circle of say around 50 friends/acquaintances, I probably know 20-30 who play something or sing, and less than 10 who do any kind of sport apart from running/cycling etc to stay fit (mostly alone). I don't know anybody who plays team sports as an adult.

[UptheChimney]

Music just for me is something you listen to on the radio and not have to pay to engage with

The philistines are abroad. Really, sometimes I think people should have to pass a licensing test before they conceive.