Summer Term Music and Music Exams Thread

[Wafflenose]

A new thread for a new term!

If you're a music parent, or music teacher, please introduce yourselves here. It was getting hard to keep track on the old thread.

I am a music teacher (woodwind, 90% recorders these days) and I have:

DD1 (aged 8) who is taking Grade 5 Recorder this term, currently working towards Grade 4 Flute, and also sings, plays the piano and one tune on the ukulele (no lessons on these three). She has completed a video audition for the South West Music School, but we won't hear yet, and quite honestly, I don't think she'll get in this year.

DD2 (aged 5) who is taking Initial Grade Recorder this term, started the cello a month ago, and can play a few tiny, baby tunes on the piano and ukulele (again, no lessons on these).

I only have one pupil doing an exam this term, other than my girls - a Grade 2 Recorder player. I'm doing 11 Music Medals though.

Oh perhaps we were quite late breaking up here then. No music courses here this summer. Ds2 went on the GAM one a couple of years ago. He was loving it and then caught a stomach bug from someone else there and had to come home. Bit naughty - someone had come with a dodgy stomach and passed it on to 6 others on the course.

We were also Wednesday finishers so DS had three days authorised leave for his course. I know that the county intermediate orchestra have a week away in term time in July so if I had to argue my case I could have done but school were fine about it.

Dd took her grade 5 on the 7th July ... Still haven't heard results. She's starting to think she did something very wrong. I wish they would get a move on with it.

DS1 went on the annual school band trip for 8 of the last 10 school days of term. (He is Y11 so didn't matter for him but its for all year groups). I think I would be a bit annoyed if we were refused permission for a music based course. Plus the last week is activity week anyway. And school here would have been finished anyway.

When I think of the amount of days my kids have lost for off timetable enforced 'activities' this term, and consider how many of these have been music based (hint - very few. 1 for DD2, none for DD1, 2 for DS (but loads more for sporty things) I get quite annoyed. But luckily none of their schools has a problem authorising them to be off for music stuff so I guess that makes it ok.

Quick comment:

Viola = awesome

We don't have to bother about having time off anymore, but when we visit the school to meet dds friends, its like a scratched record the amount of teachers who tell us we did the right thing.
The HTs here are not brilliant for allowing time off, some are fine others not so.
It makes it hard for county groups as half can't get time off for important rehearsals/ summer courses.
If we added that to the many other things she does outside the LA she wouldn't be allowed to do half she does.

Julie Fantastic

We are patiently waiting for exam results for sax and violin, dh said he could get them anytime from friday.
She has a place in county orchestra, hoping she'll fit in as the youngest is 2 years older than her

Yay!
Dd got the result this evening. She scored 133/ distinction
She is over the moon :-)

good job trout. Enjoy the summer!

That was worth the wait then Troutsprout, well done to your DD.

Well done to your dd trout.

I am from India and I am amazed to see London's( assuming most of the parents here are from London) parents enrolling their kids in more than 1 musical instruments hence wanted to know reason behind it ? Wouldn't it be better if a child concentrate on one musical instrument at a time and gain mastery in that as otherwise same time would be divided into all and results might not be that good. We pay so much for these music classes hence thought it might be better to do one at a time properly.
My son comes back from school around 3:45pm n leave @7:30am so I find it difficult to manage studies + extra-curriculum. Apart from Piano, I have enrolled him into sports which has almost 6 days a week for 1 hour each.

Would like to know What are school timings in London and what is the schedule of your child after that. Just to have a idea How do you guys manage so many activities ?

Actually I think most of the parents posting regularly in this thread don't live in London (although possibly more of us are originally from London). There are many reasons for studying more than one instrument. The most obvious one is entry requirements to university and conservatoire music courses. Another one is complementary study - and then, there's the employment opportunities issue. And some kids just adore doing music. My DS has refused to countenance anything other than clarinet/sax. And ok, a bit of guitar ('for fun'). My DDs add instruments with bewildering regularity, because they enjoy it.

Well done miniTrout!

We are nowhere near London, but my children are 6 and 8, and both play 2 instruments seriously, and others for fun (without lessons). Both are first study recorder players, but wanted another instrument that they could play in orchestras, hence flute and cello. Some of their friends are pianists, but also wanted to play an orchestral instrument so that they could join various groups. At one of the schools where I work, children can apply for music scholarships at 11+, but are expected to offer two or more instruments, preferably at Grade 5 level or higher. This doesn't apply to my children though, because they will attend the local state secondary school when the time comes.

We leave for school at 8.40am and the girls finish at 3.15, although some days they have orchestra, sports clubs or a music lesson. Both also do ballet, but just once a week on Saturdays, and just for fun. I think a lot of parents let their children try lots of different things at this age, to find out what they enjoy. I don't think either of mine will be (or want to be) profressional musicians - at the moment, one is very good at language, and the other is leaning towards art. But who knows? They are still so young.

Agree with all of the comments made. I don't think it's about the geography per se, but allowing naturally curious children wherever they live, to develop interests outside of traditional academia and hopefully result in enjoyment along the way.

Many may go on to take up their instruments more seriously of course and it is challenging (for some kids/families more than others!) but also enables them to develop wider social groups in the real world vs via technology alone - a problem my DD faces amongst her peers that she does not have the connectivity that they have...long may that continue :)

It is fair that opportunity to develop musical interests are not equal around the UK though - some are more fortunate in locations/support from schools & education authorities and others make huge sacrifices to support their DCs' in their development.

I often see the second/subsequent instruments are easier to learn for some children.

As far as we're concerned it's simply DS's choice to play two instruments. He begged to learn an instrument at 7, we insisted on learning recorder at the (free) school club for a year to prove he would stick with it. The following year he fell in love with the oboe, the following year he begged to add the guitar as well. The move to middle school meant he dropped the recorder but still plays and practises both instruments enthusiastically so we pay for the lessons
He also plays cricket in the summer, hockey all year, and goes to Scouts as well as numerous after school and lunchtime clubs that I struggle to keep up with :o
He leaves the house at 8am and gets home at 4pm if no clubs, closer to 5pm if not.

Regarding scheduling - DD1 leaves the house at 7:30, gets back at 5. Mondays she then goes off to her first study lesson (some distance away) with DD2, they get back about 7:30pm.Tuesday, she has a singing lesson at home from 5:00-5:30, Wednesday theatre group 7:00-9:30ish, Thursday nothing, Friday nothing, weekends sometimes rehearsals (last term she had rehearsals all day Sunday most weekends). Her in school lessons (piano and flute) are on a Monday and Tuesday, she has an additional monthly lesson on her first study from an international teacher on usually either a tuesday or a wednesday evening, fitting round her singing and theatre group stuff.
DS learns his instruments in school, goes to school at 8:00 gets home 3:45, theatre group on a wednesday, music theory 4:15 -5:15 on a friday, same rehearsal schedule as DD1 last term.
Until now DD2 left for school at 8:00, got back at 3:45, first study lesson on Monday with DD1 (they don't share a lesson but they have to hang around while the other one has her lesson (DD1 has 1 hour, DD2 has 0.5 hour), dance on tuesday 4:00-4:45, singing 5:30-6:00. piano 6:00-6:20 (same teacher), wednesday theatre group from 5:45-8:15, Thursday ballet 6:45-7:45, Friday flute lesson 3:30-4:00, hip hop 4:15-5:00, music theory 5:15-6:00; weekend - rehearsal like the others (they were all in the same show). From September she is keeping the same school hours as DD1, dropping the tuesday dance class, moving to a later hip hop class, and her piano and flute lessons will now take place in school presumably on the same days as DD1 has her lessons (I hope so, otherwise I can foresee confusion).

I live in London, but not sure it makes any difference! Mine do two instruments each (percussion + flute and piano + cello) but they aren't very sporty and really enjoy playing in music groups. Kids who are keen on sport tend to spend at least as much time on different activities. We are lucky, though, in that we live very close to both schools (local comp and local primary) and at the moment have no problems fitting in music activities as everything is at school or very local. DS2 does other activities as well; DS1 (about to start Y8) does music as his main hobby.

I suspect learning two instruments may become more of an issue around GCSEs, as the homework increases, but by that stage they will know whether they want to take a break or carry on!

Mom17,

My first study is violin; I had to learn a second instrument (piano) as a requirement of university/music college entrance. My violin teacher saw higher studies in music as a possibility back when I was 9yo and insisted on me taking up the second instrument - it also helped with theory, composition etc. and is now what I mainly teach (there's more demand for piano lessons than violin lessons round here). I always played recorders (mainly sopranino and treble, sometimes descant, can't handle the bigger ones) though I never had lessons.

As a teenager, I dabbled with viola including playing it for one of my A-level performances and added the flute as a 'for fun' instrument. It didn't mean less concentration on my studies or on my main instruments, but provided me with something I could just play tunes on rather than focusing on technique, studies, scales and heavy repertoire.

As an adult, I've added organ, harp, viola properly (play it sometimes in local pro-am symphony orchestra) and more recently ukulele to muck around on... and I'm working on cello. I've also branched out into gypsy punk (fiddle), jazz (fiddle, keys, flute) and traditional music (fiddle - Celtic and Eastern European). None of this detracts from my classical violin playing... but it may explain why university was a better fit for me than conservatoire!

I also sing and was a choral scholar at university...

School timings for me were about 8:30-3:30 at both primary and secondary school - at secondary, I used to walk 45min each way. I also did a ton of extra-curricular activities, including Badgers (junior first aiders), Brownies/Guides, swimming twice a week, ballet and drama, at various points, as well as several orchestras and ensembles.

We are in the NW near Manchester, so certainly not London.
I think in addition to points raised above is that the child is happy.
Sometimes, it is completely lead by the child and the parents have to go along and support or call a halt to more instruments.
I think there are other concerns though that you didn't seem to consider and that is the mental health of the child if they have so much on.
I am pleased to report that my dds pasty face is now glowing, she has a friend to stay and hasn't touched her instruments today, well aart from a muck about on piano that wasn't practice.
Mom17
I worry about my dd because I think her drive and ambition are too much for a 10 year old, but she is who she is and I have to let her do it, including deregistering from school to allow her to practice up to 5 hours a day.

Sorry, missed you Trout

Well done to your dd, have a nice holiday.
It's a weight gone isn't it and you can finally stop and chill for a while.

Thanks everyone ... She is super proud of herself mainly because she worked her socks off for it.
We are also in the NW near manchester. Dd is doing a local summer orchestra for a week in August... She's never done it before ... Hoping she will like it
She does a lot of clubs.. and this could get worse in September when she starts at secondary school.

Thanks everybody for replying.

What we did in the school holidays - week two. I have two entrants in here but my husband is hidden away at the back. I can't work out how to embed the video unless it magically appears all by itself.