Are opportunities to excel in music limited by postcode and middle earners income?

[teabiscuit22]

My son, is now 10 and currently Grade 6 on violin and 4 on piano. When he started playing we did not expect him to play so well. We live not far from Newcastle, however his music tuition is becoming prohibitively expensive and we feel that there are very few financially supported opportunities for musicians up here.
We are in the process of considering secondary schools and would like him to go somewhere where he will meet other excelling musicians. But no schools which place great importance on music education, particularly private schools have a music scholarship. Durham and Edinburgh are too far away. the Sage has music programmes but we will not be eligile for much if any financial help as technically we earn too much even though we don't really as we are middle income earners.
I am so disappointed with our private schools and lack of opportunities they provide for not so rich but not so poor state school children who are musical.
Up here it sometimes feels like there are opportunities but only if you are well off making playing orchestral instruments for the rich or supported poor only.
We really wanted to join the NCO but with the orchestras taking place down south again it is all prohibitively expensive.
Where can middle income earners turn for help with financing music?

No, I have relative pitch and a ph.d in music. Agree with everything really tired says.

Is it possible to hear 'perfect pitch' without being able to sing at all ?

I don't have perfect pitch but didn't find the aural bits of Grades 7 and 8 particularly hard. I think that's nonsense, actually.

DH seems to have a very good ear for music, he's always pointing out key changes and has no trouble helping DD tune her violin (I am hopeless without an electronic gadget). But DH actually sings worse than me (which is an impressive feat). I keep trying to sing because I can't hear how awful I am; whereas he shudders at how awful he is so can't bear to try.

well I guess that's better than me Moominmammacat ... I only have a rubbish Mmus.....

& to be perfectly honest -- I only meant to write something helpful .. not to launch some sort of oneupmanship thread about the merits of perfect pitch but never mind - will now go back to my corner and leave mumsnet to all of those people with better degrees, more knowledge and experience and perfect children....

Ds has perfect pitch. He sings beautifully & in tune but hearing anything out of tune physically hurts.

He has ASD.

Inhiding4now, which bits of the G7 and8 aural do you think perfect pitch would help?

DS2 is a chorister and I can recommend it. I don't think Newcastle is attached to a choir school. We claim a grant towards 1 instrument, roughly about 2/3 of the cost usually.

I find the perfect pitch argument interesting. DS2 has perfect pitch. Choir uses him to give the note often! He is a very able musician and finds the singing back part of aurals really easy. He plays trombone, which one teacher told me is hard for perfect pitch people, another believes if you don't tell them its a problem they will just get on with it difficult.

Perfect pitch can be a pestilence.

Particular if you're playing or singing baroque music.

Absolutely Ricardian. I don't know how technical anyone wants me to be but if a conductor decides to say, transpose a piece, that can be really difficult for someone with perfect pitch whereas with relative pitch it really doesn't matter.

And many people claim perfect pitch but when you say, coming from nowhere, sing me E flat, A natural an octave below, top F sharp and so on ... they will absolutely not be able to do it.

I can generally tell you what key a piece is in on first hearing (but not reliably enough to stake my life on it ...) but that's not the same as true perfect pitch. And not a particularly useful skill anyway ...

My son was in a medical experiment where his auditory perception was assessed. We were told that there was no such thing as "perfect pitch", just people with exceptionally good pitch. My son does not have perfect pitch, but he does have better than average auditory perception. What I don't know is whether auditory perception is something someone is born with or developed.

"And many people claim perfect pitch but when you say, coming from nowhere, sing me E flat, A natural an octave below, top F sharp and so on ... they will absolutely not be able to do it."

Does that require musical knowlege? A young toddler might have perfect pitch but would not have the musical knowledge to know what on earth you are talking about. I have heard a theory that young children are born with perfect pitch but most people lose it once they have learnt to speak.

www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/feb/21/timradford

Some other sources of financing...

www.rcm.ac.uk/junior/feesandbursaries/applyingforabursary/Trust%20and%20Foundation%20contact%20details.pdf

The higher income end for eligibility for MDS funding is well in excess of £150,000 so it does help most people, and many of the schools also offer scholarships/bursaries to the most talented who apply.

dodobookends I cannot find any eligibility guidelines for MDS funding anywhere. Could you please send link to your source? Is there an income scale I can look at? Thanks.

It's for Dance but here is the cost for one school