YMOTY 2016

[NewLife4Me]

Just to let you all know it starts this Friday with the Keyboard finalists.
Then the woodwind next time.

BBC4 7.30 pm.

If you have a budding young musician and you haven't seen the competition before, it can be very motivating for children and a must for older ones too, wanting to make music their career.

I didn't think she should have got in after last nights performance but don't know enough about Piano and percussion tbh, I agreed with the others.
One of the judges seemed a bit off too, as though he didn't quite get the role.
The man from the Barbican said he was looking for somebody who could perform their and as an afterthought added music venues worldwide.
he also commented about the atmosphere on the stage between the brother and sister who accompanied him. Which really had or shouldn't have had anything to do with the comp.
I didn't like Jess to begin with but dh and dd talked me round and they were sad when she screwed up, they both jumped out of their seats and went nooooo! maybe the audience didn't notice the whole chunk she missed out, going for top Eb and missing it just after missing the note below. ending up playing a random note at the end.
But the nerves must have been terrible for them all, even though some said it was the music not their performance that was important.

Next week is our favourite week

Waffle - I know what you mean about the excitement and commitment they brought. I suspect it's a performance that divided quite a lot of viewers.

I loved the pianist - suspect and hope he will be back in two years.

But what amazing musicians everyone of the category finalists were. I hope they all really do feel like winners. I can't imagine how hard they all must work, on top of school work too!

New life - hard not to hear the missed notes, even with my very low sense of music. But she didn't let it out her off and really put herself out there performance wise. As did the cellist and the horn.

well I didn't notice! I wasn't fully concentrating on it though. But obviously her performance ability still came through, as I thought she would be one of the three.

I think Jess really did create a performance, even with the missed notes, and she communicated very well with the audience. I am sad for the percussionist as he is incredible. Maybe the repertoire wasn't flashy enough, but personally I loved it. The cellist was great, I knew he'd go through. I was less drawn in by the French horn player but had very much loved his performance in the category final and I think he is going to be great in the grand final. The pianist will be back, I am absolutely sure of that!
I have high hopes of the Jazz final! Two years ago, it was amazing.

Loose, the percussionist is amazing but he didn't upped his game and I felt his performance was slightly below his previous one. A shame because I liked his attitude, so chilled. He's got a future anyway!

drummers you're right, he seemed more low-key than before, but great promise for the future!

Do we have any predictions for the winner yet?

I think it will be the French horn player, not sure why really.
Although, he has been pretty consistent only missing a top note as well from what I heard and limited knowledge about horns.
He took risks as well, and was out of his comfort zone.

French horn for us - although the cellist is very special too (and DD is of course biased towards the cello 😀)

I guess a lot is down to the choice of music

Meant to add 'at this stage'

I think the cellist!

Having said that, Goo would love the saxophone player to win. She would love to be able to say that she saw the winner and stood very near her!

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/james-murphy/bbc-young-musician_b_9866054.html

My money is on the cellist.

I enjoyed the link, thanks drummers. I think the cellist as well, but it's very, very hard to call!

Jazz final! We guessed the trumpeter would win!

Just caught up with Jazz final! Highlights for me were Alexandra on trumpet and Tom on saxophone and I suspected the trumpet would get it!

Just watching. Absolutely blown away by the second pianist.

I could happily eat Gwilym Simcock. .

They were all good, but Goo and I voted (wrongly) for the last competitor. Clearly it's not our area of expertise.

I kinda thought the trumpet would win, somehow. I also thought the final sax was excellent. Great minds, waffle.

I thought Tom would have won it tbh, wasn't so keen on Alexander.
The second Pianist was really good too.

Absolutely
Gwilym is lovely and fantastic even with the very young jazzers.
The kids love him and he's such an inspiration. He said my dd had a lovely sound, so I like him. He was at her school most of this half term and provided several workshops and the Big Band played some of his original compositions.
He is just the same away from the stage and a real ambassador for Jazz. The kids really learned a lot and were truly in awe.

It was nice to see Alander Bone, he is a family friend and is so supportive of dd.
The Jazz final wasn't what I thought it would be like though, at all.

I must admit I actually got distracted by the trio as they were so good and I hope DS1 watches it because the drummer is excellent. Lovely to hear how supportive Gwilym is as you could tell the finalists had a fantastic time working with him.
I'll admit I actually wanted the second saxophonist, Tom, to win - I liked him 2 years ago and I thought his compositions were great! Plus I like his rapport with the audience.
Newlife the final seemed quite different compared with two years ago - agree Alexander Bone was, and is, fantastic, by the way. I'm sure there was more emphasis on improvisation and taking solos before but maybe I haven't remembered it right.

Loose

You sound like a kindred spirit, but some would be eh? at this.
There seemed to be very little Jazz, lots of technical whizzing up and down scales but very little space, thought, expression and freedom.

Although I didn't warm to alexander I did agree with the judge who said she sang at one point. The organ part was definitely Jazz and Tom oozes Jazz.

Newlife I think we're on the same page!

I agree about the improvisation, or lack thereof. I suppose it depends on how the contributions are being adjudicated. I'm guessing that it's easier to judge technical mastery than improvisation. I think you have to appreciate jazz too, to appreciate improv, and in my experience at least, many do not "get" improv or the skills required to improvise effectively.

The highlight for me was Gwilym on the piano and the pianist on the organ.

absolutely

It seems like we are all on the same page phew, I thought it was just me.

I do think it's in the teaching though tbh and don't blame the young musicians at all.

I'm sure if they had played real Jazz they wouldn't have got through to the final, as it certainly would be swinging but not technical sounding enough.

I'd loved to have heard some more older standards in their first pieces, maybe some bebop. I would also liked to have seen a singer and feel they should have category finals like the classical competition.