November Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Let's have a new thread for November... I'm not sure if the old one will last long enough. This is a place to talk about music lessons, practice, exams and anything to do with learning instruments/ singing. We have beginners and advanced players of all ages.

I am mum to two girls - Goo (newly 11) - Flute, Recorder and Piano, and Rara (8) - Cello, Recorder, and one month of Clarinet so far. She won't put the clarinet down, so I think we've found The One.

Hi all and welcome to Trumpetboysmum. Just a couple of days to go till our visit to Junior Guildhall on Saturday. I've had the timetable through and it's pretty full on but sure ds will love it-he's very excited. It seems like they will want him to play which he's fine with. It ok now having a major stress. He has a habit of. It using all his bow. Plus due to his Aspergers he may not be very good a being put on the spot answering questions. They have been made aware of this.
Also,can anyone help me work out a practise schedule for ds? He needs to be working on his theory (he has a lesson once a week),scales and arpeggios and pieces but struggling to fit it all in on top of everything else. For those who are new,ds will hopefully be auditioning for junior Guildhall in the spring.

Disorganised - sounds like Guildhall are really on top of things. If anything like our JD, they will be expert at keeping things low key, calm and informal when they ask him to play. Make sure DS knows they may want to see how he works with them and will be a bit like a trial lesson (albeit much shorter). Wish i could help on timetabling - we muddle through :)

well have tentatively applied for an advice audition at one of the music schools (GillyBeanz...yours i think?) ..taking baby steps on this but am sure we will get useful feedback even if we decide this isn't for us right now (or if they say she is not yet 'there')

Trumpetboyz - welcome! glad the NCO audition was positive experience; DD is hoping for under 12s this year (long shot but we can hope).

My 11 year old auditioned too, but I don't think she'll get in this year.

Ooh, is that a new development, stringchild?

I sometimes wonder if I should have done similar, and feel guilty regularly. I know in my heart of hearts that the school down the road is the right one for Goo, but I do wonder if I'll look back and wish we'd at least tried.

Disorganised fitting it all in is tricky and ds now has year 7 homework too. Basically he does his piano before school and trumpet in the evening ( on days when he isn't playing in a band ). Theory tends to get done the day before his lesson with a lot of nagging from me. His teacher sets him loads to work on on his trumpet each week and he's getting better at organising this so that each practice counts , rather than just playing through the pieces and hoping that they improve ( although he does still need reminding about this fairly regularly!!)

Waffle - yes :) i am still not convinced, and DD isn't either - hence the baby steps. She has an exam for a senior school on Saturday that combines music into things much more than the others she is trying for, and where she could be a choirester, and I suspect it would be prove to be 'enough' for the next few years if she got in, and we could come back to the specialists schools at 6th form. But seeing the kids from the specialist schools at NCO etc has opened her eyes to how much supervised practice time they get each day and so on, and how hard it is to replicate that at home. Possibly the answer is less sleep....

you have such a great sounding school so close - wish we had thought things through a little more, earlier!

disorganisedmummy, how much time he can dedicate to practicing? Dd usually practices this way (this is for gr5 level)

scales/arpeggios for warm up (I wrote above-at the moment it is usually one of the following - scales+arpeggios detached/scales+ arpeggios slurred/or the same but only scales or only arpeggios)

Then piece(s). Tricky bits 4-5 times, then the whole/half of the piece - depends on the length of the music and how well she cooperates

If she is in the working mood - it is usually takes about one hour, but if not....

Looking forward to your report about Guildhall! It is very exciting!

Our current plan is to look again at 16. Although she does 10-20 hours of music a week (at least an hour's practice per day, then three music lessons, choir and school 'orchestra', plus NCO and SWMS some weekends) she would be the first to admit she's not all that focused on music. Not compared to many of the children she met in the summer, anyway. So I think a broad, general education (4 foreign languages in Year 7!) and bunches of friends, and finding school easy and fun is the way to go right now. I just wonder, though, if at 13 or 14 she is going to yell at me, "You never let me try!" I guess that sometimes as parents we can't do anything right though!

ealing And to the idea of an extra locker with a duvet.
trumpet welcome and hope you find in here support, info and a place to bounce things off.
strings that really is a development. Is your DD ok with the idea of boarding?
only thanks so much for books links. Will definitely check them out.
waffle it's wonderful Goo is so interested in the piano. He teacher must be a factor too. She must be motivating her?

I have booked DS for an informative event for teens at the RCM about careers in music. I will go with him to this. We have also applied for the NYO Inspire day at the Barbican in December, but we're waiting to hear because it depends on instrument and demand.

On a different note, he cooked dinner for us the other day! Pasta with fried onion and tuna. And it was delicious. I was on my deadline and just heard him calling from the kitchen announcing dinner was ready. Forget grades, scales, etc. This is what matters!

Wafflenose, I know that feeling - you know what is right for your child, and yet, you read about someone's experience and wonder... But I think we should trust our parental instincts.... I remember I decided not to apply to one very popular primary school as I didn't feel it would be right for my dd, I just could not visualize her there. And yes, 5 years on, I know I was right. But of course I was thinking - do I do the right thing?

My daughter got home around 4.30 everyday(they usually stop at the playground everyday as its between school and my house and she could never resist it not mentioning her toddler sister). Getting change then a quick snack is already 5pm. There is only 1 hour everyday and she doesnt realise she has this an hour as its then her play time in the garden or drawing, playing(8 yrs old and still plays with a 2 yrs old toys), reading. She wakes up between 7.30-7.45 so there is never any free time in the morning. Once I got home around 6.30-7.00 then it was a quick dinner. After putting her toddler sister to bed quickly then its usually nearly 8pm. And we are both exhausted, feeling lazy by then. I put in my schedule yesterday of 30mins practice either instrument daily and already find it challenging. I feel terrible when wanted to tell her that there is only 24hours a day and you cant spend 45mins in the bathroom brushing your teeth(a shower is 1hour). I have everyone in this household (except me) bring their book to the loo and I never see them out again awggg!!!

We had a first violin lesson last night with a new teacher and she came to us(her major is viola and she doesnt seem to be as experienced/good as our previous one). Its an easy option for us right now as I dont have to bring her to anywhere. At least I have someone keepping her going on with her violin for now until I could find/come up with a better solution

drummersmum, oh, what a star!

Greenleave, as I didn't follow last thread-what happened to your violin teacher?

Drummers - oh lucky you!!

Waffle - as with many things, i sort of accept that there is no right or wrong on these things. I hope Saturday will go well, and then we can just use the advice audition as a new source of feedback. ps 4 languages in year 7 is a luxury!

Green - we too don't have time to practice in the mornings and we live 5mins from school!!!

stringchild ds is also hoping for under 12s but it's so competitive I'm not particularly hopeful. Good luck with the advice audition. Ds regularly asks about going to music school instead but as they are all miles away from where we live I've told him he should wait a few years and see then if it's still what he thinks he wants ( and if he's good enough by then). Luckily his school is pretty good on the music front and his teacher seems convinced that he's doing more than enough, I hope so. But wafflenosei know what you mean I do feel guilty/ worry on a regular basis that I am somehow standing in his way

We don't have grammar schools in our area, the nearest is in Kent about one hour drive, but I know people who move houses because of grammar schools. Which also makes me feel miserable as I don't feel deep inside it is a right thing to do (in our situation) but on the other hand I think-what if...?
But at least Saturday music schools in London are withing an affordable commuting distance from us, so we are not in too bad position after all, are we? Not that there are immediate plans to get into one, but who knows.....

There used to be a few Grade 3-5 players in the school, which made 'orchestra' tolerable, but nine players (of all abilities) left last year, and there are only nine left in the group, which is why I term it 'orchestra'. Rara and a boy are Grade 3 ish, everyone else is Grade 1 or below, and then there is Goo. She also plays in my Recorder A Team (Grade 2 group-taught children, and her) so this year won't be served at all well musically. The secondary has been great, and said she can join things like Big Band and orchestral tours several years early, and have demonstrated how much they want her by allowing her to play with their brightest and best in a concert recently. But I worry about what will happen by the end of Year 8 or so, and whether she'll get fed up.

Waffle don't panic - it really does sound as though the secondary school is on its game. if Goo changes her mind you could look into 13+ entry as well as sixth form, perhaps?
Green your DD must have been taking lessons from my DS2 - we can't believe how long he can spend in the bathroom at showertime and had to ban him from taking books in there (especially after a small library started mounting up in there). He also dawdles in the playground on the way home!
Drummers your DS is truly a star - I dream of the day when I hear a youthful cry of dinner's ready instead of me saying will someone please set the table!

Loose thank you... it's all come round a bit fast! We'll certainly give this school a go until the end of Year 8. I'd like her to stay there, if possible, because it's convenient!
Green Rara has taken to locking herself in the loo for ages - I wonder if she is reading in there? We only have the one, so are constantly banging on the door and shouting at her!

Long showers and eternal teeth brushing, oh yes!!! I once asked - years ago, obviously now I can't ask a 14 year old boy what he's doing in the bathroom - and he said it's the best place to think and let your mind wonder. There must be something about standing in front of a mirror, a kind of mental self-dialogue? I think it's a lost battle.

waffle your local school sounds too good to be true. You're also prioritizing things that are very important, her happiness and the convenience. See how it goes and you always have time to reevaluate in a couple years time.

Waffle I do sympathize! We're not in an 11+ area but adjacent to a couple with super-selective intake and with DS2 I sometimes wonder if we should have gone the tutoring route and at least tried the tests, but he was keen not to and seems very happy at his new school. Unless he has a marked personality change he will do very well there academically but will have to be resigned to getting most of his orchestral experience outside school! I love the school band, but it isn't an orchestra as such and not even an 'orchestra'!

Thanks :D I do think the positives outweigh the negatives - yes, her happiness, the convenience, the cost (we're not even a middle-income household), and it's a super-academic school, with 70+ extracurricular clubs. All sorts of sports are included, loads of music/ dance/ drama stuff, but more cerebral pursuits as well, and there is friendly competition between the houses in everything! Apart from that, I do think we need to offer Rara whatever we offer Goo. Lots of people tried to talk me into sending Goo to the private school where I work, and we can't afford it ("Oh, but she could get a music scholarship...") but then I realised that if we could only send one child there, it's Rara who'd benefit from the small classes and extra attention, not Goo! So I guess they will both go to the comprehensive down the road, and work out their own path from there.

I should add, I'm not a fan of selective education as a system, but one or two of the super-selectives appeared to have really great music facilities! So, what I mean is it is understandable sometimes to wonder 'what if' even when you're actually happy with what you've got! At the same time, we're very lucky because our borough is a music hub and there's a very good private music centre practically on my doorstep!