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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

February Music Thread

746 replies

Wafflenose · 02/02/2017 21:51

Overdue again, this time due to our local music festival. I put in 32 entries, and am now finished for this year, but haven't had a lot of sleep recently!

I am a teacher of woodwind - mostly recorder and clarinet at the moment - and have two DDs. Goo (short for Kajagoogoo in case anyone was wondering - and no, that isn't her actual name!!) is 11 and plays the flute, recorder and piano. Rara is 8 and plays the cello, recorder and clarinet. We are heading towards a half size cello soon, and I think we might have found a suitable one. We're going to try it out this weekend.

The girls have been entered for Grade 7 Flute and Grade 1 Clarinet this term, and I am really regretting it, as they are so under-prepared. But hopefully after a slightly quieter weekend, we can all get back on track.

Please jump right in, ask questions, moan about practice/ scales/ attitude, tell us about your DCs or your own learning... and new members/ beginners are always welcome!

OP posts:
se22mother · 20/02/2017 20:59

Sorry I don't know Croydon area, but that is too much. Between £20 and £40 us the most we have paid

Icouldbeknitting · 20/02/2017 21:25

There are two sorts of accompanying involved there - one is the chaperoning of the pupil from school to the exam and return and the other is the playing in the exam. I have always done the first bit of that myself, depending on location you could be paying for a couple of hours there. The piano accompaniment is usually under £50 (Midlands) and that includes the rehearsal but the accompanist is there all day so there's no travel involved. The time we had our own accompanist for a 25 minute diploma programme she only wanted to charge £40 but as that involved her finishing work early, driving 40 minutes and paying for the car park I haggled her up to £60.

At £200 I would be cancelling the exam.

Kutik73 · 20/02/2017 22:29

NeverEverAnythingEver, a good point re buying the cookie! I am a big softy towards ds...

11Eleven2017 - I am sorry I have no experience of hiring an accompanist so cannot be of any help. But £200 sounds quite expensive.

Doubleup · 20/02/2017 22:40

In the past my dd1's teacher has accompanied. She tends to try and get all her pupils one after the other and therefore spreads out the cost to under £10. Last time we had to change the date, so ended up paying more as she had to travel just for dd. On her other instrument (taught in school) we had to pay something like £80 for one of the teachers to accompany her (with no travel costs!). Cost more than the exam!
Dd2's teacher accompanied for Grade 4 (and didn't charge), but we had to get a different accompanist for the NCO audition. We had two rehearsals (one where she travelled to our house) and the audition for £60, but then she was accompanying half a dozen or so, so I guess the cost was spread again.

11Eleven2017 · 20/02/2017 23:53

Ok... think I'll have a word with the head of music ... not sure what else to do, but you all have confirmed my concern.... Confused

Original poster
Wafflenose · 21/02/2017 08:10

Nope, do not pay £200!! Unless of course you'd like me to do the 6-hour round trip to accompany her myself... that should more than cover my time, travel expenses and dinner! I'd see if you can employ someone yourself, for a much more reasonable price. £40-£50 including a rehearsal beforehand and a run through on the day would be more typical.

OP posts:
raspberryrippleicecream · 21/02/2017 08:57

I shall compare all future. costs against that benchmark 11 it will make everything else cheap!

Up to now higher grades were at DCs school accompanied by one of the music teachers and was free, (£10 if it was one of the external candidates).

I'm quite afraid to admit this on here the DSs lower brass grades were a fiver on the day to the accompanist, with a quick run through beforehand at the Centre. (I wouldn't accept this now with higher grades).

stringchild · 21/02/2017 09:07

we recently had to pay £80 to accompany 10min audition plus £35 for 30min rehearsal.....

Original poster
Wafflenose · 21/02/2017 09:12

I only accompany my pupils up to around Grade 6, but do it for nothing nowadays - rehearsals are done in their usual lesson time, and I always have to be at the exam centre for the duration anyway. I also did an NCO audition for free, because the child comes to lessons 50 weeks of the year and I like the family.

OP posts:
stringchild · 21/02/2017 09:26

Waffle i think we will be doing our NCO audition with you this year :) :)

£115 is outrageous really!

Original poster
Wafflenose · 21/02/2017 09:49

Of course, some of this might explain why I stand to earn £9-10K this year...

OP posts:
Greenleave · 21/02/2017 10:30

I am sick today so hence the sickleave and the free time. Just need to get over this fever and sticky cough then all is good. I am so tempting to see our children playing, I will try to resist until I could fully contribute too as I am still on my weaning time. Just wanted to say about the accompanying cost. I paid my teacher £100 each time in the past he accompanied us, this include 30mins rehearsal at home, then travel to the test centre then the time in the test centre. He never mentioned about how much, I just understood that his usual rate is £50/hr so more or less including travel time I am happy to pay £100. Its depends on the time your child needs him in the test centre though. We have the date for our violin exam and we have contacted my teacher's friend who said he could do it. I am planning to pay the same. Just worried that 30mins rehearsals just before the test might not be enough and she might never be in tune with this accompanist whom she has never met before. She has a habit of waiting for him and try to catch up with the piano playing rather than focus on her own pieces.
We have 3 weeks before the test date and the whole family was down with a cold since last week. I am not panicking at all as my concentration now is for us to get over this crazy cough and cold.

LooseAtTheSeams · 21/02/2017 11:23

Green hope you feel much better soon! Both mine have been knocked out by that cold/cough in the last two weeks and felt very rough so I hope it doesn't last long! Definitely better to be fit and healthy than to worry about an exam.
For exam fees we've either not had to pay or paid around £35 for the music centre accompanist in the exam and the 30 minutes rehearsal. Parents take the children to the exam and wait for them and the accompanist tends to be there for all the children who need one, so they aren't attached to any child in particular. (They sometimes come out to give feedback but only if the parent was worried or if it's the child's usual teacher!)
When DS1 had a flute exam a while back his accompanist was lovely and taught him a bit about 'owning the space' when he did the aural section! I can pass on her details if anyone wants them but she's in SW London, not Croydon.

drummersmum · 21/02/2017 12:12

green Brew & a good book

EnormousTiger · 21/02/2017 13:08

I have accompanied various of the 5 children on grade 8 and gosh some of those accompaniments are very very hard. Do consider the hours of practice people put in and their travelling time and the rest. I have probably saved us a small fortune in accompanying in exams over the years. I don't personally being in the SE and knowing how long travel time takes and rehearsal time to learn the part (not something you have with grade 1 but certainly is a lot of time fior some grades 6 - 8 pieces) £200 is unreasonable at all.

When my children have done early exams at their schools (the schools are always a centre in our case) then the school music teacher accompanies in most cases. I think a nominal fee is added for that.

rogueantimatter · 21/02/2017 13:25

Which grade 11? A piano student at one of the conservatoires might be pleased to get this work, especially if it's one of the lower grades. I'm not sure how you'd get in touch though.

Not in SE, but my DD who is in her third year of piano at a conservatoire charges £15 for the exam and £15 per rehearsal unless they want loads of rehearsals in which case she'll do it for less.

Trumpetboysmum · 22/02/2017 06:52

Drummers and Ealing the videos that you sent were great I showed them to ds and he enjoyed them too. I don't really have any videos to post and I thought videoing him at the school competition last night might have put him off. I was once again truely amazed by the standard of muscician at his school a great evening topped off with ds winning the junior muscician category ( he did play beautifully if I say so myself)
Green I don't know if you will see this but why don't you get your dd to practice with the piano accompaniment cds or music downloads as well? Ds always plays badly at first when we introduce an accompaniest but I think it's just lack of experience and this seems to do the trick as he can get lots of practice in and really knows the piano part by the time he gets to a performance or exam

Greenleave · 22/02/2017 07:46

Thanks all, I think I need to break my resolution, it doesnt work because I miss this thread!!!

Things have been tough at work since beg of the year when various head of departments were told to go on spot (meaning missing out the March big pay, however they didnt miss much as we did badly last year anyway). So I think the stress has everything to do with this long term cold/cough.

My 9 years old since last year has burried her head in all the space quantum theory, she steals all the music practise time to read tens of thick physic books on theory of space, lights, black/white/worm holes and I am loosing my patience. At the same time, I bought/borrowed these books for her so if she doesnt practise its still truly all my fault.

We found a tutor, its a group, it doesnt work as the other 3 children need catch up so it might not worth it drive for 45mins, spend an hour with the group which the tutor spend 5 mins on us only then drive back another 45mins. All this time can be saved for practice.

Trumpet: I have never thought of it, we will try to do it from this weekend. Intermezzo and Allegro are learnt(lots if polishing to do).

We went back to the Woodbridge last week(part of the reason for the whole family coughing that we sneaked to the seaside too). We found a 3/4 violin, its a simple one, we were issued a credit note(a lump sum as we spent hugely on the full size last Christmas). We could use this credit for future purchase. We still use the 1/2 for now until we are done with this exam.

Enormous: hats of to 5 kids and a career!!

ealingwestmum · 22/02/2017 09:46

Trumpet, lovely to hear the concert went well last night, well done to DS picking up 1st! That's the bonus of these events, you get to hear the wonderful company our children are part of.

DD rang this morning to say she'd made it to the final of her school's junior level comp. On piano. The Chopin piece Gillybeanz loves. I have never ever worried about any violin performance in the past, even with the slips, but piano for her is a different story. I really hope she can overcome her nerves again if she managed to pull it off at audition!

ealingwestmum · 22/02/2017 09:48

Green, I do feel for you. I left Canary Wharf world 3 years ago, and still get a feeling of doom on that jubilee line when I visit ex colleagues at my old place at work Flowers. I come away post lunch much happier, not missing it one bit...

rogueantimatter · 22/02/2017 10:59

Very well done miniTrumpet and miniealingwest. Exciting.

DS' bow repair man phoned to say he could not get the slider (?) out of DS' double bass bow despite his best efforts and would it be okay to do more intrusive surgery on it? Apparently Chinese bows have the hairs glued on, in an attempt to thwart bow repairers and make the bows obsolete Shock

Re Canary Wharf - am I right in thinking Guildhall is near there? I went to GH with DS for his audition and was a bit dismayed at how concretey and grey it is. All this talk of pollution is not good either.

drummersmum · 22/02/2017 11:12

Yay, well done trumpet 's boy. And hooray to ealing 's DD, may the force be with her.

Guildhall looks concretey because it was built in the sixties if I'm correct, at the time of architectural monstrosities such as the National Theatre - although I must say DH likes it! Canary Wharf is much more modern, taller and has a Shanghai feeling. Am I right ladies? Re pollution, it's been really horrible. I feel so guilty to bring my child up in it. Killing us softly with every breath. And the London buses are not electric yet. Only some. The whole float should be running on electricity or other green means by now Angry

ealingwestmum · 22/02/2017 11:17

Guildhall is next to the Barbican (City of London district), very urban setting, 60's build concrete, and yes, very busy with pollution challenges. However architecturally protected on grade listing!

Canary Wharf is slightly further afield as the second financial area, build around the Thames, Tower Hamlets, East London area. More contemporary, high rise steel and glass structures and very sterile and souless

Sorry to all those that love CW, it's great if you're in your 20's I suppose...

ealingwestmum · 22/02/2017 11:18

x-post with drummers!

ealingwestmum · 22/02/2017 11:21

..and urban should have been 'inner-city'