March Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Here you are - a new thread for March! I can't believe we are now up to 700+ posts each month. Thank you all.

I am Waffle, Mum to two girls. I have Goo (11), short for Kajagoogoo, which is 'short' for Kaj, which means... well, that would be telling! Her younger sister is Rara (8) - Rara is what she used to call herself when she was learning to speak. Goo plays the flute, recorder and piano. Rara plays the cello, recorder and clarinet. We have Grade 7 Flute and Grade 1 Clarinet booked for the end of this month. I think we might have Grade 3 Cello and Grade 4 Piano coming up next term. Goo is off to secondary in a few months, and I really don't know if she will ever manage to fit in her last couple of recorder exams. I'm all for saving money though.

I will try my best to read everything and follow this month. Last month's thread moved so fast!!

Talking about second instruments, ds successfully auditioned to the BEST piano teacher around . God, it was a PROPER audition, aural test, then he played violin, etc - I feel like he won a place in RAM JD already!
But how on earth I am going to manage two children with two instruments?

I didn't know ds was in the school choir for quite a while as it didn't need any application to fill in by parents. Children who want to join just go to the weekly lesson during school time. So that tells me he is enjoying it as it's entirely his choice. However, it's not very popular among older boys - apparently it's not cool for them! He is only boy in his year group. By adding the poor teaching, I am worried this kind of setting eventually discourages him singing. Environment is so important!

only, wow, well done to him! He is only 7, isn't he? He is very brave.

Thank you Kutik! He is almost 6. I bribed him to behave well

So he is still 5?? Wow wow. My ds was a wild monkey from a jungle at the age!

only well done to your DS, I'm sure you'll manage just fine with two kids on two instruments. Just don't do the lessons fees maths as you may have a shock

drummersmum thank you for info about private schools.

kutik, only technically, so much so that in my mind he is 6yo already. I wonder if it is a second child thing, my dd is still a monkey from a jungle!

Fleurdelise

only great news. Another amazing teacher. So now we have you to envy on top of Fleur

drummersmum ha-ha, I was going to write that now I can take my house off market
(saying that, I am on a mission to get my dd to her too :), but this teacher will not put up with any nonsense which unfortunately I cannot guarantee with me dd)

Thats fantastic news Only!!! I am still so struggle with finding a violin teacher so another one with big envy here.

Hahaha I could always clone our teacher.

Only what do you mean? Did you try to move your dd to her? What keeps you from doing it?

Oh I wish my ds's primary school had a choir she was so cross when we went to see ds in a concert last week and loads of primary school choirs were performing too .I think she realised what she was missing ( not enough to change schools if we ever move house though !!) she is will just have to wait until high school where the music provision is fantastic

I remeber asking someone about her piano teacher. She said her 2 sons shared 30 min/wk. On the list to get 30 min each.

Of everything that was supposed to happen this month, we've had the competition, one of the auditions and the gr8 exam unexpectedly delayed till late April, and another of the auditions in early May. You never know, do you? Part of me wanted DS to relax during Easter hols knowing it was all done...
Piano gr8 exam will be in July just after breaking from school.

Just to share our joy! Ds got an immediate offer at his dream orchestra. He will be a regular member from next term. Ds asked me to take him to cubs straight after the audition so we grabbed sushi from Wasabi, ate on a bus, got home to change into the uniform then drove to cubs - exhausted. I meant to skip cubs today because of the audition.... But their weekly rehearsal is the same day as cubs so joining them means ds has to stop cubs. He loves cubs... So we didn't want to miss any session this term. I'm so happy for him that he got a place at the orchestra he was so longing to join, but also a bit sad that he has to let go the activity he enjoys so much.

Congratulations Kutik, how lovely that you didn't have to wait to hear the result. Is there another local cub pack that meets on another night? It's a long shot, here you could put their name down for Cubs and not get in until they are ready for Scouts.

Our Festival is going well so far. DS2 has five firsts and a second in seven classes. (Woodwind solo, piano classes, school brass group). And in his unplaced class DD's sax group won so he was really pleased for her

Kutic that's brilliant.

The DCs Primary had/has an amazing non- selective choir. It welcomed everyone, therefore reading music was not required, but learning the words was. It was certainly still musical.

Raspberry: wow!

Kutik: great news, we love our Orchestra too, I am forever in debt with Alex!

Kutik that's fab and sushi is our treat too! Raspberry well done, impressive list!

Kutik Well done to your DS!

Perhaps there's another cubs meeting another time?

Kutik that sounds amazing, well done!

drummers good luck with the exam and audition. I know what you mean, part of me wishes DS's GCSEs would be before Easter break so we can actually relax.

Raspberry wow, what a great bunch of results! You must be very proud!

Kutik - well done to him, and a nice confidence boost pre other auditions:)

Raspberry - wow thats a lot of classes, and to do so well in all of them is quite some feat of talent and endurance!

Drummers - best laid plans always go awry.....

Thank you for all the lovely words. After all the panic preparation (due to the change of the audition date), ds seems to be having a second thought about joining the orchestra. As Icouldbe said it's a long shot to get in cubs, so once you are out, you are out. I supported him for the audition only because he wanted to be in the orchestra so badly. If cubs are more important then that's fine. I think it's nice to have a choice anyway. He has time to think.

drummer, I know what you mean with all the busy schedule though your ds is probably much busier than my primary age. Ds's piano teacher was talking about exams the other day. Ds may go through 11+ process, then scheduling a music exam in Autumn term would be a bit tricky (for my view). But if we decide not to do it in the term, then we may have to skip G7 all together, then it will be G8 which I have no idea when it could be.

raspberry, that sounds seriously impressive!

Trumpet, I think it's your ds's audition tomorrow? Good luck!!

Thanks all. I meant to say he was the only entrant in a couple, but he still did well.

Kutik, nice for him to be in a position to choose what he wants. Very well done.

Drummer well done, you must be proud.

Dd has so much going on the last couple of weeks we have barely done any music. Besides after a certain time I font dare let her play the high notes on clarinet for the sake of the neighbours.