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!!

Congrats Kutik, what pieces is he playing for his auditions?

Thank you Paulweller. I will PM you if you don't mind.

How much is too much for fairly serious musicians? Currently he has choir on Monday, violin on Tuesday, and piano on Thursday. The choir and violin are done during school time so the evenings are spent for sports. However, if we are accepting the offers from JD and the youth orchestra, he has to give up cubs and a Saturday school, then it will be choir on Monday, violin on Tuesday, orchestra on Wednesday, piano on Thursday then JD on Saturday (all day). Monday and Tuesday evenings will be still spent for sport.

I must say DS seems to be always the one who has the least musical activities anywhere he goes (prob for his standard?). He was almost only one who hadn't done any orchestra prior to NCO (the conductor asked all the children on the first day of the regional rehearsal). I am very much aware of that many of your DCs here do lots of musical stuff, almost everyday, and maybe more than one a day. But for someone like us, who has just started our lovely musical journey, replacing two non-musical activities with the JD and youth orchestra feel a bit, I don't know, too much...? Or, it's not?

Yeah dd got a merit!

Fantastic! Well done to her. What exam was it.

Too much music... is there such a thing? Well, I guess too much would either affect school performance negatively, or not leave enough time for other activities the child enjoys. I reckon Goo does 11-12 hours in a normal week, but this can rise to 20 hours if SWMS and NCO happen to roll around at the same time, which happens once or twice a year. It's just a part of life now, and she could cope with more... the question is, does she want to? The jury is out. Rara does about 5.5 hours at the moment.

LIZS, congratulations!

Waffle, I know it's very personal. In my DS's case, he is a very much all rounder type. He is always eager to almost all the activities he takes part. In his ideal world he would like to keep cubs and the Saturday school and just add JD and orchestra. He also wants to do well with school work. As a parent, I am the one who have to draw the line and teach him to prioritise things. But when he loves almost everything that exists in this world, I just wonder, letting him take up so much of his time for one thing (music) at this early stage is a good idea. He is only 9 yet. We can always adjust the schedule, I know. But both cubs and the Saturday school are something you cannot go back (anyway, not easily at least).

I know no one can answer this as I'm only the one here who knows my DS and our circumstances. But, sorry, I just wanted to pour out my thoughts... Having a second thought day.

16.5 hrs average a week here for violinist dd, 9 yr old.
Probably 9/10hrs a week for percussionist dd, just turned 8 yrs old. (With percussion dd its all practice though, no ensembles/orchestras- so many instruments to practice! )

16.5 hrs a week... Is practice time included or just for 'activities such as lessons, orchestra and so on? My DS is no where near that. Simply because he doesn't have time. He plays sports Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday (after the Saturday school) and Sunday currently! Wow, I realised he does too many SPORTS....

I was counting practice - Goo does about an hour, or slightly more, each day. The rest consists of flute lesson, piano lesson, recorder group, orchestra and choir. She also has NCO about once a month, and SWMS for a whole day, once every half term.

For those of you who read my post 2 weeks ago, worrying about my DD's grade 6 piano exam, she got the results yesterday and passed! She was sure she had failed it as she said it was the worst piano exam she has ever sat.
Haven't got the marking sheet back yet to see how badly she did on the scales - she apparently was 3 marks short of a merit so at least she didn't just scrape.

I am v proud of her nonetheless and just had to share!

I understand Goo plays several instruments. When you say she practises about an hour each day, you mean it's the total for all the instrument practice? Or she usually practises her main only, and practises other instruments here and there some days in a week?

Well done, cocopops' DD!

Goo tends to do about 40 minutes of flute and 30 minutes of piano, but it varies. She plays the recorder when the festival is coming up!!

cocopops, fantastic! Very well done to your DD.

Cocopops and LIZS- congrats on the exam results ; )

16.5 hrs is practice, lessons, orchestra, chamber gps, and also academic music lessons. She is at a specialist music school though, so it's all done in school time.

Oh I see, I was always wondering how multi instrumentalists organise their daily practice. My DS spends less and less time on piano these days but I guess the balance will change once all the auditions finished and that piano exam becomes in sight...

Paulweller, I'm relieved that it included practice!!!

Possibly a little more, as only counted the school week. : )- both only 2 or so hrs more.
Yes definitely included practice!
She also plays piano, but as second study it's rather neglected....

Wait, this means Goo dose pretty much same amount as DCs at specialist school!

Your friend's DD must be spending more than 10 hours easily due to JD attendance. IF my DS joins JD from September, then his weekly musical time will increase dramatically.

I really do hope 30 mins on each instrument is OK, as I don't think DS will have much free time once he moves to secondary (heard lots of horror stories such as kids stay up until midnight to finish all the homework).

Rapidly, are you sure you haven't mixed up with your DD's twin sister's schedules?

Impossible to keep up. Congrats everyone for exam results coco, lisz. And good luck Prada and se22.
Concert tonight. DS playing in several of the ensembles involved. I found a post-it on the door last night reminding himself not to forget his mallet case. Clearly, he doesn't need me anymore. I have to find a hobby.
kutik good news. I loved the comment about the teacher having a worst ear than miniKutik. Cheeky chap.

Kutik, it's a hard balance to get right for children. My second daughter, grade 8 cello, 7 piano I think, singing exams, theory etc she gave up the music and did masses of school sport - ended up winning the school sports prize in upper 6th and played a sport for England in her 20s. Another one just did choir in the sixth form and concentrate on work. My son on this thread (sixth form now) over all the years has had to balance sport and music at school - they often clash and decide which to pick. He gave up his out of school county badminton despite being pretty good good; he'd never lost a game at one point. He left the school football team. He seems to have something musical at school almost every day some weeks.

His twin does no clubs even music at school and is not a "joiner" but lovely to have around, lots of friends, likes all the gossip - just a different personality.
And some children again become so devoted to their music or sport that it becomes their life and career.

My view is if there was no doubt in the child's mind they were going to play the violin say forever and it's the thing they adore you support that. If they don't feel like that but just like their hobbies then I support that too - in fact it can mean they end up with better exam results and a higher paid career (their father wishes his father had persuaded him out of music as the money is so bad in it). If they don't want to do any out or in school hobbies that's fine with me too - a lot of my teenage years were about thinking and reading and I like being alone.

Go with the flow of what fits the family and that particular child.

Also my older daughter when they were baout 8 - 10 had a school friend who did gymnastics and I mean did it - we are talking 4 hours a day - before school I think, after school, it was the whole life and huge chunk of the mother's life taking her to events. She was very good of course too. Then at about 14 she decided she didn't like it any more at all and just gave it up and concentrated on school work. Again nothing wrong with that. Being able to change and not being pigeon holed by the family is quite a brave thing to do particularly if your parents have invested a lot of money and time in your hobby.

My son now says he'll have his paid by me music lessons for half next term. I think it's quite nice he wants lessons in his final and A level term but it obviously has no musical point to it as it's for fun and no exams and he's leaving but he clearly likes those relationships with his two instrumental teachers so I said that's fine and he should sort it out with the teachers.

I suppose required practice time depends on which instrument you play. Sadly piano and violin seem to be most demanding. I suppose brass and Woodwinds cannot or shouldn't practise like piano and violin?