June Music Thread

[Fleurdelise]

Hello all and welcome to the June thread! Waffle did me the honours of asking me to initiate this thread as she has no access to Internet while on holiday.

This thread was first initiated by Waffle when Goo was 6 and now she's 11. It is a thread for all the musicians, big and small, to share their love (and frustrations ) during the long path of learning an instrument. I first joined when dd was 7 and in the process of preparing for grade 1 piano for moral support. If you read the ending of the May thread you'll realise I am still a nervous reck here we are now, two years later, Dd is 9 and preparing for grade 5 piano and grade 3 clarinet, the exams are in exactly 13 days. I also have DS 15 who is in the middle of his GCSEs at the moment, he has no musical interest.

As I couldn't leave Waffle without an introduction, below is a quote from the May thread. The only correction is that I believe Rara has now turned 9.

I have two daughters. Goo is 11 and in her last term at primary school. She's working towards her Grade 8 Flute (some time next year) and playing from the Grade 4 Piano book (currently refusing to take any exams, and putting off the first proper performance!). Rara is 8, may or may not be doing Grade 3 Cello this term, and is approaching Grade 2 Clarinet.

Both of them played the recorder for years, starting as preschoolers. They reached Grades 7 and 3 respectively, but sadly neither has really played since the music festival a few months ago. They are obsessed with their Flute and Clarinet, and really enjoy Piano and Cello. There won't be many opportunities to play the recorder at the secondary school they will attend, so much as I love it, it's probably a good time to quietly drop it. Recorder has given them both lots of opportunities, confidence, reading skills... and festival prizes!

loose glad about the revision and good practice. Good lad
Everyone else, good luck with NCO. Too old for it here!

Forgot to mention I had a great day yesterday as work took DH and I to spend the afternoon with a mega music celebrity in his country abode which was a dream.

The house was a dream I mean.

kutik it's all fine. Teacher at jd will be glad to polish new piece and won't be expecting to adopt pupil pieceless!

I wonder how strict the ages are for u10s when you're not a string player. My monkey will be upset that she won't be able to apply until 2020 now if it's strict....

From age 6, Mini. I'm sure she'd get in (I know of various wind players who've got in from age 7). It's for children up to and including current Year 4. I'd apply if you think she's mature enough to cope with a week away from home.

I should add that I asked about this a few months ago, and was speaking to a very knowledgeable member of staff at NCO. 6-8 year old string players go into Training, and 6-8 year old wind players go into Under 10s. They like them to have turned 7 by the time they go on their course, but your DD would be 8 by then anyway.

www.nco.org.uk/join-in/eligibility

waffle the new criteria for this year says they have to be 9 on sept 1st for u10s though.

www.nco.org.uk/news/2017-06-05/Auditions-open-for-NCO-2018-

Ohh have I misunderstood it? Is the age on 1st sept the max age??

I think it's the max age so for example if you were already 13 you couldn't be in next years under 13s you would have to audition for the main orchestra. That way they keep the standard really high as they set a max age and rough grade guidelines for each orchestra - I think

Thanks trumpet apparently I'm being stupid this morning!

It has always been maximum. Why not ring them to check that's still the case? Otherwise I'll do it for you! They would be ruling out an awful lot of good wind, brass and percussion players if they said you had to be 9 to apply.

I have just had a chat to them... it's maximum, and 7/8 year olds are very welcome to apply. They would be very happy to chat to anyone about their individual situation too.

I had an interesting chat with DS yesterday. He was the one who wanted to try music scholarship at indy schools. I was sort of persuading him to consider state options as well as general entry for privates. I just thought, as a music scholar you have to give up other activities sometimes and I was not sure if DS was fully aware of it and would be totally happy about it. But as I started to understand his passion and to accept that he would actually love the commitments as he loves every performing opportunity, he told me that he was having a second thought!

Okay, okay, it's fine. He is only 9, so meant to change his mind. But things he said to me made me think if sending him to JD from this coming September is a good thing...

The same thing happened to his sports in the past. He was all about sports for years (basically since he started walking). He was unusually enthusiastic about it and as he was doing brilliantly, we were about to start taking it more seriously. As he approached to the age where lots changes happen in the sport he was playing, he received great offers. Then, he changed his mind. He started telling us he was only having fun and didn't mean to do it competitively so refused to take the offers. It took a long time for DH to accept it as he just couldn't believe DS throwing such opportunities (seemingly) carelessly.

This time last year, he was not in NCO, not in a Youth Orchestra, not JD in sight, no musical activities other than weekly lessons with piano and violin teachers, and he started telling us music was his thing. He always liked music, and would tell us he loved violin, but as he was so much wilder than the other musical sorts, we didn't really see him as such. While DH was persuading DS to re-consider about sport commitments, he insisted he would need more time for music.

Now, a year later since then, he becomes 'the violin boy' at school who used to be more known for his athletic side. He is committed in music much heavily nowadays. Then, the word came out again...

First of all, no one forced him to do music. We just followed his lead. So, if he wants to re-think his situation and decides to do less, and explore in the other areas, that's fine. After all he is still so young. But I'm a tiny winy bit worried if it is going to be the cycle of his tendency... Hmmm....

Sorry for the essay....

Tricky. I've always said to ds (who's a bit older and maybe a bit more sure ?!?) that we will support him whatever he decides as long as he doesn't think that giving something up means more time playing computer games. From next year he will be giving up a large proportion of his school holidays and weekends to music he thinks this will be fine and he wants to do it and I think as long as they know that they can change their minds then that's ok. Just don't let them stop completely then they still have options. If your DS really likes his sport as well as music then maybe music scholarships will be a bit too restrictive. DS does loads of music at (state) school but still has time for sport and hanging out with his mates which is important too. We put in quite a lot of effort into making sure that ds fits a social life in- which in a rural area means being a taxi service (and organising slightly disorganised 12 year olds a bit!!) Not sure that i've helped at all here but you're not alone in worrying. I think its really difficult for any child who is particularly talented at something, they will always have to make certain choices and give things up and maybe the hardest thing for us as parents is when they say they don't want to do something that they are obviously good at any more, but as long as they've enjoyed it along the way then that's the main thing I think

I've always said to ds (who's a bit older and maybe a bit more sure ?!?) that we will support him whatever he decides as long as he doesn't think that giving something up means more time playing computer games.

This. So much this.

Specialisation at 9/10 yrs of age is unusual. Not out of the question, especially for some of the DC on here who know music is their thing. Otherwise, the age that your son is Kutik, it is only natural that he wants to try everything that is accessible to him, especially if he is so able in picking things up.

I don't have any answers for you either, other than agree with everyone else on enjoying the things he tries as key, and he can always come back to whatever he's dropped when circumstances change, as he will also undergo changes between now and senior school, let alone more later. Could he have felt a little pressure with the proposed new piece?

When we have had conflicts with what to keep/drop, we try and dig a little deeper to establish what makes DD's heart sing, or where her commitment lies, even if she's not quite got "there" yet. Ultimately, hard work can beat talent if talent hardly works. But not really helpful, if their talent is not where their heart is. Or if they just don't know...yet.

Such a load of waffle from me. Sorry

Kutik is there a pattern you can see? Is he having second thoughts on something when this something becomes serious? I wonder if there's a fear of failing or of disappointing you or DH in any way. You sound like a great mum and I'm sure you've told him many times that he could never disappoint you, but I wonder from the things you sometimes say whether your DH has done the same
Other than that, he's obviously very young and there's plenty of time to keep everything going at a reasonable level so he can choose later on. JD really depends on what he wants to do. Does he still want to go? In which case, he must, because otherwise he will never know and also he must see the reward to his efforts during auditions. He can always drop it if it doesn't work out.
Music scholarship wise, at DS school the level of commitment varies between the kids, and I know of some music scholars who still find time for sports and in some cases at a competitive level. Miniealing also comes to mind. It really depends on the particular expectations of a school versus another. I doubt an independent school would want to keep a top sportsman playing only music. More likely, the music department and sports department will be constantly arguing over him! The problem of being an all rounder!!!!

I wondered the same as drummers. It's possibly the competitiveness of the music scholarship that worries him and it might sound to him like it's closing off other options - just as dedicating yourself to a particular sport does. I'm sure he's still as excited about JD because that's one day a week and not everyday at school.
Also, boys can get a lot more stressed than we realise. DS1 and a friend of his both hid in the waiting area instead of going into the hall when they got promoted to senior music groups. all was resolved in both cases but it can be very scary to take a jump into the unknown at any age!

kutik when my DD was younger she tended to devote herself passionately to one activity at a time ... First writing, then drawing, then playing guitar, then composing. She doesn't have as much time these days but I still find that her enthusiasm for different activities comes in waves.

One thing I would say is that it's really worth letting him take his own path. DD stopped music completely at one point, and we thought that was the end of it, but a year later she discovered a passion for guitar and that led to other musical adventures.

Exam over, DD is practising like mad because she has a week to get six pages of music to performance standard . It's not very hard, but there is a lot of it, and she's accompanying so can't make mistakes. We got home at 8pm and its now 9.30 here and she's still at it!

Oh and re sports, I have a sporty DS who was on the point of dropping out of his main sport (BMX) a year ago having not competed for two years. He randomly did a competition early this year and since then has got his mojo back to the point of being ranked third in his category in our region. I think it is very normal for enthusiasm to wax and wane. (Wait until your DS is a teenager lol).