September Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello, and welcome to a new thread for September. This is a lovely, calm and supportive corner of Mumsnet where we can talk about everything to do with music lessons, exams, practice, auditions, and whatever else you like. Contributors of ALL standards and ages welcome. There are lots of experienced music parents on here, but we also have a steady stream of beginners, and the collective knowledge on here is impressive.

I'm Waffle, teacher of woodwind - mainly clarinet and recorder these days. My DH plays the guitar for fun. We have two DDs - sensitive, highly strung and accident-prone Goo (11) who plays the flute and piano, and starts secondary school next week, and laid back, funny Rara (9) who plays the cello and clarinet, and is also a reading machine.

There's not too much going on for us musically this term, apart from auditioning for NCO in October. My main priority will be getting Goo settled in a much bigger school, with a longer day, and she's getting there under her own steam, eek! Luckily for us, we don't have any music exams or secondary school entrance stuff going on, but I know that lots of you do. I am anticipating Grade 8 Flute and Grade 3 Clarinet next term, and Grade 5 Piano in the summer term. I've no idea if Rara will do any more cello exams after the drama of the last one! At the moment, she says she's sticking to the odd numbers. Nutcase.

Kutik I'm afraid I had to google Rolland but he sounds fascinating and I will investigate! Thanks for the recommendation.
Y7 is so tiring isn't it? Last year, DS2 used to nap on the sofa when he got home from school. The combination of that mini heatwave and school exams totally wiped him out! I think they have so many new lessons, more teachers, new friends and the effort of not getting lost in the building or leaving their stuff behind.
I'm sure Goo will bounce back!

Hi all. Just checking in as I have no " right" to be here any more as I don't have a school age child !

Waffle I'm sure she'll settle down. Year 7 transition is so challenging for some kids - a complete gear shift - for a start they can't remember ever not being amongst the oldest / biggest / cleverest in the school . Being with what seem like grown ups is terrifying. Not surprising it's reflected in her practicing / opinion of her playing etc.

Hope September improves soon!

Loose, he is French, yet my well-educated French friends didn't know him so he must be a forgotten gem in the Western world... He really is a fascinating human-being. He had an interesting friendship with Tolstoy (they never met but a pen-friend). Their shared political and philosophical views are evident in their work (in the peak of their friendship). Rolland studied and wrote about Beethoven and his famous (to me...) Jean Christophe is said to be written based on his deep understanding of Beethoven and his life story. Sorry, totally off topic. But seriously, I've never met anyone who I could talk about him so I admit I'm a bit over-excited!

Hope goo settles soon. Dd loves prelude too and is currently trying to master guantanamera.

Kutik Jean Christophe sounds fascinating. Lovely to have a recommendation! I'll report back when I've read it!

Kutik, Loose: I feel very curious too, which book should I read?

Foundout: I will plan for it as your advice, I have registered to Bond now, will get my head around which books.

Drummers: starting from today, I asked for new words to be written down and here was what I have for this week, what a nice idea, thanks so much. The whole family could then learn too.

Niggle i think ds's intro day was in January and it was after that that he decided to apply. I think the taster day is a really important thing to do as it gives a flavour of what AYM is about. The audition process is in 2 parts a formal audition ( in march) and then if you get through another whole day where you take part in a variety of activities and are observed taking ise by the tutors and other music professionals. All of the AYM staff and students seem great and ds is really looking forward to his second visit at the weejwnd

weekend ( I really can't type on my phone !!)

Green, I would say Jean Christoph. There are 10 books and they are a bit didactic in some parts so it won't be everybody's cup of tea. But I loved it and re-read many times. Tolstoy was (and still is) my favourite novelist. When I read Jean Christoph I didn't know their friendship. As I enjoyed his books so much I researched about him a bit and I was very pleased when I found out his admiration of Tolstoy and it made sense why I liked Rolland's books! Anyway I should stop boring people by talking about him (I can keep going on and on...).

Thanks Trumpet, I will look out for some Jan dates so we an go and have a look around.

I just received an invite for DD to go to the Pro Corda courses next year. Does anyone have any experience?

DD has been twice (aged 9 and 11) and been beautifully looked after and had a lovely time but they are very expensive. She's received a bursary which has made it possible though and the application process for that was very straightforward.

Raspberry no other requirements with regards to books so I am wondering if that was it and the expense it's over. Can't believe a normal student book would cost £30+!!!! It is a book!

DS keeps emptying my account though, turns out that they're not easing off on the sixth form dress code, it is indeed always formal (suit, shirt, tie and office shoes) which meant that today we went and bought another suit and a couple more shirts and ties. I was hoping a few days in they'll ease off to just trousers and shirts (whithout the suit jacket) but no. They do look amazingly smart but it must be uncomfortable besides being bloody expensive.

Well, we're on test number 7 where dd didn't get lower than 48 on the music aptitude tests so fingers crossed she will get through to audition. The exam is on Tuesday so hopefully she won't have a bad day and do the bad score exactly during the exam! No other music till Tuesday, focusing just on MAT.

Fleur sounds like she's really ready! Good luck for Tuesday and then the audition.
A lot of the schools near us have that dress code for sixth form. I think it's daft because when I did A levels we were allowed to wear jeans and it didn't affect anyone's results! Plus it's what university students wear, so why not? Some are a bit more relaxed, though.

fleur that sounds promising! Thinking of her

waffle sending Goo hugs but also hugs and to you, hard work for you at the moment.

We've just added a little video to brighten dull Monday mornings!

Niggle I don't have experience of pro corda personally but someone we know goes and his familiy speak very highly of it

Wooow, I just changed a string by myself! It's actually quite simple but so scary at the same time as I constantly worried I was screwing it up. I could take it to a violin shop like I did last time. But I thought it would be handy if I could do it - you never know when a string breaks and it usually happens at the worst moment (before performance, exams, auditions...). It was not all smooth at the first attempt, but hopefully I get better at it...

green perfect Nice fridge.
kutik multi-talented woman.

Impressed with the string changing!

Can anyone give me some advice.

DD has just taken up a Sixth form scholarship for music. She's Grade 8 violin with distinction (after five years). She's self taught on piano for approx two years but after she got the scholarship for violin and piano we paid for 10 lessons at school and piano teacher reckoned she's at Grade 6.

Starting Sixth Form DD has had a few wobbles with I guess is homesickness and things not as she first thought - she's had okay days, but we've had a couple of really bad days. Putting those aside she feels she'd get more music experience and clubs staying at her old school. We've told her she must speak to music department, see what they have in mind for her or what she could start up. Her old violin teacher has never taken anyone through a diploma before, and she's just found out her new one hasn't either, but both are willing to aim for that and music theory.

A scholarship would be a great thing to have on any application to a Conservatoire/University, but that's not a reason to stay where she seems unhappy. I'm hoping things settle as it's a lovely school and I think she could be happy there.

However, if she does come, her present violin teacher will certainly get her through music theory and is happy to do the diploma with her. What else could we do to support her? A weekend conservatoire is out of the question as I work and need the car. She could probably travel nearby for orchestras etc. Long term she'd love to perform, but is realistic and is interested in teaching violin or even becoming a school music teacher.

Financially we haven't got loads of money (we've got a bursary) so it's a case of doing the best we can in our circumstances.

Tiger I think your advice about giving it a bit of time and talking to school about it seems like a sensible place to start. It often takes a couple of weeks for everything to get up and running as well so a bit more time should enable your dd to really see what's what . If she does come home then maybe contact your county music service to see if they have any orchestras ( if she wasn't already a member) or if they know of any other local orchestras that she could join. Does your county have an auditioned youth orchestra? Lots do . She's a bit older so local amateur adult orchestras might also be interested. Pro corda courses in the holidays might also be worth a look and I think there are grants available for these

Tiger - yes time if she can beat it; maybe agree to review at half term? Not so far away for private schools. Also has she looked at youth orchestras by school? Lots of boarders (assume she is from what you say?) go to local youth orchestras (often children from the specialist schools do too). Also presuming she gets free music lessons (?) you could always use the money to have lessons with a JD teacher or other outside school? Really hope it works out.

tiger it usually takes a while. My DS is a music scholar and it wasn't a "jump in" from day 1. The music department may have plans for her they haven't shared or made public yet. They may have a scholar's concert coming up? Most schools have it. In terms of diploma, there's no reason why her teacher wouldn't be able to take her there even if it's the first time. Not a lot of students go for diplomas anyway so nor all teachers manage to get that experience. Checking out the county orchestras as others have said it's a good idea.

prada how did the scholar's concert go? DS has just told me that the year11 don't get to participate as otherwise it runs too long. It makes sense to want to lighten their year but I will be sorry to miss it after all these years as I like getting to know the new ones and it's also the perfect excuse to meet some of my friends (the parents of the other musicians have become friends over the years)

Tiger, moving to a new school and especially for music scholar, there must be lots of changes. You will save loads from free school music lesson and hire the best out of school hour as extra if its needed. We are paying loads for music lesson now as mine is still young (9yrs old). I hope one day when she has done her grades and she is older, she could travel to weekend music centre, music teacher places for lessons. So basically, taking music lessons from school(and yours are free) and build her musician ship via weekend classes, music centre etc.

Tigerblue how many weeks has she been there? Probably not many. It takes a while to settle into something new and she's probably not given it a fair chance yet. I'd review at half term, in the meantime I'd be looking at what you are contractually committed to and what notice period you would have to give to withdraw.

Conservatoires make their own mind up at audition, I can't see that having/not having a music scholarship will in itself make any difference. What will make a difference is how much playing she gets under her belt in the next year and it is just a year This time next year she would be weeks away from competing her application with auditions in October/November.

Thanks everyone. She's spoken to her House Mistress whose going to set up a meeting with Head of Music and go along with her. So far she's only picked up there's choir and orchestra and she was under the impression there was much more. If there isn't, hopefully they'll listen to her hopes/aims and see if they fit in with the school.

There's a Scholars Concert on Sunday, so that's something. We do need a few more days, but if a decision is left too long and she comes back, she'll have a large volume of A level work to catch up, as well as doing choir, orchestra, senior strings, folk group, rehearsing for some solo in Xmas Concert (a large event), as well as music lessons and practice.

Thanks for your replies. I'm not musical at all, she's totally driven and will probably work it out for herself, but it's good to have support as a parent.