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.

Loved Rara's new video. And, she is always so cute... Haven't seen Goo's. Must go back and check!

string, DS joined a selective football programme when he was 5. Somehow they always organised training on Fridays... It's far away so after school + journey + training + another journey every Friday for the last 5 years... We often joked with other parents that we all lost our Friday night. Can you imagine? We all had to stand around the pitch for hours while boys were training, no matter how cold, wet or windy... Didn't feel like going out after that. Hanging around JD building all day sounds heaven to me...

Green, but your DD has a passion for science and drawing/painting. Besides, she is doing very well with her practice! Mine has hardly ever done two instruments practice in one go...

Oh Kutik, no art work/making mess time any more, it makes me feel so sad however we just have to prioritise this year for academic which we have never focused on. The evening will be for music( we still have 2 swimming evenings a week so we now have to do music practice in weekends evenings too). She still needs bed from 8.00 to 7.30 and always need to be woken up at 7.30 to be able to go to school on time. We also want to do more with chess(which she has been improving well during the summer), the weekend section is half day and I dont want to loose time with her. I am moaning here however mine schedule is nothing to compare with the previous posts from everyone.

Green it sounds pretty hectic to me! It's a big balancing act. But I'd have art/messy play on standby if it gets too stressful - for both of you!
I am impressed with your practice schedule and think DS2 could manage this quite easily rather than alternate days for each instrument. He's actually good at doing it if I nudge him - never complains but does have a tendency to wait until asked!
Another fun guitar lesson last night and a new tune for DS2.
DS1 says he's had about 6 pep talks at school about how year 11 is really important!

I am also impressed with Green's schedule - it sounds time-efficient. Suppose it's better than alternating days for each instrument since frequency is more effective/important than length. But DS has a tendency to get carried away once he is switched on. I try not to stop him when he is into it. So it's quite difficult to schedule one after another. Perhaps he is not made to be a multi instrumentalist, although he expresses his interest in other instruments (currently flute, trombone and viola). Prioritising things is so crucial yet so hard in this hectic world!

A series of events booked in this week and next week, so I'm struggling to manage DS's new schedule. Haven't managed proper practice this week, and piano in particular is pretty much neglected. Hopefully we'll get used to the new routine soon, and manage to secure time for music and homework between all the activities/commitments. DS has football x 3, swimming and tennis this term. Oh and, JD seems to hand weekly non-practical homework as well (did you read the documents, drummers?)...

Green, don't give up on messy play while she still enjoys it!
We also have a busy schedule, youngest one has 1 or 2 out of the house activities every day. Homework, 2 instruments etc.

I already mentioned 10 min bond tests (VR, NVR, maths),. I also use the time in the car with eg time tables, vocab tests etc.
Fiction books, I quite like reading some of the children's books she reads, and then we can get to talk about it wherever we can (that's your lessons in comprehension done....).

Yes kutik I had already read it - made DS read it before accepting! Homework is for theory, right? Not nice news buy you get to the point in which you say, well it's pouring anyway, I'm drowning, so what difference does it make a little more water?

You are well prepared as always, drummers!

To be honest half an hour weekly homework is very reasonable considering what they are aiming for. It's just that suddenly everywhere DS is involved has started homework which didn't exist before. He didn't get much homework from school, yet suddenly he's started receiving daily homework. He does French which again no homework before but now started weekly homework.

I was going to give him mini-lesson daily or weekly to keep up his another language (mine) as he now left the Saturday school where DS had been receiving dual education since he was 3, but suppose it has to be pushed to the bottom of the list!

kuti it must feel very sudden all this homework. But it's better to get used to it in year 6 and make the transitionto year 7 smoother. D9 keep up your language, it can be an extra gcse and it would be a shame to lose it. A bit during dinner? A bit of reading before bed?

Do - not D9. Brrrrr.

Thanks, drummers.

I speak to him in my language as shamefully my English is not so brilliant. But I know his use of vocabularies will suffer and also he will speak like a girl as I will be the main one to use the language around him! But it's still OK, he will be fine with listening and hopefully speaking also.

So a problem is his reading and writing. It's completely different from English so without daily use he will quickly lose it (sure he has already lost as there is no more weekly test which was compulsory at Saturday school). But yes, I'll try to keep it alive somehow somewhere!

Kutik: we only got back to practice the last ...3 days after ...3 months , lets see how things hold. I didnt teach my daughter any this summer regarding to our native language, in fact I didnt know what I did the whole holiday, it went in a tick! We have never had time for it during the school year. What else that I do is we only speak in our native to each other, I write notes, letters to her in our language( somedays when things are tough at work, I dont even see her at all). However our language is different to yours and much closer to English so much much easier to keep up and learn.

Loose: 6 prep talks , thats great, saving us the energy!

Double: my friends brought their children to 11+ mocks test couple of months back and send their children to summer full day work shop(year 4 children), thats why I hide or run every time anyone in real life mention 11+. We have never done any academic exam, test, mocks...any forms. Her knowledge is every where however not good for any test yet. I am registered with Bonds website and will look into materials this weekend. We did 3 small tests(maths, english, vr) last weekend and she only got 75% for them all, she didnt understand the questions mostly(surprised me to someone who reads well). I will have to break things in areas and buy material in each areas. Not a consolidated test yet, hopefully from summer next year when we have reviewed and equipped with skills to answer the test questions. She is although doing well at non-test format (be able to drill in a hard maths concepts, could write 500 words in 1 go, know how to structure her writing, reads well).

Ladies I am popping in to just quickly let you know Purcell school is playing at Wigmore Hall next Thursday and the ticket prices are very reasonable, lovely programme, piano, cello, horn and guitar.

No practice here for days on end, I need to get her back into a routine this weekend once she starts music lessons again. She also needs to decide her festival pieces with her piano teacher this weekend and I am tempted to enter her in a woodwind class as well.

Anyone with 13 year old Grade 6 and above, NYO Inspire applications have opened for next year.

Tours abroad, DC's school used to go on tour every year, so all three went at least once, DS2 was very lucky, Germany and Italy with school in July of Y7, and Latvia with Cathedral Choir the following October.

Family holidays are camping trips in the UK though

Thank you Raspberry, DD's applied for the first time as a result of this prompter!

mini fleur, goo and rara: loved their clips, including the ^comedy' one waffle. Your girls are all very cute.

I am going to stop trying to emphasis words from a phone. Either my eyes are deteriorating faster or my fingers just getting fatter!

Good luck to her Ealing, DS2 will be applying. He loved the residential last year, until he got flu.

My post wasn't very clear, it should have said aged 13 - 18 and Grade 6 or above!

Good luck to miniealing and miniraspberry!

Is this NCO you're talking about? I'm very lost.

NCO Inspire Drummers vs NCO. we've never looked at it before due to commitment (and I guess cost?) of the full NCO membership, but Inspire could work better due to the lower commitment (and zero cost!)

They contact successful applicants from Nov.

Ah thanks ealing x

And good luck!!!!

Hello hello....I haven't posted in probably a year, given we've moved countries, schools, etc. DS plays trumpet (will be taking G4 in Nov) and cello (G4 but no exam planned for now). I have a quick question concerning a festival he is due to take part in this weekend. One of the classes he is due to play in is a performance in a jazz / blues style, including an improvised section. His teacher has provided a handwritten music score for the adjudicator. The piece DS will be playing is very well known. Normally, for copyright reasons, performers are required to work from the original piece of music. Does anyone know if this remains the case for classes with improvised sections? I'd hate for my boy to be disqualified because his sheet music doesn't satisfy the rules, but his teacher is quite laid back and doesn't seem to be concerned. I've read the syllabus and rules, but they are silent concerning improvisation classes. Many thanks for any guidance you can provide!

SuspendedinGaffa, would it be possible for you to contact the organisation directly? I was in a situation similar to yours, although it was for auditions not festivals. Their website stated strict rules about copyright. I phoned them up and explained the reason why we didn't and couldn't have the original score. They explained the reason why they had to put the strict notes on the website, but then was flexible enough to understand exception. My DS went for the audition without the original score and all was fine. I think it's best to clear any concern with the organisation directly. They often have more flexible approach when talked in person, I guess. Plus, you don't want to keep thinking 'if' till the x-day.

Hello everyone, just wanted some advice about music scholarships for year 7.

Some of the schools want multiple references so I was going to ask the school music teacher and DDs instrumental teachers.

However one of the references is a longish form. Who do you think should fill it out, the school music teacher (runs the choir, orchestra etc) or the main instrumental teacher.

No idea how to complete all this stuff. Any advice much appreciated!

Hi charis - if one of the forms is longer than the other, it's surprising they don´t specify WHO should fill it. We gave in forms from his instrumental teachers and also a couple of forms filled by people running music courses he had participated in. As he was in a state primary, there was no school music teacher per se... Does your child partcipate in many music activities in the school? in which case, the school music teacher may be the one as he/she can talk about your child's level of participation and commitment - something schools will be glad to hear about. Another way to decide is to ask yourself, based on what you know and the referees involved, who is more likely to write a good glowing positive reference.