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.

loose glad to hear he's feeling better.
It sounds as if minifleur is really on form! And waffle don't worry too much, it's early days and Year 7 is about finding your place and yourself in the midst of so much change, new people and new environment. Soon she'll realize she's the queen on the party.
Jd started yesterday. Friendly place and I feel happy, reassured DS had chosen best for him. And I had a chance of meeting kutik and minikutik who so was delightful, smart and mature.
Ain't I lucky

Poor Goo with the braces, she'll be grateful though that everything has been fixed when it is all over.

I am sure school matters will be sorted, it is a difficult year and it will take a while to fully settle, hang in there.

I am dreading year 7 with dd as she is already quiet and keeps her head down.

drummers JD sounds good and meeting Kutik and mini must have been fun.

Regarding dd she barely practised this summer, we had good intentions a few times but seeing that she only had one lesson during the holidays it was hard to keep her engaged. It's funny but she obviously needed the break as by the end of yesterday's lesson her piano teacher was praising her focus and effort and telling her how much her music Reading improved and her playing in the last few months. I said to her that I am a bit surprised as there was barely any practice and she said that she sees that a lot and sometimes you need a break for your brain to process what it has learnt.

fleur I have a friend who's a pianist and she said the same. I observed the same jump after a holiday. She said the brain keeps processing the music even if you don't actually play it.

I am not too worried about Goo. She will find her feet, and she'll be pushed eventually. She is a funny mixture... she's SO sensitive/ emotional and not very resilient in some ways, but very capable in everything that matters (apart from buttering her own bread, which she can't do yet) and I know there is a confident child under all that angst.

I am worried for Rara. She is terrified of going to school. We got her over the rough transition, and now a new fear has cropped up, as well as old ones resurfacing. Will email or speak to one of her teachers tomorrow.

drummers, so glad DS didn't talk much so managed to give you such positive impression! It was such an honor to meet drummers family yesterday. I must confess I kept peeping minidrummers during the talk, checking if he was real! I felt like I met a celebrity. He was as delightful as I expected. Can't wait to see him on stage in real. We are also very happy with our choice. It was such a friendly and happy place. For those who are interested, apparently 52 children aged 7-18 yo entered this academic year.

Waffle, I feel for you and Rara. DS didn't have a good start last year, though we couldn't find what exactly happened. All we knew was he was not happy at school. All seems fine at the moment, though he doesn't tell me everything.

Sympathy waffle. I hope it works out,

We have G4 violin in 3 weeks. The teacher says there is still work to be done on the pieces. Now I'm feeling apprehensive

Goo went to her CAT for a new academic year's introductory day. It's her 4th year. The group used to have around 36 children, nearly all teenagers, but it's all been re-structured. There were 15 of them today (12 boys and 3 girls!) aged 11-15, so that's a bit better. Most were guitar and drum players - very few orchestral instruments, so Goo was arm-twisted into playing various solos. She did it, and said it was better than she remembered! She now needs to get her geography homework done. There have been 17 homeworks given out during her past 7 school days, and this is number 17, hurrah!

Oh wow, 17 homeworks already...? I'm so dreading to think of DS moving to secondary school...

Waffle I feel for Rara, I was a child who used to get psychosomatic stomach ache as I hated school for a few years and nobody believed me properly. People thought I was trying to fake a sickie when in fact I can still remember the pain. I don't remember when it went though.

I hope Rara gets over her worries.

se22 already exam dates for the autumn term? That's come around quick. Good luck!

drummers good to hear dd's teacher isn't talking rubbish, I was a bit baffled when she was praising her playing improvement. What I can measure and see though is the maturity and determination shown. Like there's new energy coming from her.

I envy you Kutik and drummers for meeting up, I want to be part of the clan

I just can't picture DS doing so much homework. He's got a dad who doesn't allow DS to do homework/study at weekend... DH firmly believes children should be outside ALWAYS... I don't think his view will change in a year.

Ha ha kutik if you could see the size of his pasta plate at dinner you wouldn't wonder whether he's real.
Wow waffle that's a heavy start with the homework. I hope they're brief!

We knew exactly what we were getting with this school (the local state comprehensive). She'll get used to it, and there will be slightly less homework in Year 8. I'm encouraging her to do 60-90 minutes each weekday night, so that she can finish off the rest on either Saturday or Sunday, and go out on the other day. Last weekend we went out for the afternoon on Saturday, and today she managed to go to SWMS for the day. Just a geography poster left to do. We have had reading activities, maths research, maths investigations and calculations, build a cell model for biology, make an adjective poster for German, learn German numbers for a test, learn a German conversation (and all the spellings for the words), a DT safety poster, a geography poster, some reading for PE and Art, gather ingredients for Food lesson this week, research designs for a children's lamp, writing a paragraph about a music club she has tried, and I forget what else...

OMG what a list.

Wow at the amount of homework!

We've upped her game since school started as I want dd to start doing more organised work rather than just play all day so she gets 3 maths pages to do a day (takes about 30-45 min) and now she has to do music theory also, I ask her to read a couple of pages a day from the book and then I ask her random questions.

Once the grade 4 and 5 Eric Taylor books turn up I will assign her a couple of pages a day too.

She obviously also has to do her music practice and read but somehow there seems to be enough time to do it all and get a bit of spare time. Weekends are more relaxed.

Hopefully she'll get used to more structured work till next September.

None of this is helped by the fact that Goo didn't do any work in Year 6. Her weekly homework (five pages of English and maths stuff) used to take 5-10 minutes, total.

Fleur it is a special entry. I'd prefer it later in the term to polish the pieces more

So it's a good thing then that DS started receiving daily homework in Y6. The school used to be very relaxed but rumor says some parents complained that they didn't help children prepare for secondary school. DS is used to do multi-tasking due to his busy life. But we never had a structure so there was no fixed time for homework and so on. He just did it when he could. Now I feel we have to have more structured timetable, knowing when to do homework and music practice. Otherwise, we'll always have a panicky Sunday.

drummers, I'll get used to it and accept that your DS is a real thing. But not yet! He still is THAT amazing boy in the videos for me. I'll try not to stare him, promise.

Blimey, DS2 is mostly just decorating exercise books at the moment. DS1 has maths! DS1 loves maths so there isn't an issue about that. He's a bit odd when it comes to numbers. I'm a words person. We understand each other, though!
Kutik although I'm not sporty I think your DH is right! I am also very envious because I would be peeping at youngdtummer as well!
Waffle I know several children who have been like Rara but all for different reasons. In each case, school dealt with it very well. I was like Fleur says for quite a while and very OCD at primary school. Probably the opposite end of the spectrum these days but it took a long time to stop being a worrier! And I totally sympathise.

Cheque handed over for G6 theory, definitely DS2's decision so he'll have to crack on. Don't suppose it will do him any harm to have a crack at a L3 exam anyway.

Organ teacher wants to enter him for Grade 5 organ next summer. I mentioned that Grade 8 piano is planned for then, he said DS2 will need to start work in good time then! I have decided not to mention this to the piano teacher, who is already reminding DS he will need to be practising 2 hours a day on the run up.

He had 5 baby teeth out on Thursday, which unfortunately was also the first day he was allowed to play his brass trombone after his fracture. He is still building up playing time, so I'm not sure if he'll manage the Inspire day this weekend.

Thanks for the good luck message Fleur. However no audtion required for Inspire. The days are first come - first served. The residentials require a written application with things like 3 things you want to improve, performance you've enjoyed most.

Waffle poor Rara. Hope you find out soon what the problem is.

raspberry she is scared of being humiliated during sport. She's also scared of a teacher they have once a week, drawing attention to herself, singing, dancing and doing actions.

Poor Rara, hope she will adapt to yr5 soon. Mine is also overwhelmed with yr5. She doesnt want to think that there are only 2 yrs left with her current friends. We unfortunately have a year with 3 part time teachers which feels like non of them will focus on us enough. It will take time for them all to settle down I think.

Raspberry: we wanted to do another theory exam too, however in ...many years, we will do g8. Good luck to yours.

Very jealous with Drummers and Kutik, I want to join the clan too.

Fleur: nice to hear the first lessons went well!

Loose: we are the same this weekend, home work was to decorate the home work books hahaaha, which suits some one just fine.

I'm so behind on this thread! The start of term and return to work have me running to try and keep up. There seems to be an endless stream of forms to fill in and meetings to attend at one or other of the schools - I'm never sure if I am up to date.

Waffle I hope everything settles down for your girls soon. DD1 was still being told in Y9 that she needed to contribute more in class, particularly in languages. She hates getting things wrong in front of people. DD2 will, I'm sure, be even worse when she gets to secondary.

There's still an outside chance that I might bump into Kutik at the next NCO Regional rehearsal. Will you be at that one Kutik? I wasn't at the last one as we manage to lift share, but it's our turn next time.

Poor Rara. I can relate too the sport totally.

Yes, Double, 99% we will be there. Love to bump into you and your mini. Let's get in touch nearer to the day. Mind you my sport mad DH may also be there. He doesn't normally come, and if comes he just reads a book. But he said he wouldn't want to miss the last rehearsal. Zero idea why. He really doesn't pay any attention to DS's musical side. He even didn't come to RCM, and doesn't really know what DS is doing there and why's for.