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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

September Music Thread

665 replies

Wafflenose · 01/09/2017 01:01

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.

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drummersmum · 18/09/2017 20:01

minifleur of course!!!! StarStarStar

Doubleup · 18/09/2017 20:11

Well done miniFleur and good luck with the audition next week!

Welcome back Woolley - glad to hear that your mini is able to continue with bassoon. DD2 is off at a Y6 residential all week, so no bassooning here. Mind you DD1 has a friend staying over tonight so there won't be much practice going on at all. She needs to pull her finger out as she has 3 weeks until her music scholars'concert at school and I'm not sure what she is playing. I think she has decided on oboe rather than sax, but that is as far as it has got.

Icouldbeknitting · 18/09/2017 20:17

You can give that F5 finger a rest then now Fleur. Fingers crossed now for stage two.

stringchild · 18/09/2017 20:37

Fleur sounds brilliant; very best of luck

Greenleave · 18/09/2017 20:43

Well come back Woolley!

And Fleur, wonderful news, I am so hapy for you and miniFleur!

Mistigri · 18/09/2017 21:16

Excellent news fleur.

Not much practice tonight ... DD is miffed that her teacher has banned pedalling when playing Bach.(DD's instinct is to play everything as if she was playing Chopin.)

AlexandraLeaving · 18/09/2017 21:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Minimusiciansmama · 18/09/2017 21:27

alexandra I'm sorry to hear that sad news. I haven't suggestions but am sending love x

Wafflenose · 18/09/2017 21:31

I am so, so sorry to hear this, Alexandra. Take care of yourself. xxx

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Greenleave · 18/09/2017 21:33

Oh Alex, I am so so sorry to hear!!! Lots of hugs and love from the Green's.

Trumpetboysmum · 18/09/2017 21:47

So sorry to hear your news Alex take care x

LooseAtTheSeams · 18/09/2017 21:54

Alex very sorry to hear your sad news. Take care of yourself. xxx

girlwhowearsglasses · 18/09/2017 22:02

Thank you alex and sorry to hear your news, thanks for the wave

Doubleup · 18/09/2017 22:14

I'm really sorry to hear that Alex. You'll find that it's a time of really mixed emotions - sadness that she's gone and laughter as you remember little moments and stories.

For my dad's funeral, we had a medley of Scottish songs, then as he had been a farmer we had Morning Has Broken which seemed apt and another hymn, the name of which evades me at the moment. DD2 played Gabriel's Oboe (on her oboe and I'm not sure how she did it) and he was piped out of the church to another Scots song, the words of which were written by a relative in Victorian times. I don't know if any of that is helpful, but I hope everything goes well. I'll be thinking of you.

TheSecondOfHerName · 18/09/2017 22:50

Alexandra I'm so sorry to hear about your mum.

Well done to miniFleur on getting through to the next round. DS2 said there were three people on the panel and they were 'friendly and nice'.

TheSecondOfHerName · 18/09/2017 22:53

Just seen on the local Facebook thread that the consortium forgot to give any of the successful MAT candidates a time for their audition slot.

Icouldbeknitting · 18/09/2017 22:54

Alexandra I am so sorry. I have nothing helpful to offer regarding music, when my father died and then my father in law there was so much going on that I have no idea who chose the music or what it was. It was just a case of getting the family through the day.

Fleurdelise · 18/09/2017 22:56

So sorry to hear about your loss Alex, condolences! Sad

Thanks all and thank you for the detail TheSecond. Annoyingly they didn't post the appointments and now myself (and the entire 11+ forum Grin) are worrying the results were wrong. Basically it only said the pass mark and dd's marks, then the audition venue but no appointment date and time. The site is now down for maintenance which makes me believe they're updating it.

se22mother · 18/09/2017 23:36

Alex sorry for your loss.

Fleur well done and hopefully the audition will be straightforward.

Kutik73 · 19/09/2017 10:14

Alex, I'm very sorry for your loss. Your DS is so sweet that he tried to make her happy with his music. Sorry no helpful suggestion for the funeral music, but hope you'll find something special for your mum.

Kutik73 · 19/09/2017 10:31

Fleur, thanks for your kind support.

I applied for the music place at the open day yesterday so no details for the procedure yet. They said they would send out the details early next week. But I feel it's not going to be MAT from what I overheard. Some aural like ABRSM, and a short performance of your choice. So it sounds a bit like your DD's second round audition.

I am visiting the school requiring MAT this week. If DS and I like the school, then I'll beg my auntie Fleur for some practice advice!

At the moment, the school with MAT is my first choice as I liked what I heard about the school. I am hoping I still like it when I visit it. The school DS is auditioning next Friday is decent enough for what we could get but doesn't tick all the boxes. So I am hoping the school with MAT would be 'the one'. No child went to the school with MAT from our primary school, so it'll be a huge gamble, but still nice to have a choice.

Fleurdelise · 19/09/2017 10:56

TheSecond are you following what is happening with the consortium on FB?! I am so pissed off Angry (excuse my language).

I'll come back and explain later but basically they have withdrawn the results saying they may not have been correct and they shouldn't have been published yesterday. They were live for hours!!!

TheSecondOfHerName · 19/09/2017 11:16

I will go and look now. The thread was started by a friend of mine.

drummersmum · 19/09/2017 11:18

Alex so sorry about news, sending all my love Flowers
Fleur that's so so so unacceptable!!!!!!!!!.
kutik I will pm you details regarding next week's audition.
girlwho welcome and hope someone can help you, DS has never been a chorister!

TheSecondOfHerName · 19/09/2017 11:21

That's awful! 😲
I really think that whatever the correct results, they should honour the original results they published and offer an audition to every child who they originally said qualified for one.

They should also apologise for making an error which messes with ten year olds' hopes and plans for the next seven years.