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.

Thank you everyone, she didnt resign instead asking £20 increase in the £50/1hr fee so she could take a cab to Hammersmith and reach her home in a reasonable time. I dont think it was a fair and sustainable offer, she is good though and we like her. She said many ambitious and nice things about miniGreen playing plan too.

Se22, I experienced a bow snapping incident in the past too! It traumatised me deeply that I always keep two bows now. The spare bow has never been in use (luckily)..., but it just gives me peace of mind.

Green Hope everything will be sorted very soon for keen learner miniGreen.

DS had his very first full day at JD today (at last!). I was hoping he wouldn't be too tired. No worries needed! He told me he felt it was too short and wished there would have been more lessons!

DS especially loved the aural class because he was so good at it and the top dog in the class. He was always good at aural, but I didn't know this good. He is taking some aural tests for a music place at two state secondaries very soon. They wouldn't allow children to play any piece nor even talk about if they play any instrument/what standard, so being able to play two instruments at good standard didn't seem to be any advantage. But suddenly things seem to be quite promising! (fingers crossed!!!!)

Kutik that is reassuring to know. I'm still reeling from the shock, and the cost of a new, quality bow. Is your second bow of the same cost as the first? It would certainly give peace of mind.

Glad your ds enjoyed his first full day

Unfortunately, the second bow is a pretty cheap one. Would have been great if both had been equally good. But then, we may like to upgrade a bow when something happens, or may want a different type. So I didn't feel generous enough to buy two equally good ones! The spare bow is purely for emergency purpose and just to cover the gap till the expensive shopping trip to get a proper one. At least he can practise till then (coz you can't always go to a violin shop next day, sometime you don't have time for a good few weeks).

Rara has a spare bow, but she hasn't had a spare in the past. It just so happened that her newish half size cello came with two. She doesn't like one of them - it's a bit too big and heavy for her, but I sometimes use it when she's not looking!

Waffle - you are having a sneaky cello play! brilliant!

Kutik - yes i am not sure a shortened day really works for all the younger enthusiastic JD attendees; can see why some might prefer it but i think the adrenaline and excitement means they can cope with a long day (and then crash at home, hence why i am here on a sat night....)

Lol string yes, I've kept up with Rara.

Traumatised so badly by the snapping incident, I got a carbon one for DS as it's much stronger and child (boy?) friendly in that sense. Although he can now tells the difference between wooden ones and carbon ones and def prefers wooden ones, I've been telling him I wouldn't consider getting him a wooden (expensive) one until he proves me he can take care of it and treats it nicely (and stop drawing some imaginary pictures on the floor or tapping me out of annoyance with it).

string, DS's lesson hours are only an hour shorter than those older ones although definitely much shorter than those with multiple instruments (DS has his piano lessons outside of JD). The adrenaline lasted up until now - he kept having fun with his piano and violin since we got back home and I just had to drag him away from the loud piano to let him have shower! He is now singing in shower....

Kutik I like the sound of carbon bows as I am deeply traumatised too. Any particular stockist you recommend?

I got it from Old Violin Workshop. They have a good bow maker working for them. But also Matthew in Ealing has huge selections to choose from. Carbon bows are usually reasonable so you can get good performance quality for the same price as fairly basic wooden ones. But it certainly lacks 'colours', so I'm hoping we don't need to consider it when DS moves to full sized violin (but he has to prove he deserves a nice wooden one).

When we went full size violin shopping at Woodbridge violins in the Summer, miniprada had a selection of 6 bows (unpriced so she didn't know) ranging from £140-640. She preferred one at £180 which was a relief given that the violin itself was already £'000s. However she has hypermobility so a weighty bow does not suit her at the moment. Woodbridge will send out bows on approval for future reference.

Good luck Kutik for the next round of tests!

Green - if you like the teacher would you not consider a lesson including taxi fare every two weeks and the maybe a Skype session in between? Just a thought.

Miniprada has been invited over the weekend to participate in a chamber music 'piano trio' with two other (non music scholar classmates) by the music department. Honestly I am loving how much different music is available to her with so many different opportunities. She's also doing Alexander technique after school for two hours this week. I also love the fact that at dinner the other night her friends t shirt read 'forget about princess I want to be an Astro-physist'

Glad to hear your Saturday music school went well. How was your open day viewing? Do you like the school?

Did you get a new bow today se22? Many shops close on Sunday. It took us a good 1 week to get used to the new violin also new bow. However we didnt have pressure of exam and we didnt practise much and moving from 1/2 to 3/4. I need to rehair mine and also get a spare one!

Reading Prada and Strings on Secondary music opportunity with so much hope and feeling there is a light at the end of the tunnel I am much hoping for, thank you. My husband is suggesting that we dont have to stretch we could drop 1 instrument. It doesnt work like that she is already "in" it. The enjoyment she gets from playing an Orchestra instrument is huge, not mentioning she loves her Sunday rehearsals.
Prada, great idea, will speak to her. I havent said yes or no yet, I asked her for her new address to see if we could come to her place on early Sunday morning lessons(8am). It was my last string as we value our weekend mornings being relaxed and lazy. However your idea works better. I was just gutted and angry at the time that we discussed about lessons, planning and we had 2 good lessons and she only tells us now. We agreed on the fee and adding £20 due to her circumstances change seems unfair to us.

New thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/extra_curricular_activities/3048062-October-Music-Thread

Hi green thanks - we have new bow . Hopefully it doesn't take long to get used to