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Extra-curricular activities

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

October Music Thread

486 replies

Wafflenose · 01/10/2017 01:18

Hello, I just fell asleep in front of a very long film that DH wanted to watch, and woke up in October! I couldn't resist starting the new thread before going to sleep properly.

The monthly music threads are welcome to ALL, and we really like hearing from new contributors and beginner musicians. We have all levels on here. It's a good place to discuss instruments, lessons, practice, exams, auditions and anything else that you want to.

I am a teacher of recorder, clarinet, saxophone and flute, and have two daughters. Goo is 11 and plays the flute and piano. She is planning to do exams on both next year, but none just now because she's just started at the secondary school 2 miles down the road, which has a great reputation for music and sport, and is extremely academic. They study four languages in Year 7 - Goo has just finished her unit on German (by the end of three weeks, they could write three substantial paragraphs - I couldn't believe it!) and is now embarking on Mandarin.
She's thrown herself into choir, orchestra, steel band, flute group and the gym. Rara is 9 and has been playing the cello since the age of 5, and clarinet for a year. She enjoys both, but is happiest when she's reading or cutting up paper/ making things out of paper! Rara has plenty of free time because she attends the village school five minutes away, and hardly gets any homework.

Goo attends South West Music School, which is the nearest thing we have to a JD in the south west. Rara is just about to join! Not too much on musically this term (and not a lot of practice taking place, quite honestly) apart from auditioning for the NCO. Goo has been in it for the past three years, and is hoping for Under 12s. After a wobble about even auditioning, she seems quietly confident now.

OP posts:
Greenleave · 18/10/2017 07:52

Wow Drummers, fantastic news, fingers crossed for the next round!!!

Mistigri: hahaha, he doesnt stop now does he?

LooseAtTheSeams · 18/10/2017 07:54

Misti that’s very funny - most families I know talk about switching the WiFi off because of their teens. Looks like you have a slightly different problem!Smile

Xennialish · 18/10/2017 08:22

And well done to drummerson...hope the practice doesn’t drive you bonkers before the big day!

raspberryrippleicecream · 18/10/2017 20:55

Xennialish we didn't. DS2 got totally caught up in the open jazz rehearsals and was more interested in that. And DS1 came with us, and we had to get him back to uni for his own Big Band concert that evening, so we ran out of time.

We did spend a good bit of time in the academic department talking to the departments of the A levels DS2 thinks he would like to do, very impressed with those too.

Xennialish · 18/10/2017 21:37

Ah, the wind department is brilliant, and the whole school is a really friendly place.

Wafflenose · 19/10/2017 10:14

It's gone very quiet in here... have these threads run their course?

OP posts:
LooseAtTheSeams · 19/10/2017 10:36

Not sure why so quiet - maybe no one has exams or the NCO thread is the hot topic?
I did just want to mention our school PTA has come to the rescue as far as GCSE composing is concerned - they agreed to pay for much-needed software. Our secondary school like many others is facing some tough choices. Even though we’re in one of the boroughs in London that actually stands to gain from the funding formula change, there have been so many unfounded changes the school will just about manage to maintain staff levels.

Nigglenotes · 19/10/2017 11:43

Half term next week, so busy tired week, I think. We are counting the days to county orchestra auditions on Saturday and NCO next week. And grade 5 theory the week after. Just trying to keep it all going and make sure the pieces are ready. DD having a wobble over Bohm's Sarabande.

Helenluvsrob · 19/10/2017 11:46

Happy birthday goo and well done mini drummers !

Helenluvsrob · 19/10/2017 11:47

Good luck respberry junior!

Nigglenotes · 19/10/2017 12:04

Also, can't have run their course. I just got here!

Pradaqueen · 19/10/2017 12:06

Good luck mini raspberry and well done drummers son!

Half term here, had a lovely chamber music evening at school just before we broke up need to catch up on practice though 😱

Wafflenose · 19/10/2017 12:07

Fair enough, recent spate of posts LOL! We've had a music thread for 6 years and peaked at around 1000 posts per month. Maybe it's just a quiet patch.

Much angst over NCO programme at the moment. Why am I not surprised?

OP posts:
Icouldbeknitting · 19/10/2017 12:12

I appear to have deleted my post, nothing new there then. I am desperate for it to be half term but we're not there quite yet.

Kutik73 · 19/10/2017 14:09

I've got a bad cold and so have DS. He couldn't go to school yesterday. It's been like that since the end of September, and all the important auditions/tests have been happening during those sickly times. Sigh...

DS has done his last audition at secondaries today. Poor him, he didn't have much voice. And it was for his first choice.

Life is tough!

To be honest, I'm glad the audition marathon is finally over. All is done, and we are so ready to move on to a new phase.

Kutik73 · 19/10/2017 14:10

One more day to go, then we have a week long holiday.

Minimusiciansmama · 19/10/2017 14:22

I'm sure come autumn exams, Christmas concerts, and results from all the various things this thread will zoom along again.....

We are still settling into JD and negotiating various teething issues with that. She's having an amazing time though, which is the biggest thing. We are starting to think about concert and festival pieces, which includes some fun duet stuff. We are looking forward to half term though we've another full week to go

LooseAtTheSeams · 19/10/2017 17:19

Half-term officially next week but inset day tomorrow - and I don’t teach on Fridays so looking forward to it!
Kutik hope you and MiniKutik are feeling much better soon. Fingers crossed for good results, too!
DS1 is playing at a class recital today but no real news on music front. DS2 seems to be loving guitar, though!

Kutik73 · 19/10/2017 19:48

Thank you Loose. DS is so looking forward to the orchestral workshop next week. But he has got to be well enough to be able to enjoy the intensive programme. It's a full day x 3 days plus a concert.

It seems a guitar fever is spreading on this thread! Grin

stringchild · 19/10/2017 20:10

Waffle and Trumpet - we have had a nice eve finally watching the U12s DVD; they really did a good job didn't they!

LooseAtTheSeams · 20/10/2017 12:11

I do hope he's well enough Kutik - it sounds just his sort of thing. Yes, guitar fever seems to be a thing! Bass guitar fever became an obsession of sorts. I'm hoping it will pay off with a nice mark in GCSE music, anyway.
Feeling slightly stressed by all the GCSE information the school emailed to me but as far as I can tell DS1 is on target with coursework and the mocks don't start until the end of November. I've got a feeling time will whizz by after Christmas!

drummersmum · 20/10/2017 13:03

We have two weeks off. Not much fun, he's been practising and doing GCSE work. It's going to be a very tough year. Loving JD here too mini!
waffle personally, the older he gets, the less I have to share or ask in this thread. It's completely out of my hands now, half the time I don't know what's going on, even though I ask. He's independent, in charge of everything re music, his practice, etc. He even buys all sticks and mallets with his pocket money. He just had a chat with his wonderful drums teacher on the phone regarding the tracks for the comp final. I was not part of the conversation, and nor should I be. I believe everyone here with young children will experience something similar when they grow older... This combined with my workload doubling right now, is the reason I'm not posting as much!

Orangecase · 20/10/2017 15:11

Hello. This is my first post in the thread although I posted the same question the other day in the extra-curricular activities. Where I did not receive any response, hence I'm here.
My quesiton is: is there anyone who has an experience with National Youth String Orchestra and their intermediate course?
While there are millions of posts about NCO, there is none about NYSO.
It'd be great if someone would give me some info. Thank you!

LooseAtTheSeams · 20/10/2017 15:40

NYSO looks fabulous - unfortunately DS2 would need to go up another grade before we can even consider it! Hope you get some responses though.

Trumpetboysmum · 20/10/2017 15:58

String they did a great job in the summer and we've also enjoyed watching the dvd😀 Ds even showed his teacher his Conga del Fuego solos which I think he was quietly impressed with ( in typical style he went on about how impressive the string players were !!) sorry I haven't been around much lots going on here as usual. Ds had a really enjoyable AYM weekend last weekend focussing on composing and is away with them Monday to Friday next week ( so no holiday for him !! Though he says he's looking forward to it- only time will tell if music courses every holiday proves to be too much) . Poor dd has been ill all week with some sort of bug and so having made loads of progress with cornet and piano has done no practice. I think she's starting to feel better - hope so we're off to Harry Potter studios next week for her birthday treat