October Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

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.

Schwanengesang thank you for remembering. He took it at a fair clip but I kept up. Performing it was exhilarating and I'm really glad I did it.

Update: DS1 definitely has a place at 6th form college!

Loose, I don't know how 6th form college entry works as no experience yet. But it must be great news? Congratulations!

DS had his MAT test today. He said it sounded like flute and was easy. His feedback is not always reliable but will find out if it's true or not very soon. The results should come in next Monday...

Hope Fleur is well? I would like to say thank you to you, Fleur, for all the generous advice.

@ xennialish I think organ is the most likely, so thank you for the tip. His organ teacher did sixth form there so is very enthusiastic!

Best of luck to miniKutik!

And HUGE congrats to miniLoose1, best reason to toast tonight!!!

Good news Loose

Hope the results go well Kutik

Strange experience at band this week, dd plays bassoon in the junior section and then clarinet in the senior section. I pick her up half way through senior band as 3.5 hours on a school night is a bit much otherwise. Band leader says to us both, when are you going to start playing your bassoon here, soon as possible I hope. We talk about it on the way home, dd knows she is way off the standard required for the band, and clarinet is still what she would prefer to be playing given the choice. A few hours later something click, so I ask dd, is the bassoon player at band from last year still there? "No, oooohhhhh" and it clicks for her too. She's a bit upset that they don't particularly want her, just a bassoon in the band!

Slightly sad experience here recently. We went to a lovely children's concert being given by a touring chamber group. DS loved it, they were awesome.

I had asked various people if they wanted to come along, and got a whole lot of comments along the lines of "we don't want our kids turning out like that thanks" — "that" apparently being entitled little performing monkeys. Same people happily take their kids to pretty much anything else, but classical music carries a very weird stigma. I did ask why the kids of one parent couldn't just enjoy the music but she didn't want her kids mixing with that kind of person.

So weird. and sad.

Can anyone do me a favour and tell me if the ABRSM theory workbooks teach chord progressions? I did grade 5 Theory many moons ago but only recall learning enormous lists of Italian terms, and scale degrees. I’m now covering chord progressions/wheel of fifths stuff with my new teacher and it explains SO much and I love a good system. I don’t recall having learnt it but I may have forgotten. Thanks!

In other news, I have tickets to take DD to Alexandra Dariescu’s The Nutcracker and I, and am trying to get us all to the Aurora Orchesra too

Kutik good luck for Monday’s results - sounds like it went very well!
The sixth form college was a lottery for us as we’re out of catchment. It turns out all his art and music friends seem to have a place too! We’re looking at another sixth form - a huge school one - that I think would suit him very well and if he’s offered a place there we can hold both and make a final decision when he’s got his gcse results. It’s a lot easier than choosing a secondary school at age 10.
He’s got gigs tonight and next Saturday! DH has muttered something about not being a taxi service!

Schwanen, that is rather sad. Is there a macho culture there? I guess their own parents were dismissive too, but it's such a shame not expose your kids to all kinds of music. I grew up in a rural backwater, but there were musicians who lived in the area ( and even more have moved there in recent years) and it somehow attracted many touring events from The Kings Singers to Scottish National Opera. My mum took us to anything and everything that came - and even my dad, a farmer, came most of the time, as did several of his farming, rugby playing friends. I am so grateful for that exposure.

oh October! I was lost in TennisLand, but now back on track with music :) and NCO audition in two weeks...

DS1 (13): horn preparing Grade 8 only instrument left with lessons; he did guitar grade 8; piano grade 5, but because of his tennis commitments/teenage he does not play them anymore.
DS2 (9): cello not doing grade until gets to Grade 7/8 standard; piano preparing Gr 5/6; horn grade 4 in July. But cello is his favourite and it shows.
DS3 (almost 7): violin about grade 2

All three play tennis daily and do tournaments. One is the current county champion, trying to get to nationals this season. But importantly music practice is back to normal now. We have chosen two pieces for NCO and now I'm looking for piano accompaniment.
Although I have not posted so a month or so, it is so good to read about what all the music minis and helps me get back on track and away from TennisLand :)

Schwan, as, possibly, the only other New Zealander on thread currently, I understand. Although I left 25 years ago. I still remember people thinking me weird for reading so much outside what was strictly required for school. There was a suspicion about taking in ideas that your peers didn't find necessary. With classical music perhaps it is the European patriarchal origins. Quite normal educated people in Nz can be oddly narrow. Also, high culture, don't go there!

The parents probably meant they want their children to fit in NZ culture. So wouldn't want to damage them with the "weird" stuff. Sport, on the other hand, is perfect.

Oh dear, you have set me off.. Also they don't stop to think that on Saturday mornings in NZ the sports fields are filled with "performing monkeys".

Excuse me, I have to go and sit on my hands.

loose very happy for you and him. What a relief to have one in the bag.

Thanks drummers! He’s looking carefully at places where jazz bass guitar might be considered an asset.
He did go to a super selective open evening just as a comparison but only a few people were at the music talk and apparently they would prefer a double bass to bass guitar, which is fair enough as I’m sure they already have double bass players anyway! At least he didn’t come back saying ‘Mum I need a double bass now!’ We spent the instrument budget on his brother’s cello!

Loose I must have wandered off without sending the reply I typed last night as it exists only in my mind. There were very few choices for us as he wanted A level music, it was 10 miles one way to a huge sixth form college that treats them as adults or 10 miles in the other direction to a faith school sixth form that treats them as children (including full uniform). I am certain that if he'd taken the school option he would come out with better results because they push them and push them hard. There will be no-one to push him after A levels so he might as well get used to it, the relaxed college atmosphere suits him down to the ground. He is happy there and I think he would have been miserable in the other setting (as I would have been, the temptation to send an email to the county education service detailing the multiple breaches of the admissions code was very strong)

We only had three places that offered A level music that he could actually get to, two of them said they offered it subject to numbers. The third laughed at that idea, said they hadn't had the numbers for it to be viable for over five years but ran it anyway because they believed that it was important to offer that choice.

ICouldBe Yes, we’re lucky to have any choice - and music A level does complicate things a lot. As it is, DS1 also wanted to do computer science, which is offered at his school and the one he’ll look at next week but not at the college. But the college treats them like adults, as you say, and it does get good results even if it’s not as pushy!

DS2's first choice is to apply for the sixth form at his current school, but needs very high grades to do the combination of subjects he wants. He is also applying for a couple of other local sixth forms which have slightly lower grade requirements.

Niggle argh yes. The fawning over performing monkey sports kids while disparaging academic achievement, particularly the teaching of Maori or foreign languages or music, gets up my nose a lot.

Don't get me wrong, I think exercise is very important, and sport has all sorts of benefits, but obsessing over whether your kid is playing on the regional rugby team aged 7, is not about exercise and loses sight of many of the social benefits of sport. This sort of elite-sport-mad culture means the vast majority drop out of any sort of exercise once they're clearly not a future Ritchie McCaw/Jonah Lomu.

Give me Parkrun, school music and community orchestras and choirs any day... with chances to do well for the talented, but the emphasis on general participation.

Doubleup - it's more as Niggle says, anti foreign high culture. We (and a very small number of other parents) are trying to be like your family, despite the fact we know this will make DS not "fit in". We aim to give him the social skills to cope with that though.... (and on current growth trajectory he will be fine as a heavyweight rower so will probably be sporty enough to fit in).

Today we got a letter from the school where DS sat a test for a science specialist place. DS got in the top 21 and secured a place ! It's his 5th or so choice so we can't open champagne yet. But what's a relief!

Not so great news is, DS's violin got so out of tune due to the recent strings change. Can't believe I let this happen before the audition for a music place at DS's 3rd choice and also NCO... I asked a shop to change all three (apart from E) a day before the audition...Why did I do that? What was I thinking of?!

Charmed by DD's enthusiasm for piano at the moment. She was playing for about an hour this morning all by herself (she's 5, we usually practice more like 10 minutes). She has a piece with a little bit of hands together for the first time, which she's very proud of. Loving the second instrument thing, there's so much I don't have to explain.

Eek Kutik. Lots of loud double stopping practice.

Oh dear kutik, yes, apparently they do need to "bed in" for best performance. But if they really needed changing..