November Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

New month, new thread! This is a place for musicians and parents of musicians, from complete beginners to experienced and everything in between, to talk about everything to do with music! Previous threads have covered exams, practice, scales, instrument hire and purchase, theory, composition, aural woes, auditions, scholarship preparation and much more.

I started these threads when my 12 year old daughter Goo was 6 and preparing for Grade 1. I never thought we'd still be going, 6 years later! I appreciated all the advice I was given back then, and try to repay that when I can.

Goo plays the flute and piano (she has been learning the piano for 18 months but has yet to perform - ever) and has no exams lined up at the moment. I also have Rara who is 9, and working towards her third Grade 3, on the clarinet. The other two were on the cello and recorder. She's more interested in art and reading, and currently swims five times a week.

I am a teacher of woodwind, and Wednesday is my day from you-know-where... full-on from 6.30 am until 10 pm, and about to get worse!!

Re the importance of keyboard skills, I totally agree, drummers.

Luckily DS likes plunking the piano also, but mainly for recreation purpose rather than diligent study. He will keep up piano, and may want to try jazz or something, but only to the level where it won't interfere other important stuff.

I think he is nearly reaching a point where his keyboard skills are sufficient enough to pick and play something he fancies without too much of frustration. Today he was playing Beethoven's Sonata he recently started learning. His playing was rather nice for ears.

We are currently eating cake before ds's next concert I've sent him with lots of food so hoping he remembers to eat before playing!! He slept in the car on the way here having been away with AYM . I always knew November would be a bit crazy but he seems really happy and content - long may that last

@Minimusiciansmama not precisely the question you asked but royal ballet junior associates is Sunday in Manchester I think.

Also, there’s a girl in my dd’s class at music school who arrived in year 6 and was a grade six ballet dancer then and I think is still dancing so weirdly that path could actually leave more options to continue dance as the music is done within normalish school hours.

Kutik; Years 7 and 8 homework was relatively light. Could be done in breaks/lunch/after school. Yes music rehearsals take place during these times also (and mornings before registration), and certain clubs of interest, or choir as example, had to be forfeited as there were too many clashes, or not enough 'free' times for he to manage.

Y9 is a little more challenging, but, when it's not a competition weekend, she is free from 10am on Sat through to Monday am and can pick up the longer essay type home works then. For those that do JD/music activities, you'll know what a whole day on this with travelling feels like, so I guess it swings in roundabouts. In the week she leaves early to get a music room in the morning, even if it's 35 mins before she's kicked out by a music teacher, it's better than nothing, otherwise, she'd be commuting with the volume and this stresses her out, especially on a busy transport line.

Food - she'd never compromise, and even considers pudding loss sacrilege ! Eats in between school and swim session (lots of choice where school is), from a panini, pizza slice to carluccio's/wasabi type food, and will study in library or at a friends and then set off for session.

She eats again with us (a proper meal) as near to walking through the door, getting ready for next day whilst it's being prepared. It is most certainly not ideal, as we now eat around 9.30pm (latest), then she's off to bed (on a full stomach), but meal proportions are now reduced. A full fat chocolate drink is given to her when I pick her up from swimming in car...that's when I get my main download of day (which she cannot go on her phone to respond to pals UNTIL she's had a conversation with me!).

Sorry for the over detail. I miss the days also of not shooing her up to bed with worries over indigestion, but this is how it's been for over 2 years. There's been 2 times only where we've had a crisis of homework needing to be done and she's still up at 10.30pm. But I also hear stories of other families who regularly have this AND have children that are on their social media till all hours, so I accept the status quo that we have!

Wow, Trumpet, sounds exhausting but so exciting!

earling, thank you for the details! It really helps me prepare for the next stage. Hopefully we can find our rhythm also.

We are having a rather relaxing Sunday today.

Morning
DS woke up and enjoyed a bit of digital time (weekend treat), had breakfast, homework (10 mins...), then off to play footy with friends and daddies. Came home, shower and rest. Then played the piano while waiting to be called for lunch.

A massive Sunday lunch all swallowed and consumed leaving our stomach impossibly unattractive.

Afternoon
After a bit of rest, DS practised violin. Now boys are off to a local swimming pool with friends. They have fantastic diving boards which make those boys totally crazy. I sometimes think DS could have taken up diving seriously. He is very good at it.

Evening
We are planning to have light dinner then watch Blue Planet (recorded one). DH and DS will probably disappear to DS's room nearer to DS's bedtime. They close the door and have a long chat or read books or no idea what they do but I often hear lots of giggles (sometimes DH tells DS naughty things he did when he was a child and DS loves it...). DH doesn't see DS during weekdays so it's a precious time for them. I leave them alone, and normally I won't see DS till tomorrow morning!

That's a lovely arrangement your DH and DS have going kutik

Luckily ds still off loads to me first thing after school ( I'll miss it when he stops) NCO concert was great ( now having dinner) trumpet got his very high top notes ( just !!) and watching him I thought he was going to pass out before hand but he says it was just a massive adrenaline rush !! on realising that he had to hit the high notes - luckily he thrives under pressure I don't !! So I'm now having wine to recover from thinking we'd taken on too much . Will be home very late but hey!!

Very behind on thread but sending hugs to young drummer - really hope he and his friend are ok. Also to poor miniealing - hope all’s well for Tuesday.
We manage to all eat together just over half the week but Monday and Tuesday are split shifts in term time!
Kutik love the idea of the boys giggling conspiratorially together.

Enjoy the wine trumpet; and cheers to him being totally in control (even we have our doubts)!

Flootoot and other Opera people in the know.

I want to buy some tickets for next year, looking at feb half term time.

We have seen lots of Opera North productions and want to see a large production, possibly with a big female name.

Looking for recommendations and for somewhere to stay that is pretty budget priced.

We can't afford the most expensive seats, can anyone advise as to where the cut off is between good and not so good seats would be.

Would love for it to be just perfect for dd, but have to be realistic with costs. I know it won't be cheap, but part of Christmas/Birthday present.

xennialish that's actually a combination we are thinking about. Music school plus Manchester JAs and an RAD dance school would be her dream scenario I think. We have to see how her JA audition goes!

As someone else said, the advantage it feels to us of specialist school would be putting more of the music into her day, rather than the huge juggle it is now. And a school set up to support them in that instead of one where we are almost working against them.

There are some amazing state schools nationally. None of them are available to us locally! The options we would have suck.

I hope it doesn't sound stalky (as I don't post much) but she does sound like she would fit in great!

DS2 did 5 lessons for 1 term last year, but always knew he'd have to choose at the end of it. He was doing piano, clarinet, trombone, voice and added organ. He dropped clarinet at the end of term and then voice in the summer. Voice never really impacted on practice time because he did most of his singing at Cathedral Choir anyway.

Its definitely taken him longer to progress than if he had played fewer (and also not been in the Cathedral Choir) but he has enjoyed it.

He is starting euphonium next week, free school music GCSE lessons, but it is totally just for fun and experience.

Good luck miniealing !

drummers - what a horrible experience for your son and his friends. Hope they are feeling better about it.

Woolley - how was the Big Double Reed Day? Did your DD enjoy it? Both my DDs got a lot out of it today with DD2 being brave enough to play in her performance class. She said "I knew you'd be a bit cross if I didn't play so I decided just to have a go". She's very shy, so it was a big thing for her - coupled with the fact that she has only had the piece for 10 days, so very much a work in progress. Her teacher said that the person who had taken the performance class was very complimentary about her playing, so that put a big smile on her face . Meanwhile, DD1 was fold she had good intonation, so she was pretty pleased with the day too.

gilly, I can only talk about ROH in Covent Garden as that's where we normally go. My sport mad DH is actually a great opera lover (surprisingly...). We sometimes buy the balcony tickets as it's not too expensive yet still great views.

Double
How lovely to hear that your DDs enjoyed and did very well at the Big Double Reed Day. What's an experience for little musicians.

It seems more people with older DCs still manage to eat together in the evening than I anticipated. I hope we can manage also. I just don't know how often unexpected, unplanned events come up at secondary school. My friend's DD started secondary this year, and in theory her DD is supposed to have enough time for homework/music practice/family time after school, but she was complaining that somehow something keeps coming up and things haven't been handled as planed. She says there are lots of new skills DD has to gain and get used to. For instance, she is supposed to check her homework information (submit day and so on) online. It shouldn't take more than a few mins then she can just get on with her actual homework. But somehow it takes ages for her to go through and pick the information she needs to gather. Small things like that end up pilling up and eating up any spare time.

Gillybeanz , if you fancied a trip to Cardiff, WNO is doing Tosca next February. There isn't really a bad seat in the Millenium Centre - I'm not a fan of heights but even the gods aren't too awful. Obviously, all tickets are cheaper than London prices, and there's a Future Inn and Travelodge close by.

Well, Kutik, maybe (well, definitely) I am more disorganised than others here, but we struggle. I try at least on Sundays to have dinner together but often don't succeed. Just had a quick count and 3dc together have about 30-35 hours /week with outside school activities/volunteering/parttime jobs (excluding travel time and competitions).
Older dc prefer to eat at the end of the day, while that's too late for the youngest one.

As far as practising music goes, they all prefer to do lots of things rather than concentrating on a few things. That has resulted in eg dc not being as far advanced in music as some of dc here, but that's what they preferred.

NCO results by Email this year- not out yet obviously.

We have an advantage though. We both work at home and can fit the hours whenever (which means we work Saturdays and Sundays...) But it also means we can eat when DS can eat. And I cook a lot because that's the culture I was brought up in.
Although sometimes I really don't feel like it...

found..., with 3 active DCs with different commitment, I don't think no one see you any less organised.

Re, doing lots of things rather than concentrating on a few things, it reminds me my friend's boy who does different sport every single day. His keepy uppy may not be as refined as his friends dreaming to be a footballer so practising crazily, or he may stay at stage 5 a bit longer than those who are in a squad and swim most days, but it's a small price for what he is getting. He loves all he does (I suspect he wants to try more but unfortunately we have only 7 days a week). His parents want him to be active physically, so it ticks their box.

My obsession with having a proper dinner together is partly because of my upbringing but also partly because we are such a small family without any relatives nearby and having DH always away means it's mostly DS and me during weekdays. It can be too dry without any family meal time.

Hi Double, dd had a great time at Big Double Reed Day, thank you so much for the suggestion!

She found the performance class a little boring, they ran out of time for her to play but the rest of the day she was very enthusiastic about. As for me, I'm so proud that she managed to find her way round all day etc and have a good time despite knowing absolutely no one. She has had anxiety issues in the past so this felt truly massive!

It was also a good time to remember that music is fun after our clarinet experiences of the last week.

The latest e mail from her teacher is a little more positive, and also leads me to believe that she may have stuff going on in life, so I will give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

I'm feeling guilty about the practice that dd can get, sometimes I know I could give more but working 40 plus hours a week and being a single parent, it's not always easy.

I'm a relatively surprising turn of events here, dd has become absolutely insistent that she will do the grade 4 exam, maybe because I have given her the option not to...

She practiced for two hours tonight, and a lot of it sounded worthwhile, so I've said we will decide at the end of the weekend, we shall see.