December Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Have a new thread for December!

This is an ongoing chat group for musicians, parents of musicians and anyone interested in music. We talk about practice, scales, theory, instrument hire and purchase, concerts, exams, auditions and loads more. Newcomers and beginners are extra specially welcome - yes, a lot of us now have children who are getting quite advanced, but we all had beginners once. I started the conversation when my eldest was 6 and working towards Grade 1, and we now have learners of all ages and standards on here.

I am a teacher of woodwind, and have two daughters. Goo is 12 and in Year 7. She loves her new school, and has grown up fast since she started. The first few weeks were overwhelming and confusing. She loved the challenge of new subjects, new faces, lots of different sports, etc. Unfortunately, she is a poster child for complacency, is now finding it all very easy, and doing the bare minimum again, sigh. She extends this approach to music too, putting in a bit of effort at the last minute, and often making an eleventh hour bid to change piece for important performances. She is gregarious, intense and obsessed with her phone. Oops, I forgot to say, she plays the flute and piano. Grade 8 flute is pencilled in for some time next year (teacher is campaigning to wait until train tracks come off) and she hasn't performed on the piano or taken any exams yet.

Rara is 9, and a completely different kettle of fish. She likes music, but she likes reading, art and making things even more. She's talkative, eccentric and highly creative. I have no idea how her mind works. She is in Year 5 at the village primary, and couldn't really care less about academics. She plays the cello (working at an early Grade 4 level) and clarinet. Some of her clarinet pieces are Grade 4, but she is having some technical problems at the moment, mainly due to her size and incorrect placement of her fingers. So the next exam she does will probably be Grade 3.

Both girls are members of South West Music School (Rara starting next month) and both auditioned for the NCO. Goo was very pleased with herself, but Rara had an absolute disaster. She bounced back within a day though.

coco DS was having 1h lessons by the time he started preparing piano g7. Can't she fit it after or before school at the school site with that teacher? Do they have a long lunch break? Half an hour is tight.
Ha ha kutik you win

Trumpetboysmum omg do you o ow what I could have cried when I read your post because finally I have found someone who gets it! Dh who is wonderful in every way doesn't understand why ds doesn't practice and thinks he's not interested. I keep telling him that he is but he needs structure and I can't seem to give it to him. Dh thinks we should leave ds to make his own decision re JD but I've told him he's not that kind of child. His violin teacher and other tutors firmly believe and have done for over a year that as soon as you put ds in a JD environment that he will take off. I don't know how to get this through to dh or anyone else especially at Guildhall.

Ds plays in 3 orchestras,one of which is a county orchestra and plays in firsts. The other two he is lead second. He is also leader of a string ensemble and leader of the Music group at school. He is at an independent school but they are rubbish for Music but they are excellent pastorally which is where ds needs the most help. Music is absolutely all he wants to do but he is worried about coping with JD on top of homework and still wants to have a life of sorts. He is very open to having another trial day. I'm worried though that his theory will hold him back. He doesn't do grade exams. He did grade 1 3 years ago and is now a solid grade 6. His theory however is a bit lower. He works through the books which a tutor on a 1:1 and is about to start grade 4. He has done past papers and always score v highly. He got 95% for grade 2!

I don't know what to say to Guildhall without putting them off 😩😬.

disorganised and kutik all that JD chat very helpful. Been thinking about it but a) wasn't sure if she was on standard (playing violin around G6 standard at 10) and b) it would mean giving up our beloved theatre school which is a huge wrench I'm not sure either of us is ready for! Also, we both have such a brilliant relationship with her teacher. I do like the idea of applying and deferring... I think we'd look at Cardiff or B'ham rather than London, feels more straightforward from where we live but probably takes just as long.

disorganised talk to the JD's you are looking at- I imagine they'll have lots of experience with kids like your DS that have that special something... I have a good friend whose ASD 18yr old just went off to RWCMD and they are certainly well geared up for helping him!

I think he will cope fine once he's there but the Head of Strings said last year that ds needed to be practicing for an hour a day and a year on ds doesn't do anything like that,however he plays roughly about 8 hours of music a week with orchestras/Music school/lesson excluding practice at Home. I get hat practice at home is different to ensemble playing. I'm not sure how to get this across to them without sounding like a lunatic or helicopter parent or both!!

To ds,Orchestra/ensemble playing is everything. He doesn't especially enjoy playing solo which we need to get him over. He's going to do some recitals in the new year with some kids of a similar standard in a non competitive environment. I'd like him to enter the local music festivals but he just won't do it.

Can you break it up into smaller chunks?? Hard when life is busy, I know, but it seems to work for both of my girls. I can easily get 2x40min slots from Noo but if I try and do an hour in 1 session, she just drifts off... better to do short, focussed practice sessions than try and battle through an hour just for the sake of it.

We also try and do the hard, technical stuff in the morning so she's got the fun stuff (pieces) for after school when she tired and less enthusiastic!

Folkmamma I have tried doing similar. Ds is not good in the mornings. It takes him ages to get up and get going and shower,breakfast and so on. There's no way we could manage practice before school.
After school he needs a lot of downtime to get over the demands of school if you get me so again we struggle especially when you factor in homework battles. I do think now that he's done his first term in year 7 I can be a bit stricter with him.

That's understandable! Well, he's obviously doing extremely well though, so just go with it!? X

I think I would go back to the guildhall and explain everything that you have said here. If he's anxious about change he will need at least 1 trial day ( maybe more) and time to process all the new things he will be doing. Once there he might need help at first with managing the timetable etc independently ( but I'm sure they are used to others with similar difficulties). With regards to practice maybe he should do less in the week - when he needs downtime and more at the weekend, or perhaps school could offer him sometime to practice during registration for example? ( ds never goes to registration he is always doing some music related activity). I would work out a practice schedule of sorts with his teacher and then make it up into a to do type list - if it's going to change weekly you could laminate a blank to do list and write on it. I would probably go as far as having either times for each bit of practice or a number of times that he has to look at each thing. Its great that he plays in so many ensembles and I'm sure has helped him progress no end ( and makes music enjoyable which is the whole point ).

Also I think it's worth remembering that at the music schools like Chets the younger pupils have supervised practice and it's at school so for pupils with asd or who have difficulty in organising and focussing on practice the structure is already there- which is what I tell ds when I organise him ( though I can't stay in the room otherwise we argue )

Lol trumpet "I cant stay in the room or we argue".... I'm glad it's not just me!!

Thanks for all the extra info about JDs.

kutik I think you are right the music at the superselective grammar will be good if she goes. The problem is the location. It’s quite an awkward journey and I struggle to imagine letting my just turned 11 DD stay late for an orchestra and then travel home alone. And I can’t work out how I would pick her up either as by then I will have a job + three children at different schools. The thing is though that JD might not even help that much. What’s the chance that she is going to be happy not being in her school orchestra and performing in concerts etc?

Of the two independents I like one is very close by and the other has a late bus. But if she gets into an excellent state school it will be very difficult to justify the expense.

I feel like I am overthinking this given that she currently doesn’t even have offers from any of these schools! It was prompted by discovering that I would have to sign up to audition for the local JD fairly soon.

There is a very good local chamber music group that meets on Saturday afternoons which she auditioned for recently. I could let her do that for a while and we could get a feeling for how awful or not it would be to reduce family time on a Saturday.

I also think though that in a few years she will be wanting to hang out with her friends on Saturdays so maybe it won’t make much difference if she goes to a JD. Always assuming she is even the right level!

Anyway I am competing with you all for the absolute longest post ever!

Coco DS2 had 1 hour lessons for Grade 7 piano last year. He had 45 minute lessons until a few weeks before then increased to the hour. It was actually meant to be a shared hour between him and DD and he gradually took over more of it!

That said my older DC managed up to Grade 8 tuba, sax and trombone on 25 minute lessons at school, but I think its might be a bit harder with piano.

Head of Music tripped over DDs cello this morning and ripped the fingerboard off. They were practising for a concert tonight and she had it by the side of her chair when they had a break. She's had it five weeks, it's beautiful and was supposed to last her all through school and uni. It's mend-able and the sound post is still upright, but ffs...

Oenophilia - oh no! That's very frustrating - especially as it wasn't as though your DD had been careless with it

I was home this morning and we had 30 mins violin practice without nagging, her concentration was at a very different level than the usual late evening. This doesnt happen everyday though as our morning childcare usually is an absolute chaos, there is usually only enough time for an army routine then jump out of the house to be at school on time.

Oenophelia: what an accident!!:(
30mins for G7 is tight, we had 1 hour without missing any lesson for 3 months solid and we could just meet to pass.

oeno how frustrating how is you dd about it all?

In other news the bass is 'home' (actually next door at the in laws because it was easier to hide there )

She was very brave - it's her pride and joy. I'd bought a really good case so it wouldn't get damaged in the music department cupboard (lessons of experience). DH is going to take it to the luthier tomorrow to see what he says (a 2.5 hour round trip). I'm hoping that the school or the borough music department have one they can lend her over the holidays while the glue dries out - otherwise it's no practice for two weeks and G6 at Easter...

Oh gosh, I got shape of hearing about the damaged cello! Ours belongs to the school and I find it very stressful, you have reminded me to buy a hard case in the New Year for it. I hope your daughter finds it to be as good as new once mended.

Shape of?! Shivers!

You know, Xennia, English is my second language and your 'got shape of hearing' phrase made me think, 'oh, that's a new one, never heard of it.'

Oh no bad news about the cello hope it's fixed soon
So it was ds's school music concert tonight as usual an eclectic and fantastic array of music and talent . I particularly enjoyed all of the singing and an amazing drumming performance from one of the pupils oh and ds did himself proud in his trumpet solo ( thank goodness ) I can now relax

Well done to miniTrumpet!

DS also had a performing evening today. He played a couple of group pieces and performed a solo. AS with his sole, initially we said 'no' to his choice as we couldn't arrange an accompanist. We advised to pick a piano piece instead. But as usual, he didn't listen to any of it and went to play his choice on the violin. He loved the piece and so convinced that everyone would also love it, even without the piano part. The result was, again, DS was right! The evening made two proud parents.