March Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Welcome to the new thread for March! I am typing this from home rather than having to go to work - snow days all round. We currently have 1cm, but there are red warnings for wind and for snow later today, so it's going to be horrendous.

This is a place to talk about all things musical, whether you or your DCs are learning. We have lots of followers, from beginners to advanced, and everyone is welcome!

I am a teacher of recorder, clarinet, flute and saxophone, and have two DDs. Goo is 12 and having a fabulous time at secondary. She is Grade 8+ on the flute but not taking the exam until braces are off (and I think her teacher is holding out until she thinks Goo can get full marks or something) and around Grade 5 piano - no performances or exams yet and terrified of anyone hearing her, so that's getting to be a slight problem. Rara is 9 and between Grades 3 and 4 on both cello and clarinet. She's taking Grade 3 Clarinet this term so that when she goes off to the NCO in the summer, she doesn't have to tell other children that's she's only done Grade 1!

kutik private school is lovely, but completely not worth the financial headache if you are not loaded with money and have a good alternative. It isn't just a matter of loss of holidays and fast cars/suoerb violins . It may mean loss of peace of mind, taking on second jobs (on top of two DC's, two commutesetc) and ultimately impossible choices. I speak from bitter experience!!

I'm so glad to hear you and DS are happy with your choice. Jd + state school is a well trodden path to musical glory, if that's what your DS wants. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheku_Kanneh-Mason

and the music school option remains open for the future.

Good luck to mini-Kutik for his exam!

Thank you Taggie. Yes, the music school option is still open for future.

DH couldn't believe DS kept saying he likes both so no preference over another. For DH, the private school was much more attractive. So he kept asking DS which school he would want to go and kept getting the same answer. Finally DH asked DS WHERE he would like to go. DS immediately named the music school we went to see in January.

DH wasn't prepared for it, so took a few sec to digest the idea, then said, 'well, if you really wanna go, then you should go'.

I still insisted DS should go to a mainstream school first and see how it goes which both agreed. So DS will go to the state secondary for now. He may realise music is not everything. We will review this in a couple of years time!

Thanks for the link to the channel. What a lot of talent. It’s lovely to see.

Drummers - I was anti rewards charts too. Every once in a while I would attempt something of the kind and despair because not only were my children not ever really all that motivated by then, we had to spend hours discussing in detail whether I was fair. It’s not for nothing that primo is often called loophole. But last year it became clear that we all needed help, a way to be accountable. Getting 4 children through the door on time was difficult. Doing it as my health increasingly went downhill almost impossible, and getting practice happening regularly was too hard. So now we keep track of practices, so that there is visible evidence that practice happened and this works alongside the evidence that everything about their playing is improving. In many ways the points themselves are more important than the money/items attached to them, especially for girlchild.

We’ve hit gold this year. Last years violin teacher really should have refunded us the last part of 4th term because she was clearly counting down to her last lesson with girlchild. This year we have a teacher who comes to us and spends up to an hour, gaining trust, building a relationship. Girlchild is autistic and dyslexic and prone to freeze when asked to try something she perceives as difficult. Yesterday she played perpetual motion with the doubles. That’s what she was up to 8 months ago when I unexpectedly ended up in hospital and since then we’ve been stuck with revision because she wouldn’t agree to anything new. But maybe we are finally in a place to move forward.

Kutik, it must feel good to have the decision made. There is always room for movement later on. As far as schedules with lots of kids; last week I had 10 medical appointments and 3 school ones. Heavier than usual but I feel like I’m in desperate need of this week to recover. My baby ends up having to tag along wherever I need to take one of the others.

Good luck to miniKutik today!
Pop over to the other thread to let us now how it went, Kutik...and to nail bite until the results are in!
Your violin buying journey sounds like it's taken a turn - I'm intrigued and excited for you!

Kutik I was wondering if you’d decided and it sounds like a great choice! Your DH has to remember he isn’t the one actually going to the school - something I had to tell myself a while back! Now we’re looking at sixth forms I just remind DS1 it’s his choice.
Reward charts definitely didn’t work for my dcs (they didn’t care) and I never used them for practice. However, there is an understanding that no one uses the computer for gaming unless they have done their music practice and homework!

And good luck today Minikutik!

Ah but Kutik, Music IS everything 😘

On a serious note, I was a child who could have gone down either the music or academia route. I chose the latter (entirely my choice, not my parents, as I 'sensibly' decided there was more job security in science, that's another debate!) As an adult I now sorely regret that. At 18, I 'didn't want to end up as a music teacher'. How naive. Now I can't think of anything I'd like to do more! And your DS has bucket loads more talent than I xx

Yes, Good luck Mini Kutik! Xx

Glad the deciding is over kutik. I do love your DS' answer to your DH ha ha. His football boy has come a long way and is now his own little person
We has school concert last night, Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich 5th Symphony. It was fabulous. But I got very sad when an older clarinetist told me it was last concert and I realized it will be the same for DS in only two years...

His last concert.

To be fair it was this boy's last symphonic concert as they have plenty of jazz and other ones before summer but he's obviously counting them off one by one and I felt a pang for when the moment comes.

Good luck Mini Kutik. Please come back and tell us how it went.

Kutik I'm glad you've finally reached a decision on schools I love minis answer to his dads question though ( sounds like my ds)
Good luck with your very hectic week !!
Went to an amazing concert at Snape last night . Every year it's given over to local schools for the week to perform in multi school concerts , it always sells out and was a real treat . Ds's school orchestra and chamber choir sounded superb. it's great that music ( at least some times) takes a high profile in education

Anyone else busy with Music For Youth? The girl is there with two of her ensembles tomorrow so is leaving at 8 and will be done around 6pm.
We are having a small amount of stress as dance now clashes entirely with Monday band and she’s trying to transfer to orchestra but one particular teacher is being a bit awkward about it for no fathomable reason (so say even her other band teachers).

On a more exciting note, her future talent grant has finally paid up so her lovely new clarinet accessories will soon arrive! Hurrah!

We did Music for Youth last month. It was cold, snowing and they were drawn last so it was a long afternoon.

Mini disorganised was there yesterday in Islington I think with his A Capella group from school.

I am sitting in Goo's lesson. She has been practising MUCH more for the past month, apart from three days off for snow... She’s been on a mission to prove she is ready for grade 8, after a year of lovely exploring and sight reading themselves silly. Last autumn, Goo wanted to do Mozart in D, Hypnosis and Syrinx. She now wants to do pieces by Bach, Telemann and Rutter!

Oh yes... I forgot to say, she is doing the exam next term! Teacher is mightily impressed.

Waffle that's fantastic! Sounds like Goo is really getting her bounce back 😍

Finally got round to posting again, not sure where February went! Busy music month - DS1 (12, doing piano exam, GR3 tomorrow) dd1 (10) doing first festival on oboe next week, on the same day as a cross county race and a choir concert! We all have a BBC Orchestra family day on Sunday and dd2 (7) will do recorder at that. My orchestra concert got cancelled due to snow which was sad but necessary. Am so glad we don't have the school choice stresses in Scotland. Less opportunity but no choices to make. I think the music is gradually picking up again round us though it is at the whim of council cuts. The peri music teacher is fab and has the kids doing loads of things from an early age so they compose, write notes, read notes etc as well as lots of singing and playing loads of instruments. It means that kids will be in a better position to suceed on an instrument later as they have better building blocks.

Good news waffle I'm so pleased she's found her way with it all again . Will her braces be off by then or is she just going to get on with it ?
A lovely thing happened today while Ds was practicing. he's doing lots of jazz at the moment and I heard what I though was Ds listening to a recording of a track when I went in I realised it was Ds playing and improvising over a track !! Fair to say I was pretty impressed ( one day he will let me do a recording so you can all have a listen too !!)

Lovely to hear that waffle

Well done, Trumpetboy. Rara started improvisation with her cello teacher yesterday and it sounded good. She's very inhibited, so it is very good for her.

Braces off on May 2nd, and retainer fitting the following day. Teacher is away for the whole of April. Goo will have to just get on with it. She says the distinction doesn't matter, she just wants it done, and is determined to try.

goo is a sprinter, isn't see? She just needed to start y7 in peace, then surprise you...

Thanks for sending DS good vibes everyone! DS said he did alright but the examiner was so unfriendly. DS's slot was near lunchtime. I bet she was hungry...? Anyway, I'll pop over to the other (dedicated to exams) thread for more details!

We went to see a luthier after the exam. DS liked his violin especially the lower frequencies but not so keen on the higher end. When I mentioned that to the luthier on the phone, he suggested I should bring the violin and DS together so that he could make adjustment to the sound of DS's liking. So we did. It was interesting. I think visiting luthiers becomes DS's favourite pasttime... Anyway, our violin hunting is still continuing!