September 2018 Music Thread

[folkmamma]

Hi all! Our lovely host Waffle is away at the moment and has asked me to start this months thread.

Here is a place for us to share stories, ask for advice, and generally support one another through our DCs (and in some cases our own!) musical journeys. All are very welcome, from the early beginners to the very advanced. Some people have been regular contributors for years, but we also have a lot of newcomers and love welcoming new contributors to the MN Music Thread team. I became aware of this group about 9 months ago via the NCO 2018 thread and I now spend more time here than on Facebook... .

Over here, I have Noo, just turned 11, violinist, violist and pianist. She is playing at aroud G7 standard on violin (first study) and is starting JD this month, eek!. Noo is also an associate member of NCO and this year joined the Pro Corda ensemble training programme, which she loves above all else! She is also very into musical theatre and regularly performs in professional and semi-professional shows - it is a challenge to juggle it all, but somehow we do. This month is a biggie for Noo as she starts secondary school as well as JD.

DD2 is Moll. 8yrs old and plays cello and piano. She is a very different kettle of fish to big sister - every bit as able, but some self esteem issues, together with a slightly quirky personality, mean her journey is not often quite so smooth (and mine completely turbulent!). Working towards G3 cello this term (although she doesn’t know it yet) and will go for a consultation at Noo’s JD sometime this term also.

I’m sure Waffle will drop in to update us on Goo, Rara and her own musical self once she gets back from holibobs.

Good luck to everyone with back to school, changes in school, new routines and audition prep! I predict September will be a busy month on the thread!

Over to you....

Romany, I can imagine DS would love the fire alarm experience. Luckily he wears PJs so he's ready for the mid night adventure.

Hello and welcome, fourlittlekangaroos and Frankley.

I have the dates for next year, but not at home at present, basically choice of 2 weeks second half of August. Booking opened in January this year for the that years courses

Sorry raspberry I forgot your ds2 did this
My memory is terrible, hope it isn't a sign I'm old.

Thank you for the welcome. Thanks raspberry l will look into that. It was all left too late last year. End of August would be fine. I have a question for waffle please. I have an over 50years old Johannes Adler tenor recorder that has been in it's box in a cupboard for years. I know it has no value but is it worth putting in a washing up bowl? (1 have collected too much stuff in this house and do need to declutter!)

Hmm I would be careful with something that old. Plastic - no problem. Wooden - dust it off, see if it plays OK and if not, take it to a repairer and see if it needs oiling and/or revoicing. My washing up bowl trick is mainly for reasonably cheap children's instruments. I have not yet found another way to properly clean the bit that tends to need cleaning.

Thanks waffle . Why l got it out of the cupboard is because a young family member is learning to play the recorder. His fingers won't cope with this one for years but it reminded me it was there. I see the bottom metal piece has come off. Am wondering if any nasty bugs lurking in mouth piece, is that likely. Have been told that it is a bit of a waste time learning to play recorders, l believe your two started out with them? Did it benefit them rather than going straight onto 'proper' wind instruments?

lol, Frankley, I'm ust going to leave that one right here.....

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p064sypl

Patrick & Romany

Communication with our DS has become an issue for us this week i.e. there hasn't been any, apart from a brief call on Wednesday, literally moments before he had to had his phone in. We don't expect a call every day but would like to speak twice a week. We thought this had been agreed when we saw him at the weekend. I also got cross last night via text. He promised he'd phone me this morning - he didn't. It's all very frustrating and is not how I'd imagined it to be, that is, I hadn't expected to be completely sidelined like this!

Does anyone do ncbb or nybb? Where/when are the courses? It's impossible to find our from their website!!

Also need to decide whether to audition for nsso on Viola or stick with pro corda? Any thoughts? Thankfully dd got into the main school orchestra on viola so she will be stretched quite a bit there! There's I think 4 violas and as she says "millions" of violins. She's not good enough yet to do brass in that orchestra - they need g7+!

We do have auditions booked for NCO but given I have heard that this year it's been horribly organised (and they haven't responded to any of my emails/voicemails) I'm not convinced we are going to do it!

Petra I think NCO organisation has been ok - we just haven't had loads of notice about regional rehearsals except for this term - but that was the schools that they use round here not letting them book ages in advance . I didn't notice a difference in organisation of the residentials and they did actually listen to what the older students ( and tutors) were telling them about bedtimes etc so Ds was happy !! Hopefully that will lesson your worries . No experience of NCBB but Littleladsdad dad has .

Littleladsdad obviously Ds is still at home but if it makes you feel any better I'm sure Ds would be exactly the same . It's the teenage brain thing and I think they just become very focussed on themselves and what they are doing in that moment . Not that it makes it any easier . Hopefully you will sort it out soon!!

Petra DS is a member of NCBBGB. The course is at Repton School and is usually in the first week of the summer hols. It really is special - the tutors are the best in the business i.e. cornet section is tutored by principles from Black Dyke & Cory. DS had a fantastic time, made great friends and his playing progressed. Be aware that, for the cornet section in particular, the expected standard is extremely high!

I’ve managed to keep up with reading so far this month but every time I manage to squeeze in time to reply I find the subjects of discussion have been closed and moved on

We’ve got a busy weekend coming up because another musician is joining the house! Some of our family friends are moving to Cambodia in the next few weeks, but their eldest daughter is in year 11 and decided it would be too disruotive to move to schools (she’d have to move to an international school and obviously they do iGCSEs which isn’t what she’s spent the last year and a half working on!) so she’s going to just live with us until next June, when she’ll move out to join them at a less complicated time. She’s already done her grade 8s in violin and piano so my girls are very excited to have her in the house for various projects! She’s also a brilliant artist so there will be even more going on in the house these next few months...

Thank you for the consoling words Trumpet. You're completely right about the teenage brain thing. It's me that needs to make the adjustment to this 'arms length' parenting thing! I'm sure we'll all get there.

I need to make that adjustment too and we live in the same house !! Except of course when he needs a lift or money - then I am very important

littelladsdad, I feel your frustration! Although I certainly didn't want DS to be miserable and missing home all day, I didn't expect he to be so 'away' suddenly. Me not being familiar with this kind of school (specialist and boarding) didn't help. I just couldn't know what's happening! So I felt I had to talk about a family rule with him (we didn't really discuss how to maintain communication prior to his departure).

Before I spoke to him, I tried to understand why I felt this lack of communication was a problem and had to be sorted though. I needed to clarify it was not purely coming from my needs. Then I concluded that we would need to maintain regular communication because he is still so young and while school provide what he needs educationally we need to keep providing parental support, not just to pay for the fee but to be there and be part of his everyday life. I also felt it's so important to set up good communicating habit now - before him entering teenage chaos so that we could still be there and reachable for him in his teens. I don't mean to know every movement of him obviously. I just like him to know we are there for him and he can pick up a phone any time for anything.

I spoke to him and explained my thoughts. I asked him to explain if he had different views so I could understand his side of story. Luckily he said he 'got it'. So now we have mutual expectation how to maintain regular contact. For me, even just a brief text is fine. I just felt so wrong to let a 11 years old go without any contact for days. It's different from being away for a limited period of time like a holiday camp. It's everyday for many years for us.

littleladsdad

Oh, I do sympathise and it's so difficult being side lined like we are.
I feel as though I have very little control over dd now, not that i was a control freak though.
It's striking a happy balance I find hard. You can tell them off when they come home and end up sending them back having argued, and feel bad.
Or, not get your point across and end up gaining nothing. Arghhhhh!
I know exactly how you feel, it's so frustrating.

Ours is home at 2pm today as it's free weekend, they also have a long weekend every term where they finish on Thursday afternoon.
She is going to be working on Science and maths this weekend and practice will need to come last. I'm also going to make sure her attitude to learning is good, as unfortunately in the past it hasn't been.

Good luck with the balance. He needs to call you even if just for 5 mins, otherwise all the little things that aren't important get lost, add up and can create a distance. we learned this in Y7.
so now I try to have a bit of small talk about friends, then what she's been doing, anything coming up, that type of thing.
I'm not sure about your ds school but dd has quiet areas she can go to if she wants to speak in private. Sometimes mine will text me after lights out, which I know I shouldn't support, but usually she wants something if calling that late.
They don't have to hand their phones in at night, but I think that's fine due to the geographical area of the school and safety.

But this is us. I am sure there are plenty families who don't communicate during week or term and they are happy with the arrangements. Catching up at weekends or school holidays work absolutely fine for others, but just not for us!

Oh I cross-posted, Romany.

Teenage boys are rubbish at keeping in touch. I hear nothing from mine on trips abroad until they need collecting on return!
It's quite right to pick them up on it, though.
Meanwhile, DS1 has decided he hates maths A level and is switching to music. He is off to sweet talk the music teacher this afternoon. I think it's a shame to give up on maths when he can actually do it but I must admit he'll enjoy music a lot more.

Trumpet and Loose, I don't expect this level of communication for school trip/holiday camp sort of things. It's a totally different situation I think.

Hi, can I join too? Just starting out on our musical journey with DD1 who is 6. She auditioned in the summer for a Cathedral Choir and was accepted so just begun training as a probationer. She's loved it so far but the intense schedule hasn't fully kicked in yet. This is all very new to me, as although my husband and I are trained musicians, neither of us were choristers. She also plays recorder and is hoping to take G1 round Easter time. Also have DS who is 1 so lots of lovely nursery rhyme singing 😆

I can remember shortly after she started in y7 I did my usual Autumn tidy and moved some furniture around, it was nothing major.
She came home and was really upset I hadn't told her about it. I think there was much more to it than furniture, as she hadn't been gone long. But it made me realise what a huge change it was and why it was important for the small talk. Auntie Mabel has a new fireplace, your brother went to the pictures last week, type of thing

Hello Loose

Absolutely brilliant, my dd saying "Why do maths, when you can do music". She'll be doing plenty Maths this weekend, although she has found a liking for Eng lit recently and Macbeth is being studied for GCSE

I think at his age he knows his own mind, but certainly a shame if he likes them both.
Would it not be possible for him to do both?
You sound quite chilled about it though, if it was me I'd be asking if she knew what she was doing, had made the right decision etc.

Welcome Polar
There are some on here with children who are choristers or were in the recent past. I know it's a huge commitment, we did look at it, but wasn't practical for us as we'd never be home, just that bit too far away.