October Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

Welcome to the thread for October, which is open to ANYONE who wants to discuss music lessons, practice, exams, auditions, instrument hire/ purchase or whatever related issues you'd like to. Newbies are especially welcome, and we have some each month, often with beginners. All of our kids were beginners once.

I have two DDs. Goo is 12 and plays the flute and piano. She can also play recorders and the piccolo, but doesn't. We've just moved her to another piano teacher because the first one retired, so it's nice to hear her practising again. She has been learning for about 2.5 years and hasn't done any exams... nor is she intending to. On the flute we have extended range scales, the Chaminade Concertino and Bizet's Carmen Fantasy at the moment. She plays in 7 school ensembles and does NCO and South West Music School, although she's likely to be leaving both at various points during this academic year.

Rara is 10 and plays the cello and clarinet regularly, and recorder sometimes. She's vaguely working towards Grade 5 on both, but it might end up being 4 on the cello because of various aspects she's behind in... we'll see. I am still teaching her the clarinet and am currently super fed up because however kind, patient and helpful I am, she behaves in such a horrible way. We can't afford lessons. Ho hum. Rara also does NCO and SWMS. Under 11s will be beyond her, but she'll carry on with SWMS for now.

I am a teacher of woodwind!

Good luck minidisorganised!

Good luck minidisorganised hope it's a really positive experience

Hope all goes well minidisorganised. DC's are always so good at taking things in their stride. We do all the worrying for them

Ah good luck - from my experience you will have a more stressful wait all day than dc 😀

Lots of luck for minidisorganised!

Good luck minidisorganised! Do you have far to travel? Day out in London for distraction?

Catkind We're in Southend,South East Essex so it's about 45 mins to an hour to drive in. One of the reasons we picked Guildhall is hat it's our side of London and of Minidisorganosed is successful,the plan is that eventually he will travel up and back by train as that's also on our mainline and it's not far from Liverpool St station.

Disorganised very best of luck. I went to school in Southend so know that journey well. I'm sure it will all be fine!

Good luck to minidis today. My ds travels on the train to his JD - it seems to be working well, although he fell asleep on the train home last week! I had a call from the Director in the week about a missed session - apparently ds had decided to go to something else with others from his school.

Good luck to Minidisorganised!
I went to Junior Guildhall for 6 years, many moons ago. We lived in Surrey, on the Waterloo line, so my twin sister and I (and a bunch of other pupils from various stops along the way) used to travel into Waterloo and then across to the city on the Bank line or the tube, and then back from Moorgate to Waterloo East by bus and mainline at the end of the day.

Melting that’s not good timing between exams. Luckily DD has grade 5 theory first then piano exam a month later.
Minidoisorganised good luck!

The first two weeks at new school was just finding his way and no time to think much, then homesickness kicked in and got a cold on top so suddenly uncertainty creeped in. If I asked DS how's school, he would say 'fine', no more no less. Sometimes he would tell me some fun news but didn't really express how he's feeling about the school. And I hit this wobbly moment and started thinking if it was really a wise choice to listen to his innocent enthusiasm and let him go despite of me always telling him he should see what regular school could offer before jumping in.

I picked him up last night and as usual he was tired and yawned a lot in a car. But as he went to bed he kind of mumbled to himself (or to me?) 'I really like the school'.

Tiredness doesn't bother me much as I know it's the case for any y7 DCs - it's not specialist/boarding school specific. He just needs to have a rest and recharge himself for the next week (though it's hard when he has JD, NCO and a big birthday party of his old friend!). But that little mumble gave me a really good sleep I needed!

Oh crap. Well, if DD wasn't anxious before then she will be now. Have just had the ABRSM exam dates through. First week of the session. She will have Grade 4 piano, Grade 4 descant recorder and Grade 3 treble all in the same morning. And Grade 5 theory 2 days before that.

Sheesh, I'd find that lot scary in one term let alone all in the same day/week! At least it gets it all over with?? And she'll be well in practice with aural tests too.

Best of luck to minidisorganised!

I'm holding my breath thinking of minidisorganised (it's past 5pm!).

Thinking about minidisorganised with fingers crossed!

Druid - if anything like my DS I think practice 7am to 8am before breakfast although in his case I think that means he gets up at 6.58am.

Their day starts early, druid. They have early breakfast and daily morning exercises before they get on with individual curriculum.

No practice before fuel (and exercises) here herts.

I think there is some fruit/simple snack if they want but yes I would struggle too. At least need some coffee :)

Exactly, I thought all the points of boarding is you dont have to travel hence shorter the day. The school we visited, lower school for yr7-yr9 wakes up at 7.00 and light out completely at 9.00.

Well you save 1-2 hours travelling which can be spent practicing or studying instead. It is certainly not a short day and lights out times are a bit of a joke at most boarding schools (not just music.) Sleeping seems to be long after lights out. Our DS comes home exhausted Friday night most weeks and often a bit overwhelmed with things to do although multi-instruments doesn't help.