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 to nosebleedboy!

Romany We were in Austria at Easter - Vienna & Salzburg. It would be a wonderful place to study, probably worth learning German for!

Ds would love to study in Germany - he’s been going on about this for ages . Anyway he’s taken GCSE German so we’ll see !! This was because he thought I could help him out - but I’ve forgotten most of it over the last 20 years - great place though lots of fond memories

She is doing German GCSE and if it goes well would like to opt for A level too, but this person/ couple of people on ABRSM forum were saying you'd need to be pretty accomplished.
I like to keep dd informed when she talks about her future, just so she doesn't get her hopes up with something that is a complete no go.
She's been mentioning it a lot lately, so thought I'd do some research, but not found much.
Wouldn't it be brilliant to get a copy of one of the tests to see the standard.

Romany - this is about percussion facilities but he talks about fees which are max of Euro1,000 per year. He doesn't talk about German in this video - I think maybe I heard him talk about it in person. I do remember him saying somewhere having weak/no German shouldn't be a barrier to applying but would need to work on it.

www.facebook.com/NebojsaJovanZivkovic/videos/1966474756708528/

Wow Herts- that’s looks great. Have you seen the percussion summer academy too- looks good! Plus great value €600 for a week with accommodation!

Looks like all our DC's are off to Germany then..... 

Thank you so much herts, I'll have a look at this

I think I only involve myself so much because of her learning difficulties.
Her mh does suffer if she sets her mind on something and she can't do it for some reason.
She likes to plan, her latest is building a tiny house and travelling the world as an opera singer. she's done her homework and conned dh into saying he'll help her.
I said if they get as far as curtains I'll make these for her. I'm terrible at sewing.

Yes summer academy does look good. Ludwig Albert does one I think as well although can't remember the details. DS hopefully going to Keiko Abe one next summer if we can save some pennies :)

That sounds great Herts- let me know how it goes. Dd is a little young for all that yet, but give it a few years/or five and she’ll want to do it!

We decided against JD due to the travel - at least 2.5 hours each way. Glad we did as year 7 and all the school ensembles and dance groups (she’s a music and dance scholar) means she’s very busy on top of academic work and therefore shattered by the weekends. I don’t think she or I would have coped with the weekly travel to JD at this stage. We might reconsider for year 9 or 10 but not yet. Besides she has amazing teachers here and lots of ensembles and masterclasses at school so no need, for us the right senior school has worked out as the best option.

Newbie here. Minimally musical myself, DH even less so, we somehow have a very musical DD (8) and a DS (5) who looks like he might follow suit. We have been wondering about specialist music school for our DD and would very much appreciate advice from those who have sent their DCs/decided not to send them/know people who have gone.

By way of background, DD, who was 8 in the summer, is taking G5 violin and theory this term. She plays piano but only started last September. She loves to perform, compose, sing, etc.. She found the very idea of music school very exciting, until she learned about the boarding aspect. She adores DS (and vice versa) so splitting them up would be very hard. She also has a superb violin teacher and is very happy at school. On the other hand, we can see that fitting in the full extent of her musical pursuits and goals around normal school is going to be increasingly difficult. She is very bright and a more condensed academic day would suit her fine.

This thread has been very useful for finding out about this brave new musical world we find ourselves in! Any and all advice most welcome.

She sounds great brass we are sticking with regular school here mostly it’s fine - but you have to be very organised !! Ds hadnt even started playing at 8 !!
You could go and look around with a view to going for year 7 - not even sure if they take children younger than that - but someone will know !!

My advice is to wait and see for a couple of years and see how she develops. Possibly something to think about for year 7 especially given the boarding aspect.

What about a jd ? ( hopefully you wouldn’t have to get up at 5am to get to one either !!) again she’s still so young you’ve got plenty of time to look at all your options and think about it

Are you close enough not to board or could you move- plenty of days kids go to music schools?

They usually take boarders from 8 - so little- but they seem to cope.

I boarded from 7 and survived, though I can't say I was particularly thrilled about it. I went with my brother, though, so I wasn't on my own. Not that he was particularly thrilled about that, either! Still, 8 does seem very little. We were pondering about year 7 and whether it's leaving it a bit late? Alas, we are definitely not close enough to any music school to go as a day pupil.

Our nearest JD would be about 40 minutes in the car but a number of people have said she should go to RCM or RAM if she's going to go to any, which would be a good 3 hours door to door, I should think. Not a prospect I particularly relish. I find the idea of a specialist school plus Saturday JD to be fairly horrifying!

Too late to go at 11? Definitely not provided DD works hard and progresses in the meantime. Also not sure about your comments on JD. Go to a convenient JD for a couple of years and then maybe board at a specialist school at which point can drop JD or take it up again later. BoardIng has been the trickiest aspect for us with two children from year 7 and year 9 and I wouldn’t have liked them to have done it earlier. Also I don’t think it is necessary.

PS I think the boarding experience at specialist music schools can be a little different to a normal school. Smaller year groups, less space to hide, more mixed in with older children, more pressures, more slightly demanding characters, etc

Well come Brass!

We failed to get a place in a couple of JD this March, the competition is so fierce(piano as a first instrument, violin second). I was hoping to have everything in 1 place including Orchestra etc. The journey is only 15-20 mins on a direct train, short walk from home and short walk to the school from and to the station. We met someone who drove from Bruges. Now my hope is on secondary school next year, hopefully music will be better than our current state primary and we could have everything in 1 place. We are filling the form and so tempting with music scholar but feel like cheating because she doesnt want to pursue music seriously(Eg. doing gcse etc). She loves to perform, to listen, to play in an orchestra but doesnt want to follow it seriously.

Thanks hertsandessex, that's very useful advice. I only mean too late because she is determined to be a soloist and I don't see us being able to fit in 3+ hours practice in a day any time soon! She does work hard, though, and will make progress rapidly regardless, just would probably progress faster still and with a more comprehensive musical education in a specialist environment.

We find it very hard to give her time to compose and so on and I recall one of the best things about boarding is not having to travel and everything being in one place. I suspect you are right, though, and that it is not necessary as yet. A convenient JD would certainly be much more sensible from our perspective.

Interesting about the different boarding experience. In some ways, it may well suit her better than the usual arrangement but I expect it is quite idiosyncratic depending on what the children are like at any given time, so difficult to know until you're there?

Hi Green, 15-20 minutes on a direct train would be amazing! We are trying to persuade DD's school to let her join in with the senior school music fairly soon, as the senior school music is pretty good but there isn't anybody else at her level in the junior school, to the best of my knowledge.

Fwiw, I don't think a lack of desire to pursue music professionally should put your DD off applying for a scholarship.

Hi brasstacks, your DD sounds super keen and very musical! Being that good at just turned 8, time really is on your side here. In a way being so young makes it easier to combine lots of practice with normal school as she won't (hopefully!) be bogged down with homework yet.

Has she tried auditioning for things like NCO or procorda? Would be a taste of boarding life for her and from what people here report really high level music making.

Thanks catkind. She did her first NCO audition recently but she did a residential camp last summer, at barely 7, and loved it. She was supposed to do one this summer but they changed it to non-residential quite last minute. She is certainly tough enough, not that anyone would guess until they got to know her!

Do you think it is worth applying for pro corda as well?