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!

Flootoot. There is a theory club at school but she is very reluctant to go, I'm reluctant to pay out for lessons when this is free. I know its basically sitting and going through the books but with the added back up of a music teacher in the room. I'm trying to persuade her that the quicker she gets it done the better but she's having none of it!

Congratulations to Mini-Crazy!! Great news 😊

And welcome back Woolley!!

Woolley, were currently going through grade 5 theory boot camp here (I'm teaching DS....it's painful!). I should have made him have lessons at school last year, but thought it would be fine to do it myself. Regretting it now! Goodnight DD comes round to the idea - I think group lessons would be more fun than 1-to-1.

That's great news, Crazy, and a big relief, I imagine. ☺

Doubleup congrats on the sabbatical! Woolley lovely to hear from you! Well done MiniCrazy!
Waffle how does Goo do it?! Hope she's on the mend!
Green you are just amazing and your mini is clearly following in your footsteps!
Rather than slave over 12 hours of study in a weekend, which is madness, my and DS1's tip for y10 is just get the homework done as best you can in the time that you have and pay more attention to the end of year exams.
Don't drop your extracurricular music unless you actually want to reduce it. DS1 claims it was necessary to do music to deal with the stress!
Talk of work and illness resonates here. DH had to rush off on Monday because his dad was very ill. It's been touch and go but DH says he's looking much better today. Of course, it would be the week I went back to work full time. I'm knackered, poor DH doesn't know where he is (and not sure when he can come home) but the dcs have been lovely - after a little passive aggressive lecture on remembering to ask me how MY day went!
In happy music news, DS1 continues to love A level music and his new sixth form!

Many congrats Crazygirlmama!
Lovely to hear about Woolleymini positive news on new teacher!
And Goo, not again!
Loose, hope your father in law getting better soon and thanks for the kind words. My husband has a treatment at the moment, we are holding our breath!!!

I was just on a lift and it came to the ground, door opened and I was looking at my phone(surprise!), then all the boys(rather men and old) just stood in. I realised I had to make a move first. That makes me smile:).

We have some serious music practice to do this weekend to catch up with missing practice this week as she had Henrietta round 2 test and Tiffin round 1 test this week. We didnt think of trying Henrietta but went for it in the end.

I don't post very often, but saw this today and thought it might put a smile on the faces of those parents and DC's who are struggling with demands of school/music/sports etc etc It just reminded me that above all music should be fun some seriously big names there, taking themselves not at all seriously!!

Green wishing you the very best with the treatment and the school tests. and a for dd.
DS2 needs to do some regular focused practice for piano - tonight's lesson highlighted his tendency to gloss over the tricky bits!

Just catching up, so I'm a few pages back.

hotdog74: Thank you for the warm welcome! Some of you have such busy lives. As DD is only 7 and a total beginner we only have the lesson a week in school and getting her to play a bit at home to contend with so far. Although she is hoping to be able to join the junior school orchestra; she has to be invited and I have no idea how much she needs to be able to play but I don't think it is terribly hard to get in so hopefully by the end of Year 3.
Just wanted to say - awesome they have orchestras to join at school! There's nothing at DCs' school. Used to be a wind band but the teacher who organised it left :(

Thanks for sharing that, Hapsburg - brilliant! 😂😂😂

Thanks Hapsburg - that was an awesome end to the week

Well done to miniCrazy! What's a super girl.

to Goo. Can she still go ahead with NCO audition with the injury??

hapsburg, thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed watching it. I don't know how to explain but it really warmed my heart.

cat, I feel for you. DS's primary was like that. They had instrumental lessons but they were never really celebrated and almost zero recognition at school apart from rare events. I felt the head teacher wasn't particularly interested in music.

DS had his first Alexander Technique lesson yesterday and he absolutely loved it. He is quite poor in the description department so I still have no idea what he did and why he loved it. He mentioned the teacher brought a skeleton and they did something with it. That's as far as I could get from him!

Still catching up, for floot and friend and sister. So much to cope with never mind musical children.

The homework expectations of some schools sound utterly bonkers. Someone I know took their high achiever year 7 out of local state school to home ed after they were regularly ending up with 4 hours of homework a day Mad. Quality not quantity, just like music practice really!

Patrick Goo isn't at all keen to try for NCO. We'll see. I reckon her finger will be fine in a week or two though.

It seems like a lot of you remember my Oct/ Nov/ Dec from you-know-where, with 3 of Goo's other injuries, plus family flu bugs, pneumonia, a hospital stay and a financial disaster... would you believe it was 2 years ago?! I don't think Goo has been hurt in between, which is good!

That's cool Patrick. So important to get the physical stuff right particularly in an environment with so much playing. I have known a few musicians who swear by Alexander, the main thing I picked up from them is sitting up straight in orchestra rehearsals is less tiring than slouching - very true. It seems to have a great deal of sensible stuff about how not to strain yourself with bad posture and tension, and if friend's teacher is typical a dose laying-on-of-hands woo which put me off ever trying it.

Glad to hear Goo's finger will be fine very soon. I think Goo will audition and ace it. Flute is fiercely competitive. But whatever the outcome, I feel Goo should try. I just can't think of Goo without NCO.

cat, yes I'm grateful that they do 1-1 Alexander. They also do plenty exercises. Their morning starts with 'warm-up' and they swim a lot. Football, tennis and table tennis are regularly available too. DS cannot go too long without exercise so I'm quietly relieved they do care about the importance of regular exercises for musicians.

patrick. I take DS2 for one to one Alexander lessons once a month. It has made a massive difference to his playing. Although his practice time is restricted, we always make time for 5 minutes of Alexander exes.

The reason I take DS2 is that he has problems with posture and coordination, linked to hypermobility and (probably) dyspraxia. The Alexander exercises give him a better sense of his body in space, which helps with bowing, shifting and left hand facility. And yes, DS2 loves the skeleton too

Thanks harps, we loved the video, even the 4 yrs old. Will watch again before bed tonight.

Thanks Patrick, Taggie for mentioning the technique name, will check with our teacher. For Patrick and some of you having boarders here, we are trying Wycombe Abbey too( my colleagues children go there and they love it), thinking of sending her away and for her little sister not seeing her daily is breaking my heart. I am torn between. My colleagues said eventually the siblings get used to it and their daughters love it, grew up as equally warm, lovely and responsible children(you know the over protective thinking that sending your child away then losing touch of how they grow up)...

Serious FOMO today as DH has taken Noo to JD as I am gigging myself this evening. Trying to resist the urge to text every 5 mins to find out what's happening 🙈

To make matters worse, Noo's previous teacher has got her tickets to watch him play in a concert at the Palladium tonight....

Taggie, that's great miniTaggie is doing Alexander Technique. I don't really know exactly what they do but sounds like everyone, not just musicians, benefits from it. Actually I would love to try one day if I have any chance.

Green, I think it's a very personal choice and if it works would very much depend on the child. It's a horrific idea for some but it can be absolutely wonderful for others. But I personally think, there should be a very strong and good reason to do it for younger kids. I wouldn't have gone to this route if it wasn't for this particular school. I would have sent him to a day school if he had chosen a regular school. We are lucky as the school is very flexible and understanding so I don't really feel so sad about the arrangement now (I was super sad at the beginning as I didn't know it could be this flexible). For instance he came home every night this week as he had a cold. Without a strong reason why it has to be the school and flexibility and understanding, sending younger kinds away will be very tough for many families I suppose.

Hmmm, not sure crazy I will defer to others...