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Extra-curricular activities

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November Music Thread

688 replies

Wafflenose · 30/10/2018 22:09

Welcome to all musicians/ parents of musicians, young and 'mature', beginners and advanced, plus everything in between. This is one of the nicest corners of Mumsnet and the music threads were started for my older daughter towards the beginning of her musical journey, 7 years ago. Everybody on the thread was a beginner once!

I have recently seen "we're not a musical family", "I'm not musical" on here quite a lot, and would like to gently challenge that... perhaps you may not have found the right instrument/ teacher yet, or have no desire to play, but I think that everyone is musical. It's not a special something that is limited to certain individuals, although of course everyone's aptitude and natural ceiling varies. I have had the pleasure of teaching almost 1000 people to read and play music now, ranging in age from 3 to 96 and incorporating a range of additional needs, and I think they all got something positive from their lessons! What our young musicians most need from us - whether we play ourselves or not - is lots of encouragement, time and space to practise, and of course the constant taxi service and financial support we give to their lessons and ensembles!

I have two DDs, Goo The Energy Conserver (flute and piano, lapsed recorder and picc player) who is pretty lazy and complacent at the moment and just wants to enjoy her life, and Rara The Awkward (clarinet, cello, recorder) who tries hard... when it suits her! We have nothing special lined up this term, but possibly piano and clarinet exams for next term. Goo claims she wants to dust off her recorders and theory books to get another couple of Grade 8s before she leaves school. I'll believe that when it happens.

Over to you.

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Crazygirlmama · 12/11/2018 10:25

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se22mother · 12/11/2018 11:09

Thanks---- for waffle.

I would like to thank everyone who urged me to get a new violin teacher quickly for dd who was not gelling with the teacher her music school assigned to her in September. Dd had her first proper lesson with a new teacher outside of the music school this weekend and for the first time in months came out of a lesson beaming and inspired. Yes I am now currently having to pay twice over for lessons (until Christmas) but it feels worthwhile. Practice was focused and detailed last night for the first time in ages. We both
Feel so much more content then we have done in ages.

Trumpetboysmum · 12/11/2018 11:28

SE Smile that’s great news
Snowball yes breathe at the top of you need to and lightly tounge the second top note in a 12th arpeggio . That’s what ds has always done for trumpet

Alsoplayspiccolo · 12/11/2018 12:01

Well done to your dad, snowball!! Tremendous achievement - I hope he's very proud. ☺

( I've changed my posting name, for anyone wondering who I am.)

druidsong · 12/11/2018 12:05

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druidsong · 12/11/2018 12:08

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MeltingWax · 12/11/2018 12:11

Crikey, well done to your Dad snowballs! First of all I thought it was an auto-correct on your phone and you had meant to write DD - until I saw his age! Smile

minisnowballs · 12/11/2018 12:12

Thanks all who replied re tonguing and breathing (sounds so much more exciting than it is, doesn't it?) and yes, my dad was proud enough to ring me immediately - he is super chuffed. And so are we all..

LooseAtTheSeams · 12/11/2018 12:47

Snowballs well done to your dad - he's a star! Exams are much more stressful for adults!

ealingwestmum · 12/11/2018 14:34

Amazing news snowballs; your brother must be chuffed to bits for your dad!

Great news on the positive outcome for your DD SE22, must be such a relief finally finding a teacher that gets your DD, even if temporary.

Hang in there waffle. Such an emotional roller coaster the teenage years...for them and for us!

PancakeMum6 · 12/11/2018 15:21

Great news snowballs!! Such a lovely story.

hertsandessex · 12/11/2018 18:56

Yes Druid that must be Trinity and yes a small amount although must be another few at Guildhall. One of DS's friends is auditioning at the moment. Really interested to see the results.

littleladsdad · 12/11/2018 19:12

I've thought about learning a new instrument for a while now snowballs and your dad's amazing achievement has inspired me to get on with it!

Thank you for all the words of approval for ds & his friends - I'll let him know next time we speak.

ZakStarkey · 12/11/2018 21:38

Just looked up the UCAS thing- Conservatoires.....very interesting!
None accepted on any years (although tiny numbers- like 5-10- but still) on jazz violin....
Others seem to have huge application numbers like violin, piano and quite low acceptance figures.
Percussion similar too- although small numbers applying and then smaller numbers being accepted

RomanyRoots · 12/11/2018 22:26

Zak
It's good isn't it, dd has been looking for a while.
Another interesting area to look are the European and American schools, and how they all vary.

ZakStarkey · 12/11/2018 22:37

Yes European schools look great!!!
Haven’t looked at US- but will have a look 👀 Smile

folkmamma · 13/11/2018 07:44

SE22 so pleased you went for it and DD is in a better place!!! Great news.

Congrats to Snowballs dad, hero!!!

hapsburg · 13/11/2018 09:12

Please someone tell me if I am being really thick, but surely the UCAS application/acceptance figures are massively skewed by the fact that each applicant will probably make at least 3 or 4 applications, but can only accept 1 place.

NotAnotherJaffaCake · 13/11/2018 09:14

Crazygirlmama thank you for the clarinet info. Really good to know.

Violinboymum · 13/11/2018 10:09

This discussion is so useful! Just ordered DS reeds for his clarinet. Thank you for the recommendations.

Violinboymum · 13/11/2018 10:11

Is anybody going to take part in Clemeti competition in Tunbridge Wells? I signed up DS but getting a bit nervous, he is doing grade 3 piano in a few weeks, has been studying for a little over a year (started last September) and the competition is for grades 4 to 6. Hopefully he will be ok.

Violinboymum · 13/11/2018 10:17

*Clementi

hertsandessex · 13/11/2018 10:23

tHapsburg - I think yes and no regarding the skew. The total applicant figures is 8,000 (i.e. 8,000 people applied via UCAS) but if you look at the table for individual colleges the total is around 15,000 so each student is applying to around 2 colleges (or maybe 3 including Guildhall) on average. A lot of the overall data is therefore not skewed but yes when you drill down there are multiple applications. For example yes 120 applications for percussion for 30 places is not 120 people but probably more like 60 overall although most of the those 60 have probably applied for leading places like RCM and RAM and not so many say at Cardiff. So RCM has maybe 60 people for say 6 slots with a large chunk of the 60 having it first or second choice.

druidsong · 13/11/2018 11:09

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TaggieOHara · 13/11/2018 11:21

Scary statistics!

DS2 made me laugh the other day. He is only 10 and has no clue about how competitive a music career is, or how good you have to be. He thinks perhaps if getting a highly paid job as a YouTuber/Barrister doesn't work out, it would be good to have the violin as a reserve option.

Ummm - maybe not...