November Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

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.

5 million!

Hmmm, I think Iceland have won the Christmas ad this year. Maybe John Lewis/Elton John should have slanted more towards music having to be given by families as it is no longer a gift provided by our education sysytem - and got that banned for being political.........

I like the ad. I've always liked Elton but admire him even more having seen this, and the gift in question, recently.

Druid I think Iceland's advertising people knew exactly what they were doing - that ad has had far more attention because it is banned.

Elton John studied at the RAM for 6 years, Littlelad. I believe he finds a scholarship there too.

funds, not finds.

Not too fussed about Elton John, but I do think it being someone people recognise will resonate for people. And yes the little boy teared me up too. I'm so soft when it comes to little kids performing.

Two possible calls on the tissue box comng up here!

DS is auditioning tomorrow to play a solo in the school end of term concert - on horn! Even if he doesn't get it, I'm so pleased he's giving it a go - he's only been playing since Easter and is not usually the volunteering type.

And DD is excited about going to a string orchestra day at the weekend. Cleverly leapfrogging so I will see her first mini "concert" after all, I'm missing her proper end of term concert with the weekly string group because I have my own concert Hoping DH is allowed to take a pic. Or perhaps I need to train him in this recording in handbag technique you guys mention...

I have audio recorded a few concerts, which is easier to do sureptisiously than filming, so maybe thats an option?

Good luck to miniCatkind!

Yes that would be a fallback mending. Mostly I just want to see them looking cute in their black and white tbh - and maybe spy out if DD is bowing straight! Fingers crossed recording might be allowed for personal use or there might be pics/snippets from the music service. There's always next term...

Showed the DCs the JL ad this morning. DS was messing about on the piano, not practising what he was supposed to. I may have muttered 'I bet Elton John's mum never had this problem'...

Ha - yes, I expect so druid.

I think I've read somewhere online that JL are going to start selling keyboards off the back of the ad. Am going to be there later today Christmas shopping - I will see if they have any musical things.

Completely different topic from recent posts ( although, Druid, I am with you!), but those of you whose DCs have lessons privately ( ie not peri or JD), what sort of contract do you have with the teacher? In particular, I'm wondering about cancellation/ rearrangement of lessons ( by the pupil, not the teacher).
I've had a few issues over this subject and would be interested to hear what teachers request, and how parents feel about their terms and conditions.

With the trumpet teacher - new and old one it’s been quite relaxed . We pay for lessons as we go new teacher is really goid at rearranging lessons as we go along if either he or ds cant make it . He’s supposed to have a weekly lesson - but sometimes it’s more like every 10 days or so . We haven’t discussed terms or notice periods ( he also teaches in schools and performs a lot so I guess teaching privately isn’t his sole source of income this was the case with the old teacher too)
Piano teacher we have a contract with her so it’s quite clear about notice periods etc - we pay a term in advance but she’s really good about trying to make up missed lessons which is great but I don’t expect lessons missed because ds has other concert commitments for example to be made up it’s just nice that she tries

Dd learns at a music centre we buy blocks of lessons - if we cancel ( apart from very short notice ) we don’t pay - but the lessons are expensive !!

John Lewis are now selling Yamaha electric pianos, presumably on the back of this. And I guess for electric instruments, they are all much the same, so no need for an expert retailer

When we bought our piano, the salesperson said that there were a large number of pianos sold to homes for decoration; rarely, if ever played, just that someone wanted a grand piano to look the part. Poor pianos :(

Aww, I showed my dd2 the JL ad this morning. She doesn't play the piano - though we have one and her big sister has lessons. First response - 'can I get a saxophone for Christmas?' (um, no - flute and cello quite enough for now)... and then she wandered off to the piano and started playing Christmas carols...

She'd like piano lessons too, now, she says. Not quite the response I was going for! Still, poor child doesn't own any of her instruments, and I can see how much she would like at least a flute of her own.

One day.

Thanks, Trumpet. I've taught for nearly 30 years and only recently started using a contract after repeat issues with pupils deciding to give up with no notice or cancelling lessons with no notice because, for example, they'd been invited to a party etc.
My contract is really simple: 4 lessons to be paid in advance, dates agreed at the start of the 4 lessons, cancelled lessons are non-refundable but I'll try to reschedule in the same week, although that may not always be possible. Obviously, any lessons I cancel will be refunded or rescheduled. The notice period is 4 weeks, to coincide with the start of a block of lessons.

This week, a pupil who has fixed time/day lessons asked if she could change the day because she had something else she wanted to do on her normal day. In line with the contract, I offered a different slot and she accepted it. However, when the time came, she just didn't turn up. No message, nothing. I messaged the parent, but only heard back an hour after the lesson was scheduled to start - parent had got her days mixed up. The parent then asked if I could reschedule again, and I said I could book another lesson in but unfortunately, I'd have to charge for the missed one. The parent then asked why I couldn't just count the next lesson as making up for it.

I'll admit, I find it really hard to understand (some) parents attitude to instrumental lessons. If you have them at school, you might get a missed lesson made up, but totally at the discretion of the teacher. If you pay for swimming lessons/gymnastics/horse riding etc, the same almost certainly applies.
So why are music lessons any different?
In this particular case, the pupil and her family are so busy that the only way to ensure she has lessons is to have a set day/time. The same goes for most of my pupils, actually, and it works for me because I only have limited times when I can teach outside of school hours.

piccolo I would expect to pay for lessons that we missed due to our own issues, especially at short notice or for just not turning up! In reality, most of the teachers we have worked with have been very flexible about make-up lessons but even so, I would never argue for a refund if the missed lesson was our fault (intentionally or otherwise) and we couldn't find a time at the teachers convenience to make it up (if they even offer to!) As I see it, we've booked X amount of their fee earning time - whether we turn up or not, that should be paid for.