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.

Crazy good luck to your dd - that’s a huge amount to take on and makes ds’s schedule look like a walk in the park!!
It’s so frustrating when teachers only work on pieces - I have always ended up testing scales doing aural test prep etc - luckily I think the new trumpet teacher is fairly “on it” and is working on it all with ds ( this makes the 3 hour round trip for his lessons worth it !!) Grade 8 in the spring here I think though I realised yesterday that we need to make the decision by the end of January which seems very close and as he’s changed teacher he has of course decided to learn 3 new pieces for the exam !! Oh well at least he’s learnt most of the syllabus which can only be a good thing

He will be fine, Trumpet! Goo played most of the syllabus too. She was planning to play Mozart, Hypnosis and Syrinx for the exam, and finally ended up with Bach, Rutter and Telemann! I think her next teacher will make her do the other exam board too!!!

Ds is now doing the other exam board !! But that means that his teacher is sorting out the exam accompanist etc so that’s fine by me and learning scales has never been a problem. Hope you have a new teacher for Goo

Watch this space.

waffle

It's odd how some schools don't manage things very well. The dcs' primary school was very good at both making sure everyone had a chance to perform but also making sure the best got a real chance to show what they could do. They would never have dictated which instrument a child could play in a concert- in fact several played more than one (DS2 was one of them).
Talking of concerts, I managed to scrounge a ticket to see DS1 last night playing with several school ensembles - I nearly missed out as tickets sold out unexpectedly quickly but they managed to squeeze a few more seats in - phew! It was a great evening!

Wow crazy - that's a very busy schedule. Hope you can have a good rest once it's all done. I feel as though I am crawling towards Christmas at the moment - but that's more to do with my own horrible workload [sigh]

It sounds like your dcs Primary school was great Loose .
In all fairness when ds was there they let him perform solos etc in assembly ( I don’t think he gave them much choice ) but there’s so little music going on he wasn’t really treading on anyone’s toes . Because dd sings/ acts in her spare time these are things that everyone can have a go at - which is great and I approve of them all developing these skills , but a set up where she was also encouraged to excel and not made to miss out on stuff because she’s giving others a chance would be nice !! ( Especially when those children then get chosen to sing the only solos and then sing flat or so quietly that no one can hear !! ) It’s not exactly encouraging for her . She sang an amazing solo at the end of the year last summer and the head seemed genuinely surprised about how good it was !!
But like others have said she does lots out of school instead and next year she should come into her own at high school where developing singing is a real strength.

Trumpet the downside was that the Christmas concert was very, very long! also, to be fair, it's not a big school by London standards.
The other side of the coin is that there isn't a lot of music at the secondary school for DS2 - they don't have an orchestra, for example, so his ensemble playing is outside school. However, the music teacher seems to be putting together a small group with him in it - but not for classical music. It would be nice if they didn't assume all the boys are just interested in electric guitars! Even though DS2 is quite keen on those as well...

I guess we’re just really picky but it is because I’m convinced that music should have such an important place in all schools .
Even if it is mostly singing at primary school level there should be the opportunities for all to have a go and hopefully develop new skills and for those that work hard and have an aptitude for it to get the opportunity to develop their ( solo?) performance skills.
Way back when I taught in London I was always keen to let my budding young singers, dancers and actors take a bit of the limelight in school shows and why not they were good at it, enjoyed performing and it gave them something to feel proud of . That didn’t mean that I didn’t give everyone else a chance to have a go too ... and sometimes this meant that we discovered new talents too !!

4strings - is it to do with where she learns her instruments? My dd is only allowed to play her second instrument in school, because her first instrument she only has lessons out of school (and isn't 'allowed' to have lessons in school because her Saturday centre doesn't permit). I can sort of see the logic - there are so many children to get through at concerts and they want to showcase their own teachers.

She finds it frustrating though, as she's much better on the other one and most people have no idea (and it means that people like the choir teacher don't see her as 'musical').

If it's not that, then yes, I can totally see how annoying that would be. Lots of opportunities out of school is the only thing I could suggest.

Trumpetboy totally agree - there should be a lot more available to all children in school. It has so many positive effects in all sorts of ways.

Although DS is no where near as accomplished as other DC on this thread I can relate to the discussion about music performance in Primary school. At our school the only music performance is singing to recorded music. Its often good, but it's such a shame they don't seem to either allow or encourage the DC who can play instruments to perform in public. Recorded music just isn't the same. They have been great at giving DS opportunities in school such as playing in assembly but they haven't allowed this for public performances for parents (and there are plenty of kids having private music lessons who could give it a go). I think it's a combination of not having any teachers who are confident enough musically to support it plus the issue mentioned here about not wanting DC to have individual limelight. Sport has a massive profile and they don't seem to have a problem with giving the limelight to the sporty kids . When I was at school there were definitely more opportunities and teachers who played the piano etc. I'm hopeful that there will be more opportunities at secondary school.

mini she has lessons via the music service in school (and in school time, in fact), which does make it all the more frustrating! She has private piano lessons, so certainly isn't allowed to play the piano in concerts...

It's all a complete nonsense!

kitty oh yes, the praise heaped on the sporty ones.

I've decided dd1 won't be doing sports day this year. She hates it, isn't sporty and isn't allowed to show what she is good at. I don't care if I'm giving her a terrible message: it's no worse than the one she gets from school...

DS's primary offers group piano lessons once a week at a subsidised rate. There is a waiting list for the school piano lessons and I have been told by another parent that the school piano lessons are only meant for children who do not have private lessons outside school - although am not sure how they monitor that. DS for instance takes part in the school piano lessons but also has lessons outside school - although only with me and maybe I don't count as am not a proper teacher.

They put a concert on last term where the children who have piano lessons in that set-up at school played. The school choir also sang. The children played mainly in groups except for DS who played a solo - although I think he was the only child who actually wanted to play on his own.

The piece he played was one taught by his teacher at school and he was far from secure in it. I would have preferred that he had played a more secure piece that he knew better but I didn't have any say in it and I understand that the whole point was that the music showcased is what they have learned in school.

Anyway, my point is that DS is definitely not the best pianist in the school by any stretch of the imagination. But he was the only soloist as a) he was the only one who wanted to do it and b) the children who have private lessons were not included at all. He was very happy with how it went but he did say that afterwards other boys in his class told him that they could play better than him. He didn't seem too bothered by that, he was more focussed on his performance on the day.

But from the experience of others on this thread, it does seem bonkers that a child who has lessons at school and who actively wants to perform is prevented from doing so.

Don't get me started on Sports Day! The best bit is that my DS is really good at the throwing sports like discus and javelin but because he can't be in any school teams due to musical commitments he's not even allowed to compete! It's beyond stupid. I may have been known to ask the Head when it's Maths Day and Music Day ...

Update on NBB audition dates - this audition has been postponed again. Luckily the conservatoire has allowed him to do that because he let them know about the potential clash and they couldn't accommodate him [only jazz auditions in this session are on the clashing date].

So we have an 'outlier' late audition next term (all others before Christmas).

This may be really good, as it is one of the more 'realistic chances' and DS can prepare in detail for it after a couple more months of JD teaching etc if it is indeed the 'last chance saloon'. On the other hand, plans for A-levels etc did mean that we hoped to be all done and dusted one way or another this term....

Cantkeep im glad he’s got an answer about the auditions . I’m sure he’ll manage to juggle it all - but it’s a shame it always has to be so complicated . Good luck to him for the upcoming auditions

I can’t think of a better team sport than orchestra, or ensemble playing to be honest! Everything that sports are supposed to foster and encourage is equally applicable to playing a musical instrument.

Thankfully our tiny, bog standard Primary has a very accomplished musician for a headteacher, so we have piano accompaniment for assembly, a good choir and concerts (despite the head being non sporty, they also manage to do cross country, swimming etc.....)

It’s bonkers that they only want to hear music paid for by school! Why not celebrate the whole child?

Can'tkeep I'm glad they sorted it for him, they should have done really given that they assured him that there would be no clash.

(old poster, new name)

Notanother your dcs primary school sounds great

Can't that's good news - glad they switched the date!