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.

Thank you all so much for your kindness (and flowers, especially from minisnowball).

i found out recently that abrsm examiners are not allowed to give 99/119/129 - they have to make a conscious decision whether the player is a fail/pass or pass/merit etc

That's completely true @PetraDelphiki !

Yep, they look again at the scales and adjust from there. One of my pupils got adjusted up to a distinction a few years ago - I could see the pencil marks!

Ah - she'd taken a sneaky look at her marks on the earlier sections while the examiner was writing. 24, 24, 26 on the pieces and 15 on the scales (which I don't think had gone disastrously from what she said - just rather pedestrianly) - I wonder whether they will be the same when we get the score sheet. Aural and Sight-reading not really her biggest fortes!

piccolo

Well both exams and one audition out of the way, just the wait now! Seems like some Abrsm ones are coming in quicker than two weeks, that would be nice. Good luck for those in the last few days. Christmas carols began in force tonight- they can't not play something! Hope dd's voice holds out as the school choir has 7 performance s before the end of term! She is sad it will be her last Christmas in it, the high school choir is not quite so active and well attended. I think they get too self conscious to sing? My ds wouldn't go as he said people would think he was weird, which is a shame.

piccolo

minisnowballs I once had Ds1 and DD doing Grade 8s on consecutive days. I thought that would be fine, as the don't hand the results out until the end of the session.

DS1 was given his at the end of that day, so DD knew how he had done when she went to do hers. The examiner even asked if that had been her brother the previous day. She ended up with an identical mark, often wondered if he did it deliberately!

DS2's mock GCSE marathon started today, Grade 8 piano next week.

NBB has just got into singing (he isn't very good, but there is a really enthusiastic young music teacher at his school who has absolutely galvanised boys' / young men's singing opportunities and NBB is throwing himself into it.)

Think he's singing more than he is playing at the upcoming Christmas concert - definitely a first! There is mention of a solo in one of the a capella singing pieces... what is the opposite of 'playing to your strengths'????

That’s impressive getting boys at high school into singing . There aren’t loads at ds’s school - definitely more girls but there are some boys in all the different choirs so I think that’s pretty good going
Ds is doing a lot of singing in the Christmas concert - well actually I think he’s just doing lots full stop

Lovely to hear of some schools with boys singing. We have a fab male music teacher who takes the primary school choir and there are several boys in the choir but they never continue in high school.

DS has to sing in the chamber choir, as part of his scholar duties. He claims to mime..!
The school has its annual St Cecilia 's Day concert next week - they're singing Bob Chilcott's Christmas Carol, and DS is playing in the string ensemble, sinfonia and senior orchestra. He said today that the cello teacher, who takes the string ensemble and coaches DS in a chamber ensemble, is desperate to recruit him for the cello ensemble, but it's for year 10 upwards ( DS is only year 8).
He's so lucky to go to such a musical school.

From having virtually no boys singing (a very small handful in the main choir), the school now has a BIG boys' choir and an entrance-by-audition a capella boys' choir (as well as a standard choir, a staff choir, and a very high quality all girls' chamber choir). It puts on a full 'musical show' every year, a Christmas carol service / concert (all choirs, orchestra, wind group, jazz group, small groups...), and a full musical evening on 2 stages - 1 classical in feel, one mainly rock/pop/jazz/musical theatre - in the summer. Inter-house music is keenly contested and followed by a concert.

For a standard, if leafy, comp, it's a hive of low-entry-barrier musical activity - of every type from samba to classical - every lunchtime and every day after school. 3 conservatoire auditionees this year, including NBB.

That sounds fantastic, cant, especially for a state school, leafy or otherwise. Our local, "excellent" comp.only really offers popular music - so lots of themed concerts (think Abba night/Michael Jackson night etc) and annual musicals. Classical (with a small c) doesn't really feature at all.

I'd say classical is a slightly 'niche sport', as it is amongst teenagers in general, but they do have a few students in each of the senior county ensembles (from youth orchestra through wind band and choir to jazz), as well as county and similar weekend music schools, which keeps the school orchestra alive and kicking.

(Oh, and they have been blessed by the kind of 'musical whirlwind' staff who just want the world to play / participate in music, of whatever sort, whenever possible. NBB and I owe them a LOT.)

That sounds fantastic cantkeep. Ds’s school is similar classical music and jazz is very much on the agenda as well as pop . The serious musicians get to take it in turns to perform solos at the Christmas concerts etc and all music is celebrated . Love the description of “ musical whirlwind” teachers it makes all the difference

Thank you, Littlelad, raspberry and Alexandra.

Regarding singing boys, DS has always loved to sing and did Grade 5 earlier this year. Now that he's started at specialist school and changed JD's it's all stopped. The mention of it here has made me think about it again and I'm not sure whether to be concerned or not?

Sadly neither of my dcs will sing even though DS2 used to love to sing when he was little. The nearest we get is DS1 accompanying the choir on bass guitar! His new school has a reasonable number of boys in the choir although yes, I did notice more girls.
It's a leafy comp with lots of music and he's very happy there - especially as he's been invited to join the jazz band.

DS has always refused to sing unless it's been a residential course where everyone sang, no exceptions. This means that he's on a steep learning curve as choir is a compulsory element for the first year of his course.

As soon as singing was identified as a girl's activity he was out of it, so age eight maybe. The music centre choir is about thirty girls and two boys so the sight of them on stage doesn't encourage boys to join. It's a weight of numbers thing I think.

Littleladsdad- do they have a boys choir at his school?
Ours has junior/lower school/ girl/boys I think in 6th form x

Ooh, excited to receive parcel today of lovely moeck treble recorder from eBay for dd2, hope she will like it! Ukulele for dd3 purchased yesterday. DS teaching himself guitar so he is just getting mini guitar chord book! Any ideas for stocking fillers gratefully accepted!

Musical stocking fillers: ocarina, stickers for music cases, themed stationery (my percussionist DS has a growing collection of pens and pencils with snare drum stick ends which he loves). Have a Google - there's loads of stuff out there at a good price.