Spring 23 music thread

[thirdfiddle]

I saw some sunshine today so it's officially spring! Here's a new thread for all things musical.

With a nod to those who started the series, well before my young folk picked up an instrument or I braved the vipers of MN. This little corner is for support only, and bragging about your young folk's musical achievements is positively encouraged.

How are things looking for new year? Anyone new want to join us for a chat? Any lurkers want to delurk? All welcome from pre beginners to music college and beyond.

That's great news. Glad he's back to enjoying it, hopefully it will be a good experience for him.

Thank you! He said sometimes he was a bit too quick. But that's part of the learning! I think he's ready and it was the right decision to move him up now.

@chickentikkasalad I certainly think so but I'm biased hehe! It's wonderful that your DS is getting to be part of an orchestra and is enjoying it! It's so lovely watching your child do something they're passionate about.

That said, I'm feeling pretty frustrated at the moment. I've approached our school about getting involved with the county music service in the hopes we can get some lessons that we can afford on an orchestral instrument through that, but they've not got back to me yet. I'm not sure how we can do it otherwise, hearing about all these groups makes me feel bad about how much he's missing out on. I guess he's still fairly young, but I don't know how much better our local secondary schools will be. Think I need to win the lottery or something!

@Teapotkitten I'm so sorry to hear that your DS is missing out on orchestral music. We are lucky that there's a local music service Saturday school near us. We just pay a fixed membership and get to play in as many group lessons orchestras as we like and capable of. Is there such a local or council run service like you?
Hope you hear from your school soon.

Teapot, can you look up your local music service directly? Where we are the peris in state schools are mostly employed via our local music service and if they don't have the right instrument at your school they offer sessions at a local hub instead.

chickentikka great news he had a better session. And a little bit lol at kids and parents, they get upset about something and we're all oh no is something fundamentally wrong, can they not do it, do they need extra support - then the next week it's shrugged off and what are you on about mum it's fine.

Third fiddle - exacting! When do I learn to relax?!!

Absolutely @Teapotkitten most local music services can be accessed without going through the school. Our DDs used to do a Saturday council music centre and you just applied by email. The school didn't even know I don't think..

I meant exactly!

Second minisnowball, our violin teacher told us about the Saturday music service and I applied on the website. The school had nothing to do with it at all!
Hope you find one way or another to give your DS the best opportunities possible!

The annoying thing about Saturday music via a local council is the variability of it. Our London borough is useless- hopeless admin, really oversubscribed and badly publicised and seemingly minimal opportunity, whereas the two neighbouring boroughs have amazing music services with lots of ensemble opps for kids who don't necessarily have LA lessons. I requested lessons for both of mine and it took 4 years to be offered a space (funnily enough had made alternative provision by then).

Hopefully others are better and there is a way to find lessons with an LA provider as they are much cheaper if you go for the small group option, which might be fine to start with, though at some point you will need private lessons and then it's ££.

DD just got timetable info for Sept at her (non LA) Sat music centre and will be doing 1 hour piano which in addition to her 1 hour violin lesson privately plus ensembles and holiday orchestras makes the whole thing pretty pricey!

I'll have another look on the website but I couldn't see anything other than the ones done through schools when I had a good look before.

They don't seem to have any kind of music centre or Saturday schools, but the website is a bit of a maze so I'll try contacting them directly if I don't get anywhere with the school.

We're on the border with another county too so I might see if theirs is any better, if we're allowed to access it!

Definitely worth trying the neighbouring county too @Teapotkitten - and just getting in touch with the department and seeing what they suggest with regards to school @northerngoldilocks is right, it is a bit of a lottery though - our LA is ..okish - one of the neighbouring ones absolutely amazing though and if there are spaces you can join that one.

Try ‘Music Hubs’ as a search instead. Full
list is here: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/MusicEducationHubs

There is overlap with county music services but you may find something different.

Just keep listening out. Where we used to live, there was a county music service (great for woodwind, instrument hire, jazz, beginners and the big county-wide groups) and a music charity running very similar services almost entirely for strings, and you had to be ‘in the system’ to be aware of both.

So today it seems like we've hit the inevitable and predictable 'all the pieces going wrong' stage pre exam. Whilst I know that this always seems to happen, was particularly grumpy about the fact she mangled each piece once and carried on without attempting to fix anything and 'might' have pointed this out.. Probably going to have to tread carefully tomorrow and remind myself that she's only little and being grumpy helps no one etc. On the bright side - 5 weeks to the exam so time to fix things!

So tricky when that happens. We try to distinguish between types of practice. There's play through to identify what needs working on ( put a star above bars), do small sections on their own slowly/ with metronome/ hands separately or whatever helps, and ' carry on regardless to get to the end for stamina/ not give up attitude '. Probably don't do that too often as it reinforces wrong bits but do have to do it a bit as otherwise they are always stopping. Hope the nerves don't get too frayed!

Thankfully this morning before school was much much better so hopefully just a random glitch! The pieces are pretty much there but she needs to control the speed across the board and remember dynamics and do lots of slow metronome run throughs to ensure the articulation is super crisp. Basically last night she would rather have been reading 'Land of Stories' for the 100th time than playing the piano and it showed...

But thanks @horseymum will try those things if it goes wrong again. Both my kids particularly reluctant to work on small sections - or just don't hear the errors. Need to get her to record and listen back as seems to be a better route to hearing it.

@northerngoldilocks Hopefully that was just a one off bad day and everything is back on track.
Lol my DS also hates small section practice. Every time he makes an error he goes back to the beginning and makes the same error again. He says he knows there is an error but does t make the effort to correct it unless I "threaten" we'll practice on that bar only! Then he will correct it next time (still from the beginning 🤣).

I don't know what's so difficult for them to practice just the bit you tend to go wrong - it seems very logical and much more efficient to me. And that's how I'd practice if I needed to.

Oh @northerngoldilocks you tried to suggest something sensible?? HOW DARE YOU??!! 🤣
I've been known to run and hide if dd is having a "tricky" practice.
Definitely agree with separating practice into two parts, the "stop and correct" part and the "full run through just keep going" part. Not that I ever suggest that at the time though - I've learned my lesson there!! 😳

I have the whole spectrum - one meticulous in every aspect, one fairly diligent but a good sight reader so lessons are generally easy! And one who plays from the start until the tricky bit, then starts again, resulting in lots of pieces they can play the first page of really really well!!

Dd2 is jekyll and hyde with practice. One day meticulous, the next all over the shop - and until recently a 'bad tone day' would throw her off completely. She has strategies now which help.

Excitingly, new flute now reserved and money transferred to schools that it can be bought through the VAT-free Assisted Purchase Scheme (this is well worth it, people, it's saving us a fortune). She is SO excited - it was clearly so much easier to play than the Yamaha and so much louder for little effort. She was very nearly swayed by the slightly cheaper Altus but has gone for a Muramatsu in the end.

First instrument she's ever chosen herself or owned so a massive deal for her.

@minisnowballs I've never heard of the assisted purchase scheme but it sounds very inviting! Is it tedious and was your school happy to do it or a bit reluctant?
Thanks for sharing!

Our school do it (junior school) for year 6 children when they leave as until that point they have borrowed an instrument from school. They only allow children who have had lessons on the instrument in school to access the scheme, though the wording of the scheme is actually wider and playing in a school orchestra or at a music hub might be sufficient. @minisnowballs has given me hope that the secondary school might be convinced that they would like to let us access it when DS needs a new flute though!

Basically the school has to buy the instrument and then 'sell' it to you VAT free so it's a bit of a faff if they've not done it before @chickentikkasalad. Ours has, but there's an entirely new school business team so they've not come across it and it's taken intervention from the deputy head to get it done at all.

Of course I feel guilty as DD is moving in September so it's not like they 'benefit' from her any more, but she's been basically helping to run the music department this year and it costs them nothing. It just feels like rather a luxury when schools are so squeezed to be taking up time on an expensive flute purchase.

According to HMRC as long as you are state educated being in a school orchestra counts as tuition, as does using a local music hub.