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.

Thank you @Siriusmuggle . As I said I'm not taking his words too seriously (not yet anyway )🤣. He's enjoying his music at the moment that's good enough. We have a LONG time to think about 11+ schools. Might get him to try auditioning for the NCO when he's 8 though. I think the competition for violin is pretty high and you have to be at least grade 5! He's not doing too badly but I think you need a certain amount of talent to get in though and I don't know whether he has that or not so can only let him try then find out.
I would be grateful to hear your (or other mum's) experience with NCO if your DC go/went there - what grade/age was your DC when they got in?

Mine did do NCO, he did main orchestra when he was 14 (I think), whatever the top of the age range is anyway. Maybe 13.
Anyway, auditioned mostly for audition experience and got in first and only time of trying. He loved it. He ended up At specialist school for 6th form with at least one other of his nco cohort. He’s now at conservatoire with at least one other nco friend.
Additionally he got to work with conductors he’s encountered in other settings since.

I'm really not keeping up here! Congrats to everyone on the assorted summer concerts.

Herbaceous, hope the exam was better than he thought - they usually are, and choristers have particularly high standards.

mini, loving the palestrina-craze, I expect she will find some kindred spirits at music school. Do they have any kind of chapel-style choir? I think there are also church-choral singing holiday courses if she doesn't get to try out that sort of thing at school.

chickentikka, your DS sounds adorable. Nothing wrong with having an ambition. And actually I wouldn't bet against a child with that sort of focus and interest. You sound like you're very sensibly being supportive while keeping an open mind on where things go, all you can do at 6.

Re NCO, what they currently have for primary aged kids is Projects, which runs two weekends of in person playing plus some online content. The minimum standard even on violin is not that high. They're looking for kids who can play well in tune, play in time, play musically and look like they're having fun, but they don't need to play anything particularly difficult, they say grade 4+ and I think they mean it. DD has done Projects the past two years and loved it.

To clarify, projects is also available to Y7 and Y8, but primary age are not eligible for the age group orchestras now, only for Projects. And unlike the old regionals which did also include national age group orchestra members, Projects doesn't overlap, which makes it mostly younger and more accessible.

Hi all, I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up. I'm posting here for a friendly space for some advice. DD10 has been selected to sing in the summer play, nothing fancy, the usual school play. She's come out of school in tears saying all the girls have been talking behind her back and her so-called friend has told her it's because of her singing. She sings well, her choir teacher loves her and has her out for solos most performances. She has a beautiful voice according to the music teachers, we agree. Quite frankly none of the other children know how to sing.

The so-called friend told her she needs to sing like everyone else and then made her try to sing like the rest of them 🙄 she said she just cried and cried.

The HT came out with her bawling today and said to us she didn't know what had happened but would investigate tomorrow. The school is generally uninspiring when it comes to the brighter or more talented children, doesn't encourage them at all. I'm worried how this will go.

I want to tell DD to tell the others to go F off and to sing her little heart out. What do I do?

@mummyoffourminimes the poor love. It's hard if your friends are telling you one thing but you know another... I guess you just have to keep repeating that the teachers know what they are talking about and they picked her to sing because they wanted her to sound 'like her' and not like everyone else. But that must be hard at 10.

@chickentikkasalad mine did NCO projects at about grade 5, and then got into NCO mains for this year (which was the last year she could have done it). she turned it down though because she wanted to go on holiday (!) In terms of her musical development I am sure this was a mistake, but she's a teenager now and she wanted to do something else, so what can you do... And yes, your child's focus sounds amazing. Mine literally wouldn't have had a clue at six - and had never played an instrument at all at that point. But it helps, for her, that she doesn't play strings, most people start later on woodwind so she didn't have to compete so young. He sounds brilliant!

@thirdfiddle they very, very much have a chapel-style choir - but it has its own choristers, aged up to 13 and then adults. There is a separate vocal programme too and I know she will get voice lessons as her third study, just not really clear what she'll get in terms of choirs or what the standard will be. She may not be good enough for them, although she sings with the national youth choir so must have an OKish voice and it has given her some experience. The other choral holiday courses do look lovely, Perhaps next year!

mumoffour your poor DD, how unkind of her classmates. What do they even mean sing like the rest of them? It's such a relief at school productions when one of them is a nice singer. If the teacher wants her to sing the part differently I'm sure they'd tell her. Sounds like the head is going to try to deal, perhaps you could email a message over this evening so they have some info to start from.

I think my DD would probably respond with a not very kind impression of the the others' singing in the playground, and carry on doing her own thing in the show ... but that's not a recommendation, and she and her friends would have been joking with each other not at each other.

mini, ah I see, too much of a chorister school. With that background though I expect they have something good for the outgrown choristers and to channel them into oxbridge choral scholarships. Fingers crossed!

@mummyoffourminimes I'm so sorry to hear what your DD is going through. Sometimes it's hard to stand out from the rest. The other kids might be just jealous that the teacher picks her not them. I don't know what to say other than believing in herself and the teacher.

@thirdfiddle good that they have projects that's a bit more relaxed and more accessible for the younger ones. Thanks for the info.

@minisnowballs sometimes I think kids have their own fate - DS loves the violin from an early age and yours started later but woodwind is meant to be late start anyway. It just works out right doesn't it!

@mumoffourminimes sorry to hear that your daughter is having a tough time at school - i assume perhaps that she's singing like she's in a choir and they're singing like they're doing karaoke? I think that it sounds like the school need to step in, its not ok for 'friends' to be making her cry about doing something she's being asked to do as part of the school curriculum. I'd speak to the teacher and ask how they're going to address it so that you can support her with it too. Hopefully she can ignore them, but I can see its hard for her, especially as she's still quite young.

@mummyoffourminimes Your poor DD, I hope the school handles it well so she feels confident performing.

@chickentikkasalad My DS is in NCO main at the moment. He joined last year when he was 12 - auditioned for projects at his teacher's suggestion then was offered under 13s orchestra instead. He plays bassoon, so I think they needed people as he was just grade 6 standard then. He's now grade 8 and absolutely loves NCO. We are in the far north east, so not that much musically going on round here compared with the London area and NCO has opened his eyes to what other kids are doing musically. He's just submitted an audition for NYO, but that is much more competitive so I don't know what his chances are. Your DS sounds like he has a real vision for one so young!

@PinkGrapefruitSorbet Thank you for sharing another positive experience 👍. I'm sure DS will enjoy it too if he can get in . Still 2 years to go... DS said he would like to be a cyclist or a violinist when he grows up. He's quite sporty and loves cycling races! At 6, things can change overnight - he used to like to be an engineer like Mum and Dad but not any more 🤣

@mummyoffourminimes Sounds like jealousy to me. She's better than them, and they want to bring her down a peg! Very hard for kids with peer pressure etc, so I think the teachers need to step in an explicitly teach that it's OK to be good at things!

Vaguely similar thing here. DS sang at the school awards ceremony in the debut performed of a barbershop quartet. It was amazing! So much better that I imagined. Really hard to sing close harmony, one per part, on stage in front of 200 parents. But I have a fear that it wasn't seen as 'cool', and he might start edging away from it. We'll see...

No result yet from disastrous horn exam. He did his final recording for g8 piano yesterday - teacher is super-perfectionist, and wants to ensure he gets a distinction. So fingers crossed! If he can get it in just before he's 14, that would be so cool.

Thank you for the advice, I went with minis line of "the teachers know what they are doing, just be yourself and enjoy yourself".

The teachers came down quite hard on the girl telling these stories though so I think there must have been other issues with behaviour from her. Her mum contacted me to say how upset the other girl was and that she just commenting on how "powerful" dd's voice is/was. I don't want to be drawn into the drama of 10 year old girls, so we're sticking with the "just be yourself and be confident" line to DD and letting school deal with the behaviour aspect.

Most of the time I don't feel cut out for parenting 🙈

She does love to sing and there is always singing at home, they are all in the same choir.
I did wonder if she looked like she was enjoying herself a little too much! 🤣

@mummyoffourminimes I hate it when parents get involved in this stuff... I hope that wasn't too awkward. Sounds like you handled it well with your dd. As the mum of a girl with a 'powerful voice' i know it can be hard when they stick out. DD says she often sings 'quietly' in school because she doesn't want to be obvious - she loves the more difficult choirs she's in because she can't be heard above everyone else.

Mind you, we do also tease her about how very loud she is 'DD, we are not on an oil rig in a storm' is a fairly standard response to her, whether speaking or singing. I sometimes wonder how so much noise can come out of such a small person.

Hope it all goes well

@herbaceous good luck with both exams. DDs is week after next, also just before she turns 14 - pieces are fab - scales are fine. Sight-reading OK. Aural... meh. Perhaps she should have gone with a performance exam, except she hasn't the patience for rerecording.

Good luck to all doing summer concerts and exams. Hope they all go well. Dd has an orchestra one next Tues and a band one the Monday after. She is singing as well as playing (tamb, keys, clarinet) in the band one so that’s great.

Any tips on buying a saxophone at all. It’s going to be dd’s third instrument after clarinet and piano. Was wondering to go for new or better quality second hand.

I have just entered dd for her first theory exam. She is completing questions on the ABRSM theory app to practice. Does anyone know if they are similar in structure/method of doing them to the exam itself please?

Hi @Alakazam8 pretty similar- but make sure she does the sample online paper at the end as thats exactly the same format as the actual exam. There is only 1 online past paper though so save it until she's ready as a 'mock'

Saxophone - decent secondhand Yamaha would be ok. Or rent to buy from somewhere like https://musicalinstrumenthire.com/?

Or https://sax.co.uk/pages/saxophone-rental or https://www.uksaxhire.com/ - the latter is good because they have the Yamaha YAS280, which is a good student saxophone that’s playable to a really high standard.

Thanks for the advice about the exam, that’s good to know that there is a mock exam at the end, really useful! She’s doing well so hopefully soon be ready for the mock.
Also a big thank you for the useful advice about saxophone. I‘ll look for a secondhand Yamaha or rent to buy, which is an option I didn’t know existed for instruments.

DD has grade 2 piano in July. Two weeks ago her pieces were perfect (sadly July was the earliest slot we could get locally). In the last week her fingers seem to have "forgotten" how to play a long run of quavers and she's messing it up every time. She no longer reads the music as she knows it by heart, so trying to get her to break it down into phrases isn't working.

I suspect it's just stress but has anyone else had this? It's like watching a gymnast with twisties - you can see her tensing up as she gets to this part. She has played it correctly dozens of times. I'm not sure what's going on!

It's the standard 'fall apart before the exam' stage. Always happens in my experience. Usually all comes together fine in the end.

As she's doing grade 2 maybe some hands separately and some slow runs through hands together really focussing on accuracy / dynamics. Also perhaps film and she can watch to see what to focus on. But fundamentally don't worry too much, it seems to be a rite of passage in exam prep!

I don't have any advice I'm afraid, except maybe having a few days off and trying again then.

My Dd has grade 6 in a week and seems to have lost the ability to identify perfect / imperfect cadences all of a sudden 🙈

Also additional thoughts - yes to a couple of days off- just to hopefully break things up if it's stress. Maybe also start a new piece? Just so there is something that isn't exam related but keep the exam music ticking over! DD has grade 7 piano in a couple of weeks and has been playing a new piece more than I'd perhaps ideally like but it's keeping her interested and stopping it just being about 3 pieces (though daily scales non negotiable)

Thanks all. We still have almost two weeks, so hopefully will sort itself out! Her sight reading is hit and miss, ditto aural so she can't really afford to lose too many marks on the pieces.