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.

Thanks everyone. As my eldest is at secondary it has been very hard getting to fit in piano and any theory but piano is the only instrument with grades. We need to have a think.

For my youngest Abrsm just says it is quequed for marking so perhaps it may take a couple more weeks now, especially as we must be at peak holiday season.

Pianotwister, the other thing is grades are not compulsory if he doesn't want to. DS is planning another brass grade, but possibly never another piano one. He can still learn pieces and scales and make progress, but the workload for an exam is more than he wants to deal with.

Did anyone else audition for NCO this year? Despite thinking about it in loads of time, the deadline seemed to come around super quickly - with end of term and then music tours ended up recording both of mine in one take yesterday and submitting that. Getting the videos onto youtube took longer than the actual recording (though mainly because my phone wouldn't upload anything).

I was confused though as submitting for DD who is 10 on 31 Aug this year - the grid of 'whats available' seemed to indicate only projects available, but then when i submitted the video i could select either projects or NCO main too. We hadn't done the excepts but hadn't realised it would be an option for her.. Anyone know if this was just a system glitch or if you can apply to a higher age category? It doesn't really matter as the deadline passed today, but i'm just curious!

Yes northern DD did - and also last minute due to other commitments.

I think it's just their form isn't clever enough to change the options based on your previous replies. I don't think you can routinely apply up an age group at the moment. There have been a couple on here when there was a NCO thread who were asked up an age group following audition due to orchestra demographics - all rare instruments iirc.

Thanks - she's violin so realistically its unlikely they won't have enough in the age above. Also hadn't even looked at the excepts. Weird that they're only for violin and cello and not flute. I've auditioned DS for it too, but not really expecting him to get a place as there are so many flutes and he's not grade 8 plus. In fact realistically his only distinguishing feature on flute is that he's a boy and there seem to be so few of them in youth orchestras!

He was a bit reluctant to audition at all though - think it was off the back of a school orchestra tour and a Wind Band tour and the fact he has an LPO playing day next week - in his view that's probably too much flute playing! I told him its for next year though and he was happier - think he thought I was trying to sign him up for more summer music - he also has a week of orchestra at the end of the holidays!

I would like my younger child to learn a different instrument to join in with an orchestra or group eventually..anyhow Abrsm still showing as "queued for marking " and then "pending result" in another area.. so I imagine it may be a while until I hear what the result might be.

I uploaded the video late at night when I was exhausted so I am worried I actually uploaded the wrong file type .. but I imagine if worse comes to worse I can just pay the fee again and upload another performance ?? Hopefully it was the right one but I don't even want to check at the moment.

I am just hoping I get some response within 3 weeks.

Can I ask for some advice please?I've been baffled by DS's dislike for choir for some time. Maybe some of you have some insights? First of all I'm completely ok that he doesn't want to join the choir - Im just curious. Here we go -
DS is 6 he plays violin and piano. He's learning to play percussion in a junior band. He generally likes most types of instruments. He loves to listen to the brass and wind band at our local music centre. But the one thing he "hates" is the choir. He also doesn't like any singing in a concert. But he constantly sings or hums at home by himself or with me. Actually his pitch and rhythm is very good - constantly saying I'm out of tune etc. I just don't understand why he doesn't like to sing or even listen to a choir.
I was talking to him about possible JD for the future he will reject RCM JD because you have to join the choir (my understanding based on the website so I might be wrong). Is this just because of his age he doesn't know what he likes and dislikes? Could there be a logical reason why he might not like the idea of singing with other people or listening to other people singing? I'm not forcing him to do it at all, just totally confused and curious...
Thanks!

I think sometimes you just have to nod along and say we'll see what you think when you're older. With a few more years' wisdom I would trust that he won't actually reject JD if that's otherwise the best option just because of a bit of singing. Maybe school singing has put him off? There tend to be some shouters at that age. Or maybe he sees it as being less skilled compared to instrumental groups? If the latter don't force it but if you happened to have really good singing on occasionally e.g. carols from Kings at Xmas. At the end of the day, everyone is allowed to have musical preferences.

Thanks @thirdfiddle, you could be right about school singing. They have singing once a week at school. He did say they were not very good . You're absolutely right in waiting a few years and see. You used to hate piano and now he's okay with it . I don't think he sees it as less skilful he says he just doesn't like the sound of it and complain they're too loud! But brass is much louder but he didn't mind! I just don't know what Mel's going on in his head I bet after a few years he would forget all about this:)

Maybe he's got perfect pitch, and children yelling tunelessly does his head in? At the other end, maybe it's not the cool thing for boys to do?

I agree with gradual immersion - have lovely choirs on at home, like The 16, or Voces8, or whatever, to show him what they can sound like! But he's only six. Very young to be considering his musical future!

Thanks @herbaceous! Yes very young to consider anything seriously. But I was just so curious what could be the reason behind. His teachers suspect he might have perfect pitch but I doubt it. He's got good ears but his tuning on the violin is not always good 😊 . Though but he can definitely hear when I'm out of tune . I also wonder whether he considers the choir a girls thing too. I'll try to have some really good choir on at home and see whether he likes the sound of it. It could be just a random thing he doesn't like at this age. I don't need to fix it just curious

Is it the sort of things they're singing?

I know the songs my girls loved singing in choir, ds thought were totally boring and didn't want to join. A different selection and he'd have been happy singing.

Maybe Margaret - we only heard one or two songs that they sang so really don't have different songs to compare...

I just wanted to jump in to say I got a standard apology type email from Abrsm stating they are exceptionally busy so it is fine I will just keep waiting for the results.

re Theory I think I will try find some lessons over the holidays, the issue I have is that secondary school is so action packed that it is hard to find time for music during the school year. It is me pushing the Theory to make GCSE music more manageable later on. Maybe I should not push it just yet?

I’m from my experience in gcse music classes, the theory is fairly basic. Keys, basic chords, basic structure…

i get what you mean re theory and secondary being busy @Pianotwister - my older dd did an intensive course to get her through it because otherwise I thought she’d never take it at all… it was four online mornings well spent in the Christmas hols.

as for the choirs @chickentikkasalad - plenty of kids who otherwise love music don’t like choir- it is compulsory at our girls’ Saturday school until year 10 but plenty find a way to wriggle out of it! I have one choir refusenik and one who can’t get enough. It so much depends on the conductor too!

@Pianotwister I really wouldn’t worry too much about g5 theory and gcse Music. Eldest DC didn’t do it (plays drums and took rsl exams) and sailed through GCSE. Other DC did and got frustrated with the dumbed down nature of GCSE.

We have had both approaches to learning. One DC studied with their piano teacher over a long period of time and took the old style ABRSM written exam and got a distinction. Our youngest went through the ABRSM discovering music theory books over the course of a summer holiday, took the online exam and got a merit. I think it’s down to the child and how they learn best.

Hope all goes well for you.

@Pianotwister Does your child's secondary school do Grade 5 music theory - DSs apparently offers it as an extra curricular club so perhaps though could be an option? Both of mine did theory via their Sat music schools so did a year long option, but I can see that the intensive versions would get it out of the way.

Thanks for the messages. I think we might look at an intensive theory course and no I don't think school offer it. But it has been very interesting to hear the different perspectives from those of you who have been there and done that.

Also regarding the performance digital exams I think the process was: submitted for marking, queued for marking, marking scheduled, marking complete and then eventually a result came a few days after marking complete? Can anyone remember? I know I should just wait but I am torturing myself about the Abrsm exams turn around. I realise I am in for a long wait but my child could do with some good news. That is if there is good news as I do realise that Abrsm marking can be variable!

@Pianotwister, last year my DC submitted an exam around 20th June. We got the results in mid August. I was checking several times a day even when on holiday. Eventually the results came through about 8 weeks after submission. No explanation. I suspect it was due to examiners being busy and the exam being moderated. The only fortunate thing about the timing was that we were on holiday and could celebrate then and there.

@minisnowballs thank you for the reassurance . Now I know there are plenty of kids like him I can put my mind at ease👍.

@Violasrule thank you, I will step away from the screen.

We submitted ours 11 July, and are still waiting. DS doesn't seem to care, TBF!

Off on holiday tomorrow to a cottage with no piano. Not sure how he'll cope without noodling a couple of hours a day...

ABRSM are all over the place with results at the moment! DD did her exam Friday mid July. The result was on the account on their website on around Monday/ Tuesday afterwards. We got an email about 2 weeks later to say the result was ready, then the certificate through the post and I've just had another email... I keep checking in case they've changed their mind 🤣

They seem to have lost the ability to email out notifications for results too and you just have to keep checking. When I was waiting for DDs Grade 7 piano i got an email that the result was ready only to find it was for the grade 5 theory exam (for which she already had the certificate!).

Feels like they haven't quite sorted the admin at the moment! Still - as a child I had to wait weeks and weeks for exam results so its all much quicker now even with the current delays.