Autumn 23 Music chat

[horseymum]

It's autumn term already! I'm sure there's lots of music going to happen this term. Welcome to anyone who wants to chat about your child's music activities, whether current or things you hope to do. It's a friendly group with experience at many different levels.( I've learned so much) No question is a daft one and don't be put off by chat about higher levels, all our children couldn't play a note once.
Come and ask about starting music lessons, which instrument to choose, exams, music festivals, specialist schools, orchestras and ensembles. We love talking music.
We also love to share music exam successes or struggles etc ( you can't always shout about these on FB!).
Feel free to do a wee intro if you want, although it's still public so only share what you want to.

[minisnowballs]

well done @horseymum - just place marking here. I love these threads - they teach me so much.

I have two girls, one far more into music than the other. The older one plays viola to about grade 6 and does woefully little practice (but has a fabulous social life). She is about to start Sixth Form and will NOT be choosing A Level music.

The younger one is 14. She is joining at specialist music school for Year 10 as a boarder which is a big change for us all. She plays bassoon and flute, and sings (the cello is staying at home so that is the end of that).

I scraped grade five piano when I was sixteen and haven't really played a note since, so nowadays I'm no help at all, and nor is their dad. But I do love to listen.

[horseymum]

Wee intro to the chaos that's music in our house.
Youngest plays bassoon and piano, and has just got a bass guitar to play at church.
Middle plays oboe and piano at a JD ( junior department of our local conservatoire). I play double bass badly but enjoy it. They certainly don't learn about practice from me.

[QueenMabby]

Hi <waves>.

Thanks for the new thread @horseymum. I have 2 dcs. Eldest isn't musical st all. Dd(14) plays the piano, cello and sings. Knows she doesn't want to do music as a career but loves performing and learning.

She's set herself a goal to progress faster with her cello this academic year. Her teacher is lovely but not at all pushy and I think it's the only thing she'd change about him. I've told her she'd make double the progress if she practised a bit more!

[Comefromaway]

Thank you for the new thread.

I have a piano/keyboard playing ds who is currently at conservatoire but for pop music. He hates classical but absolutely loves musical theatre and playing in theatre pits.

[chickentikkasalad]

Thank you @horseymum for the new thread.
DS is looking forward to string orchestra starting again soon. He's also taking piano Initial grade in Sep! Piano teacher says his singing is always in tune too

[yodaforpresident]

Thanks for starting the new thread @horseymum. I have a DD(12) who plays piano, cello and clarinet. She also sings and has been relishing getting stuck into MT this year as she’s been a classical singer so far.

[Teapotkitten]

Hello everyone!

I'm pretty new to all this, I have 2 children but only my eldest (9) is into music at the moment, but he's into it in a big way! He plays piano and we're hoping to get him started with another instrument soon as well.

He's spent his summer composing pieces on musescore, so I've now got to figure out how to upload them to the cloud so his teacher can see/hear them (it's all his teacher's fault this time!). I only did trumpet to Grade 1 as a child so I usually haven't got a clue what he's on about! DH plays guitar but can't read music, so he's not much help either.

[chickentikkasalad]

Pressed button too early:
A lot is going on here. Searching for a better quality high end violin in 1/8th size isn't easy. So we just upgraded his current one with a new bridge and maybe new strings and new bow. We'll see what the violin teacher says at next lesson.
Possibly some 121 singing lesson as he might be doing a violin exam either grade 3 or 4 in the not too far way future. Violin teacher not decided yet. But the piano teacher heard the possibility and started testing his aural skills and said he'd be okay for grade 3. His listening is quite good but may just need some training in sight singing for grade 4.

[northerngoldilocks]

Others may have different views but I think that all 1/8 violins sound pretty ropey so it's not really worth spending on them. They're just too small to resonate much. Also he will grow out of it super quickly. Getting it set up well with the bridge and some ok strings is probably the best you can do. Think by 3/4 it's sometimes worth spending more though DD has one I bought on a local forum for £70 and it 'does the job' but my violinist friend is scathing about both it and my plans for her to take grade 5 on it. Her violin teacher says it's fine though and think my friend is just less exposed to awful violins.

[Siriusmuggle]

Hello all. I’ve just got the one child. Just finished first year at conservatoire and anxiously awaiting the result of a resat module.

[chickentikkasalad]

Thank you @northerngoldilocks, new bridge has already made a difference so hopefully it's good enough for his teacher. She says she was struggling to tell if it was the violin or his techniques so we needed to eliminate the violin part but she's realistic and knows how bad small violins sound .

[northerngoldilocks]

Also sorry- forgot intros.

DS is 12 and plays flute working towards grade 7 and piano around grade 6 level. He had 2 new piano teachers last year so hoping this year is more consistent on that front.

DD is 10 and plays piano (working towards grade 8 at some point but not in any rush for her to sit it this year). She also has another new piano teacher this year. She also plays violin probably finally sitting grade 5 in December. She is also self teaching herself guitar though seemingly only Taylor Swift songs but has managed a reasonable version of 'love story' from a you tube tutorial. She sings in a couple of choirs and would probably like singing lessons too though I'm holding off for now as it's all super expensive - might look into school lessons at secondary when she gets there next September.

[NotEvenSlightlyReasonable]

And at the other end of the spectrum from the seriously talented and accomplished kids, my DD is 13, this year she got G2 viola and G4 singing. She's an enthusiastic and competent singer and a very much less enthusiastic and competent violist! Goals are G8 singing and G5 viola before she leaves school and i read the discussions on JDs and Conservatoires with a sense of "it's another world..."

[Comefromaway]

My son didn't even start piano lessons until he was almost 14. As long as she is enjoying her music and it sounds like she is doing really well with the singing.

[StuntNun]

Thanks for the new thread. I have one child working towards grade 4 piano and grade 2 singing, one child working towards grade 1 drums (who knew there was such a thing as drum exams?!) and one child just about to start cornet lessons at school. It will be a very musical household this autumn!

[thirdfiddle]

Hi all, thanks for the new thread horseymum :)
I always enjoy reading these little updates of where everyone is up to.
For our intro:
DS is 14 and the less keen of the two, wombles along with piano - mostly video game music; and brass - mostly ensembles, but in theory possibly working towards grade 6.
DD is 11 and more into music, piano/violin and sometimes viola in ensembles, and sings in a casual sort of choir. G7ish violin, piano I think a little less grade-wise but it's her favourite.
They both play in the local youth orchestra, DD has been doing NCO Projects for the last couple of years and auditioned for u12 this year fingers crossed.

[thirdfiddle]

On small violins, i had a few points going through where i thought ugh, this violin or bow just isn't up to what we're asking DD to do with it. Then teacher would pick it up and make it sound brilliant... So if in doubt, ask teacher to play it to show what it can do! Strings might well be worth upgrading if he's doing a lot of playing, depending on what is on it and how old they are.

Teapotkitten, please let us know if you find out re MuseScore. DD was trying a bit of arranging, i think she video-ed the laptop with her phone to show her friends but there must be a better way!

[Comefromaway]

I can’t ask him now because he’s on a deadline with some paid work putting something into Sibelius but I’ll ask Ds about Musescore as he’s used it in the past.

[Teapotkitten]

@thirdfiddle I think I read that there's a way of publishing it on musescore so it's not publicly available but you can send links to it, which is what I'm going to attempt - I asked DS if he wanted to do it this evening but he kept saying "later", and next thing it was bedtime!

I didn't tell him that the reason I want to do it soon is that our laptop had a tizzy yesterday, claimed it couldn't sign into the desktop and then vanished everything on it until I'd rebooted it twice... I don't want to think how upset he'd have been if he lost everything he's been working on!

[Alsoplayspiccolo]

Hello!
I used to post regularly on this thread a few years ago, but life got in the way and I dropped off for a while.

DS is going into year 13. He’s a cellist and has been at a specialist music school since year 12.
He was a relatively late learner, at nearly 9, so missed NCO but seems to have caught up over the last couple of years and is planning to apply to conservatoire this autumn.

DH and I both professional musicians, but not string players, so we’ve loved watching his journey.

[StuntNun]

@thirdfiddle

On small violins, i had a few points going through where i thought ugh, this violin or bow just isn't up to what we're asking DD to do with it. Then teacher would pick it up and make it sound brilliant... So if in doubt, ask teacher to play it to show what it can do! Strings might well be worth upgrading if he's doing a lot of playing, depending on what is on it and how old they are.

Teapotkitten, please let us know if you find out re MuseScore. DD was trying a bit of arranging, i think she video-ed the laptop with her phone to show her friends but there must be a better way!

I don't know about that. An expert can often compensate for the deficiencies of the instrument. My clarinet used to sound amazing when my teacher played it but I reckon that's because he was in the Hallé and he could make a third-hand plastic clarinet sound like something special.

[chickentikkasalad]

@thirdfiddle, thank you. actually it was actually the teacher who pointed out the violin was not up to it. She's complained for a while. When she played it was very weak as well. We bought it 2nd hand. I didn't see that the bridge was actually broken and glued and taped up. It might be all the problem. The bow is a bit funny it's too loose or over tightened. Strings were cheaper ones since Xmas. He does play a lot so maybe they are old.
I'm hoping changing all the bits might be enough .

[thirdfiddle]

Stuntnun, if it was using DD's violin to demonstrate a piece it might be that, but if I asked is DD going to struggle with this aspect with that bow/violin she'd be giving it a fair trial and not set her student up to fail. In our case it was DD's technique that needed fixing not the violin, a much cheaper exercise :) Taped up bridge definitely sounds like a case of it being the violin not the student chickentikkasalad! Hope that's fixed it. Little bows are also very cheap to replace if that is causing difficulty.

Our teacher said for the small sizes basically have a well set up Stentor/Primavera type thing, respectable brand factory made instruments & any old bow will do. I added nice strings on grounds that if she didn't play much they'd last till she outgrew it and if she did play much she deserved nice strings. I didn't think they sounded awful but guess everything's relative.

[QueenMabby]

Loving all this strings chat - I think the last thread started on bassoons.

@Alsoplayspiccolo - it's really interesting what you say about your ds and the cello. Dd was also nearly 9 when she started. She's 14 now and to be fair I still think her playing sounds a bit ropey! It's such a hard instrument to play. It's good to hear that they tend to start getting good later on. There's a boy at DD's school in the 6th form who also just appears to have come from nowhere to being brilliant on the cello so I have hope!

Dd will be graduating up to a full sized cello very soon. She currently plays on a school 3/4 size. We rent it. We've said that we'll buy her a full sized one as she'll want to be able to take it to uni when she gets to that point.

I will be needing lots of advice on how to go about buying one. Is it better to get second hand so you can buy a better instrument than if buying new? What's a reasonable amount to spend for a child that's likely to be at g8 and beyond (eventually) but who won't be doing the conservatoire/professional route? Any tips most welcome.

[Alsoplayspiccolo]

QueenMabby, I had never appreciated how hard string instruments are to play before DS started learning!
Playing in tune is a life’s work in itself, then there’s all the things that can go wrong with bow hold, bow distribution, position on the string…and that’s just the right hand!!
DS has hyper mobility, which is particularly bad in his hands, so it’s taken a lot of work to get anywhere near a decent bow hold - his thumbs collapse.

His progress was pretty average in the first few years and he failed to get into NCO or any of their offshoot projects twice, which felt like a predictor of future potential at the time.
I know how ridiculous that sounds, but when I started flute lessons, I’d taken grade 8 within 3 years, age 12, had won a scholarship to a London JD, was performing solo recitals etc.
DS’s journey has absolutely confirmed to me that progress in learning an instrument isn’t linear, and getting grade 8 at 9 (or not!) isn’t a prediction of future performance.
The thing that has seemed to have the biggest impact on DS’s playing was playing in an orchestra. He started in his tiny primary school ensemble, then the county training orchestra, then jumped into the county youth orchestra (as the youngest member, which was a big stretch for him but he’d moved from the back desk to second desk after a year, and then 1st desk the next year).
He got a music scholarship to a school that had fantastic music, played in every ensemble going, took part in NYO Inspire during lockdown, auditioned for NYO - didn’t get in the first year, auditioned again for this year, didn’t get in but was invited as a guest for a couple of days at Easter…and was then asked to take part in the summer residency when someone dropped out.

When lockdown hit, we lost all our income which forced us to look at other options for 6th form. We went to a specialist music school open day, not really expecting him to be interested but he said straight away that he wanted to audition.
Hes super happy there and his cello teacher told us he’s improved the most in a year out of all her students.