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.

DS is already saying 'not sure what I'll work on once I've done my diploma'. So the framework of working through exams has its drawbacks when they all finish, and they have to be more freeform!

Thought of another good thing that came out of Covid. For us, anyway. A friend had just started a singing agency when it struck, so had to immediately do it remotely. DS got loads of commissions to record various tracks, stems, etc, and ended up on a best-selling CD and all sorts, which probably would never have happened IRL.

Talking of which, his Maria last night caused much crying. Not just with me!

And talking of bassoons, I'm very much enjoying de-rusting my bassoon skills in the school band of Oliver! Playing the trombone part which has surprised me by being a) in concert pitch, and b) rather lovely!

Does anyone have experience of the singing week at Well's Summer School?

@yodaforpresident DD's not done any Wells holiday courses and I really can't see the point nowadays for obvious reasons, though plenty of the children there still seem to do them.

We know the tutors though as they are the same ones they have at school, and the vocal stuff seems to be excellent in general. Though DD's voice teacher isn't on that list for she says they're all lovely, and Chris Finch does the chapel choir which she really likes.

If useful though I can tell you the food is fairly good, it's a very sweet and safe city, and the boarding houses are unglamorous but homely (DD has definitely found more glamour at some of the NYCGB venues). Pastorally it's the same staff in summer I think. They're great.

Also, they take childcare vouchers.

That last sentence is why i'm forever trying to send my kids there for summer schools. Haven't managed yet though!

Thank you @minisnowballs that’s really helpful!

Just a thought sparked by the "stopped at x grade". My DD is just about to graduate from a conservatory in the US, in Composition, and is applying for Master's in Composition, also in the US. For both undergraduate and Master's at least one option requires a test of piano playing skills. I don't know if that would happen here in the UK...but it's a really good argument for continuing an instrument to a level where you can easily play a G5 or G6 piece even if you've had a few (lots) of years away from it.
As an aside, delighted to tell anyone who wants to know about the US system (at least for composition. Performance...not so much)

DS is already saying 'not sure what I'll work on once I've done my diploma'.

You've only just started kiddo! So much amazing repertoire to learn. But I guess there are always the higher diplomas if he really needs a target...

hiding - piano is so useful. Part of the reason I'm encouraging DS to keep having lessons at least till he's got his GCSE done, to help him with the composing part.
And then there's accompanying. Even my dubious piano skills have come in very handy with the kids.

We're starting to look at the diploma now, which I know nothing about. I imagine after that you can have a wider choice of repertoire as not constricted by exams but also maybe hard to know what to aim for.
I'm glad DD is keeping up her piano skills too, she's hoping to do a bit of teaching to earn some money and might be useful in future years depending on jobs etc. Most of the music staff at school can't accompany anyone so if she learns to do that it is another option.
US conservatoire sounds impressive, hard to have them so far away I'm sure.

DD2 seems very keen on diploma but says that there's a LOT of concerts you have to do solo at 45 minutes a go before you're allowed to take it at her place. She's terrified by this so that may slow her down!

She's obviously massively improved despite no grades at the moment, except on voice, so I'm just going to let her go with it - not that I get any say in the matter anyway.

Hope everyone has had a good (and musical) half term. DD1 has made absolutely no progress on melodic scales for her G6 in March (argh). DD2 has enjoyed NYO inspire in Blackpool, along with some others on this thread I think, and we took the world's speediest day trip up there to London to collect her. She's since done very little, although we went to her sister's Saturday centre yesterday and she was handed a piccolo and told to join symphony orchestra, much to her confusion (and the conductor's).

Re piano, she has still had no lessons since she was 5 and had three half an hour trials. but this weekend was attempting the first movement of the Pathetique sonata.

This seems like a punchy start. I admire her can-do attitude, if not her technical facility. As far as she's concerned she knows how the notes work so there's no reason she shouldn't be able to play it... I think there may be more to it than that!

She does know she needs to learn. She plays pieces at about grade 3-4 at the moment (badly) and is talking about trying to swap her singing lessons for piano at school at some point as she wants to be able to accompany students one day when/if she teaches. I'll just be so sad if she stops singing!

My daughters asked about the diploma. She's not at the level many people on these threads are!

She'll do grade 8 this summer (year 10) and it was more a question of "should I do the next one after". She has a couple of 6th former friends who will go onto do music who have.

It's unlikely she will do music at uni (more likely science) so is there any real reason to doing it. She can get into an orchestra here once she's grade 8 (6 for quite a few other instruments but 8 for flute!) So that's her focus and presumably her lessons could help work on the music for this.

I think (im non musical so looking from the outside) she's progressed quite fast with her grades (2 grades a year roughly) and is maybe rushing into grade 8 so she's eligible for the orchestra, where if that wasn't a concern she'd maybe spend more time developing?

I dont really know was just curious to ask about the diploma and if it would be worthwhile her looking at it or not really once she's at grade 8 ? I've googled it but not being musical I have no idea if it's worth your average teenager doing!

We were on holiday during half-term so DS was parted from his flute for the longest time in years. After about 5 days he started saying he was missing it and wanted to play. He actually bought a wooden flute for €3 and played that! When we got home, he walked in, put his bag down and immediately picked up his flute and started playing!

He is currently in Blackpool with NYO rehearsing for 2 concerts they are performing for school children at the Blackpool Tower. He also has a competition coming up at his JD.

DS did G8 in year 7 and there was lots of talk about him doing his diploma, but then covid happened in year 8 and since then his teacher hasn't mentioned it. It feels like he has moved past it now. Also, the fees are so high!

@horseymum It is a little hard to have her that far away, but Zoom is great and if there's anything urgent she emails. (not often) The style and curriculum works for her! And we get good holidays...once a year.

@CupOfCoffeePlease others can chip in with their own children’s experience - mine is only 5!

But I did a diploma and personally think it was a bit of a waste of time. Post grade 8 is a fantastic time to explore a wide range of repertoire, solidify technique, do lots of ensemble and/or chamber music etc whereas diploma forces you to work on the same few pieces until the exam. I think kids are used to being on a bit of an exam treadmill so it’s normal to think “what next”, but I think it’s worth challenging that a little if you can. The qualification itself isn’t really valued or worth anything anywhere - it doesn’t get you ucas points (unless this has changed) and is completely disregarded by eg conservatoires who are only interested in performance at audition.

My DH teaches at the senior and junior depts of one of the top London conservatoires and actively discourages his JD students from doing it. They/their parents often push it though.

Ah sweet and hiding that's really helpful and chimes in with what I was thinking in my non musical head. She'd love the time to enjoy the various orchestras without perfecting grade pieces I think.

She's also learning oboe and plateaued a while ago on piano and I think would just like to I.prove at those.

She's took grade 1, then performance grades 2 and 3, then grade 5 and now grade 8. With oboes she's just enjoying getting better as no real need to do the grades.

And yes hadn't even thought about cost! We're struggling with lessons as it is. And I don't think she'll want to give those up!

Not entirely sure why DS is doing the diploma. Think he just rather fancied the prestige of getting it done before GCSEs! He does play lots of other stuff as well as his set pieces, including in a piano trio, and in a nascent rock band (once they finalise a rehearsal - getting four teenage boys in the same place, with electricity and a drum kit and a piano, seems beyond the powers of the universe).

His French Horn teacher is totally the opposite. Hasn't done a grade since 5, but concentrates more on ensemble stuff. He's about to start singing lessons again, so I dare say some grades may come out of that. His last one was g6, back when he was a choirboy!

@SweetforOrchestra that's really interesting - i totally assumed you had to do them and that conservatoires wanted diplomas.

Honestly, sometimes it isn't parents being pushy, just utterly confused. Both my dds seem set on careers and training paths I don't understand (one music and the other nursing), so I just feel I'm always getting it wrong.

Fortunately I never have to speak to DD2s' current teachers (I've never even met them) so the chances of me messing things up are very slim.

@Pollyanna8844 your DS always sounds so lovely and committed - love that he bought a flute!. Hope he enjoys Blackpool - DD2 particularly impressed with the breakfasts and her very large hotel room (with a bath, which she misses at school) but also absolutely adored the bassoon tutor for the Inspire course - I have had to hear about this lady's practice recommendations about ten times this week, so let's hope she and her actual teacher see eye-to-eye on things.

My daughter is working on an ATCL Diploma, she's only Y6, so no rush, but it gives her a framework to consolidate skills and a handy repertoire when she's wheeled out for school events and auditions. She plays whatever she wants most of the time, but practices diploma pieces and technical skills daily. Without a goal she would drift between pieces and never really nail any of them, so for her, structure is necessary.

@minisnowballs it makes complete sense that you get to grade 8 and think they are the natural next step! (I did it myself on that basis).

A lot of DH’s JD students are just on an exam treadmill and think they are necessary. He sees post grade 8 as the beginning and a welcome relief from that treadmill, especially when they’ve also go all sorts of other exams going on. On his instrument (piano) the repertoire possibilities are endless and he much prefers his students to start exploring that without exam strictures and really develop as musicians. They should be working towards performance opportunities rather than exams at this point, which is what music is all about at the end of the day.

@SweetforOrchestra as a parent I flipping hate the exams - they stress everyone out and cost loads of money, and I have added psychological trauma because I actually failed my grade 5 piano in my late teens (I did take it again and pass, and then never really played again) - so I'm always terrified this might happen to my DDs as well. So far, so good.

On exams have realised DS hasn't got his form signed by his HoD and the deadline for submission was last Sat, so that's not ideal. Have emailed over to her in the hope that 'no late entries will be accepted under any circumstances' might mean- we will take it the day after 😬😬

In less admin-y news we went new flute shopping today and DS has chosen a new flute. The sound difference compared to his old flute was amazing. Just need to sort out the school admin and can buy it as hopefully getting via the Assisted Purchase Scheme 🤞🏻

Mine have have only much less than half of the exams, missing several out. I think dds JD teacher reckons she may as well do the diploma as she's done most of a programme already with music she's learnt for concerts or competitions, the challenge will be doing them all in one performance. She only usually gets to do shorter performances. I think it kind of ties in with my loose philosophy that they do an exam once they are already confident with lots of music at that level, rather than hammering away at only 3 pieces above their level for six months.
A shiny new flute sounds fun!

Talking about hammering away at pieces I am FED UP of both DC's exam pieces and reminded why we don't do exams often. It's not super hard or anything, they've both played harder things, but it's a lot of music to apply polish to in limited (in DS's case absolutely minimal) practice time.

Yay to new flute northern, enjoy!

@northerngoldilocks - I also think the new flute sounds v exciting. Dd will be getting a new cello this half term. Her cello teacher is going to come with us to guide our choice so we just need to fix a day. We'll take him (and his wife) out for a pub lunch to say thank you I think.

Dd loving the Ella app so thank you to the PPs who recommended it. She'll be doing her g4 voice exam two days after she gets back from a school trip overseas so needs to have it all pretty much there before she goes. The intervals on the sight singing are sounding better already. In this exam she's going to be singing in Italian and in Norwegian. It's fascinating.

On the topic of new instruments, we're on the hunt of a new piano for DS (and myself possibly). Trying to decide between a new one and second hand ones. The model we decided is quite expensive and there's not much difference (10%) in price between new and second hand.