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.

@horseymum Just to say thanks again for the tips and advice - in particular letting us know that the examiner doesn’t say “well done” after a piece was really helpful to know - my daughter said she was glad she’d known that in advance.

Aw that's no problem! It's just strange for them having a fairly neutral response when a normal thing to say would be "really well done!' Hope she enjoyed the experience. Any tips for these things can always help. My children always like to know what they are letting themselves in for. Which is why they have sometimes auditioned for things before necessarily being expected to get in as it gives them a no pressure experience ( if they are mature enough to understand this strategy and it won't knock their confidence). Sometimes they even get lucky, probably because of the no pressure.

@CupOfCoffeePlease whilst I'm sure its best to service annually we certainly haven't done so yet, in fact it was the fact that I really did need to think about getting DS's flute serviced that made me think about getting him a new flute (though that's an extreme reaction to paying for a service but i figured that if he was getting a new one anyway there was no point paying out for the service and could put that towards the new flute). Most students I know aren't servicing their instruments every year, I'm sure if you're a full time music specialist or professional its different.

DD played in her Saturday music school concert on Sat - it was mainly grade 1 / 2 standard kids on piano or violin and then weirdly her piano trio - 2 of whom seems to be preparing for grade 7 and DD who is working on Grade 8 pieces so bit of a weird mix. She was also way more nervous for this than she had been in earlier concerts, perhaps because she wasn't one of many kids playing around that standard and with the others being older, but she was one of the older ones and playing a more advanced piece so weirdly felt the pressure. She did play beautifully though and its all good experience for her. She has the local competition next week but this was a different piece, so time to really work on brushing up the competition option!

Oh well done your daughter 😍.

And yes great to know the sky won't fall in if we don't do service it each year!!

She has her grade 8 flute in a few months and I did wonder if we should do it for that - but also when a good time to do it is as she won't want to be away from it or readjust to it too close to he exam.

We're also having to book her brace tightening around the exam date when we know it!!!

The oboe guy is so lovely and has asked if he can hear her play when we go and pick up as he often has the oboes currioured so its lovely to hear a customer play. Of course we will. She's nowhere near as good on the oboe. I think he must have taken pity on us as he's not charged as much as I'm sure he should have done for fixing it.

Thankyou all x

Thank you for this lovely group with so many helpful tips and comments!

DD plays cello, piano, sax and is a chorister. She absolutely loves music and would happily spend most of her day playing in ensembles, singing and practising (she attends Saturday music school and loves attending music courses in the holidays). Since starting secondary school with increased homework and clubs, she’s finding she doesn’t have as much time to practise her instruments as she would like and I wondered whether anyone has successfully negotiated with their DC’s school to drop a couple of subjects (i.e. that they have no intention of studying for GCSE) to free up some more time for practise or do you need to go the music specialist school route for this to be an option? Grateful for any experience/ suggestions, thank you!

@CelloMumFlums I managed this for both my DC. The negotiation was to drop art (on the grounds that a) it was ridiculously the most time consuming subject homework wise by a verrrry long way and b) they were doing an artistic subject anyway) and to drop a MFL - it was quite easy for DD1 who was the more demanding musician as she wanted to drop French as it was confusing her for Italian but it really helped as her younger sister and the other music scholar in that year were able to coattail on to that and also drop a second language they weren't taking to GCSE. Things not to tr are to drop PE or RE as they are mandatory subjects

We haven't managed to drop subjects but older DD rarely attends music as it's fairly basic and mostly just practices! The teacher knows she does lots of theory etc on a Saturday so releases her from many of the lessons.

@CelloMumFlums I suspect this will depend on the type of school and resources. DD2s large London comp did not allow it - despite various music teachers within the school begging them to let her. The argument was it 'set a precedent'.

It did mean that when GCSE music moved to an afterschool club so DD had to have an extra option in school time as well DD had no time at all, and was taking a load of GCSEs that she really didn't need or have any talent for (BTEC dance anyone?) to fill all the option slots.

If she'd stayed at this school she'd have been studying for 13.5 GCSEs which wouldn't have left much time to practise.

It is one of the reasons why she wanted to move to a specialist school. Though a private school might have been able to accommodate practice periods I guess.

I would advise you at least look carefully at the options she takes. Art is massively time-consuming for example. DD was doing Latin instead of an MFL which was a less time-consuming option.

At specialist school she is even allowed to drop RE, which gets her more practice periods. Not sure how this is even allowed, but it is! That said she's emailing me in a MASSIVE grump this am because they were on a school trip til 11pm and she wasn't allowed to get out of early morning practice today so having practice periods isn't always a joy!

Good luck

That’s super helpful all, thank you. @londonmummy1966 you read my mind re Art! Some PE was next on our list so will check how much is compulsory, thank you. Did your DC stay in school and practise or were they able to leave and attend external music lessons/home practice? I suppose it gets harder once they reach Year 10 as, unless they do fewer GCSEs, they will be back to having a full timetable again… 13.5 GCSEs sounds full on @minisnowballs Def a good move! Good point re the downside of compulsory practice periods too.. I suppose the grass is always greener!

Thanks - will have a look

@CelloMumFlums when my DS went to an open day at a local indi for potential music scholars, some of the kids there had provision to practice during their lunch break which is really long to facilitate lunchtime activity clubs. However, at his state school comp lunch is 45 mins so would imagine any chance of provision for practice is limited. The flip side though is that he finishes school at 3pm and even with an after school activity is done by 4 which does give plenty of evening to do practice. He 'only' has 2 instruments though so its easier to fit in . Could practice in school at lunchtime be an option for your DD? Otherwise might be a case of trimming down the number of clubs to give more time?

@CelloMumFlums DS was allowed by his state school to practise flute instead of doing PE lessons for year 10 and Year 11. The school were extremely supportive to our request. As part of our request we pointed out that we didn't want DS to get injured playing sport as that would be a disaster for his music!

@CelloMumFlums DC were allowed to practice in their lunch hours but school were very hot on not having them wandering around unsupervised in lesson times so they had to go to a supervised "free period room" but were allowed to do their homework there which freed up time for practice. They were absolutely adamant on not letting them practice in free periods though even when the head of Junior Guildhall phoned the headmistress begging to allow DD1 to do so to alleviate problems with a wrist injury. It was one of the biggest reasons for our decision to send her to specialist boarding for 6th form.

Interesting. DS is a music scholar at a private school, and how he's in year 10 is not allowed to have instrumental lessons during 'proper' lessons. So he has to fit in piano, French Horn and singing during lunchtimes and breaks. Plus orchestra, brass group, senior choir, chamber choir, barbershop quartet and piano trio. Poor chap hardly has any actual breaks!

Seems they want him to 'play a central part in the musical life of the school' but no concessions made on other subjects...

@herbaceous - us too. No rotational lessons. Our subject lessons are only 40 mins for a single anyway which doesn't help dd with a 1 hour piano lesson and 45 min cello lesson. Those (and singing lesson) all happen before school along with string orchestra and chamber choir.
Duet, chamber group, sinfonia, chamber orchestra and more chamber choir rehearsals happen at break, lunch and after school.

She's also doing an off-timetable gcse (one lunch, two after school) and does netball, ballet and tap outside of school.
This means that practice is often very squeezed.

HOWEVER, dd does not intend to study music so she would never want to drop any of her academics to make room for it. That makes all the difference I think.

DS isn't sure what he wants to do - could be music, could be becoming prime minster. Could, of course, be both! But keeping all options open is of course the most difficult!

Practice does take something of a back seat. Maybe 10 mins a day on average for each instrument? Not including his ensembles... He's not doing badly though despite little practice. Piano teacher reckons diploma this summer!

Want to edit my post above - I sound a right twat. I don't mean he really is going to be prime minister! And re practice, just that he is a 'seat of the pants' type of chap, who scrapes through. If he wants to go to music college he's going to have to change that.

You don't sound twatish at all @herbaceous. I knew what you meant anyway!

@herbaceous 😂 Don’t worry I know what you mean and how wonderful would it be for the country to have a prime minister who was a musician!!
@QueenMabby I suppose that’s the crux of the matter: do they want to study music or not. So hard to tell at age 11! Other activities (club swimming, riding etc) have fallen away to make room for music (always DD’s choice) but it’s nice to keep some balance of activities going and we would only want to drop subjects that DD definitely would not continue with (Art and Gymnastics are prime contenders!!).
@northerngoldilocks Most of the clubs are music-related ones which DD loves so tricky to know what to drop!
@Pollyanna8844 yes, good point re injuries thank you!!
@londonmummy1966 for DD the opportunity to practise little and often during the school day to minimise risk of injury was one of the few upsides of Lockdown. Shame the school were willing to lose such a good musician rather than make that concession for your DD..
Thank you all for the helpful advice!

I think there are so many benefits to learning an instrument it doesn't matter if they go on to study it at tertiary level. Often you might not know if they want to till later on so leaving the option there is a good idea. Pursuing opportunities gives them great experiences now but also supports development towards the possibility of studying music longer term. Even if they don't, there are often great amateur groups at uni and in the community for life long enjoyment. Youngest doesn't show signs of wanting to study music but certainly has the potential. We also balance this with some sport and other activity. The more people in influential ( any really)l positions who love music the better! Have a look at the research from bigger better brains and also the comments from music educator Vaughan Fleischfresser.

Even DD2 (also Y10) isn't allowed to miss all lessons for instrumental classes. She can miss them as long as it isn;t the same one both weeks - so I think she misses one science, one history - and the teachers have to catch them up.

But she has three hours of individual lessons a week which is a fair amount to fit in and all her teachers are serious performers so things get rescheduled a lot. The 'benefit' of boarding school is they can be later though - I'm sometimes startled to discover her 'inschool' flute lesson is at 7:30pm, or that she has the bassoon deputy who is in two different days from the main teacher so it's all changed round.

I do feel for the academic teachers who have to do the catching up with the specialists - her science teacher said at parents evening he was having to work this week with a brass player who had been in New York for a week with one of the ensembles and missed a ton - and he's in year 11 (!)

Ensembles are still break and lunchtimes - so she doesn't have a lot of breaks either! I'm trying really hard to get her to do some non-music clubs as it is really clear from her parents evening that she is on the academic side for the school she's in - and I don't think she's planning a solely music career.

She's too scared at present of committing to anything that isn't music in case she gets in trouble. It's a shame - her sister for example has got so much from debate - her team won both debatemate league championships at various points and it has transformed her confidence. I'd love the same for DD2.

If it’s any consolation @minisnowballs I did nothing but music music music at secondary school (and at university, which I went to after music college), but I actually read English and am now a lawyer.

I really believe that all of the music I did stood me in massively good stead for my academic life and career afterwards - discipline, perseverance, team work and people skills, time management, and performing builds confidence and resilience like nothing else. So I completely agree with @horseymum.

It’s different though if your DD really wants to do something else and feels she can’t - perhaps she will feel differently when she finds her feet a bit? Or you could raise with the school?

@SweetforOrchestra law sounds like a perfectly sensible idea to me! DD2 is clear she wants to be an orchestral player for a bit if she can - but I think it's more arts and orchestra management she's got her eye on longterm. Her teachers - some of whom have very varied careers, reckons you're better at that if you've played first. We'll see. She's not even been at the school two terms yet and her head is constantly spinning with all the different opportunities right now. The school is perfectly clear that it will support all the musicians whether they choose conservatoire or something else so she's got time.

Oh yes by “something else” I meant some different extracurriculars.

And also yes, most musicians I know have portfolio careers. Definitely good to have many strings to your bow (no pun intended 🤣!)

@SweetforOrchestra - yes maybe I'll speak to them about the extra-curricular stuff. I think she finds that whenever she tries to do anything else there's suddenly a music rehearsal that clashes. She's not as in control of her own time as she would like to be!