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.

High quality and more advanced non residential holiday orchestral courses seem trickier to find - imagine that lots of kids who are at indi or specialist schools or some music focused states have school orchestras term time so the holiday options aren't looking to replicate that - more provide a fuller / more immersive option.

My DD who is the same age as yours goes to South London Youth Orchestra in the holidays - its fantastic and 4 days of non residential orchestra - but as the title suggests its in South London so depends if that's an option. She's also done Dulwich Youth Orchestra in the past but SLYO is her favourite.

Maybe try the Guildhall one, but i think it was grade 2 up so it felt like it could be more of a taster of what an orchestra is rather than challenging repertoire etc.

How did your DD find the weekend, minisnowballs?

@Alsoplayspiccolo - great Saturday, rubbish Sunday. Lots of clashing timetables and not being put into ensembles yet yet meant they just left her to sit on her own all day (I can see she was on her phone for six hours playing pointless games as no homework yet either and she doesn't know where she can go to practise if not scheduled).. she's so desperate to make a good impression and not complain but I think they could have sorted out some of this in advance - particularly where her two instrumental lessons IN THE SAME DEPARTMENT clash directly with one another. How hard could that have been to spot?

i'm sure it will all shake down - but just 14 is a bit young for them not really to check on them at all.

That doesn’t sound great.
It’s those sorts of things that drive me slightly mad about the school - the left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing sometimes (or even that it exists, seemingly!)
Weve had a similarly frustrating start, in that no-one has mentioned anything about conservatoire applications or personal statements etc, and the closing date is 02/10.
Its a specialist school, yet there appears to be no help with applications - how is that even possible? Not even open days at the main conservatoires we’re mentioned.

Im pretty sure DCs can practise in the practice house if they’re not scheduled - just sign in, find an empty room and get stuck in - but I’ll check with DS.

@Alsoplayspiccolo - wah! That was the kind of thing I assumed they really would help with. Hope it gets sorted soon.

Me too!
And trying to sort it from a distance now isn’t the easiest thing.
Luckily, I obviously have some experience and knowledge of conservatoire auditions, but not writing a personal statement; when DD applied for uni last year, her school organised everything and she had weekly uni prep sessions and a tutor checking in with her, deadlines for looking at PS drafts etc.
I just assumed that DS would have similar.
I can see from the school calendar that they have mock auditions scheduled, but nothing else as far as I can tell.

@Alsoplayspiccolo how very frustrating. I hope it gets better. I'm yet to hear how today has gone from DD2 - fingers crossed a better day.

If it’s any consolation Ds got zero help with his ucas application & PS from his state college.

Whereas I know that DD1's state school is pretty good with UCAS in general. Just not very good with conservatoire. I guess they are all different.

On the subject of non- residential courses, there are a couple at the RCS in Glasgow, obviously you either need to live close enough or come for a holiday in sunny Scotland.
Hope all those doing NYO auditions enjoyed the experience, DD found it fun and less scary than anticipated. Ages to wait till results so putting it out of mind.

When are the results out, horseymum?
DS enjoyed the day but we had a 5am start, got caught in traffic so he was late, and he was under the weather, and was really disappointed with how he played in his actual audition - no disasters, just felt he could have played much better than he did.

Its just how it goes sometimes, isn’t it?

Hello everyone. I lurked on the last thread, and thought it's time to introduce myself. I have a DD1 starting Year 1, who is having her first violin lesson tomorrow! It's part of a Kodaly based music programme and she has musicianship classes too, with involvement in ensembles from next year. She's attended Kodaly music classes since she was a baby. I'm not particularly musical myself, and have no experience with violin, but I'm keen to get the best advice on how to support her.

@Alsoplayspiccolo one of dds friends was late too, I'm sure they are forgiving when people are all traveling a long way. I think the kids are all so hard on themselves too. Hard when they feel it could have gone better but I suppose they put themselves forward and have to take the less than good days along with the rest. DD played her pieces at a council meeting a couple of weeks ago and it was awful, I think it helped to get the worst scenario to actually happen and realise the world didn't end.

Hello, rusticrose.
How exciting! Hopefully, your DD will enjoy her classes and it will be the start of a life-long love of music.

At her age, the best support you can give is to sit in the room with her when she practises. You don’t even need to get involved, more than just smiling, throwing out the occasional positive comment and generally bring encouraging.
Away from the violin, you could start developing rhythm recognition by clapping a short rhythm and getting her to clap it back to you, or another game I play with young pupils is to get them to clap rhythm to words - I might clap “what did you have for di-ner?” (Crotchet, quaver-quaver, crotchet, crotchet, crotchet-crotchet), and they’d clap and speak back their answer, eg “sau-sa-ges and chips”.

You could also use Lego bricks to show note value and how they fit together, eg a 4 nobble brick is a semibreve, so 2x2 nobble bricks (minims) fit on top, and 4x1 bobble bricks fit on top of that (crotchets).

At this age, just making music part of everyday life is a really lovely way of getting children interested and confident.

You could also look at the “Music Theory for Young Children” books. They are fun, bright and colourful and include stickers!

@rusticrose welcome! How wonderful - I hope it goes just brilliantly! Lots of experts on here, some with previously very small violinists like @thirdfiddle.

@Alsoplayspiccolo they are SO hard on themselves - it always seems worse to them than it really was. Fingers crossed. Well done to him and to @horseymum DD for getting through it - sounds terrifying to me.

Today I have had happier texts - mainly because DD has spent most of the day in a stage combat workshop (she also does GCSE drama) though she has also negotiated the scheduled early morning practice for the first time, and I hope had one of her first individual lessons. Though they were still clashing with one another when she sneakily whatsapped me at break time so I've no idea if that got resolved.

@rusticrose welcome! No questions are daft on here. how exciting for your DD to be starting violin. I don't play violin so others will have more specific advice but I think just being interested and keen to listen, even in the early stages when it may be less beautiful. Trying to find the best time for short regular practice is better than an hour the day before the lesson. If she's already done Kodaly music she may feel a bit ahead of her peers but she can focus on making a beautiful sound and being really correct. Let us know how she gets on.

Absolutely! It’s all part of being a performer - as I told him, he’s not a robot, so it’s not always going to go the way he wants it to, and if you can learn anything from it, take that and move on.
To be fair to him, he’d been away in Italy with his youth orchestra until a few days before, so hadn’t had a lot of time to work back into his prep or catch up with sleep, and his audition was the last of the day. I think his standards for himself have gone up a lot recently, which is a good thing, and this is his last shot at NYO so that probably came into play too.

Lots of very busy children by the sounds of it! 🤞🏻 for all those waiting on audition results.

Welcome @rusticrose - I hope your dc enjoys their first lesson. Exciting times!

Dd back at school and fully back into her music. Very busy but excited to be back at it all. Currently up to her eyeballs in rehearsals for a school musical so lots of after school rehearsals and even three Sunday mornings!

Glad your DD has had a better day today, minisnowballs. Stage fighting sounds like a lot of fun!
Do you know what she’s timetabled to do tomorrow afternoon?

Good luck to the NYO-ers. I definitely don't go on what they make of it themselves, but there is always a degree of randomness in who shines on the day and often multiple players who are equally worthy of a place. Fortunately also lots of other great orchestral playing opportunities out there too for players of that calibre.

Hi rusticrose, Kodaly is a great background, I bet your DD is raring to go. Hope she likes it!

Welcome @rusticrose ! I have a 6 year old DS playing the violin so might be useful to exchange ideas sometimes. Like you I'm not really musical either but this and the previous thread have taught me so much. Hope your DD loves her violin lesson sounds like she's more than ready to learn an instrument. My DS only had a few general musicianship lessons before starting the violin journey. The best way to support is lots of praises and cheers. My son used to ask how many claps his playing was worth. I remember at one time I had to clap 100 times!

@Alsoplayspiccolo she has CAT tests with all of year 10 (not much of an ‘activity’!) But she’s in the play so that is her wednesday activity- music teachers are happy with this for this term.

@Angelkid I just got details of the autumn courses for ESO emailed through - assume I signed up for updates at some point but have no actual experience. Thought I'd share though as its non residential apart from the grade 7+ one. Its in Bromsgrove though - i don't fancy a half term in a travel lodge so will give it a miss, but you might be nearer?

ESO Youth - Autumn Half Term 2023 Intermediates Orchestra - English Symphony Orchestra

@northerngoldilocks thank you do much for your link. However, I don't really fancy to do half term course too.
My DD is preparing 11+ for January exam. We don't have time till Easter holiday😩

Fair enough @Angelkid. Hopefully her secondary will have better ensembles anyway so she can get experience that way.