Spring /Summer 24 - Music thread

[northerngoldilocks]

The old thread was filling up, so here's a new one to talk about music activities. Come and talk about music lessons, choosing instruments, exams, auditions, specialist schools, orchestras or whatever other music activities are going on. Everyone is welcome, from those with total beginners to those whose children are studying music at advanced levels. Ask for advice or share successes or struggles. There's loads of experience across a wide variety of instruments too(though bassoon's are weirdly popular on here - you'd think that every second child plays one!).

Glad your DD has enjoyed such a fabulous first year, mini; that just be a huge reassurance to you that the upheaval to family life is worth it. I laughed at her report!! Sounds like she's " got" by her teachers, which is great.
the symphony orchestra concert was wonderful, wasn't it? The end of a chapter for DS, so it was lovely to see him get a stand-up for his solos in The Planets.
Did you enjoy the leavers service?
With our DD also back from uni, our house looks like it's been ransacked...

He played beautifully @Alwaysplayspicc - you must be so proud. DD2 recovering from whoever forgot to put out a chair for her in the Watkins - she got panicked as had nowhere to balance her bassoon when playing contra and did one of her solos a bar early. She was practically in tears in the interval but recovered for the planets - contra parts quite exposing given she's only played one since Christmas though. I am very proud of her, as always - she was a late sub into the Planets and had only been doing it since the week after half term when it was clear one of the other bassoonists was not coming back.

Leavers' service was lovely, DD clearly sight-reading the anthem which she'd never seen before- but all very moving. DD says the speech day external speaker was quite something!

Hope you have a lovely summer with him before the big London move!

DD2's current summer plan - take grade 3 piano performance exam (she has never had a piano lesson).

Hi. My DC is starting RCMJD in September. From what I understood all the lessons outside JD need to cease. Does it apply to both 1st study and 2nd study? Thanks.

I expect so. We get regular reminders in the weekly email updates about this. Congratulations to your child on their place!

Sorry, it's not clear, my child is at a different JD but imagine most are the same.

@horseymum Thank you!

I didn't notice her mishap, mini, I only noticed her wonderful playing. Kudos to her for stepping into the breach after half term and handling it like a pro.

You're the second person to say that Horatio Clare's speech was fantastic. I'm regretting not going to hear it now ( we opted for a leisurely breakfast instead).
The singing at the service was utterly gorgeous - it brought a lump to my throat, particularly the Grieg.

@Alwaysplayspicc thank you! we did point out that the Watkins wasn't well known so prob not too much of a disaster...

Founders day done here, odd only watching 1 child! Very good hymns so I enjoyed a sing too!
Trying to persuade eldest that doing grade 8 piano & violin next term is not a good idea..

Would that be 8 on both @Soundofshuna ? Feels a lot at once! DD considered 7 piano with 5 violin on the same day last year but pushed violin back in the end (then ultimately never sat it)

Is there a push to get them out of the way re some other exams? Otherwise I'd be encouraging mine to split them up if either were considering this. DS did 6 piano at Easter and 7 flute this time and that felt wholly manageable

Ds has a performing job over Christmas. 5 weeks of panto. He's really looking forward to it. He may not be able to get home for Christmas Day though as the trains won't get him back in time. When my dd did panto the last two years she drives so always managed to get back home.

That's a great opportunity for your ds @Comefromaway. Sad about Christmas though. How do you feel about it? Is it too far for someone to take him back?

Dd off on music tour today. Dropped at school at 4.30am! Once they'd left I can home and went back to sleep which I'm regretting - I feel shocking!

4:30 is brutal @QueenMabby - not surprised you went back to sleep!

@Comefromaway that is exciting - maybe you'll be lucky and someone else will be driving back his way - it is sad not to have him for christmas. Sounds like the career is really taking off now.

Absolutely NO music being done here - DD2 has a friend from school staying. But we did see Guys & Dolls the other night which was great fun - realised as usual that DD2's friend's parents now dominate every orchestra pit in the West End... it feels like 'someone's mum' or 'someone's dad' plays in everything we see nowadays. I swear she's a changeling - why is everyone else's parent a musician?

I know that feeling except it is either ex students of dh or someone ds knows through NYMT.

He went to see Sister Act yesterday, dh's ex student was depping. (Incidentally ds said Guys & Dolls was fantastic when he saw it last year). An NYMT creative was Asst MD and one of the creatives is the son of someone my dd did ballet with.

We could get him up there. It's just frustrating that he has given up on his driving lessons, especially as dh's car which was bought as a stop gap was meant to be ds's 18th birthday present (its a small car but specifically bought because the seats fold flat to fit a full sized keyboard).

Morning all.

Haven't been on here for ages! I am seriously impressed with all the NYO action on here, and wish I'd known about JDs all those years ago when we lived in London...

It's been all go here. DS's had his 15th birthday on Monday. He couldn't think what he wanted (other than a hammer dulcimer) so we sourced him a couple of accordians! They've gone down a storm.

He sang in a gig in London last weekend, including Elvis's If I Can Dream, specially orchestrated, which was a blast. He now has a singing teacher after two years while his voice settled, and will be doing grade 8 next term, along with diploma piano.

Drama continues apace. He's doing West Side Story later this month... And we had a huge dilemma. He got a much-coveted place on the school's astronomy GCSE, which is super-interesting and taught by two amazing guys. But it's an after-school activity which clashes with the school production. After a month of agonising, he's decided to go with school production. He loves it, generally gets a great part, all his friends do it, and it brings him joy. Which is what matters!

Considering joining the Opera North youth thingy when he reaches 16...

An accordian! My son will be jealous.

It was briefly confusing, but some YouTube videos helped out! We have one piano accordian, obvs with a keyboard on one side and a big range of buttons on the other which are the chords. The other is I think a melodian, with just buttons, and thus a bit more baffling to a pianist. But a good project for the summer holidays!

A levels in the Summer so before then preferably and yes grade 8 on both!
i have spoken to her violin teacher today who thinks she should do it next term and hold off piano but advised 1.5 hours a day practice ( currently she is lucky to fit that in a week but is playing in various things 5 days a week plus a lesson..)

Hmm @Soundofshuna that is tricky- the A levels point means that really Easter is too late. Would she consider a performance grade on piano? Would mean learning a 4th piece but could do it as soon as ready after the violin exam rather than having to wait for the Easter public exam sessions.

Also whilst I know that the violin teacher's suggested practice isn't remotely unreasonable for Gr 8 I'm also thinking that its unlikely that my DD who will also be likely to do Gr 8 piano in Dec will get anywhere close to that, maybe we need to re-assess!

I.5 hours a day sounds a lot for grade 8 @Soundofshuna - but maybe that's just because it is strings - DD2 did flute and I think for the last few months managed 45 minutes! But I agree it might be tough in the A-Level year to do both. DD was supposed to take G7 bassoon and G8 flute in the same term. She only did flute - and skipped bassoon because neither teacher was happy with this.

@GeneralMusings hope your DD's exam went well!

DS was told an hour a day for last prep for piano diploma. Naturally he didn’t do this so is taking it next term instead!

Thankyou! She got a Merit which she's okay about. She completely lost it on the scales which is unusual for her and once she had to repeat one she kind of lost her nerve for the others. But she knew it happened and wouldn't be distinction after all so she's just pleased she still got a merit!

She didn't practice anything like 1.5 hours a day. Maybe at the weekend. Maybe if she had shed not have fluffed it but that was nerves and I don't think it would have been worth it for work/life balance here., music teacher did suggests an hour a day for the last month but that was the final slog! She has other instruments and other activities so wouldn't have been practical.

She's going to go into year 11 doing school orchestra and orchestra for the school performance (so 3x a week after school) and flute group and regional orchestra Saturday and oboe lessons so will be busy even though she's not perusing the diploma.

We're still wondering about A level music as we have a new head of music coming and it's an unknown quanitity. She will be aiming for top grades so may stick to sciences if more predictable and keep music up alongside. She's unlikely to do music at uni

As ever I'm in awe of those in music colleges and working at such a high level!

I’m glad to hear that whilst 1.5 hours per day may be optimum that it isn’t usually achieved! She usually manages 30 minutes piano on school mornings then longer at the weekend but violin definitely gets less frequent time( although more ensemble and orchestra time.

A grade 8 merit is awesome @GeneralMusings - the scales are SO hard at this level (they were DD's nemesis in the exam too because the nerves really got to her) and wind is a nightmare when you're nervous. I remember DD2 telling me the other day her teacher was really impressed with some vibrato she'd done and she replied 'that's not vibrato, it's terror'...

I hope she's really happy. You should be so proud of her.

It's tricky with the A-Level. We knew DD2 would need A-Level music which is one reason she moved. her old school offers it, (although not GCSE on timetable in her year) but lost two music teachers this year, and they were both new, and so most children who did the A-level didn't get any teaching, they are just self-studying. It seems to be very hard for hard-pressed schools to make music work at the moment, especially where the SLT doesn't particularly see the value.