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!).

It's just on the radio, they get to be on TV in the summer! Turns out youngest was playing keyboards. They never actually communicate much what's happening! She plays bass at church though ( slightly less cool!)

It was not a good weekend for Ds. He gigged Friday & Saturday but overnight on the Friday his friend’s house where he was staying, got broken into and his MacBook, iPad, keyboard amp, external hard drive and the other contents of his backpack, was stolen.

He wasn’t insured for them (his fault).

oh @Comefromaway that's awful - doesn't happen to be on your home insurance does he? (clutching at straws). Poor lad - that's a harsh way to learn to insure your belongings.

No, our home insurance would only cover him at a university owned halls of residence, not other student accommodation.

We hadn’t taken out extra insurance because he was supposed to get the vastly reduced student MU rate (except he’d not got around to it). Harsh lesson.

Oh no, how stressful. I often feel a bit panicky when mine are travelling with expensive instruments ( even though they are insured).

The thieves ignored the guitars, Amos and ds’s keyboard. They looked in all the bags to find the one with the laptop. We think they took his keyboard amp as it was a battery powered portable one and was Bose. They probably thought it was a normal sound system speaker.

Oh @Comefromaway that's an awful thing to have happened to your ds. I hope he's able to replace the kit.

Really sorry to hear about your DSs stuff being stolen @Comefromaway, such a shame.

Not huge value but he was gutted about his new in ear monitors going. Also his audio interface

That's terrible @Comefromaway A very harsh lesson indeed. Was he still able to perform the following day?

He had a gig that night! We went to him and he borrowed a few things of ours plus a couple of friends lent stuff to get him through both the gig on Daturdsy & the theatre run this week.

Hello again! I posted on the previous thread but mostly lurked as I didn't have much positive news to share. My dd is 5 and we started violin lessons in the autumn, and the first term was a battle to establish a practising schedule! We've turned a corner and she's used to the routine now, and she's had a couple of short performances at her music school.

She does after school lessons and a musicianship class, and next year she'll be expected to have an ensemble group too. Now I have to decide whether to try to fit it all in on one evening (a lot to focus on for a 6yo after a day at school), or to travel there on 2 evenings (50 min each way and we need to sort childcare for my youngest). Just wondered if anyone else had a similar situation and what they found worked? There is a Saturday option, but not keen on that as she does a different activity at weekends, and we like to have family time.

It sounds like she is enjoying it more now. Once they are able to practice it starts to fall into place more. However, for us we have only done activities which fitted our family schedule ( preferably going to the same things or sharing lifts!) and didn't massively inconvenience other members eg having to eat tea in the car etc. Never travelled more than 20 minutes for things but that's easier when you live somewhere central. I think mine would have been too tired at 6 to do 3 classes after school. You have to weigh up if she's enjoying it, it's important to you/ her, it's not overly impacting the family. Mine didn't start lessons till 7/8 and still do fine but I appreciate many string players start earlier. Is there a teacher closer by? Good luck deciding. The youngest will want to do things too eventually so it will get harder.

@rusticrose glad your DD is enjoying it now. My DS started at a similar age. I can't offer any useful advice but can share our experience. It seems we have the opposite routines. Mine does music mainly on Saturdays at the music centre (only 10mins drive). When he was 6, he did violin lesson and the string ensemble on Saturday morning. But they were not together, more like early morning and lunch time. We could come home in between or sometimes he stays there and listen to other bands playing or read a book/colouring or play with friends. I'm not sure he could focus for 3 lessons quite close together after school at that age.
Ideally I would split it to different evenings but you have quite long travelling time I wouldn't fancy either. Good luck with the decision!

Hello! Joining as my dc1 has just started violin. He’s always wanted to play but we waited until his 6th birthday to make sure he was really ready. Only 3 weeks in and I think the initial enthusiasm has already faded now the reality of practice has set in, so I’m glad we waited (and maybe should have waited longer?!).

How much practice do your little ones do? At the moment we are aiming for 5-10 mins x 2 per day but finding it tricky to even fit that in sometimes.

@rusticrose no insights here but will watch the replies with interest!

Welcome @Compsearch . Not an expert by any stretch but with mine I found that daily practice was the key to setting up good habits (though it can still be a bit of a battle at times) but when they were younger we only did a really short session, maybe 5-10 mins most days. When they start their pieces are so short that getting the violin out, tightening the bow, putting on the shoulder rest etc takes as long, but that's fine I think. Keeping it fun is key. Maybe just 1 session per day would be enough for now?

@Compsearch enjoy the journey wherever it takes you! Mine weren't as young when they started but before school worked for us at primary. Also, I used to get her instrument out and put it together initially as otherwise it seemed like a bit much faff ( bassoon, so lots of bits and plenty of faffing) Although they do need to get used to it too.

@horseymum A20 min journey would be a dream! We live fairly central but the music school is further north. I think the teaching style has really helped my dd so I'm reluctant to switch to a more local teacher (she could have lessons in school which would be so convenient but without the extra activities I don't think she'd be as engaged).

@chickentikkasalad Thanks for the insight. I think we'll probably have to consider Saturdays at some point, but wanted to avoid committing to weekends for as long as we could.

For now I've put in a request to have all the classes on one day, but they might not be able to schedule it, so we'll wait and see.

@Compsearch my DD's practice is 10-15 min a day now (5+ days), but when she first started it was just 5 mins and it was a win just to get her holding it. Sometimes she was reluctant to practice and I'd sing or play through the exercises myself (I'm not a musician). But it meant that it wasn't sitting in its case and at least she would hear the pieces.

Warm welcome to @Compsearch and another young violinist! I'm not as experienced as other mums on this thread but can share some of our experience for reference. My DS is now 7 but he started violin when he was 4.5. For the first half year or so (I can't remember ) he used to do 10 mins each time and only 2-3 times a week or whenever he fancied it. Gradually and naturally that became an every day routine. I think in the beginning it's important to make it fun and not like a chore. Once he had a routine I tried to make sure he sticks to it though. Does it make sense?

@rusticrose, Saturday works for us as DS just got the idea that Saturday is a super busy day. We cram most of the music stuff and cycling(his other big passion) and swimming on Saturday and leave Sunday free. His other activities plus piano lesson and practice fill in the weekday evenings anyway. But I only have one child, it's different when you have 2 and every family routine is different. Hope you find whatever works for you.

Is it true that ABRSM performance exam results are sometimes available within 24 hours? I'm currently checking the portal hourly just in case!

@StuntNun there was a phase last year when they were. Around Easter some were taking 4-6 weeks though and now they seem to have settled back to a bit lower but maybe a couple of weeks. The ABRSM Facebook page constantly has comments on this so you could take a look to see what the current wait is. It's so hard not to obsessively check isn't it!

Thank you @horseymum and
@northerngoldilocks @rusticrose and @chickentikkasalad - all
good advice!

His teacher has suggested that we aim for 15-20mins a day which was why I was going for two sessions, but they are mostly 5mins each of actual playing atm - maybe will go down to just the 1 before school. He has been absolutely desperate to play the violin but also I think imagined that he’d be maxim vengerov after a couple of lessons 🤣. Definitely focusing on keeping it fun but he gets frustrated when he can’t do something right immediately (one of the reasons I think learning an instrument will be so good for him!).

Im a brass player and was 10 when I started so much more able to direct my own practice and it was completely self driven from the start so this feels completely different. Violin is so much trickier at the beginning as well - so much to think about with holding violin and bow as well.

Loving reading about everyone’s musical kids on this thread!

My 9yr old played a violin solo at a showcase last night. Was so lovely to see her so happy and confident, i suspect its an age thing! Solo opportunities are a rarity as her age in our part of the world so could be quite some time before another arises thats not just in front of her primary schools.

New books and new techniques this term after a spring of her being poorly and then missing her grade exam due to sickness! Decided not to keep doing same pieces any longer, she was ready in December/ Jan so just starting to feel like it was holding back progress.