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!).

@Bearyinlove congratulations for your DD's solo performance so young! Glad she enjoyed it! Sounds like it's time for some giant leaps of progresses as well!

We had a lovely concert last night. School choirs, plus parents' choir helping/hindering singing Faure Requiem! Also staggered through Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, with good old cat Jeoffrey.

Bit cross though. The four solos in the Britten were all done by kids at school (all excellent singers), and the soprano solo also by a pupil. But the baritone solo was done by a paid professional. DS could have totally knocked it out of the park. He does so much for the school musically, and this would have been a nice reward. He's rather hurt... Not sure whether to say anything or not...

Thanks @northerngoldilocks I won't hold my breath waiting for the result then! My DS's practical exam came back in less than a week last month for his grade 2 Singing for Musical Theatre.

Practical are pretty consistent but performance seem to vary depending on what point in the practical cycle they're taken. Guess it depends f examiners are out doing practical exams

oh @herbaceous that's a shame, but maybe given his voice is relatively newly baritone they wanted to give him some time? Love the idea of a parents choir - funnily enough they don't seem to keen on that at DD2's place- don't think any of us would add much!

DD2 is off to Oxford tomorrow to play in some double reed thing at Christchurch. she's been back less than a week and I've so far only had to email to ask whether I can have her back for the Eurovision song contest weekend if they aren't going to watch it there - thus yet again cementing us as the most lowbrow parents in the entire place (already had official permission denied for the Taylor Swift concert - but we're taking her out anyway).

Thing is, his voice is often commented on by the singing teacher as being already an exceptional baritone. He could at least have been asked to audition!

The parent's choir is great. Such a mixture - ranging from really experienced singers down to those who can't read music and have never been in a choir.

@herbaceous that's tricky. Our school orchestra conductor usually invites a couple of music teacher mates to boost the orchestra, a violin or trumpet or two etc makes a good wee difference. Never to do a solo though. Hopefully he gets another chance. I love faures requiem too. I kind of want it at my funeral even though it's firmly Roman Catholic and I'm not.
@minisnowballs I'm quite laid back about taking mine out of school for concerts. I just write an email saying 'as part of her music training, X is attending x concert.' It's sufficiently vague that they could be playing or listening. I don't think they are that bothered considering the other problems they deal with. I'm not asking permission just informing them! I think they usually end up being authorised but either way I don't stress. I appreciate it's difficult at a specialist school and you don't want to burn bridges with people. I'm less fussed about our school! They let sporty kids out all the time.

Definitely trickier when everyone lives together and harder to be vague about things! Amazing experience to go to Taylor swift though, I'm sure she can learn something from it too as well as just enjoying it.
DD has a whole 12 days till next school exam so is looking forward to lie ins and plenty of practice with some occasional studying thrown in. We're also finalising the purchase of her instrument this week as seller needed the money sooner than originally anticipated. It's not really going to feel like a new instrument day as she's had it on loan for a while now, but she can now put her NYO sticker on the case!

Ooh Taylor Swift @minisnowballs - lucky you and your DD! I would definitely take mine out for something like that - she will always remember it.

Is anyone in London and could recommend a musicianship class for a 6 yo? Saturdays would be ideal for us. We are East but happy to travel. My local music hub’s offering is for aged 2-7 and seems to be singing nursery rhymes and dancing which is completely inappropriate for DS at this point! I’d love to find him a Kodaly class or similar.

It's between practical exam periods at the moment @northerngoldilocks so fingers crossed for a quick turnaround. I hate waiting!

Anyone watching the piano on channel 4? I've got a friend in it but didn't manage to watch last night. Looking forward to catching up with it.

I've recorded it but I didn't watch the last season. Will I be able to follow the plot?!

I am in audition result wait turmoil! Seems more agonising for the parents than the kids when they are little! Anyone else the same?

Will have to check out this piano programme!

I didn't see it but a friend of ds was asked to take part. However it looks like his bit ended up on the cutting room floor.

Same here! Being pressured by one school for a confirmation while waiting to hear from another. Trying to forget about it, but people keep trying to get us to commit to plans that are wholly dependent on this audtion outcome. I need to go into hiding for a bit!

Oh, are you awaiting audition results for music scholarships?

Junior Guildhall teach Kodaly but the bar for getting in for Year 3 is going to be quite high as there are a lot of kids who've been learning since they were in nappies.

Might be worth a look at Junior Trinity as well

A slightly more laid back vibe would be Centre for Young Musicians - they don't do Kodaly but it should be more age appropriate. However they don't take at ages 6 or 7 so you'd need to wait until he's 8.

Blackheath Conservatoire also does something on musicianship I think @Compsearch .

Agree re CYM - they take at 5, but then not again until 8 I think.

Mine were quite late starters so don't know much more.

Waiting for choir voice trails outcome here, eek!

Good luck for all waiting to hear on places and scholarships.

Dd had a fabulous school concert this last week. It was at an external venue which was fantastic if a bit of a trek to get to. It showcased some of our sixth form musicians but was a great opportunity for dd to play movements of concerti with the soloists. One full orchestra, one string orchestra and one chamber orchestra. She also sang in the chamber choir and played in some other pieces too which were beautiful. She's still loving the new cello!

Thank you @londonmummy1966 and @minisnowballs. I applied
for the junior programmes at trinity, RAM and guildhall but DS didn’t get a place at any (random lottery selection at reception age) and you can’t get into any after that point (until auditions for the JD proper).

CYM entry is at year 1, so missed that (DS will be year 2 in sept) and the next entry point seems to be prelude strings for age 7+, so year 3 for DS. Year 2 seems
to be a bit of a dead zone in between the baby classes and the proper courses!

Blackheath Conservatoire could be a goer, though is a bit of a trek. Im surprised there doesn’t seem to be anything in Wanstead, Angel or Hackney, all of which would be easier for us to get to and I’d expect to be middle class enough to have a musicianship class 🤣

@Compsearch we are not in London so can't help. We don't have any proper musicianship classes either. There's a beginners band at our music centre so I asked whether DS (7 now, 6 at the time) could join in some sort of percussion to improve his timing. They were very nice and said he could join in playing a tambourine to start with. It has improved his timing and general musicianship a lot by listening to the band and tapping out the beats. He's now having drumming lessons and love it! You could ask your school or local music centre something like that?

That sounds great @chickentikkasalad! The junior ensembles in our local music hub start at 8 but perhaps there is some flexibility there - I will ask them.

If I could choose id have him doing a general musicianship type class that mixed aural training with theory which I would have thought would be ideal for his age group - so odd that our local music centre goes straight from baby rhyme time to junior orchestra with nothing in between.

@Compsearch I would recommend Colourstrings for Kodály-based musicianship classes. DD started in North London and then transferred to Kingston when we moved out of London.