Autumn / Winter 24 - music thread

[northerngoldilocks]

Feels like time for a new thread for the new school year!

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.

Whereas mine is pretty good at sight reading, is a decent musician but is truly appalling at maths. Honestly at the age of 20 can’t really do basic fractions or percentages even.

Interesting discussion... DS is pretty good at sight-reading after years of having choral music thrown at him in the cathedral. He's very much a mathematician!

I should add that mine is probably adhd and struggles with the multi stage nature of maths.

It's a very interesting topic. Dd would say that she's average at sight reading and aural. She is however very good at maths and languages!

Two of mine are excellent sight readers. Combination of lots of ensembles and early teachers who installed use of a metronome and accuracy in the playing from the start, so that the sometimes complicated subdivision seems to come naturally. Good at maths but not genius level, it's taken lots of work. There's an interesting podcast by Tom Service about sight reading and playing from memory, I'll try to find it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012gj9

I found it really interesting.

I have a serious mathematician and she’s not too shabby at sight reading. Her memory playing is very good and she can repeat music if she hears it played by someone else - she can’t name notes played though so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Fascinating discussion on sightreading ability. DH is as mathsy as they come and very very good at sightreading (on the organ so feet as well as hands). DD was the star of piano sightreading class at Junior Guildhall and absolutely the worst mathematician in her year. Both are also very good at aural - in part as they have perfect pitch so only half of an aural test requires any thought at all. DH is very much a listening learner and DD is pretty well 100% visual.

Hmmm... DS an excellent sight-reader, no doubt partly down to choral training. He is average at best at maths! Ditto languages.

Turns out he's doing grade six horn this term, his teacher mentioned in passing. Along with G8 singing and diploma piano. Oh well, gets them all out of the way before GCSEs next summer I guess!

I'm v mathematical but spent most of my youth feeling on the back foot with sight reading having spent my primary years learning with Suzuki method. So maybe more training than mathematical ability.

New theory, maybe maths and sight reading both appeal to the lazy: Both reward understanding and skill with the need for less hard work.

Maybe it's a visual processing thing? Goes straight into eyes and out of fingers/mouth without the need for the brain to process? A bit like touch-typing...

So in fact down to practice and development of neural pathways.

I love this theory! I can now say I wasn't lazy enough to excel at maths 😂

That certainly fits dd2 - she is extremely lazy

Ds was very good at maths when younger, but put the minimum effort in at school. But he does have a mathematical brain. He is really good at sight reading, it's probably his biggest strength but I think a lot of that comes from his constant playing through of musical theatre scores and doing lots of accompanying He looks for the patterns in the music.

By the way, he did the string arrangements for this song. https://open.spotify.com/album/0yeosMq6y20NXz7GUMB5Jv?si=z0-DKuOUQy2CMOmWRuuQkw

Hi everyone, I'm looking for recommendations for orchestra residentials or similar for Easter / summer in the South East / midlands. DD has just failed to get the place she set her heart on in NCO U13 orchestra. She's not going to take up her place in Projects because she has grown out of it. She would like to try for something else and I know you are all a mine of musical recommendations. For context of what she might be eligible to go for, she is 12 and sitting G8 clarinet. Our local music service isn't up to much and she's feeling a bit lost. She's hoping to audition for London JDs in the new year but who knows whether she will get in. It would be nice to have something for her to aim for. Thanks!

Hey @MockCroc - sorry to hear your DC missed out on NCO. My DC2 was only offered reserve. Last year she did National Children's Concert Band at Easter and proclaimed it " the best week of my life" 😀, so is planning to book into that again rather than wait in case a reserve spot opens up.

There's a video audition process but it's very low key. Last year the decision was back within a week. There were lots of DC that age, or if she prefers NYCB (older age group) runs at the same time and they socialise together.

Well done to your DC2 getting reserve, but I can understand deciding not to wait. That sounds like a great recommendation - thank you. I will have a look. She has been quite pragmatic about NCO but was secretly really hoping for it so she's a bit down.

London Youth Wind Band applications also open until the 11th Nov. DS is 13 and has done it the last 2 years. He's definitely one of the younger ones but loves it. They do 1 week at Feb non residential London based (mon- Fri I think) and a residential for somewhere around 5-7 days in the summer with a London concert to finish the tour. There will be auditions but it's grade 6+ and DS got in at around that standard. He's a flautist though and there are masses of them. They don't have quite as many clarinets so suspect they'd be very welcoming if you could make the logistics work.

A friend's DC did a summer school at cheethams one year and loved it. There's also the national scout and guide orchestra/ wind band, takes from grade 4/5 I think so may not be enough of a challenge.

@MockCroc there’s the national youth concert band https://www.nycb.co.uk/the-bands.html Wells cathedral school also offer a wind and brass residential in the summer holidays which you don’t need to audition for but caters for all abilities. DS did it aged 12 and really enjoyed it. Sounds like your daughter is doing amazingly to be working towards grade 8 clarinet aged 12. My son auditioned for U12 NCO and got offered a place on clarinet which we couldn’t take up but he didn’t make it into the main orchestra. To put it into context, he passed his grade 8 with distinction in the summer aged 14 and it’s been suggested we should consider specialist music schools or JDMs (although we’re not going down this route).

@MockCroc my DC have done residentials with these guys in the past and enjoyed them - its Grade 5 plus so not sure if standard would be high enough but you could ask - when they did seniors half the GLoucesteshire Youth Orchestra seemed to be on it. https://glosacadmusic.org/sessions-and-ensembles/holiday-courses/summer-holiday-residential-courses/

Thanks everyone - these are such fab suggestions. She has been to Wells summer School a couple of times and really enjoyed it (they are so lovely there) but I think wants something that is a bit more concert band / orchestra focussed. The disappointments are the tough side of parenting aren't they, because even when we know they are working hard and doing well sometimes they only feel the knocks?! But we have been looking at some of these options online and she is excited about them so all your suggestions have been a real boost. Thanks for the context amr78. Your son sounds like he is doing brilliantly. There are just so few spaces for some of these instruments the competition is so fierce. My daughter goes to a state school and our local music service is so lovely but really struggles for players, so these opportunities are what she lives for to meet kids her own age who have the same interests as her.

There is also NSSO- I haven't had either of mine do it but a friend of a friends kids did it and thought it was excellent. Auditions open now and it's in Malvern