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.

No experience of NSSO,but my son did NYSO a few years ago and found it excellent. His course was taken by Suzie Collier, who is amazing ( Jacob Collier's mum and the most incredible teacher).
The course involves things like Dalcroze, so is holistic, not just rehearsing for a performance.
It's very expensive, as you say, but we applied for a bursary.

This is really good - a mixture of chamber music - so they'll love a viola - and string orchestra. https://www.ncmc.org.uk/

Thank you @Alwaysplayspicc ! I wish we could only commit to one of NYSO residentials but my understanding is we'll have to do both...

DD mostly studied with Hungarian teachers so basically raised in Kodaly approach NYSO uses :)

Yes, it's a year -long membership with NYSO.
My son went on to join NYO, otherwise he would have continued with NYSO. He's still in touch with friends he made there.

Thanks so much everyone for the summer school recommendations, we will have a look at them all tonight. I hadn’t heard of any of them, but now I feel we’re spoilt for choice!

Can anyone tell me about the Inspire spring ensembles?

Unlike many people on this thread it seems my duaghter has never done a music residential (and we're so very grateful inspire is free!!)

She did the one day in October half term and loved it!

Inspire has been great for mine. Youngest is going to do her second one. They are a mixture of sectionals and ensemble sessions. They work on some pieces as well as usually some kind of improvised soundscape or something. They do a wee concert at the end. It's great because my dd doesn't play with any other bassoons on a weekly basis so to play with others of a similar level, as well as the full NYO musicians is really encouraging. Some of the inspire ones will be as good as the full NYO musicians, they maybe didn't apply etc so it sounded pretty good. Any specific questions? The pastoral care is great too. They are strict on rules but check in on them and you can have a chat beforehand if you think there might be any issues.

Thankyou.

I guess do lots of them not know anyone? Is accommodation straightforward? Food etc?

It will be a very big leap for her to go away with people she's never met before. She's done school orchestra trips but obviously that's with friends. And I drove her to the October day.

How many people are there at each one etc. Just all the things!! Shed never have done inspire at all without this thread. We're both ND and it's so helped to be to understand a bit of what it's like before going to these things too.

Has she already been offered the residential @GeneralMusings ?

Just this afternoon - hence the post.

I still don't understand how it works and what's when and who goes to what.

@GeneralMusings they usually stay in a hotel and get taken by coach to and from the school they are based at. They have breakfast at the hotel, lunch at the school and possibly dinner. He last did a woodwind Ensemble in 2022 and there were 49 of them over the 4 instruments

Did he enjoy it? It's woodwind she's doing!

There's no details on the app thing just whether you can go or not.

They get a list beforehand with everyone's names on. There's a link to a Google sheet with a really detailed timetable nearer the time. I just save it as a link on my front screen. It details pretty much every 30 minutes of the day so you can see what's happening. My usual advice for residential trips with people who you don't know - take a card game and a packet of sweets to share. You've all got one thing in common anyway so that helps. They're hardly in the hotel. I do think it might be shared rooms though. If that's a massive issue, you might need to speak to them but that's partly why it's free I expect.

@GeneralMusings he did, he's doing the Ensemble again this year 21st-23rd. As @horseymum says, you get a lot more info nearer the time once they know who's accepted their places

Hers is 18-20th. She wants to know All The Things before deciding but she did enjoy the day.

How many to a room?

That's v exciting for her @GeneralMusings

We had the finals of DD's young musician of the year concert at school tonight. They ended up being in key stage sections, so hers was year 7/8. She didn't win. The girl who won was a singer / songwriter who had a really lovely song, but as its the first year I can't help thinking that in future they might need to do categories rather than age groups as really not sure how you judge own compositions vs singing to a backing track vs classical pianists.

It was a lovely hour though with some very talented children and DD played really well so think she was happy.

There is no real way to easily compare a mixed group of instruments, we've had bagpipes, penny whistle, drum kit, singers accompanying themselves, classical pianists, accordion, violin etc. It's just a way to get performance experience and a bonus if they win but hopefully they get helpful comments and are pleased with how they perform. We have been to a few competitions and you can rarely predict ( even as a reasonable amateur musician myself). I have sometimes actually disagreed with results too but just need to accept they were looking for something else.

@horseymum I think that's right - competitions in general are definitely one for the 'performance opportunity' rather than anything else, and this one in particular given the breadth of performers. The main thing is getting to play in an environment that isn't an exam but is being judged, so its a great thing for them to offer.

Hoping they'll keep it as an annual event as it really doesn't matter about the outcome, just the process. It was quite restricted this year re participants so maybe it could expand too as the whole thing was only about an hour.

I can't help thinking that in future they might need to do categories rather than age groups

I thought the same about the BBCYM this year - substituting regions for age groups.

My school used to have a junior and senior but "junior" was up to grade 5. I think all these things are hard to compare really - even comparing someone playing mature beautiful Bach to someone playing a fancy showpiece. You're def on the right track treating it as a lovely concert with a bonus trophy to a strong but sometimes somewhat randomly selected participant.

It is lovely that school do anything like this. If our music department were given 1/10 of the budget or importance PE are, maybe the musical students could get 1/10 the opportunity to shine that the sporty ones already do.

Don't get me started on music/ sport! I work in sports and see the national support structures and the local opportunities. Government funding is so much higher. Sport is really a wonder drug for your body and music is the same for social, emotional and mental wellbeing. Our school really promotes sports but thankfully the music department is doing well with the resources they have but it's definitely lagging behind.

Similar situation here considering NSSO and NYSO for DD who has just turned 10. Would love to hear of any experiences at roughy this age of either. 🙏 x

We had a busy music weekend.
DS had his grade 5 violin exam on Friday. Usual Saturday morning music school thing. Played piano in the morning and violin in the afternoon in a local music festival, and went to a concert to watch a symphony orchestra playing the Beethoven no. 5.
Exam result isn't out yet. He won both classes in the festival with medals and cups and LOVED the Beethoven 5th. He wouldn't take his eyes off the first violin lead for even a second. It was late when it finished but it was so worth it seeing his face lighten up with joy!
His piano accompanist said he played better in the exam than the festival. I could also tell he was nervous in the festival. When I asked him he said he was more nervous playing the violin because he was worried about the tuning and timing. Where on the piano at least he didn't need to worry about the tuning. I don't know how to help him cope with that. Maybe we should find more performing opportunities for him to get used to it. Any ideas? He still won his class but I can just tell the music wasn't how it normally flows.
Hope everyone else had a nice weekend too.