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.

@TreeAtMyWindow DS is a bassoon player and usually has around three reeds on the go at any one time. They vary hugely depending on the level and instrument though, so it's worth checking with a teacher or a music shop. We got ds a new (second hand!) bassoon earlier this term and he needed an entirely new set of reeds for it because it was different in some way I don't really understand!

If you want fun bassoon accessories for a Christmas present, my ds has a magnetic water holder for his reed that attaches to his music stand that he finds really useful. It looks like an old film canister (that comparison is lost on him) but has a magnetic bit so it sticks to his stand. It helps his reeds to be the right moisture level in a concert if there's a lot of travelling involved.

Lots of fun bassoon t shirts on Red Bubble as well (optimist, pessimist, bassoonist, etc) with glasses of water.

My child would absolutely love reeds in her stocking! I would definitely check with her teacher although if you absolutely can't, howarth academy ones could be a good start. They usually start on easier ones and could be on them for a while, hard to predict how long. I don't know what hardness my DD uses as her previous teacher makes them for her ( I suspect they are the ones he makes for himself but aren't quite good enough for a pro but suit her so we've never changed). I would second the magnet pot as otherwise you'll have spilt pots of water everywhere. You could make one yourself if you had a film canister and some magnetic tape stuff and maybe some insulation tape to secure it. Although the oboist in the family uses those mini jam jars from hotels, I always get one if I'm staying away!
You can get a nice wee reed case from howarths for about £10. Or just use an m and s mint tin.

Yes @MockCroc that’s exactly what I would have expected - I’m sure she will have a ball and they will be wowed by her.

Also I wouldn’t worry too much about the school music offering if she’s at a JD anyway.

I guess just depends what you mean by versatile, and the type of music you like playing the most. There is much more chamber music for horn than other brass,
for example.

And well done to your DS @herbaceous - excellent result!

@minisnowballs you should get your DD to tell her tuba friend about this - set up by some friends of mine (if she doesn’t know about it already!)

https://www.largeandshiny.com

I mean playing classical, jazz, pop, also brass banding, also solo vs orchestral.

I contemplated horn because it would have opened many doors for DD at 11+ for girls schools (they would've been queuing to offer her a place), also less competition in music world as you said.

She didn't mind either instrument, but I thought maybe she would have more gigs with the trumpet to earn a bit (not guaranteed anyway for any instrument).

I refused tuba because of its size and weight, not because of limited opportunities 😂 I wouldn't be able to carry it on the tube and trains 🙈 I
absolutely love harp but wouldn't let DD do it for the same reason. There must be a limit to parental commitment 😂

If you mean the specialist school tuba, of course all instruments have plenty of opportunities there. I mostly mean the life outside school. For example, DD was invited to play trumpet at a local street festival and the organisers paid her for the job. Would they employ a horn to do that? Probably not.

DS asked to learn the harp when he was about eight. I said 'no' straight away, due to logistical issues. Regret it a bit now - harps are wondrous.

Yes, they are absolutely heavenly instruments...

I think it just depends on your priorities really. And personality comes into it too. I do find it funny how so many of my friends who play the same instruments share similar personality traits. Which is why I have my doubts about DS and the viola but we will see!

On versatility - I absolutely love classical and romantic chamber and orchestral music and there is so much great repertoire for horn there (much less so for other brass). But I had no idea of this when I started learning - it was just a complete and very lucky fluke.

We tend to say “it’s always the horns” 🤣 as in if there’s a section doing something a bit daft it’s always them 😂 There do seem to be shared personality traits in the section.
He asked for a sousaphone when he was 12- that was a hard no too.

Hmmm... DD is a violin and brass player at roughly the same standard - these instruments/groups are worlds apart and require very different skills and probably personality traits as well. Do you think multi instrumentalists have split personality?.. 🤔

I personally find brass people much more chilled than strings but even this is a huge generalisation I wouldn't usually make as I know insanely competitive people in brass and chilled parents in strings.

Soloists do need a very strong personality and charisma compared to orchestral players, that's probably true.

No, I don’t think that multi instrumentalists have split personalities @Ubertomusic (or that everyone who plays the same instrument has the same personality).

I do think that people are likely to be more temperamentally suited to certain roles within ensembles than others, and when you combine that with the fact that certain physical characteristics are beneficial for certain instruments, you do get to see patterns across very large sample sizes!

When I was in orchestras, the horns were always fun but mildly intellectual, whereas the trombones were the clowns and the trumpets the alpha males.

Annoyingly DS has found his horn contemporaries to be all rather odd...

DD2 plays it - it is a nightmare - takes up half the sitting room, strings snap in the middle of the night and it sounds like shooters alley (as they never snap alone). The only place you can take it to get it serviced is miles out of London, a full set of strings costs a fortune. You need an estate car to fit it in and buying one is like buying a house - you either go for a "new build" that takes months or you buy a second hand one where you offer the full asking price and a deposit to get it taken off the market (any you need a mortgage to buy it).

But they sound fab and she loves posing around as a "harpist".....

We always joke that with the bassoon, if dd2 busked they might pay her to go away - but we are just mean parents!

love harps. Dd2 has always yearned for one. House isn’t big enough, nor are our pockets.

@herbaceous those are the stereotypes for sure. Horn does seem to attract some nerdy types too (in my experience, rife in amateur orchestras but less so in the profession!).

@Londonmummy66 I love the house buying comparison! Does she play folk harp too? I adore an Irish harpist called Seamus O Flatharta. Would definitely be suggesting it to one of my kids if I thought they’d stick to the little one.

@Compsearch - she started on the little one (lever harp) but switched to the big one at Grade 4 which is the normal time to switch - as with most instruments the step up from 3 to 4 is not massive so its fairly easy to move over then. She was far ore in love with the idea of posing next to a big beast in a ball gown and heels than in actually doing the graft of playing it.

The big problem with the harp is that the makers like Salvi etc are happy to rent you a lever harp and a 3/4 size pedal harp at very reasonable rates to get you hooked. Then they don't rent out the big ones at all and you have to buy one. The Associated Board don't make life any easier as you cannot meet the scales requirements for multiple octaves on a 3/4 pedal harp. That is totally insane as the fingering for all scales is the same so they are actually assessing the speed and accuracy of setting pedals so playing one 3 octave scale in any key followed by a number of 2 octave scales to change the pedals would demonstrate the same competencies as playing several longer scales. I know plenty of harp teachers have remonstrated with them as the weight of a full size harp isn't kind to young spines but they aren't interested......

Thanks for bassoon advice, everyone. It sounds like there is agreement on three reeds and a magnetic holder. I'd never have thought of the latter. I did get guidance from her teacher about which reeds, which is good because I'd definitely have chosen on the colour of the binding.

Happy Christmas music-ers! Nothing more musical than socks in this year's present haul here. Here's to 2025 bringing more exciting musical adventures for them all.

Very frustrating gift failure here. There's a choir geek online shop, from which I ordered a tie sporting 'word' and associated chord, both part of the last verse of O Come All Ye Faithful only ever sung on Christmas Day.

I ordered it 10 days ago, so it would be here in plenty of time for Midnight Mass, in which DS was singing. Or So I Thought. Didn't bloody arrive! The joke will be a bit stale by this time next year...

Did get him a pair of socks with piano keyboard on them though. And some vinyl.