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.

We didn't have any music gifts either this year, although his violin teacher bought him Bach 2 violin concerto sheet music just before Xmas and wrote some kind words on the cover which made DS super happy!

DS got a pedalboard plus assorted cables for his electric guitars (well, one is a 'semi acoustic'). It's always fun, if odd, to hear him practising his classical grade pieces on them. His next school concert is rock-n-roll themed, and he's playing with a couple of bands.

@chickentikkasalad The Bach Double is perhaps my favourite piece in the whole repertoire!

Also love the Bach double!

DS got some fancy rosin in his stocking which he was very excited about. We made a Christmas song medley (arranged by DH for our very assorted instrument collection) and DS absolutely loved being able to join in. 4yo DD was a bit miffed she could only do the jingle bells!

Did anyone watch Carols from King’s? I thought the tenor solo in O Holy Night was absolutely stunning - I have watched it several times now.

Dd got a new spike block for her cello that she was very happy about. Also some new pencils with music references on for using at orchestra.

Dd also loves Bach. Currently doing all six of his little preludes on the piano and the first cello suite.

We watched Carols from Kings! And DS - now a good tenor himself - was struck with the tenor soloist. 'Beautiful tone' said he.

In fact he while choir is astonishing.

I hope all the NYO members on this thread have a fantastic winter course.
DS is going to the Barbican concert with a load of friends - they all left NYO this summer.

Yes, it was an early start for mine, left the house at 5.45 am! Hope they have a great time and would highly recommend the concerts if you are near enough to go. Free tickets for teens. They always have lots on their socials if you want an idea of what they get up to. It's lovely when the older ones go back to watch friends, there were some who'd recently left the JD at the Christmas concert.

DS (6yo) and I are going to the Barbican concert - really hope he manages to sit through it as it will be the first full length orchestral concert he has been too and I LOVE the Nielsen so much. Such a great piece for a youth orchestra to do.

It is so great that tickets are free for under 19s as well - makes it worth the attempt with DS at least!

@Compsearch I really hope he enjoys it. Maybe listening to it beforehand will help it be familiar. The programme notes might be online beforehand or you could look up some others. If he has a bit of context it can help. The concerts have an incredible infectious energy though so I think he'll love it. There will be an encore too I think so be prepared for that. If you follow their socials you will hear little snippets and see some of the players during this week.

@horseymum DS was lucky that he didn't need to get up until 8:15. However, he struggled with that as he had been so excited he had struggled to sleep the night before!

Thanks for the reminder on the NYO concert. We missed it last year so have booked to go this year. There weren't many seats left - only the balcony!

I'm new here and looking for advice about UCAS undergraduate and UCAS Conservatoire places. DD has applied to RNCM joint course with Manchester uni and been offered a place. She's also applied to Cambridge for music, had interview and is waiting to hear if she has an offer. If she's offered Cambridge, she may like to put Cambridge as first choice (Birmingham as second) on UCAS undergraduate and RNCM joint course as first choice for conservatoire system, holding both open until results day. This is because she only applied to one conservatoire and ideally her first choice would be Cambridge and her second RNCM. Does anyone know if this is possible? The UCAS website suggests not but my daughter says she knows of people who held both places until A level results day and teachers at RAM have told her they think it's possible too.

@Lizziedripping123 I do not have recent up to date info so hopefully someone else will come along who does.

But is there a reason why your DD can’t just put down Cambridge 1 and Joint Course 2?

If you’re saying that she’d rather do RNCM undergrad than joint course then perhaps the thing to do is to ask the RNCM if they would be willing to make her a straight offer through the conservatoire portal?

Thanks. The UCAS website seems to indicate that you aren't allowed to hold open a place on UCAS undergraduate (Cambridge, in this case) and UCAS Conservatoire (RNCM joint course, in this case).

There's no option of RNCM undergraduate as she didn't apply for this and doesn't want to do pure conservatoire. She really wants academic music too so only applied to RNCM joint course through UCAS Conservatoire. She applied to Cambridge and various others through UCAS undergraduate.

@Lizziedripping123 congratulations to your daughter for the RNCM joint offer, I've heard that one is very competitive. I have heard you can have a conservatoires offer and a uni offer at the same time as they are different systems but I'm not totally sure. Also complicated by some conservatoires not being on (C)UCAS at all and having a direct entry. I do know for the UCAS only system that when you put 1st and 2nd choice, on results day, the 1st choice is automatically accepted and the 2nd one drops away if you reach the condition for the first choice, so it's not a choice on results day but much earlier. In Scotland however, you are much more likely to have an unconditional from 5th year results, so different again! Is she going to be doing lessons or is it composition as she might want to have consultation lessons to help her decide.

Ah @Lizziedripping123 I see - in my day (a long time ago!) the joint course was through normal UCAS with Manchester uni as the main institution (I applied for this but when I had London conservatoire offers I didn’t attend my RNCM audition, and it automatically converted to a straight music application and offer). It would seem really unfair if that couldn’t be her second choice when it is a university course?! You’d think there would be a lot of people in the same boat, as it’s quite common to apply to both.

I guess could be worth trying to speak to a human at UCAS. Best of luck with the Cambridge results!

Can any violinists/parents recommend an easy (Grade 2-ish) book of well known tunes?

DS absolutely loved playing all the Christmas carols from Fiddle Time Christmas over the holidays and it has improved his reading so much as he knew roughly how each one should go (so a gentle sight reading experience!). There seem to be billions out there online so a steer would be helpful.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and looking forward to getting back into it!

We had 101 Disney tunes at a similar stage. They don't have piano accompaniments but there are lots to play through

This looks absolutely spot on - thank you!

Happy new year all! Sounds like everyone is being musically 'busy'. DD2 is mostly being musically lazy and concentrating on next week's mocks.

However, yesterday she finally picked up the alto saxophone someone has kindly lent us.No idea if she's doing it right - working her way through Abracadabra saxophone with some speed - I think she did 44 songs in half an hour yesterday - and the songs sounded right to my untutored ear.

Had to go to Howarth today to get her a saxophone harness as the bassoon one didn't work and she insists it is coming to school with her tomorrow.

I'm never quite sure what to expect with these instruments they can try to pick up because they play other similar ones (she's a bassoonist/flautist) - can they really just work through a fingering chart and play them, or should she attempt to get someone to help her out at some point? Is she likely to be picking up terrible, terrible habits?

Happy New Year! @minisnowballs DS14 plays clarinet as a first instrument - we got him an alto sax in lockdown along with the Abracadabra book and he worked his way through a lot on his own using the fingering charts. We did find him a teacher after a couple of months though to give him direction and due to concerns that he might develop bad embouchure habits on both instruments - unfortunately this has somewhat been the case on his clarinet rather than sax and is proving rather difficult to break 😬 From what I hear, it’s not uncommon for flautists to double on sax and vice versa. However, I think having someone check her sax embouchure would be time well spent. Guess it also depends on how often your DD wants to play and what she wants to play too. DS’s sax teacher is very jazz focused which DS really enjoys as it’s a nice change from the predominantly classical based repertoire he plays on clarinet. He also does a lot of improvisation which is a very different skill. I don’t think he’d have explored this without a teacher. Hope the mocks go well.

To an extent, you can rapidly learn another wind instrument when you can already play one, and the saxophone is much easier to pick up than the bassoon. The embouchures are quite different though, for example the top teeth rest on top of the saxophone mouthpiece rather than being covered by the lip which they would be for the bassoon embouchure. So it's definitely worth her working with a saxophone teacher to make sure that her embouchure is correct since these problems become harder to correct the longer you've been playing.

thanks @StuntNun and @amr78 - that is helpful. I did wonder about embouchure - she's already having to work hard to switch between bassoon and flute and she'll be in trouble if it messes up either of those.

She could certainly ask her school friends (many of whom double on bassoon and sax/clarinet) but I know she's embarrassed to do so. She really needs to get over the idea that you must be perfect on an instrument immediately you pick it up - no shame in working through Abracadabra in my view but I guess at school everything is very visible/audible - she'd rather go away for the hols and come back an expert but that's not really possible on whole new instruments.

Perhaps I'll get her to be brave and mention it to her HoD, who is of course a sax player - but not all that delighted by her multi-instrumentalist tendencies. Another instrument to transport back to school anyhow!

@minisnowballs she should check out the multi-instrumentalist jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings. He studied clarinet with Joy Farrell as an undergraduate at Guildhall but plays sax (no longer publicly) and indigenous flutes from around the world. Good luck with getting those instruments back to school!

@minisnowballs - as an ex clarinettist I'd really recommend she has a chat with her HoD as embouchure is the fundamental technical issue to master when moving from one wind to another and it could cause her a lot of problems if she gets it wrong.

Assume she's going back today - feel for you after a full house over Christmas if so.