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.

I’ve lost track of who has kids in NYO this year but they were absolutely incredible last night!

I was slightly worried that DS wouldn’t be able to sit still for the whole concert but he was absolutely mesmerised (and enjoyed all the haribo I fed him!).

I thought the woodwind were particularly impressive - such great solos in Bolero and the beautiful chorale moments in the Nielsen. It’s on radio 3 soon I think - well worth a listen.

Sounds amazing!

DS was drafted in to the third day of the local holiday orchestra course - joys of being a French horn. Marvellous repertoire, including Mars and Jupiter from the Planets, and the theme from ET! So lots of splendid brass action.

He was a bit worried it would look rather 'I'm here darlings', but they just really needed a fourth horn.

Less successful are his attempts to record his piano diploma pieces - no practice, and no recordings. And now GCSE mocks, which add another excuse. He's so sick of the pieces (been doing them for getting on for a year now) that they're never going to get any better.

He's chosen to do A level music, even though there might only be two or three doing the course. Be like a tutorial!

DS was tempted by history, but the syllabus was a bit odd. First year, all about English history 1930s to 1990s, and Ghengis Khan. All good fun. Then second year entirely about a not very exciting period of French history. Not even the revolution. So he's chosen politics instead!

His drama teacher apparently 'desperately' wants him to take that, but I think four A levels would be a stretch.

We really enjoyed NYO too - though it didn't quite have the inspiration i was hoping for re my children. They both said - yeah that was amazing, but in a way that didn't indicate they'd be thinking its for them. I wonder if its that they can appreciate how exceptional the kids in NYO are though, rather than some of their friends who go and see it when they're around grade 2/3 standard and think that's what grade 8 looks like.

@herbaceous what is your DS doing for his ARSM? DD is still working towards G8 as we pushed it back because of starting a new school, so in the meantime has learnt the rest of Beethoven's pathetique. Realised that she could probably just play the whole thing for ARSM at some point but could also be like your DS and mean that she's just been playing it all for a long time!

Crikey, I can't remember exactly. A Debussy, a Chopin nocturne, a Mozart sonata and a jazz piece!

@northerngoldilocks could also just be teens playing it cool?! What did they think of the programme?

I wasn’t totally convinced by Catamorphosis - it was a good contrast to Bolero and had some interesting effects in it but it did drag on! I love love the Nielsen.

I think that with the exception of Bolero none of us loved the programme. Catamorphosis sounded like a film score with a long section of background. I could appreciate the contrast but I wouldn't seek any of it out to listen to again. Still- it's an improvement on my kids Xmas orchestra where the conductors idea of a 'modern piece' is a selection from 'Lady and the Tramp'!

The can't remember is probably indicative of the level of practice 😂😂😂

I'm surprised music Alevel isn't mandatory at her school.

Oh I know them very well, @northerngoldilocks, but can't remember their exact names!

Fair enough. Thought he might have been doing 'stealth practice' for it!

@minisnowballs makes more sense 🤣

@minisnowballs - DD found music a level the place she could sink into on the ground that she knew what she was doing. There were at least 3 classes - hers (all specialists). one that was mixed and one that was non specialists. They test everyone after the first half term of year 12 and allocate at that point. TBH DD thought she'd have done better in the mixed class as she can't compose for toffee and everyone in her class was assumed to be able to do so.

Have a really good look at the history results as they didn't used to be that good.....

Hello again!

My daughter is also choosing A levels! She'd love music and has got her grade 8 but she's worried about her composing as they've not had much teaching on it (change of teacher) for gcse so it's a bit of an unknown for A level.

I think she's going chemisty maths and psychology but will keep up the good Saturday orchestra she's in and school orchestras but it is her reserve!

Composition has been somewhat shoehorned into DS's music GCSE too - something to do with problems with computer software... But with a lot of orchestral experience and good performance skills, I'm sure a lot of the structural elements get kind of hard-wired in!

Prompted by @minisnowballs, I investigated what DS is doing for his diploma! It's Chopin Nocturne op62, no 2; Mozart Sonata in D, K311; Debussy La Plus Que Lente; and Billy Mayerl Look Lively! I had to look through his music anthologies to find the pieces with pencil marks on...

Choosing A Levels is an exciting time. There were only three of us in my Religious Studies class, @herbaceous, and it's one of my happiest memories from school, it was like having a scheduled cosy chat with my mates a couple of times a week.

DD has finally managed to have her informal pre-audition meeting about the choristership. She'd been practising the song they told her to have ready for what feels like months, and then they asked her to sing something else entirely! I don't know if that's a cunning plan to prevent overpreparation, or just a mix-up. Anyway, she said she was fine at everything they asked her to do, except singing the notes back when four were played together. I'm not really sure how you practice that, as presumably they aren't four totally random notes, and my musical knowledge doesn't stretch that far.

Hi @TreeAtMyWindow. Sounds like she had to sing back four notes in a chord - fairly necessary skill for singers to be able to pick out their starting note from that, eventually! Though she would normally be singing the top note... I'm sure there would be practice stuff on YouTube, or whatever.

And yes - the music teacher is brilliant. Really lovely guy, funny, fairly well-known composer, brings tea and cakes to lessons etc. It would be like having a university-level tutorial each time!

Ah, @herbaceous, that makes sense. I shall have a look for videos - it's probably not a big stretch, given she can manage three notes.

I hope all the GCSE mocks are going well.

I think there's only a handful at our school doing music. 3 in Yr 12 and 3 in Yr 13 currently so they combine the class.

I think it sounds lovely but the composition has got her worried she'd drop a grade and is currently wanting As for the courses she's considering. (Time will tell if that's possible).

It may be she does her 3 A levels and then keeps up the orchestras. We're not in London but are lucky to have an audition/senior orchestra locally.

I think she'd love the music though! The new music teacher is really lovely and thorough but my duaghters seeing it as a risk.