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.

What is the solution?

Great post @MockCroc

What a brilliant post @MockCroc - you’ve summed it up so well.

@MockCroc fantastic post. I work in an area where inclusion is key and the work that needs to be done before people can take up opportunities is often overlooked. Often even free opportunities don't remove the barriers.

As to solutions, no magic wand exists in music, just sharing options, not pulling the ladder up behind, etc. The more people know about what's out there and what it looks like, the more people will feel able to grasp new and sometimes scary opportunities. No one is saying that independent school educated children should be demonised, or just treated as one homogeneous group. It is clear however from many sources that opportunities and resources vary wildly. I've seen on social media posts where schools show pictures of audition videos for orchestra or competitions with the child playing in a beautiful wood panelled practice room with a professional pianist on a grand piano accompanying them. Our school barely has one upright in a cupboard and no teachers who can accompany advanced level pieces and the orchestra started with about 7 kids. ( But they are fantastic teachers inspiring kids with the resources they have) I have had useful information from others on various topics and always happy to share where appropriate. Information is power and threads like this can really help people break through, especially for those who don't have musicians as parents, who those not blessed with confidence.

I could not agree more @horseymum. In fact I wonder if there is an appetite for a sticky post (is that even possible?) where information is shared on county music resources, instrument loan/ hire schemes, JDs and bursaries, courses and bursary details, charity grants, CATs, the MDS (I knew nothing about this until very recently but apparently this is available to families with household annual incomes of up to £200,000, on a sliding scale), NYO Inspire and similar? Are there mentoring schemes available/ people who can assist even with form-filling?

My issue was with some posters only contribution to my post about bookings being open on a singing course, that 'there were a lot of private school students on it'. Which was hardly helpful or particularly encouraging to those that might have had concerns about attending because they were worried 'they might not fit in'.

We've been so grateful to the help on here about NYO Inspire or we (state school family) would never have applied tbh.

Although she has her grade 8 it sometimes seems that the independents where kids start secondary already with grade 5/ go on expensive holiday courses/ have expensive tuition/ compete and yes we've seen videos with the beautiful national trust style room/ grand piano .... seems a completely different world and not really for her. It's nothing to do with self esteem but I guess a bit like not joining a Senior Orchestra when you are grade 2. It just seems a whole different world.

And even within our world we're privileged (amazing school orchestras, other local state schools don't have this) and audition only regional orchestra.

She absolutely loved NYO inspire at October and is looking forward to going again in half term and it was only really the people on this thread encouraging us/ explaining to her what it was like that meant she went.

On a personal level - we aren't on UC anymore so aren't able to access many of the grants. We have had some local grants but it hasn't been easy at all and we have stopped her lessons now she's grade 8 mainly due to cost (but also she has her gcse exams/ still plays in orchestra) .

Not really sure what the point was of this post but definitely support any inclusion efforts as I think even we are "middle class on hard times" and I think music is really inaccessible to most of the people where I live due to cost of lessons in the first place.

That would be a shame @minisnowballs. This should be a place of kindness and sharing of knowledge - after all we are all only trying to do the best for our DCs and others who share a love of music.

On another topic, I can’t remember who recommended the Disney songs for violin (@horseymum or @northerngoldilocks?) but they are just spot on for DS - the right level of challenge for him - thank you!

Also, has anyone’s child done Prelude Strings at CYM? (Their junior strings group for age 7-11/Grade 1-3). DS is young in his year and would be just 7 - wondering whether there will be other Year 3s and whether it’s a good programme generally.

He’d have to give up football which he is enthusiastic about but pretty rubbish at, and he does plenty of music already albeit no ensemble on violin, so I’m a bit torn. Applications close end of March for September start so need to decide quite soon. Could always wait another year, though he’d probably be beyond grade 3 by then.

That was me - I was always a bit sad that there isn't a piano accompaniment for them , but your DH can probably just play along anyway to make it sound nicer? I liked them for DD as she knew what they should sound like and they were just a nice change at that beginner stage.

We haven't done prelude strings, DD auditioned for CYM on full programme in year 4 and got a place to start in year 5 but that was 1st study piano and by that point she would have been beyond the prelude level (as her second study) so would have been looking at the general strings ensembles. We ended up not going for it and sticking with our local music offering but that was more specific re what additional offerings there would be for her on piano rather than any concerns re strings.

I think that overall its good to have some group ensemble options on violin as makes it all much more interesting for them - whether there is anything at school or locally for holidays that could fill that gap or if CYM would be the best option probably depends what else there is locally though. DD does holiday orchestras locally but we're lucky to have a whole variety of groups from beginner strings through to post grade 8 symphony orchestras. She also had a school strings group at juniors, though that was more varied.

We love a bit of Disney and musicals here as well, at any level!

Dd currently singing "not that girl" from Wicked as one of her pieces. She's desperate to do her g5 singing exam from the ABRSM musical theatre spec rather than the general singing syllabus which she's done up until now. She loves musicals although her voice is more of a "classical" one - she'll never be a belter!

Thanks so much @northerngoldilocks - really helpful. I need to think about it and talk to DS too. He’s doing the primary years programme at CYM atm (on recorder, which he isn’t that fussed about tbh), so if he added prelude strings it would be a very long day for him next year. I could swap to it possibly though. Lots of decisions!

My DS is preparing for his grade 5 Singing for Musical Theatre @QueenMabby he's doing the two Moana songs and They Can't Take That Away From Me so far. It's a bit different from the Singing exam as they have to put more performance into the songs and the sight singing pieces are all musical-style. He's 12 so he's struggling with the vocal range as his voice starts to drop. I'm almost hoping it will break before the exam so that he can put everything down an octave.

@Compsearch I would speak to CYM about it. I'm not sure you can add the programmes together like that or that you'd want to. Maybe see if he can swap to the strings programme if you think he'd be interested. When I was looking at it for DD I chatted to the head of strings and they were really helpful. They've left now but I'm sure the new head of dept would be equally as helpful.

Thank you @northerngoldilocks - I think in theory he could do both, as prelude strings is a standalone ensemble for non-beginners, and the primary years programme is group lesson/Mini ensemble/musicianship for beginners. They are at different times and he’d be doing them on different instruments.

But I do think doing both would be too much at his age. And importantly also way too long for me to hang out in that canteen with my 4 year old!!

The hardest thing really is making a call about whether he’d still want to do football next year. He likes going because all his friends do it but isn’t good at all (and doesn’t support a team or express any interest in it outside of his training sessions). But lots of benefits to a team sport and outside exercise and obviously he’s having fun so I’m not sure. I can see though that football might be more serious next year and he might want to drop out but I probably wont know that until we’ve already had to apply for CYM.

@StuntNun there's no rule about doing 2 songs from the same show but it might be more fun for him to have variety?

The two songs are different styles (How Far I'll Go and You're Welcome) and originally sung my Moana and Maui so I think it will be okay, @noteventhebestdrummer

It must be so tricky for boys! Dd hasn't decided which other pieces she wants to do yet. Will get her mocks out of the way first and then once everything is back to normal next week we can breathe and think!

He won't be doing the exam until the end of the year as he's skipping grade 4 so hopefully there's still time for puberty to kick in before it! He'll probably end up with a deep voice as most of the men in the family are baritones. It's going to play merry hell with the school choir because he's the only boy alongside 15 girls. I hope he'll be able to stick with it because you can already pick his voice out from everyone else's and that's only going to get more pronounced.

@Compsearch mine were a bit older and more advanced when they joined CYM but I always found them very good at keeping an eye on where people were at and slotting them into different groups if they needed to progress etc. (Did mean that DD2 started attending the GCSE support group in year 8 though so was a bit sick of it by the end of year 11)

Sorry @MockCroc I didn't read the whole thread but Brass Academy was the first residential my DD went to - she was 8 or 9 and she absolutely loved loved loved it. I sent her for extended days initially but the next year she insisted on staying for a residential. It's still one of her favourite camps, their non-musical activities are a lot of fun too.

@MockCroc sorry can't comment on the demographics of Brass Academy as we've never been interested tbh. I asked DD and she has no idea either, never discussed schools with children on any residential camp.

If your DD is at a JD, she's advanced for a brass player so maybe it's worth auditioning for NYBB? Again, no idea if they have more or less private school pupils than other camps but as it's national I guess more people come from the northern brass banding background so not necessarily PS?

Others have recommended Brass Academy in the past on another thread:
Music summer schools | Mumsnet

No personal experience, just remember seeing good things about that one.

Hello, does anyone here have any insights into reserve offers for conservatoires? YP has undergrad offers for music but also decided to apply to a conservatoire (quite a rush to make the deadline) and has a reserve offer. Is it best to park this for now and focus on undergrad offers. I guess it’s unlikely to become a full offer??