Spring /Summer 25 - Music thread

[northerngoldilocks]

Time for a new thread for spring!

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.

Just realised NSSO is offering 50% discount to some instruments on their April courses, in case anyone is interested.
(no shortage of violins though, as usual).

That's a bargain for the right instruments and level @Ubertomusic . Maybe I'll check nearer the time for the summer ones for DD2 in the hope they'll provide something similar.

At the moment DD2 can't wait to get home - she seems to have finally discovered homesickness after a year and a half, and there are two more days of symphony rehearsals to go.

I think the GCSE/grade 8/Haydn's Creation combo may have been too much. Though she rang me tonight very excited because she'd been picking her grade 8 singing pieces. I'd really have thought she'd had enough exams for a while but it seems not.

@Happydaysandhappysmiles My friends son (drummer) uses loops as well. My daughter found them hard to put in but she was on the young side of their age guidance so I think she was just a bit small - apparently I have narrow ear canals so it might be hereditary. I started with loops for brass band rehearsals and have upgraded to ACS custom ones which are much better for brass playing. They needed custom moulds, which I got at Boots but Boots don't do the moulds for under 18s so you might need to go somewhere more specialist for kids.

Dd also picking g8 pieces @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest - piano and cello for her. She’s managed to persuade her singing teacher to let her skip g5 and go straight to g6 and do musical theatre rather than classical. Looks like next year is going to be the year of exams for her which is good. Not sure I could cope with it and academic exams too!

That is good @QueenMabby - yes the G8 was a really tough call for DD2 - she is glad it is done now but it produced stress in the last week. I am glad she didn't do the g7 singing she was supposed to do as well (fortunately or unfortunately there was no trinity exam session booked as lack of interest so she didn't do it. She's now moving to ABRSM). Year 12 much better.

Dd does ABRSM for all of hers. She’s committed to getting better at sight singing and intervals so I’ve suggested the app that you recommended up-thread.

Picking new pieces is always fun! Has anyone else’s child struggled with the ABRSM Singing for Musical Theatre choices though, moving up the grades? Finding songs that appeal, are the right range and not too grown-up in theme!

If anyone’s child has done G7 lately and can recommend good choices from the syllabus that might save me the job of trying to find them all on Spotify. Unfortunately I’m not very knowledgeable about musical theatre and most of the songs are unfamiliar!

@hedwigsbeak how old is the candidate? DD2 hasn't done the musical theatre syllabus but I've had a look and there are some lovely ones on there (but I agree also loads I don't know at all!)
@QueenMabby yes we are now back to 100% abrsm - shame as she liked the trinity exam structure better, but they just don't have enough candidates for it to run a day in school. Given her woeful aural marks in the grade 8 bassoon she's just done she had better get that app out again herself!

A bit late to the theory chat but my piano teacher made me sit every exam up to grade 5 when I was a child and I now think that was a colossal waste of time, effort and money even though I ended up with a distinction for grade 5 theory. My DS is taking two grade 5 practical exams this year so he‘ll need his grade 5 theory soon but he hates working though the work books. I’m going to get him to do the grade 1 and 2 practice papers then sit the actual grade 3 theory exam to give him confidence. Then work through the grade 4 and 5 material to fill in any gaps before sitting the grade 5 theory exam next year.

My nephew did his grade 5 theory exam earlier this year but failed. He doesn’t play a musical instrument though which must make it much more challenging. Apparently his mum gave him the choice between piano or theory and he picked theory because that way he didn’t have to do practice.

@hedwigsbeakmy DS did grades 2 and 3 SFMT and is now preparing for grade 5. I’ve had to pick some songs for him because otherwise he only chooses between ones he already knows. He’s learning You Can’t Take That Away From Me by Gershwin which he would never have picked on his own but it’s actually a really good choice for him.

@StuntNun I also did all the theory exams as a child, right up to grade 8! WHY 🤣. Not as weird as doing theory without playing an instrument though - that seems totally bonkers!

But he doesn’t have to practice @Compsearch

I did the workbooks and practise tests at the same time as DD as a challenge and I found it incredibly hard as I have no musical background @StuntNun - at least I had DD to help me though, it must be crazy on your own.

I have a soft spot for A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square as DD did it for Grade 5 - a beautiful song but I'm not sure if it's only on the classical syllabus?

DD didn't do the MT syllabus at Grade 7 @hedwigsbeak but she has sung songs from those lists for other things - If I Were a Bell and Burn are both fab songs with a lot of scope for drama.

Of course! 🤣

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest She’s 12 and looks young for her age so the more adult themed songs don’t quite seem suitable. I’m sure there are some great songs on there that we just don’t know!

@StuntNun Yes it’s very tempting for them to just choose songs they know - this has been dd’s approach for all of the grades so far but she’s sometimes ended up slogging away at songs that really don’t suit her, rather than wanting to try something new! That’s why I’m hoping to apply some logic to the choices this time 😂

With the theory, we started with the workbooks to learn G1-3 content but later moved to an online course. She just took G5 exam, not the earlier grades. It still took a while because dd had zero enthusiasm to study but the course had good video explanations and was much more bearable than the books!

@yodaforpresidentthanks for the recommendations. I’ll check those out!

Hi - I just wondered if any of you with kids now at conservatoires could give me some advice? My son wants to do composition and is about to choose his options. He'll be doing music, German and then needs to pick two from computer science, French and history. Then he'll drop one again the following year. Have any students found any to be particularly useful? To be honest, I'm guessing it doesn't matter much, although I can see having two languages might be useful.

Mine did Music, English Lit & History, only music has been any use really. Conservatoires are usually EE offers so A levels aren't hugely relevant.

Mine did Music Psychology and History (and dropped the latter as soon as the EE offer came in). TBF they spent the extra time practising and it meant that they didn't have to undertake the pretty onerous non examined assessment for History.

My relative did Music, History and Maths A levels. Now first year at a Conservatoire which he is enjoying.. I wish he had concentrated a bit more on History and Maths, he was capable of much better grades.

As l understand that Music can be difficult to make a living out of, l worry a bit about the future and think it would be safer if those grades were higher.

Mine did music, music tech, and history.
He would have liked to do drama possibly in place of history, but we encouraged him to do a humanity just in case he changed his mind about going into music.
I actually thought a language might be helpful, for possibly studying at conservatoire abroad or future performing work.

As someone on the other side with loads of my friends from conservatoire no longer working in music, I’d say it’s worth getting solid A level grades in well-respected subjects (as far as possible), as lots of people do end up pivoting to other things (out of my friends I’ve got lawyers, accountants, a paramedic, two personal trainers, someone with a cake-making business, many teachers, both classroom and peripatetic). Some went back to uni/on to grad courses and others just straight into jobs, but good A levels always useful and will leave more options open! All those subjects look solid @chocolateisnecessary so probably go for whatever will be easiest/get the highest grades.

On another topic, DS is going to sing to the Director of Music at Southwark - does anyone have any tips/know what to expect in terms of aural tests etc/what to prepare? DS doesn’t have singing lessons (he’s almost 7) so doesn’t really have a repertoire as such…I’ve picked a short hymn that I found online as an example for a different cathedral choir - will that be ok?

@Compsearch good luck to him! I should imagine they might ask intervals, texture etc - but the only thing I have to go on is DD's national youth choir auditions so maybe very different.

But I'm taking on board what you say about the A-Levels. DD2 is going for History, English and Music (compulsory and she's only allowed 3) - I'm hoping that looks solid enough as she's far from decided between uni and conservatoire when it comes to next steps. She had a very useful meeting with the academic deputy head at school who was firm on the whole facilitating subjects thing and advised those were the ones for her.

Last week we watched DD2 in her first gig as first bassoon in the school symphony orchestra (Haydn's Creation). Which we think went OK. A big ask for a 15 year old to take on, and she was particularly nervous when there were arias where she was accompanying soloists. She's now very excited because she's on a school trip without her bassoon, which apparently 'means I can wear lipstick'. The excitement.

New MD so I don't know what she will be looking for (although she is lovely) but when my DDs auditioned they were asked to prepare a short song/hymn - both did Skye Boat Song and they asked for one verse unaccompanied. They were asked to sing back a short phrase and pick out upper/middle notes of chords. DD1 took along a piano piece as she was quite a decent pianist at that age which impressed them but was something she took as an extra rather than something they wanted.

Ah thank you! It is a man that we are seeing - so mustn’t be who you are thinking of. So should he expect to be both accompanied and unaccompanied on the hymn? Singing back phrases and notes from chords should be ok…intervals not so much!