Autumn / Winter 2025 Music

[northerngoldilocks]

Time for a new thread in time for the new school term!

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.

Are the odds astronomical? DD has hers coming up at the end of the month, and I couldn't find any information at all about how many places are available in the choirs or how many auditions they're holding.

No- DS got offered a flute day at half term again but he couldn’t do it as we were away - looks like that’s it for this year!

Checking in after a long gap. Younger DD did her grade 7 this morning but it was apparently bad. She’s usually a pretty good judge so she may not have passed! She’s also decided to my massive surprise that she wants to audition for our regional youth orchestra. She only does things she wants to do so I have given up suggesting anything to her! She’s decided that she wants to try an orchestra with a different conductor to their director of music.

Yes, the woodwind one in Blackpool

Does anyone have experience of them on here? I have seen general chat about the pros of Inspire on a separate thread but was wondering what the Blackpool woodwind one is like? DD enjoyed the day in October

My DD has been asked to the brass residential but it’s also in Blackpool. I wonder if they will all be at the same accommodation? She’s 13 so no experience of NYO residentials before either.

Mine is 13 as well, not 14 until the end of June. From her Inspire day she was very much one of the youngest. Not quite sure what I think about sending her at the bottom end of the age group. More because of making friends than any other concerns. She's pretty independent and has been away a lot on other residential, but usually within a closer range of ages.

Mine did the Blackpool one a couple of times, and was definitely at the younger end when she started (13). They're in a big hotel and bussed to the school where they do the Inspire stuff. Sometimes there are several 'courses' there at a time, so woodwind, strings, percussion etc.

The tutors can be really great, and it can be enjoyable. DD felt she didn't make friends there as quickly as on other courses, but that might be just her, but the range of ages was noticeable.

You’ve absolutely read my mind there! My DD is also June born. She enjoyed the Unite day but didn’t know anyone and said a lot of the others did. She’s done NCO residentials for the past two years and is going again this year. She has absolutely loved these, but I’m a little worried about the age range of NYO too so I’ll see what she says when she gets home from school.

DD2 had the question "Have you read anything that I wrote in your notebook last week?" She was dumb enough to give an honest answer - the next 40 minutes was exclusively scales and sightreading. Never made that mistake again......

My 16yo has the same diagnoses and practice definitely took a back seat during Y11. He only picked up the viola for his weekly lesson and orchestra practice. I mostly kept my own counsel, as I’m aware that practice becomes another demand which is not helpful to a demand avoidant teenager!

However he’s now doing music A level and seems much more enthused. He’s doing his grade 7 early next year and seems to be practising reasonably regularly. Hopefully your ds will come back to his music once he has more time and energy.

I think we will take the same approach. Mine also has the NCO residential next year so NYO is not essential, but longer term it seems a fantastic initiative. Hard decisions! But a nice position to be in. Last year we were hunting around for fun opportunities for her. Knowing my kid she will probably have a strong view of her own!

@ViolaMa I’m glad your DS has returned to his music post GCSEs. Yes definitely a lot of tongue biting going on here over lack of practice! Hopefully he’ll find his way back once the stress of year 11 is out of the way.

Very true!

Oh you reminded me that I now have to find a solution to teachers' comments having moved to various online places where they never get read 🙈 When they were in a tiny paper notebook, DD always had it with her and checked before every practice.

Now the wonders of tech make it impossible as they're not allowed mobile phones in school and do not necessarily carry their laptops to practice rooms (and it's a hassle to open the laptop, find the right app for each set of comments etc).

Looks like we'll have to copy from online on to old school paper, yet another job on top of everything else 🤦‍♀️

Mine have done Inspire for the February courses before. All the Feb courses are in Blackpool ( it's cheap presumably), they run them in instrument families, so woodwind, string etc. There will be more than one course at the same time and possibly more than one of each type during the week. I'd say some of the kids know each other because they have been to days or courses before and it's probably easier to get to know people when the numbers are lower. ( Eg fewer bassoons than violins) Mine have enjoyed them, liked the tutors, enjoyed the music. It's different from an orchestra course which is usually longer. They maybe need to be proactive at speaking to people, which isn't always easy. My advice is the same though, take some card games and a big packet of sweets! I think they share a room so there's at least someone to go to breakfast with.
If you have plenty of opportunities you are happy with, it might not be necessary. If your child rarely gets to play with players better than them it's a good opportunity. If they want to apply for the full orchestra in the future, it's a helpful experience to understand how it all works.

Thanks - that's really helpful. I think it sounds like an amazing opportunity and I think Inspire is a super initiative. I've mentioned before that my kids are at a State school with very little music for orchestral instruments and no real orchestra to speak of. My only concern was the age thing but I think she might decide she's up for being brave anyway.

She only does things she wants to do so I have given up suggesting anything to her!

Now that rings a lot of bells with my DS. He will do things his friends suggest but not me. I guess it's healthy for teens! Good luck to her with the regional y.o.

I’ve just got round to looking at AQA past papers as I was interested in this too. Dictation is 6 or 7 marks out of the 120 mark paper (itself 40% of the A level). Shame as this is ds’s main strength! The 10 markers that he has been endlessly set make up half the marks, then there is another 30 marker.

@ViolaMa - it's really not much is it! (dd2 is eduqas) But I was amused to read in the examiners report that 'zero on this part of the exam is not uncommon', which makes DD2's 6/10 not sound so very bad!

A pass for grade 7 ( only just but still a pass!) Audition pieces still to be uploaded and then she has 5 terms to get her grade 8!! The joy of being a less popular stringed instrument she may not need it to play in auditioned groups..,

Good news @Soundofshuna - very few people ask what mark you got - onwards and upwards!

dd got a pass for gr 7, was really disappointed then a distinction in gr 8. No one asks about 7. More unfortunate for DS who got a distinction in 7 and a merit in 8 as the same applies 😂

Excellent news @Soundofshuna !

Congratulations to @Soundofshuna . That sounds like a good amount of time for grade 8. Mine is currently dabbling more consistently with grade 8 pieces although often not much difference at the upper end and often they play something where one movement is technically grade 6/7 and one is 8, so have often been playing pieces of the list for much longer than they realise. I realised she'd performed a grade 8 piece at least two years ago. As someone mentioned before, it's more about how they play them rather than strictly the difficulty.

Yay soundsofshuna! That's the job, be prepared enough that even if it all goes belly up on the day you still pass.

DS has been "working on g8" for ages, whether he ever actually gets there is a real question. He's not doing music for A level so it's not high on his priority list.

Ok, any amazing ideas for music teachers for Christmas presents? Or teens that I haven't spotted before.