Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

[northerngoldilocks]

Time for a new thread as the old one is filling up and think we can claim its spring now!

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.

@Compsearch he loved it! No feedback as yet as he hasn’t seen his tutor. Just really hoping that it leads to more.

brilliant @Siriusmuggle - what a great opportunity- fingers crossed for him that it leads to more (and great on the cv even if it doesn’t)

Brilliant @Siriusmuggle - hope it leads to much more.

On the rather less glittering end of the brass scale, grade 3 euphonium booked and accompanist (brother) procured. No going back now. I'm going for face-to-face - figured if a thing is worth doing I may as well do it the old fashioned way. Will probably run out of breath in a panic.

Son has been at rcmjd since he was 8, so we are in our 7th year. He really enjoys it, but he’s not like lots of DCs on here that seem to devote lots of time on music, he seems to coasting through with minimal practice, so I’m not sure if our experience is that helpful 😅 but feel free to get in touch if you would like to know anything more.

That actually cheers me greatly @BBLY because mine all seem to coast along similarly. Good to know others manage to make this approach work!

I hope he enjoys it as much as the chorister in our house! It's a good time of year to increase it, while the days are longer and lighter and you don't have advent/Christmas/Easter to contend with right away. I think DS sailed through his first term as a full chorister on pure excitement tbh!

That seems a very light rehearsal schedule! Seem to remember DS had morning rehearsals every day, and four or five after school or weekends. Plus four or five services.

Different cathedrals have different patterns for choristers and this DC is at a cathedral that doesn't have a choir school and pays a pittance - my DC got 55p an hour not very long ago. Also the girls do half the weekly services and the lay clerks do one on their own.

Of course. DS’s cathedral has half the services done by girls, and the grown ups did Mondays. They didn’t get paid either, other than in the form of reduced school fees!

I guess when there’s a school attached to the cathedral morning rehearsals etc are logistically easier.

Yes @herbaceous this is Southwark Cathedral in London and DS is at a normal state school 45 mins away, so 3 x a week is more than enough (indeed, may be too much for him - will have to see!).

They have increased the number of services the girls are doing so in fact won’t be every Sunday - probably 3/4 - which Im
pleased about. He does enjoy it but definitely prefers violin and football!

Just want to wave at the lurker on this thread whose DD was also on tour in Bolivia......

Hello all

Just a bit of musing here...

DS is in y12, so deciding on universities and degree subjects. He'd really love to be a choral scholar at Oxbridge, and after a day at St Johns became convinced that's what he wants to do. At that point he decided to study music, partly as it's easier to get in to study music than other humanities subjects.

I was pleased by this outcome, as music has been his constant interest over the years, he's very good at it, predicted A* at A level, and you can 'hang' a lot of other subjects from it - politics, philosophy, history etc. He'd stand a good chance of getting into Cambridge I reckon, with his aptitude and all his extra curricular stuff he does.

The other day he came home from school, saying he's no longer sure, as if he studied music and was a music scholar there'd be no room for thinking of anything else, and perhaps he'll do history of art instead. A subject he's shown no real interest in until now. And a subject that's harder to get into, and he has no extra-curricular experience in.

Hoping he'll change his mind back again, but wondered if anyone had any thoughts...

I only did academic music for two years as part of my undergraduate but there was certainly a lot of history involved. Can he look at the course modules and the interests of the professors to get an idea of what he would be doing. I wonder if school pupils can't imagine doing one subject as they think it would be like school, but the subjects at uni are much wider.

Prompted by his comments I looked up what the modules actually were - something he hadn’t managed to find - and the Cambridge course at least has loads of history, anthropology, philosophy etc attached. The examples of students research project were really broad, too.

I will keep at it!

Of course he could do dual honours somewhere, but he’s worried that it would be seen as a ‘lesser’ degree.

@herbaceous im sure you’ve checked but is it actually the case that history of art is more competitive? I’d have thought it was similar to music in the sense that it’s not an option for the vast majority of state school students and so generally a much smaller pool of applicants?

In any case though I think the Cambridge music degree is incredibly broad and flexible unless it has changed dramatically since DH did it. He focused on composition and performance but wrote a dissertation about music in a specific director’s films. I had a couple of friends who were really into music history and attended history faculty lectures and another (now an academic in a university science faculty) whose dissertation was more of an aural science experiment (lsomething to do with whether musicians’ sound perception was different from non-musicians’). I think it’s a really great programme personally. Though there are a lot of compulsory modules in first year, which some find tough.

Hi there. I've checked, and it is marginally more competitive. Tho not as much as English or the PPE equivalent!

I'm even more convinced that if he wants to go to Cambridge he should do music after a UCAS evening last night, which stressed the weight given in personal statements to both academic prowess and extra-curricular activities, both of which he has in spades for music but less for HoA.

One option would be to get in for music, and swap courses after a year or two, which I believe is possible under the right circs. But I think he'd enjoy music anyway...

Or to apply to a college with a less onerous choral scholar regime, such as Clare or Trinity, so it's not 24hr music!

@herbaceous it's tricky isn't it - DD still vacillating over Music/Eng Lit (and I should stress she is good at Eng Lit, and keen). Loves music too. Suspect your DS will absolutely walk the entrance tests for music, but DD is worried her chorale harmonies won't be up to scratch !

He seems less keen on the technical aspects - decoding harmony etc - and more keen on the historical context stuff, and performance. He also loves English Lit!

So perhaps in an ideal world would go to Cambs to do English, but as a choral scholar. However, I don't think he'd get in with English, as it's uber-competitive and while he's good, he's not THAT good, and doesn't have all the super-curricular stuff.

@herbaceous - yes, she's similar, but I think the harmony entrance test is compulsory at most colleges! Not really sure what english lit extra curricular looks like - I mean DD reads voraciously but doesn't really read lit crit for fun or anything. Who does?!

I suspect people who do English Lit at Cambridge probably read lit crit for fun! Or at least pretend they do...

DS doesn't really read voraciously. Or indeed not much extra at all, which is why I don't think he'd get in. He's generally too busy doing music stuff!

I'm sure he'll come round - he's going to a music open day at Cambridge in July - but at the moment if I try and discuss it I get The Face of Doom.

I did English lit and certainly did not read lit crit for fun! A big bonus from my perspective was no compulsory lectures, so I could read eg all night long and spend all day in rehearsals. No idea how I did it tbh, especially as I didn’t like coffee at the time! Music has more contact time, at least in first year.

It is definitely possible in theory to swap, but it’s at the discretion of the DoS at the relevant college and I don’t think they look kindly on eg people getting in to do Anglo Saxon Norse and Celtic and wanting to swap to eg English or Law or something adjacent but obviously more competitive.

But I know people who swapped from law to Natsci, Natsci to music, languages to theology, English to History of Art - it’s fairly common as (contrary to what they say about needing to be passionate about your subject) in reality most undergrads have lots of interests and talents.

I also know several people who did a masters in a different discipline to undergrad - a handful who did English with me did HoA masters and one did a PhD in HoA, and a friend did History undergrad and an Mphil in history of Russian music that was taught in music faculty. There is a lot of scope for breadth.

Music acceptance is about 50% so it is one of the easier ones (relatively speaking) and you certainly don’t have to ace every aspect of the entrance tests (a friend is Director of Music at one of the colleges mentioned recently).

Thank you all. Lots of very useful perspectives and info!

@Compsearch this is good to know. I did English Lit (joint with another subject) at the 'other place' and I don't read lit crit for fun either. I am in awe that you also had time to rehearse though.

I think if DD didn't do music she might be sad because she also likes the lessons and contact time for music - and she can read Jude the Obscure for fun in her spare time - she has a very odd idea of fun though. We will see - she's got an Oxford trip with school coming up and will see what that yields in terms of her interest.

She's got a busy term, again, with her mocks clashing with her bassoon diploma. She's also switched singing teacher post Grade 8, which was awkward but necessary and the new one seems a much better fit for what she wants.

Meanwhile in Grade 3 euphonium land I have just created a 'scales cup' and am wondering why my brain doesn't work as fast as it did when I was a teen - I swear I forget them as often as I learn them, but I am determined to do this!

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest- good luck with the scales! I had my first ever piano lesson last week and I can’t get my left hand and right hand doing different things at the same time! It was both hilarious and VERY frustrating.

In dd music news we’ve had an exam switch around with g8 cello now happening this summer and g8 piano happening at Christmas. She has an opportunity to rehearse with a professional orchestra in a couple of weeks which she’s excited about and there’s a small sixth form musical happening in July for which she has a good part. Keeping busy!

A bit of a random question: if you had to choose between an orchestra/ensemble where you would sit at the third desk and work really hard due to the advanced rep and an orchestra where you would play first/leader as the pieces are easier, what would you prefer? Assuming both are enjoyable, but what do you think would be better from an educational point of view?