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.

Submitted! Not any great expectations, but seems like many of her NCO mates are having a go and what's the harm. At least she's learned the process for next year when she'll have more time to focus on it.

@Ubertomusic we have just dropped a ballet class here so no annual show, I am sad, she just wanted an evening off (which I totally understand) but it is tough at such a young age to have to cut stuff to make way for one thing (music in this case).

Just thought I'd mention that Thrift+ website has a 10 for £10 sale on pre owned clothes which might be worth a look if anyone needs concert blacks. A lot of smaller sizes that might suit teenage girls - I didn't look at the mens but imagine it will be the same.

Help, advice needed on switching teachers.

We live in a small town with two organ teachers.

9yo DS currently learns from Teacher A, who is kind, convivial, runs a nice church choir full of lovely people, with very strong ties to its congregation. Teacher A is not a particularly attentive teacher or thorough musician, though very nice, and agrees to whatever parents suggest, as long as they actually implement everything. Teacher A was the obvious choice when DS started as a wriggly 6 year old who probably wasn't going to be very good.

However, to everyone's surprise, it turned out that he is very good indeed, and wants to become an organist.

Enter ideas of Teacher B, who teaches at the local university, plays at a couple of churches/cathedral that are distinctly less convivial than ours, conducts everything that matters in town, and is an all round fabulous musician. His teaching is detailed, thoughtful, highly professional. DS had some lessons in London earlier this year and the teacher there said DS is very good, could easily become an organist, but suggested he really should be changing to Teacher B, as he isn't being taught well by Teacher A.

Teacher A is currently on sabbatical and DS is temporarily learning from Teacher B, who is fabulous. Neither DS nor I has any desire to go back to Teacher A. OK, so we ask to stay with Teacher B and tell Teacher A we're not coming back. Risky move in a small town, but probably worth it.

But...

DS is homeschooled, and the church Teacher A is DoM at, is one of his main sources of socialisation, both the kids in the choir and the congregation. Teacher A has said clearly (in a discussion earlier this year) that if he changes teachers, he has to leave the church and the children's choir. No access to the organ or any opportunities to play, and hand back the organ scholarship.

Teacher B's churches are much more hardline, less welcoming to people like us (atheists who have somehow ended up being a family of church musicians), have no organ scholarships, fewer opportunities for DS to play, and have almost zero children or young families. I can't imagine them being as welcoming as our current church and have some evidence that the cathedral definitely isn't. So we'd be looking at another decade or so of just being the organ student in one or more churches that really don't feel like home, until he can go to university. By then he might have given up.

What would you do?

I should add, we're a long way away from any other possibilities, and Teacher B is very easily the best teacher within about a 500km radius.

His students are kind of invisible though. One has an organ scholarship in the Anglican cathedral (which pays the scholarship instead of paying a regular organist). The others play ad hoc occasionally as deps for Teacher B, not because they're not good but because so few churches have music.

Organ scholarships are rare here, churches have almost no money and don't bother paying for scholarships unless they have someone they really want, so for DS to have got the one at our church at age 7 is pretty significant.

That sounds a really tricky one, specially when he's still so young. Could he stay in the choir as a singer and keep the social contact with the church that way? When you say opportunities to play, do you have an electric organ at home for practice or are you completely reliant on access to a church? I know getting to play in services is important too. Any senior school possibilities which have an organ? Have you had a conversation with B about what his older students do for playing opportunities?

Wow @DitheringMusicParent what a dilemma!

Is there an actual reason why Teacher A said he’d have to leave the choir/organ scholarship - eg is it reserved for their pupils? Or was it just a kind of petty decision? If the latter I wonder if you could just have a conversation with Teacher A and see if there’s any chance DS could stay on in some capacity (even just choir) for the re reasons you’ve given?

If not, are there other social and musical opportunities that you could find for DS that aren’t linked to either teacher?

I think 7 is very young still - my DH (pianist) had an excellent piano student who is now organ scholar at one of the biggest Oxford colleges who didn’t even start organ until he was about 15. I don’t think it’s a clear cut decision at all as social opportunities are hugely important, and plenty of time to prioritise the teacher later. But I guess it’s worth seeing if there is any way you could have your cake and eat it first.

We have a piano at home, but really we're reliant on access to a church. There are a few possiblities for practice instruments (several churches around with very good organs, where the evangelical congregation no longer wants classical music). However the playing in services, playing pre-service and postlude/voluntary at the end is difficult, as there are basically only four churches that ever have any use for an organist - Teacher A's, the church and cathedral that Teacher B plays at, and the cathedral where Teacher B's student is organ scholar.

Senior schools here don't even do music let alone have organs! Nearest schools with anything resembling a music program, and (in one school) a chapel with an organ, are 400km away.

I need to talk to Teacher B, I think...

@Compsearch I think it's mostly just pettiness. I'll need to talk to both B and A. I agree 9 is young, but he's being really badly taught by A and has a ton of terrible habits of technique. So he really needs to lose those habits ASAP, since he's doing Grade 6 exam this year and is playing pieces up to diploma level. Thus the teacher in London telling me to take it seriously and change his teacher ASAP!

Ah sorry I thought he was 7! Still I think it’s not an easy decision - it might still be better for him in the round to stick with teacher A for now, though ideal would be if teacher A could be a little more accommodating!

Age 9/grade 6 is still early stages and there is so much time for him to sort out technique. The most important thing is that he’s happy at this age imo and the musical stuff can be sorted later. Why is he being homeschooled?

@Compsearch unmet needs at school (AuDHD), constant illness when at school, and harsh attendance policies. He is doing fine with Cambridge curriculum homeschooling. I'd like him to get back into school, but the way schools are going here (aping the worst bits of the UK, even more incompetently) that may be pointless.

It would be better if Teacher A could be a bit less incompetent generally. The lack of plan and dumping close to everything (like choosing exam repertoire and teaching it, teaching of improvisation, transposition, hymn playing, harmony, continuo, theory, aural, scales, sightreading...) on the parent, while constantly feeding the kid 5 new pieces a week and then not wanting to hear them again by the next week, is driving me nuts.

Basically all he's learning to do from her, is sightread badly with zero clue about what he should be doing musically or technically. Pieces accompanying the choir (inevitably given to him 4 days before they're being performed) are learnt to note-perfect panic level, never learnt to any level of musicality. Things like basic fingerings and pedal technique are getting in the way of him playing the really difficult diploma level Bach pieces she's putting in front of him. She praises him for being able to play difficult music, tells him not to worry if he has to fudge bits, and tells him how cute everyone will think he is... totally the wrong approach! If he's playing difficult music he should be able to play it well... GRRR!

It's a very tricky situation, sorry you are going through this @DitheringMusicParent

If A is denying your DS access out of pettiness, I would question her personality, not teaching skills... and I think it would be very difficult to trust such a person even if she was an excellent teacher.

Does your DS enjoy the social aspect at the cathedral? People on the spectrum don't necessarily need or even notice these nuances but everyone is different of course. It may also change in teenage years.

Are you paying A for these non-lessons or does it come with the organ scholarship? Just wondering if A's objections aside it could work just as well with proper technical lessons elsewhere but continuing these as mentoring sessions to cover his organ scholar duties? It already sounds more like a organist/organ scholar relationship than a proper teacher/pupil one.

Yes, we're paying (the organ scholarship covers 20 lessons a year), and yes, I agree, she's treating him as an organ scholar despite him being 9 and actually desperately needing teaching.

I think the approach I need to take is to say he needs much more explicit instruction in e.g. technique (...and everything else...), and as A is unable to cover that in the time available, are we allowed to seek a second lesson per week from B.

Tricky situation as for us, church music is worship, done as service with no money involved but I appreciate it is very different in different traditions. I would try to separate church - what you get/ give to/ from the community whether faith is involved or not, and lessons. For us, the priority would always be the church community but obviously that's not the same for everyone. Organ is also very tricky as church is likely to be where the best opportunities lie. I also wouldn't stress too much as 9 is still young, mine hadn't even started the instrument they do at conservatoire at that age. Are there opportunities for summer courses etc where you are ( I sense not in the UK?)
Playing for hymns etc and leading a congregation is definitely a different skill to playing yourself or even for a choir,it's amazing how much a congregation can drag you! I hope you find a good solution, things always change as the years go on and something else might turn up. They might decide to be a rock musician playing drums but I firmly believe no music education is wasted whatever they do.

We have a music packed few weeks as we hurtle towards the end of term, love the variety!

@DitheringMusicParent have you looked at specialist music schools as a way to get him into school? They are well geared up for ND students and he’d probably fit in well. I think it’s very un Christian of the teacher to insist he leaves the church regardless of belief.

Dd sang in a local cathedral today where the organ was a semi-tone sharp. The choir did a good job despite that!

@horseymum I've probably come across as seeing it all as a financial transaction, eek. That's not what I meant. The church is great, it's a very kind and thoughtful community based on very sound principles - and I say that regardless of belief. We would be genuinely sorry to have to leave. The opportunity coming from the organ scholarship isn't the 20 lessons a year as such, it's the opportunity to have a serious and meaningful place in a community like this - as well as gaining loads of musical experience. THe problem is that the musical experience is only partly there - there's the organ scholar panic-learning and performing a gazillion pieces a week aspect, but he's not learning to do it properly.
There are no summer courses here, but i've got to the point of desperation that I was going to bring him to the UK for a couple this summer, until Trump, oil prices and UK passport rules got in the way...

@Siriusmuggle yes, he got into a few. Unfortunately we live way too far away, can't afford to move and don't want to split the family up (DH's job isn't easily transferrable and he has no desire to move back to the UK) and DS decided he was firmly anti-boarding after doing a few successful auditions.

So - while it might have worked, musically - we now have to take the typical local path of cobbling things together until the viciously competitive postgraduate level where they go overseas and discover how poorly prepared they are compared to the UK/Europeans who've had all the things like choristerships, music schools, youth orchestras, summer courses, worthwhile uni degrees, organ scholar positions at uni, etc.

@DitheringMusicParent OK so having had an organist and being married to one.... first you ask the vicar of the church where A is DoM if your child really does have to leave the choir if they change teacher - I imagine that they will say that is not the case. Then stick with their being a chorister there as it is good experience. Or see if they could join the cathedral choir instead.

Move to the better teacher - a non negotiable which ever way it goes.

IF they are grade 6 at 9 they should be grade 8 at 11 and able to accompany services in any church in the area - contact the diocesan organ advisor and ask if there is a local deps list they could join.

@Londonmummy66 Ok - move to better teacher currently under negotiation. Then we see what Teacher A has to say, once Teacher B knows what Teacher A's saying... then we see whether we need to involve the minister or not!

Out of interest, if you have and are married to an organist: at what age do they start doing improvisation and continuo properly? Where do they start? From already having grade something theory and already knowing harmony and counterpoint? DS can harmonise chords over the top of hymn tunes (as per fairly bad fauxbourdons), and can make up (fairly bad) descants for final verses of hymns, but he hasn't actually got a clue what he's doing and can't really improvise... For Teacher A that's enough, but I'll be interested to know where Teacher B wants to start.

@DitheringMusicParent - that is tricky. You could also find that he reassesses his view on boarding later though. DD2 would never have boarded at 9 - but she was quite happy to go at 14.

Good luck. I know nothing about organs, but it sounds very impressive to me!

@DitheringMusicParent - DH didn't really learn how to improv formally as he could just do it so his teacher sort of went with the flow a bit. It would be worth asking about formal keyboard harmony exercises as part of his lessons and see if the teachers think this is helpful.

Continuo is a skill of its own (as you play the bass note in the left hand and improvise the harmony with the right - following the figures takes a good couple of years to get familiar).

Hope you get a good solution, we've changed teachers a couple of times and it always works out. I think organists/ church pianists have a special " noodling ' skill where they just improvise on hymns etc. Not sure you can learn it and it probably doesn't follow any theory rules. Our friend could do it whilst having a chat with you beside the piano. Also non organ hymns often just have a lead sheet nowadays so they need to improvise the accompaniment.