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.

Strings outnumber brass, as ever 😂

DD has a friend who plays both cello and a couple of wind instruments, there is absolutely no need to make life easier :)

Congrats to your DD @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest and best of luck to everyone waiting for the results!

It’s actually woodwind I imagine for her - clarinet specifically - no idea why other than she loved tooting things as a baby (DS did not!) and is a sort of chirpy little character. But after making her play cello and piano anything else will be absolutely 100% her choice!

I still can’t get DS interested in piano though he is absolutely loving singing at the moment.

Best of luck @Siriusmuggle and @Comefromaway - I don’t think anyone will care about the actual degree result if they come out excellent musicians (which sounds like they will).

I've just come back from the school concert - singing at any level is so moving and uplifting...

Brilliant result to @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest 's youngest for diploma. Hopefully wasn't as hot for exam. No current exams here although youngest needs to actually do theory now as grade 8 is now on the table ( grade 7 was trinity to avoid this!) I can't imagine listening to final degree recitals, very stressful I'm sure. Older one just played a week of a musical for a local school - such hard work, kudos to those who do this all the time!

@horseymum - not sure where you are in the country but this is a very good course for grade 5 theory https://glosacadmusic.org/sessions-and-courses/holiday-courses/theory-courses/

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest - amazing result! A highly convincing distinction! Good to hear of thriving bassoonists.

I'm a bag of nerves here too. DS has his opening night as Jean Valjean in Les Mis. He is of course as cool as a cucumber, but as the tech rehearsal last night was something of a disaster, they have yet to run the whole show on stage. And it's a proper theatre with paying audience and everything!

@Londonmummy66 thanks for that, looks great. She's at a JD so hopefully covered the material there. She's just been procrastinating actually doing it!
@herbaceous Les Mis will be epic! That's what mine played in. It's so long too and very emotional.

A question for brass players, can you recommend any manufacturers of hypoallergenic mouthpieces? DD seems to have developed a severe allergy to nickel or something else on the mouthpieces (strangely enough it happened only recently, after many years of playing). Do you think gold finish would help or is it the same nickel? I know there are steel and titanium mouthpieces, but looking for personal recommendations before spending a fortune 😞

@herbaceous thanks - some of her friends got 49 but I think 47 is an excellent result! Poor examiner must had had an absolute marathon 2 days with lots of her year getting their diplomas out of the way before Year 13.

Break a leg to Jean Valjean tonight! Amazing show to be doing. DD has reluctantly given up on theatre ambitions for next year as she knows she probably needs to concentrate on actual A Levels. But it is very reluctant (and I think she's got some pitband aspirations anyway depending on the band they need).

Ouch @Ubertomusic that sounds painful. Does school/teacher have any ideas? They must have lots of mouthpieces? Agree with you about the singing, very uplifting.

I fear his thespy works rather impinged on his y12 exams - he had rehearsals every night, and all Sunday, the week before. Hopefully his predicted grades won't have suffered too much, as that will scupper any chances of Oxbridge choral scholarships...

His theatre company is asking him to audition for Dear Evan Hansen next May, but I feel I'm going to have to put my foot down with a firm hand re A levels!

Re diploma mark, DS got 46/50, and a 'friend' said 'only just a distinction'. I thought 'sod off'.

@herbaceous - how rude. Perhaps if you said he got 92% they'd realise how good it is!

It is actually quite painful 😞 School gave her a stainless steel one for trumpet but we need another one for cornet and they don't seem to be available in the UK, or at least I cannot find anything at our usual shops. I found Giddings but they're in the US and I'm not sure it will arrive on time for her residential. I'm just wondering maybe I'm missing something.

I don't even understand how you could play for years with no problem at all, then go to swollen and bleeding chops overnight 🤷‍♀️

Singing was beautiful!

I think people don't understand about diplomas. The way I think of it is a pass is like a distinction in a grade exam : you need to be able to play your repertoire with a high degree of both accuracy and style. Decent players can still fail.

So, many congratulations to changeofnameDD and friends.
I think the examiner had an absolute treat. Who wouldn't prefer that to two days of grade 1 pianists!

Fabulous diploma result achangeofname!!!!!

Agree - my friends who are examiners love anything over a Grade 6 as they have to listen to so many Grade 1 violin and piano exams where everyone plays the pieces out of the book - they love it when someone plays something that is on the list but not in the book....

That’s good to know! My DS always likes to choose from the wider list which usually means three expensive book purchases for me! So good to know it’s at least keeping the examiner happy! He’s taking grade 6 piano next month but has already decided he’s going to do the Harry Potter C piece for grade 7. He didn’t even look at anything else on the list!

@Ubertomusic you should be able to get a plastic one pretty easily and accept the weaker tone as a short term fix while you research. If you can't find a new stainless steel one (I've never heard people talking about the metal beyond silver plate/gold plate) there are a few mouthpiece replating services, Doodles is the only one I can remember from advertising it although I've never used them and I know there are others. They might be able to advise, or asking a specialist brass shop like Rosehills what they would recommend.

One of my friends makes wooden versions of mouthpieces for people, but again you have to want that different tone.

@Londonmummy66 apparently the examiner said 'I always feel guilty when examining diplomas - there should be more of an audience to hear these performances and I am really lucky' - which was a nice thing to say.

I think it must be genuinely hard for examiners to say anything without making a comment that might make a candidate think they've done well or badly, but that was a nice one along with 'the bassoon is the best instrument in the world' which put DD at ease for her grade 8. She's had some stony-faced ones too so I'm always grateful when they find something nice but non-committal to say.

Just my exam to go now. Eek. Practised with my accompanist (my brother) two night ago. Fell apart a bit. The Aperol Spritz definitely didn't help. Won't repeat that on the day.

DS's school is great - lets those about to take a diploma perform a recital, partly to get their pro wider audience and partly to give them practice playing/singing by hear for 30 minutes to some strangers! (Tho of course friends and family come too)

Tho I say so myself, DS was absolutely amazing last night. The girl next to me was in tears during 'Bring Him Home', as was I, and I couldn't resist leaning over and sobbing 'he's my son'. DS would kill me.

@herbaceous that's great. DD's school allows them to do single pieces in concerts - and very kindly included the entire Saint-Saens sonata in a recent one which was very kind of them, so she had done most of the programme over two days beforehand (but not, she assures me, on her best reed).

But if they were all doing full recital programmes there would be neither time nor space as there are quite a lot of them!

Well done to DS for last night. Don't blame you for letting others know how proud you were!

I haven't heard about Doodles, thank you, will try and google replating services. Rosehills actually contacted one of their suppliers for me and they said they don't make steel mouthpieces but can do platinum plating. I guess platinum will be even more expensive...

DD tried a plastic one (actually, only the rim was plastic, it was probably JK) but as you say the tone is different. I guess it depends on the player too, I think I've seen Phil Cobb playing with a plastic mouthpiece and no one would notice but DD is no Cobb 😂 She plays big pieces like Haydn and Arutunian but neither her breathing nor technique is at the level required for them, and plastic makes things worse.

Anyway, she's done her end of year assessment relatively well despite the pain so it's one problem
less, but they do very long rehearsals at national residentials so we'll definitely need something.

Can you get some kind of paint-on coating, like you can for jewellery that is causing a reaction?

😁 Well done to your DS!

I had no idea but now you said that I googled and apparently people do all sorts of things - applying nail varnish or metal paint... 😂🤦‍♀️

We could do replating but I think the problem is it will wear off again so unless you have a custom made or sentimental value mouthpiece the costs may be higher in the long run... I guess. I'll need to figure out with replating services, so far the quote I get is half the price of a new steel mouthpiece but I haven't contacted Doodle yet.