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.

Ds did get some work in Europe (Paris) but he was only there for three weeks. All of the playing musicians were French although many of the stage performers were British. He was allowed to work there for a certain number of days without a visa but the theatre would not normally employ non European musicians, ds was on the sound/tech side for that job.

And my dancer daughter saw for herself how her year group was scuppered by Brexit. Previously her college had sent lots of graduates to Germany, now they have the odd one or two but is is the exception.

Sorry I accidentally resurrected last year’s thread - I saw Spring/Summer and posted before I realised. DS took his ABRSM grade 5 theory exam on the 20th February and it has been agonising waiting the 28 days to see whether it worked or not. I’ll be constantly checking on Friday to see whether he has to resit or not.

@StuntNun arrggh, I remember the feeling. DD2 took two practical exams this week and I'm not feeling all that positive about how they're going to have turned out (nor is one of the teachers, it emerges - she's trying to get things out the way on second and third studies with not a lot of prep time). But theory is worse with the long wait. Fingers crossed.

@Siriusmuggle and @Comefromaway - the big world of work! Wow, that must feel very real suddenly. I think DD thinks she can stay cloistered in some kind of academic music world forever if she tries. Not sure it's a great plan.

I wondered if anyone on here had kids who had taken the higher theory exams? DD2 has only got Grade 5 (taken at primary so yonks ago) but she wants to apply for academic music so has been attending higher theory classes at school (something they rather grandly call 'advanced harmony'). She says she can now do a bach chorale, a figured bass - is that even the right phrase, and is working something called counterpoint.

Does this map onto the theory grades and would it be worth her taking them if so? I'm only asking as she's got her eye on oxbridge music and some colleges ask for them if poss. If she's halfway there I guess she could work on the rest?

Hello, just checking in on new thread. Exciting but scary times @Comefromaway and @Siriusmuggle. Assume you’ve checked the family history for possible Eu passport opportunities?!

DS did his first evensong last night - first time wearing choir robes so he was very excited (I think he thinks he looks like Harry Potter). I think it’s been great for him - he seems to have benefited a lot from being with the older choristers. Really nice for him to have some musical role models/peers.

and @Compsearch how exciting re evensong. Sorry, I think i was typing my message when yours went up. Glad he's loving it. I can see that choir robes must be lots of fun - DD2 is very unimpressed to be appearing on the national youth choir website in her least favourite piece of musical attire - a purple polo shirt. She'd much prefer a robe.

@Compsearch sadly ineligible for any Eu passport. Very annoying.

No European connections at all I'm afraid. There are some very distant Welsh connections in dh's family but that's about it.

Figured bass always used to appear in grade 6 theory.

Fingers crossed she gets good results @achangeofnameisasgoodasarestit can be impossible to tell how well you’ve done in exams.

With regard to the music theory, it is useful to have but there’s a huge jump between grade 5 and grade 6. Up to grade 5 is purely memorising but from grade 6 you need to be able to actively write music including harmonies and figured bass. It has been made more of a jump by grades 1-5 moving to online exams which necessitated taking out any composition elements from the lower grades. Your DD would probably need some theory lessons to be able to take the higher grades.

Thanks @StuntNun -

I'm trying to work out whether 'harmony' lessons are essentially the same as theory lessons. If theory is all harmony then she's covering it - writing figured bass, bach chorales and counterpoint with a teacher each week - but I wasn't sure if there was something other than harmony in there

@StuntNunDS did his theory last year and I still remember the agony of waiting so well. Fingers crossed for the 28th.

@Siriusmuggleand @Comefromawayreally hope things work out well for your young musicians.
@Compsearchglad he enjoyed the evensong. I love the robes too. It’s a pity DS doesn’t want to be a chorister 😂.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarestgood luck for your DD’s exams. Two exams in a week is impressive!

Mine have both done ' practical musicianship' (which actually involves sitting in a classroom!) throughout JD but never seem to get a certificate or anything. The report card seemed to indicate they listened to some music and wrote some figured bass ( middle one) but after four years it didn't seem to have been aiming for anything. I wonder if it perhaps filled in some of the gaps between higher music and a level as higher is pretty light in terms of any kind of theory. I don't know if she could have done grade 8, it was certainly never mentioned. Younger one is slowly meandering towards grade 5 theory in these classes but needs a shift on as will do grade 8 in the autumn!

We’re working through grade 6/7 theory books here but as part of composition lessons which makes it more fun! The teacher makes sure they apply it and it’s helping it sink in.

@horseymum I think you can now do the A Level without needing to do all this harmonisation too - harmony classes aren't compulsory (for nerds only, DD says - but she's a proud nerd).

DD was the first tranche of kids to do the online G5 - the pilot one during covid that went so badly they gave us all half of our money back. Doubt she remembers a single thing from it!

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest I did grade 8 theory back in the day. I’d be surprised if the structure has changed much - in my day it was a mix of the harmony type exercises you describe plus analysing a chamber piece and an orchestral piece (including eg transposition qs). I’d agree that it is a big step up and probably worth doing each grade (ie 6, 7 and 8, or at least 6 and 8).

I only did it because I wasn’t doing A level music at the time but was considering apply to do music at university. In the end I did A level music in a year and didn’t apply for academic music so was a bit unnecessary, but would definitely have been useful if I had done eg music at Cambridge which has a lot of compulsory harmony in first year.

@Compsearch thanks, really useful - perhaps she isn't doing the analysis bit - not sure! Maybe I'll have to actually ask the harmony teacher - don't know him at all - just grateful she's getting the chance to do all this. Either way, it presumably will improve her A Level composition.

THough she was aghast at his suggestion that she should just be able to 'feel the figured bass under her fingers when you sit at the piano"...she's not really a pianist and harmony doesn't come naturally - she's definitely having to work it all out.

No there’s more learning on top of that @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest extra inversions, cadences, musical terms, ornamentation etc.

thanks @StuntNun - suspect that all might be being covered elsewhere but I don't know (she shows me a lot of stuff when she comes home and I don't understand any of it, but inversions definitely seem to be a big thing). Think I'll just have to go through the theory syllabus for each grade with her and identify gaps if she reckons she wants to do it. Was hoping it would just be simple, but I don't know what she doesn't know !

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest- best of luck for you DD’s results. I’m sure she’s done brilliantly.
Dd sang in a local cathedral earlier this week. @Compsearch- she also enjoys her robes! She had a solo which went well although the organ was massive and very loud and there were no mics on the choir!
Two concerts this week - both piano. It looks like she’ll be doing her g8 in the summer. Her pieces are nearly there but she definitely needs to work on her scales!
G7 singing will also happen in the summer and dd is a bit worried by the fact that her teacher then thinks she can sit the g8 at Christmas! Cello teacher is also working to Christmas for that g8. Will 2 at once be too much?

Will 2 at once be too much?
I'm sure she would manage if it's necessary - but is it really necessary? Would make more sense to put singing off till spring. Three grade 8s within a year is already insanely impressive.

@QueenMabby your DD seems to have endless energy and ability so perhaps it won't be too much. Howeder, I can categorically say (even before the results come out) that this week's exam scenario has not been ideal for DD2.

@QueenMabby I was a multi-instrumentalist as a child and I wouldn’t have liked to do two exams at the same time as your attention ends up divided. Could she do the exams in two different terms?

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest why not get a grade 6 theory workbook for your DD to look through to see where there might be any gaps in her knowledge?

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest - if she can do figured bass and chorales she ought to be able to do Grade 6 theory as the figures are pretty basic still at that level. Counterpoint is probably more advanced than Grade 8 but I remember it being the bugbear of my musician friends at Oxford..... If she wants to try figures at the keyboard then Continuo Playing according to Handel is a good workbook - I imagine there will be one kicking round at school somewhere.

Thanks all. I think she wants to get them done before A level mocks hit. To be fair she manages on not much practice (I’m always amazed by how much practice everyone’s DCs do on here!) and she may do the performance exam for singing as she’s already doing all the sight reading and aural stuff on piano and cello. I know all her teachers speak to each other about it (she has all her lessons in school) so hopefully they’ll drop one back if she’s struggling.