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.

Oh herbaceous you ought to know by now that parents know NOTHING. I once had the audacity to suggest that practising might improve the chances of one's big solo going right. Tch.

ha! given DD2 won't even entertain the idea of a piano teacher, I think you can probably imagine how wellmy attempts at instruction go. The number of things I have known 'nothing about' since she got back from school is a number higher than I really dare think about.

As Mark Twain said: ‘When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.’

NCO people…. is it best to record the words separately to the pieces? Also I presume you wrote out what needed to be said? Bottom of the age range so finding the speaking worse than the playing 😂

We just did the whole lot in one video, couple of takes and picked the best. Mainly because I didn't want to make a big deal of the whole thing. Yes DD made herself notes for what to say. I put a toy next to the camera for her to talk to as she doesn't like talking to cameras. She's too old this year, no more NCO auditions😥

We usually get a take of the pieces and then when that’s done, we do the speaking. Otherwise we kept hitting a mistake on the second piece and the speaking became stressful.

I do end up with an annual gag reel…

my dad used to quote this all the time

Mine is taking part in an international competition with his chamber group this week. It’s being held in the UK though. The groups they’re up against are pretty formidable but I’m hoping it’ll be a great experience for him.

Thanks everyone. Also not wanting to make a big deal of it.

@Siriusmuggle that sounds like a great opportunity. Although I find competitions a very fickle thing having been involved in a few and hearing behind the scenes in some others. They just have to do their best and part of the value is the performance opportunity.
I also do not get to comment on things like studying and practicing. Partly because I do not practice what I preach - ie I rarely practice and still haven't sat my grade 5 theory ( despite having got to the point I would have passed a couple of years ago!) A new bow has made me more keen to play though so that will help. Mine are pretty self- motivated though (on the practice front, less so the tidying!)

@678socks the speaking bit always seems worse! Thankfully mine are self sufficient in recording as they don't like me being there. I actually haven't seen the recordings sent for NYO audition! COVID at least taught them some digital skills and confidence. Hope you get a good one.

Speaking bit? Is it just where they introduce themselves and what they’re playing or is there more to it than that?

We need to record DS’s NCO audition this weekend as his in-house accompanist (DH) is off on tour for a couple of weeks after that. Have narrowed it down to 2 pieces but I don’t think they’re great really so don’t have high hopes!

Compsearch, yes - in previous years they've asked them to answer a question about their favourite music or something too.

Good luck to everyone sorting out NCO auditions. They're a very happy place for young musicians.

Good luck to your DS sirius! How exciting even to be there.

I think so….we are hopefully doing ours soon, I don’t think it will be brilliant either but worth a try! We need to decide between two locations I think? Or do they just do geographical nearest?

Just dropped DS at the station for epic journey to South Wales, where he’ll be doing a French horn summer school! Like you do.

Residential camps are such good experiences ( for most kids, I imagine some really struggle). Mine has a non- residential one this week but might invite a friend for a sleepover to make it more like a camp! Then a residential one the week after. And was previously at a Christian camp the week before.

@678socks is this all they have to say? I can’t find anything about extra questions in the handbook, but there’s so much info I may have missed it.

We are in London - I think there is one north and one south for the weekends - we are East so imagining they would just allocate the nearer one (probably not much in it!).

@herbaceous I can’t think of a better way to spend a summer!

DS did the ESO last year too, but didn't enjoy that residential as much. So many kids, so it was harder to make friends, esp as they tended to band together in cliques of school, or whether they'd been before.

The French horn thing is only 10 of them, and he enjoyed it last year!

Looks like they've taken out the extra question bit. From comments on here it does sound like it might have been doing the opposite of its declared purpose to relax them! I think they were trying to replicate the bit of in person auditions where the panel say hello and a bit of friendly chat to put the auditioner at their ease.

Projects I think they mostly assign your nearest one, you don't get a choice. And a degree of balancing so they don't have 5 double basses in south London and one lonely one in north.

@herbaceous DD didn't want to repeat ESO either - mainly she was cross that they were ridiculously strict about concert dress and we had to bring extra with more sleeve coverage.

Enjoyed the food at Woldingham though and did make new friends.

That french horn one looks fun - DD looks longingly at a similar bassoon one in switzerland but I think you have to be 18 and she's not even 17 yet. must be nice to be with people who understand your instrument.

She's doing a tour to Spain with the LSSO - mostly hanging out on a beach I think, and her usual national youth choir residential. But mainly it's lots of academic work this summer along with the dreaded composition.

French horn one is in countryside in south Wales. They sometimes take their horns up a hill and blast out tunes. And last year DS had a go at conducting, which he turns out to be rather good at.

I'm sure our kids' paths will cross one day!

On NCO intro I just recorded it separately and then stuck it together with iMovie. The instructions say you can pause the recording whilst they get ready to play, but on a phone pressing stop ends the recording so this was the work around. We did it all at the same time just didn’t want a massive gap.

last year I think I also did one where I let it run and then just cut out the faffing around but that wasn’t so good. Need to make sure they’re properly in shot holding their instrument.

im glad they have ditched the ‘why do you want to do it’ questions this year though

Ah ok makes sense! Tbh DS’s level of humour is to refer to his “Giga”
as “Gaga” so even getting him
to introduce them correctly will be a mission 🤣

@Compsearch sounds familiar... we did something like 18 takes for one exam where 16 were DS9 (age 7) mucking around with the talking bit....

Have to say I am LOVING the lessons with DS9's new organ teacher. He's just had a very thorough 1.5 hours on style, articulation and ornamentation in Sweelinck and Buxtehude, getting the stylus fantasticus really happening. DS was totally into it and instantly got all the points made. He is completely fried now though, given that it was basically a university level tutorial at the keyboards. I'm quite tired just having taken the notes, and I already knew the content!