Autumn / Winter music thread - 2026/2027

[northerngoldilocks]

Time for a new thread for the new school year!

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.

@schooloflostsocksimagine they’re the most likely to let you audition anyway rather than say no!

@schooloflostsocks - DD is at RCM - she had no exams at all on her instrument when she applied - not an issue the whole thing was on the basis of the recording (no audition due to COVI) and interview. They have applications from all over the world and exams are less of a thing elsewhere.

@Londonmummy66 That's great, thanks. He's doing so much this term we have decided against the grade 8 again. I think it's going to keep happening. Good point about the worldwide applications. How is your DD liking RCM?

She loves RCM - so much so she's back for a masters. SHe is in a v small department which makes it a bit friendlier and easier to navigate than a monster like strings though...

Another lurker here! DD is a second year conservatoire student at GH.

@schooloflostsocks she is proof that exams are not important!

@schooloflostsocks can confirm grade exams are not important (source: DH who teaches and does auditions at one of the London conservatoires). They base decisions solely on what they hear in the auditions on the day.

We still haven’t managed to get DS to do any violin exams - I was thinking it would be worth doing grade 5 this term as he did learn about 6 of the pieces from the syllabus book last term (albeit not to a polished level by any means), but he’s only done about half the scales and meanwhile is storming ahead on harder repertoire, so booking in the exam would feel like a slight step backwards/can’t imagine getting him enthused about going back over pieces he’s sick of, but would also require a lot of scale cramming, which isn’t much fun either. On the other hand, he hasn’t done any theory yet so grade 5 is the last one he could do for a while.

His aural skills are good (naturally and he’s also a chorister which is big help) and I do make him practice sightreading every day so that is coming along.

Is there anything I’m missing about why he should do the exam anyway? I was thinking of entering him for some local music festivals to give him something to work towards instead. He’s 8 if relevant.

@Incertus - no reason to do exams if he doesn't want to (or think about a performance one instead). Scales are a good grounding though so maybe think about slowly getting on with those (rather than cramming for an exam). I believe that you would be in a similar festival circuit to my DC - it isn't the nicest tbh. Mine eventually decided it was a good way to run stuff before it was really ready to a) get some performance experience on it and b) get some useful (sometimes) pointers on interpretation etc.

Thank you @Londonmummy66! He has been doing some scales, but annoyingly not all the right ones - my fault as I bought some second hand scale books and turns out the syllabus has changed! You are right though they are important.

We are East London and could also get to North London fairly easily - I have no experience of these whatsoever but imagine they can be a bit cutthroat! Ideally I’d like DS to get some performance experience and useful feedback like you say, as well as a sense of how other kids his age are doing (in the hope it may encourage him, not ruin his confidence!). His teacher doesn’t really know much about it as he mainly teaches adult beginners who aren’t interested in that kind of thing at all.

I am not a fan of competitions from our experience. DS has done a couple of piano ones, and they're a huge amount of work, the feedback can be pretty sniffy, and the class is always won by a prodigy from Chethams or something, making everyone else feel rubbish. All a bit depressing.

Competitions are for horses! But can sometimes be good performance opportunities. We've had mixed experiences. Really depends on the quality of the adjudicators and their agenda. Some people just go pot hunting for prizes as well, so enter everything in sight. Youngest had a tricky experience with a competition accompanist who really didn't listen to her and put her off it for a while. Others have weird criteria or back themselves into a hole by having to award certain categories. I think if kids go into them knowing they are really unpredictable on results they can be useful as a performance opportunity as long as they are already quite resilient. Control what you can and have a goal that is not related to winning a specific prize necessarily but a personal one eg playing by memory, or feeling like you engaged better with audience. Middle one has had a couple of good opportunities come on the back of competitions which is nice.
I appreciate for 'next level' performers ( those looking to build international solo careers) they are probably a necessary part of getting there.

DS was entered into an under-15 class for one, I think, when he was s13. Practised hard, popped his music on the stand, commendable bit of Chopin or something.

Unsmiling 15yo prodigy came on, did something amazing by Liszt from memory, won the trophy and took it unsmiling to his similarly unsmiling mother to join the serried ranks of all the other trophies he'd won that day. Joy-free experience all round!

Dd really enjoyed the one competition she did. They were kind, she was nowhere near winning but it was nice to have the experience.

Ultimately I've been a very lazy parent though and the very thought of getting her to the right places with the music/accompanist etc has meant there haven't been any more though. There was a prodigy type piano chap there, but he lost to some cheerful flugelhorn. I've literally no idea how anyone chooses when everyone is playing something different.

Meanwhile my own brass journey continues apace. Having been put into the 'progress band' I'm now murdering a large selection of stuff - which might be fine if I were one of the third cornets, but euphonium seems woefully understaffed and some weeks it has just been me.

I think i need a t shirt that says 'i am aware that I am messing this up, there just isn't much I can do about it!'.

At this age, violin competitions are for Asian children mostly as they start young, practise lots and often very musical too. It's a good reality check for everyone else 😁 - well, for my DD it certainly was as she was one of the "stars" at her relaxed music school and didn't understand the actual level required. We did competitions both in North and South London. Adjudicators were hit and miss, some excellent with very useful detailed feedback, some clearly bored witless. There was one particularly nasty experience too, where adjudication was blatantly unfair (and I'm not saying this because DD didn't win, she rarely wins on the violin anyway). In a way, it's good to see what's going on, to avoid toxic places and teachers further down the line, and vice versa, to get to know good teachers and project leaders.

One needs thick skin to compete on the violin these days :) It's probably still worth doing if the adjudicator is good and just for meeting other people on the circuit and socialise.

I was actually thinking that DS would find it inspiring to hear lots of great players of around his age - he doesn’t play in any ensembles yet so has no concept of what others are doing, and also doesn’t have any expectations for himself (certainly not that he’s a star) so I don’t think would find it bruising if he was placed behind lots of kids who were obviously better. Perhaps might encourage him to practise more!

I really just want him to have something to work towards, if he’s not doing exams, as he doesn’t have any performance opportunities either. Hopefully he will enjoy NCO and maybe we can do some other courses in the coming year as well.

Yes, DD definitely realised that she needed to practise more 😁 And even with the unfair adjudication, it prompted a useful discussion about the reality of competitions and music world in general, favouritism, promotion of own students, politics etc. It's good to see it early, understand and be prepared.

Why not applying for JD kindergarten? They play solo at least once a term and I found their concerts more inspiring and productive in terms of feedback.

Yes @Ubertomusic I think JD would be great for him in the end but we were thinking of aiming for him to start in year 6/7 (if he gets in obviously), so in 2-3 years time. He’s got choir on half of Sunday so would be a lot of music over the weekend without much downtime if it was most of Saturday as well, but I guess that might be less of an issue as he gets older. He’s been really enjoying choir (and seems to be coping with the Friday night choir + cubs combo thankfully!).

On the topic of inspiring kids, I saw bbc young musician was on tv over the weekend but haven’t watched it yet (will do with the kids) if anyone else is interested and hadn’t realised it was on!

Yes, we've watched the TV programme (we know a few of the performers). Let's agree not to pick apart individual players as the editing can give a very skewed perspective though! They are amazing players and very brave to put themselves forward. Mine have always been very inspired by it.

Hi, don't have any experience of competitions because my DD is only 6 and has been playing for just a year, but she's in a lovely music school where she plays in a violin group class every other week (Suzuki method), has a little solo concert at least once a term and big group concerts twice a year. For her it's incredibly motivating and inspiring to do the concerts (otherwise it's difficult to get a piece to performance standard) and see the more advanced kids playing too. Does your son's music teacher not organise any type of concerts or performances with their other pupils?
When my DH does private piano lessons (as opposed to in the music school), he arranges a 'concert' once a term for the students, be they kids or adults. It's normally just the family coming along to hear, but the student will dress up bit smartly, present the pieces at the beginning and play their repertoire (normally 4 or 5 pieces). I've been to a few when they were in our house and they're quite lovely!

i think they're all incredibly brave to go for it and so impressive. It seemed a bit more music focused and less 'sob stories' focused this time. Which I liked. But i only watched a bit.

I watched the TV - very frustrating that you see so little of what they were playing but I was blown away by the ability of the harmonica player to communicate when he had his hands in front of his face.....

@EmeraldSlippers that sounds lovely and I agree would be ideal, but his teacher doesn’t do this - I think his other students are mainly adults who might not be so keen. I’ve mentioned it a few times and had encouraging noises in response but nothing has come of it. DS’s school doesn’t have any performance opportunities really either, which is a shame.

I think its one thing that suzuki is really good at in terms of the concerts as part of learning. In my experience though of private teachers it isn't a common thing to have concerts but great that some do. DS's Sat centre does lunchtime concerts and my daughters Sat school do termly concerts but her violin tutor doesn't have any performance opportunities. Its tricky as it really helps but i think its not uncommon to find it tricky to have performance opportunities - especially at primary school.

That's really a shame. I'm so impressed that you manage to keep him motivated to keep practicing and improving without a specific goal in mind! My kid turned out to love performing so it's a big drive. (the other day she said to me whistfully "I just wish I had a violin concert or a ballet show every day"!). Was a bit of a surprise because she's quite a shy little thing in general, but she just lights up on stage. Of course she's still young so the stage fright could still kick in at any time...

Ah that’s so cute @EmeraldSlippers! DS really really loves the instrument and also practice is just the norm in our house (my DH is also a pianist) which helps a lot, but I think would be good to aim for something. Which perhaps brings us back to an exam after all!

Could he just start doing gr 5 theory @Incertus? Then he won’t be limited to gr 5 practical if you want to do abrsm. Though I think gr 5 is maybe a nice first one to do to help him get used to the exam environment. It’s what we planned for DD on violin before she sabotaged it by breaking her wrist!