G & T : 9 year old daughter

[jasmiin]

I'm new here, hope you all help me to judge my daughters' ability and whether she is good enough to say G&T or just good/very good. I'm happy to take the criticism to any level and can plan her future in a very realistic way.

DD is 9 years old, has a lot of passion and dedication towards music. She started her lessons 2 years ago with a piano / voice teacher. Currently her level (or certification) goes like ths

a. ABRSM Singing grade 5 with distinction
b. ABRSM Piano grade 5 exam in nov 10 (she is ready)
c. Taekwondo blue belt
d. Weekly 3 hour gymnastics lessons - not in squad
e. Kumon grade F (gold star award in last 3 years)
f. Member of a very good street dance team (all other members aged 15 or above)
d. Well advanced Ashtanga Yoga student

Here you can find a clip of her singing in a small concert

singing & accompanying

Thank you in advance

J

I don't really understand why you care about the gifted and talented label. She sounds like she's enjoying life and trying all the oppurtunities that come her way. Doing very well at them too. Sounds like the sort of person who could do very well in life.

I'd let her enjoy it.

Good thread/website for you to look at here, OP.

I'm not sure what you want to do with the assessment of whether she's exceptional or not -- what do her teachers think she needs to make the most of her abilities?

I think to get to grade 5 standard in two years is pretty outstanding though. What is gifted and talented is a matter of opinon.

Your daughter's life is her own, she needs to make her own decisions about her future. She needs to follow her passions and follow her own dreams.

Love her for being her rather than for being sucessful. Unfortunately we all experience failure at some point in our lives, even the most gifted of people. Praise her for working hard, rather than her high grades.

Watched the videos. She's very good -especially for her age.

What does she want to do?

She could presumably audition for specialist schooling if that's what she wants, but she might prefer to carry on doing whatever it is she's doing now.

She sounds very busy and is being given a lot of lovely opportunities to enjoy herself. What a lucky girl she is.

Thankyou everybody for the reply.

Sorry Ieft out the main part! She has got auditions in 2 music schools. I read elsewhere that these schools will consider only child prodigies and not sure it's worth to attend the auditions.

According to vocal coach she has natural talent in singing and can sing in very wide octave range, express the emotions and power. Piano, as second instrument not mastered but just grade 5 level

Pixie: I landed here via a .gov site where it explains about music and dance scheme. Also I've posted links to my daughter, so nothing to hide and we are pretty much open in the world of Internet

Thank you

Definitely worth having a go if she wants to try. Just reassure her beforehand that it doesn't matter if she doesn't get in - all she has to do is her best and the rest doesn't matter.

Thank you all for the support and assurance.

Going to state / non-specialised independent school eats up a lot of time in the stuff she already learned / not interested and messes up the practice time required to achieve her dream.

According to her music teacher she has to practice at least 3 hours daily to become a good pianist, but we get only 1.5 hours for piano and .5 hours for vocal exercises.

Depends if she wants to be a concert pianist. If she does, then she would need to be doing a minimum of 3 hours a day, and probably even then wouldn't make it to be a concert pianist (sounds harsh, but is important to be realistic - music is a harsh career). If she is hoping to do music, the single best thing you could do for her is to get her to play an orchestral instrument, and to play in an orchestra, join choirs, do chamber music - you don't 'need' to go to music school, and on piano competition is VERY fierce. Starting to work towards Gd5 at age 9 is good, but not outstanding (again, it sounds harsh, and your dd is doing really well, but is best to be realistic).

Not harsh at all, we are very realistic! She already have grade 5 with distinction in singing and according to her teacher she can easily get Grade 8, but she need to get her grade 5 theory sorted out.

Singing talent is by nature, but rest of them are nurtured (by her own wish).

Already she is singing in 2 Churches (including solo parts) / local festivals and goes to specialist saturday schools.

But not sure how long we, as parents can support her in this way.

With the singing, I would be a bit careful about pushing through the grades - she's very very young to be having any sort of singing lessons really, and you need to be careful not to strain the voice at all, and to let it develop.

You might be interested to know that Music Colleges won't take post-graduates for singing until they are at the very least 25, because before that they don't consider the voice mature enough to train. What is really important if she wants to singing is to do lots of aural and make sure her music reading is tiptop, as lots of choirs require excellent reading.

I really would encourage her to do an orchestral instrument as it is another dimension to music making, and will help with the singing and the piano. And don't worry about whether she 'is' G&T, just go with the moment, encourage her and see where it goes.

Thanks lily for clearing up, and really appreciate your suggestion on taking up another instrument. I'll try to arrange some taster sessions for her and see how she likes, but nice to have is to improve her ability to sing.

Would a wind instrument give better breathing technique?

The whole G&T terminology came into the post is just because we are slightly concerned about our financial stability at the moment.

I was googling for scholarship or any other support that we could get, lead me to G&T govt. website that takes me here. Before that I never knew that G&T existed! I'm sorry for not making this clear.

I think the g&t label is a bit of a red herring here tbh. g&t is a label invented by the government to make sure that the brightest 10% in every school get a bit of extra support. It doesn't mean that any one of that particular 10% has to be outstanding in general, let alone international terms. And sadly, it doesn't mean there are pots of money available to nurture the career of the ones that are truly outstanding. Dd has a friend who is an outstanding gymnast and diver- she has been mentioned as a possibility for the next Olympics. As far as I am aware she is not getting any funding from the school system: school swimming lessons stopped, for her as for everybody else, once it was established she could swim the length of the pool.

I think your idea of scholarships might have more going for it, but you are likely to need to be very good for those.

What I would do would be first of all consult my daughter. Does she actually see herself as wanting to spend more time on music? Would she be happy to audition for music school "just to see how it goes", on the understanding that it might well not go at all. Would she be willing to give up one of her other activities (yoga or taekwondo) in order to learn another instrument? The suggestion of an orchestral instrument is good.

And whatever you do, be aware that the money you spend on her musical education may never pay any kind of return in terms of a career- but hopefully it will in terms of enriching her life.

My parents made a fair few sacrifices in order to enable my musical brother to take violin lessons from a genuine maestro and he did indeed seem very promising. He got as far as the end of the first year of music college when he discovered that a slight stiffness about his fingers meant that he would never be able to have the solo career he had dreamt of. He gave up playing, so in that sense the money was wasted. But not longterm. It has meant a lifetime of music appreciation, he took up playing again after an interval and is teaching his young son, and playing with other family members: it is something that enriches the lives of several people in his family circle and may still have an impact for generations to come.

unless things have changed dramatically, she wouldn't be advised to take grade 8 singing in a hurry

the examiners are looking for maturity of voice and mark accordingly - I had to wait for ages after doing grade 7 before I was judged 'ready' to do grade 8 (I was 17 when I finally took it), and even then my teacher thought I was marginal as I still sounded really young

Thanks cory for the detailed response, much appreciated. As mentioned earlier we, the whole family are very realistic about her future and not expecting any returns.

She knows the chances of getting thru' the audition is very narrow, but she seem to be very confident if they consider her singing (as first instrument) otherwise no chance.

But music is her dream, she determined to be a musician and nothing else. We wouldn't have encouraged that idea, but she is capable of connecting with people, brought tears in their eyes and yes, standing ovations many times.

At the moment we are okay to support her singing / piano lessons, but current market conditions makes us bit worried, hence the whole idea of making this thread.

basildonbond: Thanks for the alert, but she has a very mature and powerful voice. We did took her for Laryngoscopy test to make sure vocal cords are not strained due to the practice.

If music is her dream, then definitely support another instrument when and as you can. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that you will be able to finance it without both you and her making some sacrifices (in terms of cutting down on other activities) - try to concentrate on the positives. You are already offering her far more activities than most people can afford: if you find that for her, music is worth concentrating on, then just let her do it and ditch the rest. Mine have no particular talents, but have already been told that they can only do one leisure activity each a week due to current economic climate. I don't feel in the least guilty, so would feel even less guilty if I could offer something wonderful like the musical training your dd is getting. Make sure you don't underestimate what you are able to do for her. But another instrument would obviously be good. And if you can't manage it now, maybe in a few years' time. Music, unlike ballet or gymnastics, thankfully leaves a larger window.

Also, if she is hoping to go to music school or college, they will want her to do classical singing, from the video she seems to be focussed more on the pop style. I wouldn't rush into the Grade 8, she's got plenty of time, and the sightreading and aurals are HARD for Grade 8.

Voices really do need to be nurtured gradually, they're slow-growing, and the secret to longevity is to take it slowly, and increase musicianship.