Music Scholarship

[Wonderhow]

Can you give advice for the possibility of my DS get an offer for 13+ Music Scholarship? He is 12 years old. He has Grade 8 piano. He learns Sax for two years. He has a good voice and will start to learn singing in this summer. He is in the rock band. But he only has G5 music theory. His sight-reading is not that good. We are from overseas. Is it worth to spend money to buy air ticket to come? Of course, we asked the school and the school said that he might be of a standard of Music scholarship and told us we worth to go. By experience, what kind of student the school wants?How to prepare the interview with the warden? And how fast can we get the result after the audition? Thank you!

Generally schools (especially boarding) want DC who have a real love of music so that they are sufficiently self motivated to want to do it and practise away from day to day parental encouragement.
They are also looking for musicality in the way a piece is played although less demanding schools may be very pleased with just high level technical accomplishment.
If your DS is motivated by music then you should encourage him to try.
I would have thought from his accomplishments he has at least an excellent chance at most schools for an exhibition ( free music tuition for his piano). If he is musical that will also show in his saxophone playing despite him being less advanced.

I'd say it is definitely worth a go but what may prove restrictive is that eh doesn't have an orchestral instrument. Does he play in any jazz ensembles for example . Also a music scholarship may only mean free tuition rather than a % discount and a lot of time commitment and expectation.

It depends on the school. The harder it is to get nito that school the harder it will be to win a music scholarship at that school. my 3 sons won 13+ music scholarships. The oldest had grade 7 in his brass instrument, grade 8 singing and grade 7 piano (and grade 5 theory almost full marks) when he was 12 and applying. The others had grade 5 theory, grade 7 singing and grade 7 (and one grade 6) in their brass instrument.

The scholarships are an honour which has virtually no monetary value at most schools but looks good on your CV so worth having in my view.

Actually JaneP due to the price of music lessons a music award is well worth it and will be of much greater value compared to some nominal academic award. However music award holders should regard the opportunities of music participation as a positive rather than onerous, otherwise it is not worth it. Having a music award may be worthwhile on the CV for a music career. I can't see it has much bearing for anything else.

To paraphrase an exceedingly capable music scholar at DS2's school (Win Coll) told me you have to be at least grade 8 preferably in a rare instrument to even stand a chance of a music scholarship and offer another one to grade 8 and your chances of ever playing a concerto are still not great even though the school holds 30+ concerts a term!

Are you thinking of secondary in UK? In which case, booking a trip and seeing several schools would probably be worth it.

In terms of winning a music scholarship, you just cannot be sure. Firstly, if the cost of the school is a consideration, check who value of the scholarship. The amount of the fees might be very small, or purely honorary, though there is usually tuition in one or more instruments included (which is in itself valuable if you'd otherwise be forking out for that on top).

Your DS would need to meet the academic standard of the school (ie needs to pass the entrance exam, but only needs to pass not reach the higher academic standard). He also needs to interview well, which means he needs to be able to talk about a number of things confidently. Coaching is often counterproductive, but if you do things like ensure he reads a newspaper most days (including features as well as current affairs), and has thought about which book or hobby he would talk about and what he could say about them. Talking confidently to an unknown (but friendly) adult is a plus - eye contact, fluency, handshaking etc - all create a good impression too.

And of course for music he's need to talk extensively about music - history, genres, notable players and composers (especially those related to his instruments). G5 for theory is fine - loads of people stop once they have secured that (to take the higher performace grades). Do work on sight reading though.

Radley? St Edwards,s?

Send a specific email to the Director of Music at the school/s you are interested in - most will go out of their way to advise you especially if you're coming from abroad. Don't rely on information from the admissions team - they probably know nothing about music!

Actually my two at the moment on music scholarships do not get free music lessons at school (their older brother did). They do get a small discount off the fees and of course many schools vary on what effect it has. I think it will help your general CV, forms etc as it shows you are reasonably good at something and have a wide range of interests. It has certainly done my children no harm to have.

fwiw my has just been awarded a 30% music scholarship & free tuition on two instruments. everything depends on the school ie we have three local very good indi' schools. we only applied to two, one of which leans very much towards grades/pushed music child. dd was told by a tutor we know that in order to stand ANY chance of a music schol' she would have to have played in at least one orchestra for a few years (aside from a school orchestra) and to play pieces durng the audion that were above her current level. dd doesn't play in orchestras outside of school and her music teacher didn't agree with her playing gr8 pieces when she is gr6 however she still got a music schol'. i am talking age 11 though (yr7) and not age 13. different schools look for differing things ie some schools are impressed more with higher levels where as other schools are not looking for the higher levels but more of a natural child who LOVES music rather than a child who has been pushed within an inch of their lives and is of a higher level...dd did a more unusual thing with her audition in that she sang and played the piano although she hasn't had singing lessons, just a natural very good voice. I think that may have clinched it as i know many kids play the piano and violin :0) best of luck with what you decide to do

I would say grades are good enough, but I worried when you said his sight reading is not that good. That might be a problem for a scholarship award - depends on what the school wants. Certainly good enough to have a go though.

I was thinking Radley too - do many schools have a Warden as opposed to a head teacher??

At Radley "Warden" is just another name for head teacher as it is at a few others.

Dear all, your discussions did help me a lot. I will think about the MOVE. Thank you!