Music Scholarships 13+

[lulubichon]

Hi
Anyone taking 13+ music scholarships at the end of Jan?
Mine will be online now. How are you finding preparing, encouraging your DC?
Have you chosen that particular school based on their music activities?
My DC is not the type to go to conservatoire or wanna be a musician. He thinks it would be great to have many performance opportunities and enjoy the school life.
I am sure some able pupils will not take audition as music schoolers need to prioritise music activities before other extra curricular activities.
We had a discussion with our DC and made sure he is fine for the condition before entering.
It would be great to talk to other parents whose DC is entering Music Scholarships audition.
Thank you!

Hello my dc is going for a music scholarship. It has been difficult. School chosen for various reasons including music

Hi wearehalfwaythere

We were thinking to do online audition at the current school with piano accompany back in Dec. But now no school, my DC needs to record the audition pieces with recorded backing track or without at home.
Interview will be conducted by the director of music. We met him at the pre audition and he is lovely so that's good.
I know most of 13+ music scholarships will be around the same time and same condition I suppose. Do you need to record or play online on the day?

DS was a music scholar - it was really hard work! Financially it was a great help, but boy, did they take their pound of flesh!

Mine had the choice of academic or music scholarship and we chose academic because of the demands of a music scholarship

Hi 1805.

Wow your DC was a music scholar!
Financial help sounds great too.
Even 5%(would be great 50% though) and free 2 instruments lessons are attractive to us. Mine loves sports but not A team material, so he can commit music activities but I hope he has a chance for house tournaments, games to keep up too.

Moominmamacat

How bright DC you have! Can't you go for both or do you have to choose one? The condition to play two instruments are big burden plus aural, sight reading etc!

I think Pre audition is quite good idea as they can eliminate unsuitable candidates there and also we can have a clue what they think of DC potential there. But this year, more candidates especially oversea will apply as they don't need to come to the school site for audition.
DC's instrument is orchestral one but Piano/Violin/Trumpet must be very competitive.

Honestly, I would never call my DC bright. They are approaching 30 now and they are fine and normal but all this rubbish about super-bright DC here is demented. Easy for me to say when you've been through the system but they all end up pretty the same apart from the few outliers at both ends. And chose singing as a second study if you want an easy ride. One of mine had two Grade 5 distinctions at 9 and still didn't get a music place everywhere!

We were told for his audition, that they would be looking mostly at the sight reading, and how he responded to their help with it. Basically they were looking to see if he was adaptable to their teaching methods.
Good luck.
ps - ds didn't go on to do music in the end - he did sciences.

@lulubichon

Hi wearehalfwaythere

We were thinking to do online audition at the current school with piano accompany back in Dec. But now no school, my DC needs to record the audition pieces with recorded backing track or without at home.
Interview will be conducted by the director of music. We met him at the pre audition and he is lovely so that's good.
I know most of 13+ music scholarships will be around the same time and same condition I suppose. Do you need to record or play online on the day?

Hi we have to upload, then the aural tests will be done live.

Moomin
Grade 5 x2 at the age of 9 sounds amazing!
My DC pick his main instrument when he was 9.
His second instrument is Piano. DC knows many same age players who started at the age of 4 even 3 at NCO so that's another reason he just would like to enjoy being part of Orchestra or ensemble at the school. I mean he knows better and more serious musicians at his age.
Did your DCs enjoy the school life? I believe being music scholar will give my DC a place to flourish at the school. That's is the reason for this challenge. It's sad to hear sometimes kids play instruments only to get a scholarship.

1805
Thank you for the advice!
It's make a sense. It sounds like Oxford interview. They are looking for teachable pupils. If the music department thinks my DC is easy to work with, my DC will feel the same.
Does you DC still play his instrument at Uni?

Weareherehalfwaythere
Uploading too! My DC find it very hard.
Put a tripod for iPhone and let him get on with it. Just make sure to reduce camera's setting to 720 p for easier upload. My DC doesn't like me to get involve, so I just listen his playing in the kitchen.
Good luck to your DC too!

I just to let you know that my DC got music scholarship at his first choice school.
Your advice really helped us. Thank you!

@lulubichon

I just to let you know that my DC got music scholarship at his first choice school. Your advice really helped us. Thank you!

Congratulations to your son and to you :-)

That’s brilliant news well done!
Does anyone have tips on good secondaries for a child who lives music in the south West? Ideally mixed !

Congrats on your dc getting the musuc scholarship. Dd is coming to the end of her time at school being y13 but she LOVED her time as a music scholar. So much so that lock down has been really hard for her as her favourite thing is chapel choir which she has really missed. It is A LOT of extra work/dedication but she adapted and got used to catching up on lessons that she had missed because of music lessons or orchestra/chapel choir. She has made probably life long friends too through her musical world. Her being able to sing in a chapel.choir was very important to her choice of university.although sadly I doubt she'll be picking up her violin often or playing the piano much once she has left. Best of luck to your dc

Oh thank you!

Virtual learning

I'm sure if you make new thread on "secondary school" and specify either Grammar or private,
your DC age, boarding or day school, you will get plenty of advice from expert mums there.
Good luck!

beethecrackon

Thank you for sharing your DD's experience!
It sounds fantastic and your DD seems really enjoy the school. That's what I want for my DC

Thank you! I will do that.

Most music scholarships were done at end of January so this may only be relevant to a few remaining, but I must warn of a bad experience we have just had with a music scholarship audition via Zoom. Zoom is not an ideal medium, compared to live in-person accompaniment. Not much we could do about that as we were told it was the only way to audition. DC is an experienced string player and played a fast piece practiced for past 4-6 months and knows it very well. Instrument teacher supplied her own recorded piano accompaniment and DC had practiced it probably several hundred times to everyone’s satisfaction. Child was not at all nervous, does not mind auditions. Unbeknownst to us, the piano recording made by the teacher and used by D.C. was at a slightly slower speed than it should have been. Because this was a Zoom audition, I made a voice memo recording of the playing only (not of any of the conversation, I was not in the room either) from outside so that DC could hear afterward how the playing had gone. After all it was my own home. We were chuffed and felt it was played just as it should have been and was taught. Then the child was rejected for the scholarship on the basis of how the piece was played (no other tests and the interview portion went very well). The precise feedback we received was that the timing was off. We believe the timing was pretty exact, that is in line with the accompaniment, but that the recorded track supplied by the teacher was indeed slightly slower than it should ideally have been, probably 4-5 percent slower. I have compared it to very good YouTube performances of the same ABRSM piece by string teachers and the recording D.C. was given is indeed slightly slower. We only just figured this out and have asked the teacher to review our audio tape and give her opinion of timing. I have no idea how she will respond, has taught our child for 4-5 years. At this stage, we don’t plan to challenge anyone but to move on as D.C. also has another scholarship upcoming. However, we do know of another child at another school who succeeded in this same scholarship competition at the same school and we happened to find a recording of that child playing a much lower grade (piano) piece at a school concert on her school’s website in the past 2-3 months. The performance is not confident, it is halting in parts, that child is looking at her hands much of the time rather than the music, goes on and on repeating similar motifs and nowhere in the same league as DC’s performance. There is simply no comparison in ability or level of difficulty. Of course, we have no idea how that child performed on the day but she would not have been able to make up two or more grades in the time available. We are therefore baffled about this choice and whether the school should have penalised our D.C. as not being in time with the accompaniment over which only the teacher had control. Our child is 12, not a musicologist or sound recording engineer or able to challenge the teacher and say “I think this should be played 4-5% faster!” We are not musicians either. The child is actually very coachable and trainable, hence the hewing to the teacher’s recording exactly. Part of me is horrified if D.C. has been let down and what we really need for closure on this sorry chapter is just to know who has let DC down, and should we tell our prep school so they are aware in case anything can be done? DC has talents and wanted to attend that school but now cannot without a scholarship. You can imagine the disappointment if no allowances were made for the less than ideal audition conditions. We don’t know how to explain this to the child, whether to bring it up with the school or the prep school. It is a lesson learned and maybe one specific to remote auditions where there is not an accompanist, so I would warn others using a recorded track to get a second opinion on it! One would have thought the music director auditioning this would have figured this out but instead he held it against our DC’s performance and went for the less able musician. We have another child who is a Chorister elsewhere and after this experience, we are highly unlikely to have her even apply to this school in upcoming years, even though it is said to have an excellent music department. Any advice gratefully received and we hope others will learn from our disappointment.

I think it would be best to put it behind you and move on.

@Chorimum I am sorry to hear that. I don’t know which school you applied but music scholarship is generally highly competitive especially for popular instruments such as piano and violin. I assume that the other child who played piano at the concert might play other instrument as the first instrument and probably piano was the second. I play music and my two DCs are music scholars. DC1 plays violin and got grade 8 distinction before 11 and did NCO and goes to one of London JD. DC2 had just grade 5 standard at 11 but plays rare instrument, which is essential for orchestra. Honestly speaking, it doesn’t sound right for me to play the same pieces for audition for 6 months and play with recorded accompaniment hundreds times. It may affect your DC’s musicality.... It’s important that your DC plays musically and communicate with audience through the music.

Hi Chorinum

I am sorry to hear your story. Your DC made so much efforts for preparing the audition. So I can understand your frustration.
Yes I agree, zoom is not the best. We were lucky as we had options either sending recording pieces or play via zoom on the audition day.

My DC uses zoom for the lesson and knew that the teacher’s instrument’s sound is not the same as the live lesson even she put “original sound on” facility.
My DC is always better at the live audition as he loves playing in front of audience. So the recording process was hell for him and he couldn’t record the best of his ability.

However, DC attended pre audition at the school and had a very long session with the director of music and even had a lunch together. Had your DC attended pre audition?
According to the MMA guideline, the director can’t tell you definite words that your DC will pass the audition but can give you the indication of your DC’s potential at that time. Also we kept in touch with the school about DC’s progress. The school know my DC joins NCO and other music activities outside of the school. Also 13+ music scholarship, the application has to be sent from the current school’s HM and need references both from the HM and director of music so they know my DC’s commitments and contributions towards school music activities.

Also I have to say my DC might fail for other school as every schools are different. Some school wants to have a star soloist who would win BBC young musician competition but most of the school I believe are looking for musicians who have passion and can be a role model and lead other pupils in the school music activities.

I am sure that your DC is a wonderful musician. My DC can’t practice that much as your DC. So I hope you can think the school is not right for your DC and another door will open for your DC. There are lots of opportunities for music outside of the school too and also music specialist school is another choice and they are quite generous for financial aspect. I wish you all the best!