Music lessons are a waste of time for most kids

[Baldrick23]

I don't mean this too horribly but when I hear that Jonny is a brilliant musician and has grade 7 aged 14 and might go to music school I die a bit inside.

So Im shaped by personal experience here. I did all the grades on the cello by 12 and was a decent cellist and a music scholar. But what parents need to understand is a couple of things. Unless you have grade eight at about 8 (or very soon after starting if later) then you aren't going to be a concert soloist. Even if you do you probably aren't going to be a concert soloist. I wouldn't even have probably made it to be a decent cellist in an orchestra earning 30k for a tricky life touring and barely able to afford anything. So everyone should remenber music is just for fun. None of the kids are going to make it. Just find out how talented you need to be "just" to be a music teacher at a school.

I cant say this out loud at the school gate so I'm saying it here!

Oh and if they love sport get them private 1 to 1 coaching even if they arent the next messi. Just as worthwhile. Forcing talentless musicians to scrape their way humourlessly to grade 2 is awful for everyone involved

The world would be a sad place if children only did things they were going to name a living from.

I have always been fascinated by the drummers 😁

The top single sells roughly 100k "copies", top 40 - just 8000 on average (yes I know lots of streams count as one sale but still).

It's tiny compared to SM "popularity" of hundreds of millions. If we're talking about popularity as in "what people really like to listen", not "how much you earn from this".

But I see your point of classically trained pop musicians being at the top of official charts.

If you like watching drummers have a look at Elton John's farewell tour or his Glastonbury set. I think it is available online. His two drummers are phenomenal but wait until you see his percussionist - absolutely mesmerising. I was lucky to see it live.

Oh yes, I do like them from taiko to Reich's 18 musicians. Will def have a look! 👍

Music isn't just about careers and neither are sports. Many people do both at an amateur level and enjoy it. Many are semi-professional too. I'd also argue that there are many professional musicians(classical) making more than 30k. I know several personally who make way more than that.

Interestingly its based on the skills of an early keyboardist who was given the cello part with chord figures underneath and told to get on with it.

I am so glad that I am not the only one who sees the continuity between Baroque performance practice and jazz. The Baroque period's figured bass realisation and expectations of embellishment by soloists gives the classical musician the most licence to improvise, and those features, along with the "notes inégales" (Baroque swing time as found in Charpentier's Te Deum) make Baroque music the most similar historical music to jazz. The larger orchestras of the Classical and Romantic periods put paid to that because it's only in chamber music that you can get away with making stuff up. If I started swinging during Holst's Planets or Beethoven's Fifth, my conductor would get rather cross with me.

If I started swinging during Holst's Planets or Beethoven's Fifth, my conductor would get rather cross with me.
😂😂😂