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Nov 2020
12:52pm, 11 Nov 2020
18,501 posts
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GimmeMedals
My experience was identical to Alice the Camel's......
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Nov 2020
2:01pm, 11 Nov 2020
20,400 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
No! 
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Nov 2020
2:21pm, 11 Nov 2020
1,157 posts
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RunnyBunny
Nottinghamshire in the 80s was great - I went to a Saturday morning music school where I sung in a choir, played in an orchestra and had theory/aural lessons as well as piano, and my oboe lessons got funded too (I think I've had enough music-related employment to have paid back all the tax that went on that and more). Also went to a little orchestra in the next village on a Tuesday evening when I was a 6th former, and briefly to a Wind Band but that was Sundays so left no time for homework.
There are a few orchestras around where I am now, but not necessarily at convenient times. The one I joined last year is 45 minutes away, but good fun. Obviously nothing's happening with it at all at the moment, although I regularly get email updates from the conductor. The downside is I'd like to rejoin a running club when things restart again, and the ones round here tend to have their main sessions on Tuesdays which is orchestra night.
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Nov 2020
5:38pm, 11 Nov 2020
153 posts
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LouiseRuns 🌹🇬🇧 🇪🇺
At my primary school (late 70s), if you couldn't sing back a note that was played on the piano you weren't allowed to learn to play an instrument. I couldn't sing the note 😌
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Nov 2020
6:53pm, 11 Nov 2020
14,463 posts
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Garfield
Oh no! How weird...
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Nov 2020
7:54am, 12 Nov 2020
11,010 posts
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ITG 🇮🇸
That's really weird, Louise!
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Nov 2020
8:07am, 12 Nov 2020
2,349 posts
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BarefootEm
Louise we had a similar thing at one of the schools I was at... Hence I started with drums! (Which I hated, far too loud!)
Went on in later years to pass far more singing exams than I did any other instrument I tried!
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Nov 2020
5:40pm, 12 Nov 2020
686 posts
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Cats Whiskers
Louise and BarefootEm - snap! I also reached a far higher grade in singing than I did for any instruments I tried, though I did fail the aural tests because I couldn't work out any of the intervals or do the sight-reading.
I still can't 'hear' and sing back a note played by a different instrument or work out intervals in isolation, but I'm fine if someone sings the note to me, so I had no problems singing harmony in choirs or even sight-reading a line as long as I was trying to fit it to other choral lines rather than an instrumental accompaniment. Very odd!
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Nov 2020
10:35am, 13 Nov 2020
2,357 posts
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BarefootEm
CW that is soooooo good to hear, this is exactly my experience! Maybe we aren't so odd after all?
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Nov 2020
11:02am, 13 Nov 2020
689 posts
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Cats Whiskers
BarefootEm - maybe not!
My school did a lot of music but it was all very formal. Although I was in several different groups, I always felt very unmusical compared with everyone else because of my complete blind spot about all the theory. It made me think there was only one way to be musical.
I've recently discovered the world of folk music through my partner and it's been a real eye-opener for me after all the classical music I've done. He can't read music very well and isn't much of a singer but plays brilliantly by ear, can improvise and has also composed stuff. No one would ever call him unmusical but he'd probably have failed the test to start instruments at our schools!
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