Young Grittleton: Owen aged 15

Thank you to the JDCMF for the bursary which allowed me to go on the Grittleton music course. It greatly improved my sight-reading through the difficulty of the music compared to what I'm used to playing.  Also, the fact that I was surrounded by musicians of a very high level with more experience than me gave me the pressure to work hard on improving my skills to keep up.

As well as this, I found out how much fun chamber music can be, as before the course, I had never properly played chamber music with a small group, so it showed me how good that type of music can sound, what fun it can be to play, and how working with a small group is effective because of how easy it is to communicate.

On top of that, it showed me the importance of working on the tone and technique in playing, not just getting the right notes and rhythms, as, when playing in orchestras beforehand, I had not put too much effort into the tone and the vibrato.  My vibrato has improved significantly and I am able to sustain a better tone when playing for a longer period of time.

I enjoyed the course a lot and would be happy doing another course like it in the future.

Owen (15)