Less than 2 weeks to music exam and DS is a piece short

[RedSkyLastNight]

Not going into the whys and wherefores but DS has a limited time to learn another piece for his music exam (keyboard). He can mostly play the main theme with right hand and some of the rest very slowly. He can manage most of the left hand chords but can't really put 2 hands together at all.

Clearly we're in to damage limitation territory. Any suggestions as to best approach? At the moment is our thinking is that his best bet is aiming to get the right hand as good as he can, even if slower than required tempo, and maybe put in some left hand and backing track? Also any suggestions on motivating him? He's convinced himself he's failed already.

[Mumtolovelyboyandgirl]

Can he defer the exam? If he’s struggling for motivation and feels that he’s failed already then making a positive decision to work hard over summer and take the exam later might be the a way to learn perseverance without knocking his confidence too much. You could talk to him about how he feels now and the steps needed to ensure that he doesn’t feel this way again.
If he/you want to continue then I suggest a strict timetable (maybe 4+ short chuncks throughout the day). Can his teacher fit in any extra lessons? I’d encourage him to work on the right hand and the main chord progressions, after a few days of this he may well be ready to put in the rest. Good luck to him!

[Broken11Girl]

Ah no. That's not good.
Get him to see it as a slightly insane challenge. Can his mates, family friends, relatives bet him he can't? Or 'sponsor' him by promising £x if he passes to a cause he cares about?
He needs to put hands together now. Sloooooww practice with a metronome, in small sections, so slowly he doesn't make mistakes. There's no point practising in mistakes. Increase the speed gradually. A few days before, switch to to challenge mode, a couple of days before get him to 'perform' it to you, uncle and aunt, friends, neighbours...the goal is to get through it. A performance withoutstopping or hesitation, keeping the pulse, at a good tempo with somewhat approximate notes will get more marks than a correct but plodding and cautious performance. Good luck to him!

[BertrandRussell]

What grade is it?

[pileoflaundry]

It sounds like he is reading the music whilst trying to play. Is that right? How long is the piece of music? Is learning it off by heart a possibility? Then he could concentrate on playing, rather than reading and playing at the same time. The process of learning off by heart can be quite satisfying and motivating.

Do you have the scoring details for the exam? So you can see what is achievable for the most marks. Plus scoring zero for this piece (and it sounds like your DS will get more than zero) may not actually fail the exam.

As per Bertrand, what grade, and how old is he? Is this a grade X exam, or something else?

[TaggieOHara]

I am not a professional teacher but I am a veteran of getting my DS2 through auditions without enough practice and time. A few thoughts...

1. Listen to the piece lots. Most exam pieces are on YouTube. This will vastly speed up the learning process and will help your DS play it musically
   

1. Keep it slow but capture the spirit of the piece. So jolly and lively for an allegro, sad and solemn for adagio etc
   

1. Focus on getting from beginning to end without stopping. Even if you have to simplify a few bars
   

1. Play in phrases and play musically. Not only will this help him pass but it will also help with the notes
   

If you tell me what piece, I’ll try to give specific advice. Feel free to pm me

[RedSkyLastNight]

He is 14 and it is Grade 4. Deferring the exam not possible (well it is, but we would lose the entry fee) - I'd rather he had a go and tried to scrape together some marks for this piece and hope that the other elements can pull him up to a basic pass, then at least he can forget about the whole thing over the summer and move onto something else (tbh I think moving on regardless of whether he passes or fails is probably the best bet). Will have to see how he feels.

Unfortunately the "niggly things" that he'd ideally be ironing out in this last week have now gained mega proportions, and he's now feeling negative about the whole thing. I have tried to rationally point out that his other pieces and technical work are perfectly fine (bar the niggly things) and he should get solid marks and he normally does ok in aural and sightreading. But we are at the point where he can only see the negatives. He's mentally given up before he's started iyswim.

He has his normal lesson today so will see how that goes; I think his teacher will schedule in some extra lessons (he normally does before an exam anyway).

The piece is probably short enough to learn but at the moment he can't play through it with the music!

Thanks for all the tips about how to approach it. Good idea about finding scoring details - I'll see if I can find them (or ask his teacher).

[Island35]

I'm a music teacher, I'd be interested to know which board this is as I don't believe there is any deduction in marks to perform from heart. If necessary the music can be on the piano and he need not look at it.

To score zero would result in nothing being submitted. There is a pass bracket for some boards etc but it all depends on the board.

[RedSkyLastNight]

The board is Trinity. Checking the exam rules, there is no minimum requirement for each individual piece, it's just the overall total that counts.

DS has just texted. His music teacher has apparently locked him in a practice room* until he learns the piece.

• I am paraphrasing. And school shuts at 6 :)

[AliceLutherNeeMorgan]

Can you help him make a list of all the niggly things, and what needs doing to sort them out, and then he could focus on one at a time? If he gets one or two sorted, he’ll see he can get through the rest, and feel more in control. My DD is a bit younger though so perhaps he’s not as suggestible!

[RedSkyLastNight]

I thought I would update just in case it helps anyone else in the future.

We chunked the time we had into practice times with breaks (much like you'd do for revision) and focused on getting the piece playable all the way through, practicing in sections with separate hands and then hands together as suggested on here. I ended up sitting with DS the whole time to keep him focused so it was very time intensive for me too.
We also resorted to bribery (of the putting in effort, not results variety) :)

He needed 60/100 to pass - he actually got a score of 69 and the hastily learn piece was not his worst one ...

Ecstatic is not the word! And on the plus side, DS has really learnt from this experience and sees the virtue in regularly and often over a long period of time as opposed to last minute panic (he has a tendency to leave things to the last minute with school work as well).

Thanks to all who gave tips and advice and helped to keep me sane!

[Wafflenose]

Well done to him! A good result, and I'm sure he's learnt a lot too.

I messed up after entering my DD1 for her Grade 2 exam... the syllabus had changed and I hadn't checked it, so she'd ended up learning two pieces from one list and none from another. I realised 9 days before the exam, and she had to learn a brand new one. She passed too, and the new piece wasn't her worst one either!!

[Floottoot]

Fantastic news! Well done to your DS!

[Trumpetboysmum]

That's great news well done to your ds