Practice for exam - grade 7

I was sick of hearing myself point out that there were no up and coming exams in Minecraft. I genuinely believe that my DS intended to get the instrument out after school but then suddenly it was bedtime. There's no way he could have played before school as he's barely human in the morning.

On the run up to grade eight we agreed on half an hour on the evenings when he didn't have band practice which was four times a week. For grade six it was more like twenty minutes three times a week if I kept nagging.

Your DS is not helping himself, at that level you can't expect to launch straight in and nail it, he needs to be warming up in whatever way is appropriate for his instrument. Ten minutes playing is closer to five minutes if you take into account a warm up, that's not long enough to play the three pieces straight through even without going over the tricky bits. Can his teacher have a word about effective practice?

Ask his teacher to set particular goals to reach each week, with clear expectations of what they expect. And to tell him off if he fails to attain them!!!!
Also, depending on the instrument, I would have thought that stamina issues would be arising with such little practice at home. How long are his lessons? When I have been aware of little practice at home, I make a point of making them play hard during the lesson and then asking them why they can't keep up????

On a wind instrument, I would expect at least 30mins 4 times a week as a general rule. More regularly if there are week areas coming up to an exam.

DD is doing 30 minutes a day for her Grade 4 exam and 20 minutes a day for her Grade 2 exam. She'll be taking them both just before Easter on consecutive weeks.

DS is doing 10 minutes a day but is not taking his Grade 1 piano until Summer.

How old is your DS? I would have thought his teacher might have told him how much practice he should be putting in, though by Grade 7 he should realise that 10 minutes just isn't enough!

Surely by grade 7 he should be able to sort all this out himself and not need reminding. If it is important to him he will do what he needs to do, and get the mark her is capable of accordingly.

Ho old is he?