Summer Term Music and Music Exams Thread

Thinking of you Wafflenose. Hope all going well.

Shakyisles, in our house the best part of exams being over is new pieces, no way would they be pleased at returning to technique! You have a dedicated DD.

one down Shakyisles, well done :)

Done! Now 48 hours to go until miss 7's exam. Miss 10 very happy that she is finished with those pieces and can get back to technique...I don't know how long that will last?

I think the youngest that my dh taught was 9 but they were tall. The few he has now are teens or adult.
dd is taking gr4 next month and loves improvising and playing with dh.
She hasn't done gr5 theory yet, but she seems in no rush.
I think music is a journey taken by little steps and once you know its what you are going to do with your life there seems no hurry.
She is lucky that she gets to play with top pro's, she sees them as her peers, not sure if this is a good thing, but hey ho.

Killing time... Heading out to the exam in a few minutes...

My daughter started when she had just turned 5. Check out the Trevor James alphasax - she started on a pink one! She is tall, though. She took grade 3 when she had just turned 7 - on her pink one and now has a full sized alto. She adores jazz and has an incredible sense of rhythm.

She is planning on being grade 8 by 10 ( year 5) and starting her diploma work. She is on course for it too - and just loves playing and practising. We are working on her grade 5 theory now. She also plays the drum kit, for fun - as my husband is a very good drummer. She is looking forward to being old enough to play in a big band - like her Mum and Dad used to!

So alphasax. Lighter, less keys - but a full instrument. It was perfect.

Monday morning here. 2 hours to go! One very excited girl. She cried a lot yesterday - she ping- ponged from crying to running around screaming with excitement.

Then we can concentrate on miss 7's grade 4 on Wednesday. She has been very laid back. She will just worry ten minutes before she goes in.

Funny how different kids are, eh?

It's ambitious, you're right Theas18. Will present on violin only with G6 being sat this July. Applications do not need to be in until Nov 14 with auditions Jan 15, subject to academic hurdles being passed.

Gives us time therefore still to back out if needed in Autumn term - I agree it's a lot of pressure for an 11 year old by then, who may not have matured on the full musicality needed for these awards, let alone understand the responsibility that will come for awarded scholars…music will need to come high against other interests like sport! One time I am advocating it's the taking part that counts vs the winning :)

oneofthegiants dusting self off after a failure and doing it again must be tough. Hope you offspring gets their act together and does it ( and learns from the experience to practice better!) next time.

It killed piano for me (Grade 5 fail 98 marks. sod of an examiner). In retrospect I was a bit rubbish though!

ealingwest yup I agree contradictory traits indeed! An so young to have to be fighting her way through them.

Grade 6 by scholarship entry (which must I guess be at 10.5 or just 11yrs ) is a big ask. Good luck to her. What is her instrument?

Good to hear from the other end Theas18. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments - the unofficial teacher mine is most inspired by is our neighbour who plays violin with her off piste, totally against the exam structure and gets angry with the 'system'. This supplementary hour was fought hard by the school due to conflicting styles and beliefs (I argued if it were me or a hypothetical older sister playing with her, would there be such resistance?) but the resigning factor is a child loses out on orchestral/quartet/festival submission add ons if not following the school protocol.

She is also up for musical scholarships for Y7 entry and though schools state G6 or equivalent (the one she is aiming for), the forms require 'what was the last grade AND mark achieved'. Of course applications are supported by a teacher's report, but schools also favours the traditional approach. The scholarship is a long shot, reduced by the fact that she does not play an unusual instrument (according to school) but she is up for trying, which I support.

So, we just need to get through to early July for recording purposes before applications and then definitely going free format for both instruments from Autumn…it'll be good for her.

In summary, I have a daughter that is displaying a little arrogance (and boredom, fatigue etc) for the practice right now, but likes the medal collecting and kudos exam results bring….a trait that I know has contradictions that need managing!

I agree Theas18 that exams aren't the be-all and end-all of learning an instrument - the point is to take pleasure in playing - but having been entered, I want her to do well (i.e. not fail again!). She's keen to do the exams, just not quite so keen on the work involved .

Unfortunately, I think her teacher is a quite keen on pushing through exams as fast as possible; it doesn't really bother me at all how many months/years it takes her (she takes forever to get through a dance grade!), but having started piano a bit late, I get the impression that she's being pushed a bit otherwise she won't get to grade 8 by the time she leaves school. That might just be my impression, though - it's not something I've discussed with her teacher. This time she was offered the choice of taking G3 in spring or summer, and chose to do it in spring - her teacher warned that it would take a lot of hard work - which she didn't do - hence the resit!

Timing is key for my kids. Miss 10 has to eat then play. She's useless if she plays just before lunch or too late in the day. Practise comes before tv or iPad. Mind you, it's taken years to get to the stage where we have worked this out.

I am a big believer in little and often. Ten minutes of great practise every day is better than a begrudging 30 minutes once or twice a week IMO.

Ealingwest and the other parents despairing about exam stuff etc my 2p with a very old "been there done that x3" (my eldest is nearly 21) head on....

Exams aren't compulsory, they are only an indicator of progress and progress is made ( may be made faster even) without them. Don't stop lessons because your child doesn't want to participate in exams. TAlk together about what they and you think learning and instrument does for them and what they want from it.

Our best teacher cares not one fig for exams. The kids almost have to beg him to do the odd one.That doesn't mean they aren't playing at post grade 8 standard!

It is more difficult to go " off piste" and just learn to play and love your instrument with a school based teacher but it's possible. THey like the "bean counting" of X pupils took grades this term etc

The only time it's been sort of helpful to have the grades is when applying for music service places but they'll auditon on teachers recommendation too

Habit is the issue, I think, Shakyisles - her current habit is to practise at the end of the day, just before bedtime - which means she gets engrossed in playing on her tablet/reading/dancing round her bedroom, doesn't notice the time, then realises it's bedtime and she can't practise! I'm trying to get her to do it straight after dinner instead - which she did yesterday, under protest - so we might get there.

Chocolate could work - she's still got chocolate coins from Christmas to eat, not to mention an Easter egg - so perhaps if I tell her she can have some after she's practised, we would kill two birds with one stone .

Maybe I'll promise her a book she's after if she passes, too.

Ealingwest I like the idea of your practice metrics, but I'm not sure I can convince my daughter when she's been told otherwise by her teacher. I might have a go, though - 30 minutes done has to be better than 1 hour not done!

It's habit. My kids know that if they skip a day, it takes them over a day to get back to where they were. So if they don't feel like practising, they just do a few scales - usually 15 minutes.

If they skip two or three days, it takes them over a week to wrestle their fingers back into submission - not a nice experience.

Don't get me wrong. They take holidays, they have days off - but they're well timed and not on the run up to concerts, exams or important dates!

The other thing to remember as they progress to higher grades, is that it takes longer to do everything. More technique. Longer pieces with more practise needed to nail the style. More scales. More understanding needed. The whole process takes longer.

Dd10 is swapping from one decent practise to a morning practise and an afternoon practise in order to fit everything in. Fortunately, she is starting to set her own goals now and practising because SHE really wants to get better.

When all else fails - chocolate.

Likewise Ishouldbeweaving, thanks for your insight (just getting the hang of how these threads work, who said what :)

Getting to work on an incentive board…who said trying to start up one's own business whilst spending more time with kids was productive?!

Oneofthegiantsisme - I know each child is different but a suggestion on practise time is no. of minutes = grade, so a G3 should be circa 30 mins a day. I know this is generic and doesn't equate to quality each time, but it was a metric my daughter 'got', even though schedule sometimes didn't always accommodate…

An hour a day for grade 3 piano sounds a bit ambitious (based on my admittedly limited experience of listening to brass to G8 and piano to G7). My husband is probably putting that much time in now, but that's because he's in panic mode - his G7 piano is in two weeks and the wheels have fallen off one of the pieces. My 14 year old would rebel at that, it would cut into his gaming time too much.

If she does give up now it's not as if she'll necessarily be giving it up forever. My husband left school with G2 piano and started playing again when he was just short of 50. He hated it at school but now he's enjoying it now because it's something he wants to do.

My son hates scales with a passion, the moaning and grumbling we have over them you would not believe (or maybe you would).

Double digits? That should have read single digits. Exams are next week!
Piano isn't my main instrument and I never practised it as much as flute. Funny - as I accompany and there isn't a single day when I don't play piano now - whereas I just don't get chance to play the flute very much.

Whether you like it or not, piano is a very useful instrument to be able to play.

Thanks for the advice, Ishouldbeweaving - yes, I agree that there are really two issues here. I've already told her that if she fails again, she will have to give up, as it obviously isn't that important to her. Oh, and she's had to pay the exam fee for the resit out of her savings (I'm still paying for lessons, though).

I really don't want her to fail again, though - it seems a shame to put a year's work into learning the pieces and not come out with anything at the end of it, and I don't like the idea of giving up on something because of failure (the try, try again principle). I'd be quite happy for her to pass this exam and then decide that she's had enough of piano, or for her to decide that maybe it's worth working for and carry on, but at the moment she's feeling a bit like it's not worth practising because she'll only fail anyway - I have pointed out to her that that's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I've tried agreeing a schedule with her; it hasn't been entirely successful so far, so perhaps we need to revisit it. I could try negotiating shorter practice times (but her teacher says an hour a day).

Ealingwest I feel your pain on scales - she only does them as an afterthought - and as for sight-reading, I don't think she ever touches that (she failed sight-reading on both G1 and G2 exams).

Great tactics Shakyisles! ok, I think it's time for me to get this - she'd definitely buy this type of incentive! Thank you.

Exam stress here too. But counting down in double digits now to the exams. I made a 'horse race' type thing for scales for miss 10 as she couldn't find any fun in them. Today her double stop scale in sixths won! They went through being 'donkeys', to old nags, horses to racehorses. And helped her through scales practise immensely. I think the switch to both melodic and harmonic is mentally tough - especially when young.

I'm ready to do a more elaborate affair for her grade 8 and her little sister's grade 5. We might even print out pictures and have a family sweepstake!

I think those people who say they are a particular grade - but have never put themself through the stress of scales, aurals and sight reading should be forced to take at least one exam. Pieces are relatively easy. It's all the other stuff...