Summer Term Music and Music Exams Thread

June 30th for DD1 Grade4 piano.... fingers crossed - she is not ready .. yet... never is....

good luck with your daughter's G6 this term Shakyisles, we're on for the 2 July for violin - such a shame that yours had to give up piano.

Today my daughter's violin teacher told her off for not 'prioritising' (she had yawned, and then admitted it was due to late night swim squad training). So difficult to give equal weighting to 1 instrumental strength
vs other interests when each teacher is parochial to their own only!

Congratulations to JuniorPavlova, they are quick with the results aren't they?

Just heard DS2 got Highly Commended for his RSCM Bronze award.

Its Pass, Commended, Highly Commended so very proud of him.

Ishouldbeweaving:

That's brilliant news Wafflenose. Well done miniwaffle.

We are working our way through concerts, older DC had 2 seprate school concerts last week.

DS2 had Sats last week, then went to a choir camp for the weekend. We had to fetch him back on Saturday afternoon for his RSCM Bronze medal. It all ended up a bit rushed, and then he was inside for ages and came out a bit quiet, so we'll just have to wait and see. I know the singing part was OK.

How very exciting Wafflenose, it's an achievement to make it through the first round. The audition will be good experience for her and it means that it will be less nerve wracking another time. That is my standard approach to auditions because I'd rather him be pleasantly surprised than disappointed. Generally he turns up, plays and forgets about it while I fret and try to predict when the envelope will land.

It's death by arpeggio here, my son is done for a while but my husband is going to be taking G7 piano in this sitting. He doesn't have a date yet though, I'm hoping that it will be early because then it will be over and I can listen to something else for a while. He seems to have been a long time preparing for it and I am all scaled out.

Our music service concert was this week, which started our summer term season of concerts off! Older DCs school concerts next week.

DS2 has his Bronze RSCM medal at the end of next week, but has KS2 sats to get out the way first.

I took the plunge and have entered for the general musicianship, for which I have so far done no preparation other than having a music degree and having glanced at what is actually on the syllabus.

But I play viola so alto clef for sightsinging is not a problem, which means I escape transposition! Yay! And figured bass is also optional.

Entries put in; all piano including a grade 1 and a grade 2 jazz. Others all normal, one grade 5, four grade 3's,four grade 1's and a prep test. Just realised I've forgotten someone because there are thirteen entered and that only adds up to twelve!
DS2 is the grade 2 jazz piano and DS1 is doing grade 5 violin, so should be a stressful term!

Oh, and I'm finally taking grade 6 theory, which I need if I'm ever to take my diplomas with ABRSM, because my music degree modules were mainly history and musicology. Debating general musicianship grade 8, but it's expensive - I want to find out what the exams are like!

Okay, so entries have gone in...

Six prep tests on piano, ranging in age from 7-10, all learning for roughly a year. We go quite slowly through things as I'm a fiend for technique, and these children seem to range from "stops halfway through a piece to have a conversation" to "probably able to take grade 1 next term if we didn't have summer holidays in the way." Also, most are young and I think it's worth doing the prep test for the experience of playing to the examiner.

One grade 1, also piano. Plays... okay... needs a better instrument at home. I think this is his third instrument though.

Violinists will be doing medals instead - last term's coppers will be taking bronze (as will my keyboardist) and last term's grade 1 will be taking silver because we've learnt that her sight-reading is really poor compared to her playing and I'm going to make her learn lots of easy-ish tunes this term, as well as one or two harder ones. I also like having them do the ensemble playing, and having an assessment makes the most flippant one practise more! The youngest of them is simply too young for me to put her into an exam situation - she freaked out just being filmed and played totally out of tune last time, when she's normally little miss perfect violinist.

Audiobook seems like a hit with DD! It sings her various melodies, gets her to sing them back, records them, and then ticks her off when they're not quite right! The bonus is that I don't have to do it...

Non-musical mum and dad here....

DD1 - 13- is doing g4 piano this term - she is also studying but not doing exams for g3 theory ...

don't care which exam date we get - she is never ready - til about 2 days before the exams.... g2 was particularly memorable, with the 3rd piece only going hands together 2 weeks before the exam!!

stress.... what stress?? currently have one piece - beautiful, to speed, dynamics, pedal, off metronome, one speeding up, and one going hands together.... scales lovely, aural great, sight reading - meh..... still, much less stress this time....

DD2 - 11 - did g1 3 years ago, but decided to not do any more exams.... still learning all the required elements - scales/sight reading/aural etc so teacher can say she is playing g3 standard - and can enter her for exams if she ever feels she wants to.....

Arg.... after working all over Easter hols with DS1 on Grade 3 cello scales and arpeggios he was doing really well and had them all down with just some fine tuning to do... then yesterday I realised he has to slur the arpeggios too!!! Didn't need to for Grade 1... so now we are frantically trying to learn that too... most of them are OK but the 2 octave G and F major are fiendish to slur... good job I realised...I think DS1's cello teacher is a bit allergic to scales!!
Hoping the exam date is not too early ...he is also really struggling with the weird 4 note broken chords for Grade 2 piano...I don't remember them as a child.

Hi everyone, dd1 is doing grade 2 piano this term and ds1 grade 2 violin. Dd1 still hasn't started learning her pieces and is stressing out, however she should be fine as has been playing such a huge variety of pieces that she should be fine!
Scales and arpeggios are good.

She got a merit for her g3 violin and was v upset about it (cried). She failed her aural but didn't do any prep for it so I need to make sure this is covered for g2 piano...

End of term 1 here - we live in New Zealand. Just had 3 weeks break and heading into term 2! She hates taking exams - so skips them when she can and then stresses out when she takes them. She stressed out over scholarship exams and her grade 5 theory. She is stressing over this one. I guess she is just one of those kids who do this to themselves.

Hubby and I both took music exams...and we try and keep things low key and stress free at home- but it doesn't seem to work very well.

Shaky, she's sounds like she'll be fine. Dd's teacher sometimes asks her to strip away the vibrato so that she can focus on intonation which is more important.
Could be that she's just tired - almost end of school year so I would encourage rest and just enough practice to keep things fresh (she sounds like everything she needs is already there).

Mum of two musical DDs here. Played myself as a child /teen, so know some of the jargon but would have trouble reading music and playing at the same time these days. DH also plays and writes a bit, but everything by ear

DD1 (16), after over 18 month break from grades, taking Grade 8 recorder and Grade 5 piano this term. Just starting AS exams too, including Music, but the performance already done for that. Also plays violin, but not taken grades. Planning apply for music at University

DD2 (11) far more complex. Has perfect pitch, refuses to read music. Played violin for over a year and gave up. Loves singing, but refused to carry on with lessons after a year as teacher wanted her to read music. Hoping she will pick up again when she starts Secondary in September.

She had a much better day today. Practising first thing in the morning helps enormously. Miss 7 is still chilled about hers. Back to school work tomorrow...

Has anyone used the "Audiobook" app to prepare for Aural tests? I was looking for Aural Trainer but it's only for iPhone and I have an android.

If she starts getting stressed about them though, the first thing to drop is the vibrato

Her intonation is great - having perfect pitch really helps. But there is no telling her...