Autumn Term Music and Music Exams Thread

Hello Hearts - I am sure the teacher would not have entered your daughter if s/he wasn't confident of her ability. Three weeks is still plenty of time but best to check now. Do it discreetly though as you don't want your daughter to know how anxious you are as this may lead to more exam nerves.

FWIW, back when I did piano grades it was very common to start at grade 3, and I understand that the exams were somewhat more demanding then (mid 70s).

Shakyisles good luck to your DD. I am starting to enjoy having a saxophonist in the house now - the number of random squeaks and honks and register changes has diminished rapidly although her sound can still be a bit "breathy" sometimes (I don't know if this is normal or not).

Ten days now until Dd's grade 5 sax exam. She is fine at everything and we are practising aurals daily. She is pushing herself on sight reading as she would like to beat the 137 she got in her last exam. I have told her that any pass mark at this grade is good...so I hope there won't be tears if she doesn't get an exceptional mark.

Hi everyone, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have found this thread!

DD2 is doing her ABRSM cello grade 2 exam in three short weeks. I am so worried about it because I don't want her to fail and be demoralised and feel bad and put off. DH doesn't take practising as seriously as I do but then he has never played an instrument. (I played piano as a child and clarinet in my high school marching band (Canada) but never did any exams.) She has gone straight into grade 2 so does not have the exam experience of grade 1 to draw on. Practice, practice, practice is the name of the game the next 3 weeks. I have a pretty full-on job so it is often close to bedtime when I get home, but I've got the nanny on side and DH (who is "working from home" these days) has been read the riot act.

Have any of you as parents or teachers had a child or pupil fail an exam? If I ask her teacher the week of the exam for her honest opinion, would the teacher recommend not doing the exam? I would rather skip it than have DD2 fail because her useless parents didn't help her to practice enough.

Hoping she's just panicking needlessly then, she is something of a perfectionist who gets very cross if she drops a couple of marks on a question.

Festival has started here. My first entry is a 7yo pianist tomorrow morning - the only one in her category, but the cup covers under-8s and 8-9s. If she plays like she has done before she'll do pretty well but I just want her to get up on stage and perform without freaking out and I'll be happy with that!

All three young fiddlers are performing on Monday morning, and there are far more entrants as the local string teachers are trying to encourage everyone to take part (there aren't too many performance opportunities round here).

Piano duets next Sat - I have two 7yos and two 8yos, but the category is under-10s so again I'll be happy if they just do it. :)

DD1 is doing grade 8 piano in a few weeks and DD2 grade 1 clarinet with her big sister accompanying her. Grade 8 pieces are sounding really lovely, but you never know with exams. Will look forward to it all being over.
Going for a trial of the piano tomorrow. We're having to pay £5 per 15 minutes. Is that usual?h

How did your grade 5 theory think she did Wafflenose? Mine found it very hard and she seems quite worried. I'm still pretty confident, since she was capable of distinction so should have at least passed.

"Couple of hours work" that should say ... Can't even blame the iPad for that one ;)

Thank you. It's hard to know what level to pitch it as the hardest guitar pieces she plays only took a couple of work. Anything she can't play straight away is too hard.

This does not seem to be an issue with piano strangely as she will tackle quite hard pieces that take 2-3 weeks work. In fact she is probably attempting harder pieces on the piano than on the guitar, despite the fact that her technical skill level is far higher on guitar. (It probably comes down to the repertoire she is interested in, lots of romantic composers ...)

Mistrigirl - dd is doing g5 in dec; two pieces she has had for a year but when she first got them they took a couple of months to get 'right'; the third piece she only got two weeks ago and she could play it reasonably within one or two sessions. Needs polishing closer to the exam now. Interesting difference in times - guess if they find it quite a quick process it means they are playing at that grade comfortably? Dd is playing G6 pieces but they take much much more work. Scales in the other hand are proving rather a mountain to climb esp given dd's reluctance....

Good question about the pieces, Mistrigri. My children sight read them easily and get them under their fingers within a week. It takes a good month polish them, get them up to speed with a metronome and truly master them. Dd just sight read a grade 6 study today, but is going to leave the real work until after her grade 5 exam. She is rather sick of her exam pieces so is picking on everything she hasn't played in her existing books to improve her SR skills.

We've been having a look at some guitar exam music over half term with a vague idea of DD taking an exam next year, but I think now we probably won't. She looked at the rockschool guitar syllabus, didn't like the grade 5 pieces, could easily sight-read the grade 4 and declared grade 6 too hard. So the idea is on hold for now.

How long should it take to master an exam piece? (Her idea of a hard guitar piece is one that takes longer than a single practice session.)

She will have to take a sax exam in June (local syllabus not ABRSM) but not sure what standard yet. She has got over the early frustration of not being able to consistently hit the right register, and now her previous recorder experience is really paying off. So all those years of lessons weren't wasted then ;)

Waffle that sounds like its a positive change anyway. Babywaffle is doing really well, wasn't your first thread for Miniwaffle's Grade 1 recorder?

DS1 said tonight he has 2 weeks to get his scales mastered for his Grade 8 trombone exam or school won't enter him, they get their entries entered in December for a special visit in March. He is struggling at the top and apparently needs to strengthen his top lip.

As they only do this visit, its his last chance to get it on his personal statement for uni, so there is some very focussed practising happening. Shame he didn't listen when he was told about his top lip at the beginning of the summer holidays!

Waffle I am exhausted just thinking about your schedule!
DS1 seems a bit out of love with his flute, not sure if it's nerves about G3 but I need to get him to practise the difficult bits of the pieces rather than just trying to play through all the time. And, to be honest, to actually practise! We have about 6 weeks but I know it will go very quickly!

If they've not done exams before, it could be useful to do Gr 1 anyway, just as a way to get used to the format, aural tests, sight reading, etc. It's just the expense that is a drawback though.

Some schools or teachers arrange special visits for exams - especially harp teachers as it's so much more complicated moving the instruments - and sometimes you can piggy back on to those sessions to do exams for other instruments. So if they are likely to be ready for Christmas, you might still be able to find a special visit to join, as the deadlines for those are often nearer to the time than the main visits.

thanks RLP

hadn't thought of skipping Grade 2- that's worth a ponder

Well reminded RLP - I need to get the Christmas concert tickets this week but I'd forgotten all about it with it being half term last week. Now that DS has two sessions at music centre on Saturday I drop him off and don't stop so I wouldn't have seen the more organised parents queuing for tickets.

Can't believe its November already, I've just sent in the money for tickets for the school Christmas concerts, and filled in a slip to reserve tickets for the Christmas Eve Festival of Carols at the Cathedral.

Wafflenose it must be coming up to Festival time for you?

DSs are in a school lunchtime concert today, DS2 first time out with secondary school Brass Ensemble, I'm looking forward to it.

I would have thought it would be fine.

DS2 did Piano Grade 1, then Grade 3 a year later, skipping Grade 2 so that could be a possibility too?

Hello Helpful Music Peeps

Me again

Thanks for the vat info weaving- if we had been at the neighbouring school, that would have worked-it's the only school I know of that has a harp teacher.

alas, we're not

I have a q about piano grades 1 & 2, if any of you can help...how big is the leap between the two? DDs have been playing for ages and, because they only started being keen on idea of grades recently, their teacher started them off with a view to doing grade 1 at Easter. However it's focused both of them so much that they've reached standard where teacher says she could have put them in for Christmas and they would've been ready.

What I'm wondering is: would it be worth skipping grade 1 and going for 2 instead, at Easter or the summer term? I appreciate that grade 1 is considered hard, but would like an idea of the gap between 1/2

Thanks awfully

We homeschool so fitting instrument practise into the timetable is my responsibility. It's far easier than when the children were at home. To be honest, by the time they came in from school, then did homework, they were fed up and not at their best, so instrument practise had to be squeezed into 30 minutes (per child) before the meal.its way more relaxed now - they get their full time, usually just after lunch.

Four weeks to go to grade 5 sax. She's also preparing for grade 5 theory. I suspect she will take that and grade 6 trinity sax as she is flying through technique and repertoire. She's even upped her scales and aurals practise as she is hoping for another distinction.