Low pass grade 1 piano-daft mother needs help getting a grip and helping dc!

105/150 = 70% - SEVENTY percent! enough for an A/B in most subjects at GCSE level ! Well done to your DD.

No one cares the mark - she IS a Grade one pianist.

Mine has passes at G1 and 4, Merits at G2, 3 and 5 - just depends on the day when it is a performance based exam. She plays and loves it, does not love exams, but needs the discipline of learning FOR something in order to progress.

Does especially NOT love the theory work she is doing so she can go on to G6 - it is a slog, but she knows she has to do it. She is ok at it, so expecting a pass, no fireworks...

My son got a pass for grade 3 guitar. He after playing his pieces and sight reading to distinction standard he got an attack of nerves and did not even attempt his scales and was much anxious mess he did badly in his music aural. His guitar teacher has decided to let him skip grade 4 in spite of a pass grade. I feel you need to look at the comments sheet before passing judgement.

You need to see the mark sheet (as others have said) as there is so much in the exam beyond the pieces - a different piano, a more echoey room, the aural and scales and sight reading - it can be really quite daunting when it's your first exam. Keep going with the praise and practice. In some ways 'just a pass' in grade 1 is good - the only way is up. My eldest got a distinction in grade 1 violin then a very low pass in grade 2. She was heartbroken and it took a long time to get her confidence back up - she's now preparing for grade 5 having not sat 3 or 4 and I hope to god it goes ok!

Don't feel pushed into doing all the exams on all the instruments. It gets expensive apart from anything else. For instance DS2 has done Grade 1, 4 and 5 on piano, Grade 3 on trombone, (is 5+ standard now) and Grade 4 on clarinet.

I know a professional pianist who never took any exams. She is up there now (she made it to the top) and never had the stress of grades exams. Also started piano at 10 yo.

So maybe exams are not for your DD, maybe you may want to ask her if she wants to stop taking exams?

I know professional musicians who only got passes in their very first exams and children who have only got passes in their exsms but are members of various national childrens orchestras/bands.

Ive also known people who have struggled on at the lower grades never making much 'progress' but love playing nonetheless. Thats good too.

The most important thing really is that she enjoys it.

I did not read all the comments yet, but my input will be
-you don't sound pushy to me at all, but very considerate
-well done to your dd!
-I agree that exam mark is not 100% accurate indication of musical ability
-there is always a human factor-an examiner!
-piano is quite hard instrument in my opinion
-I firmly believe that some instruments suit better to some people, may be piano is just not a perfect match in your dd instance
-she should definitely carry on if she enjoys her lessons
-if you want to help her in any way, perhaps you should help her with her practice? Nothing wrong with it though some people would call it a pushy mum :) My dd is playing two instruments but if I leave her to her own devices she may do some silly mistakes and will adopt the wrong way of playing. Therefore I try to supervise her practicing. Still too little to practice on her own without any control.

Glad to hear it was a good outcome, well done OP.

Grade 1 in y4 is pretty good - she's still quite little.

She will get better at performing (including for examiners) with experience.

The piano exams are harder than many of the other instruments.

Let her play things she can manage fairly easily as well as more difficult pieces, for her enjoyment and confidence. Encourage improvising - eg play C-E-F-G with her left hand and pretty much anything she likes with her RH.

If her school or other local group has a choir that she would enjoy that would be a good thing to do.

C list ABRSM pieces are usually more modern. There is an ABRSM jazz syllabus too.

Exams can include jazz too. DS2 is playing a lovely jazz arrangement of 'Over the Rainbow' for Grade 6, which according to his book has been specially arranged for ABRSM.

Pamela Wedgewood does some books called 'Jazzin About' that have jazzy styled pieces which she might like. I often use 'Making The Grade' books in between exams that are full of well known tunes (lots of styles) that she might like. I do teach improvising from the very beginning with all pupils so you may find she's doing that anyway.

PS my daughter sounds a bit like yours - she is a creative, free spirit type :)

I don't think you necessarily need to "get her into jazz" bigbirthday, it's more a question of avoiding focusing exclusively on exams and the classical syllabus, and above all - keeping the pleasure in music.

I learnt to play the piano quite competently but to my lasting regret was never given the opportunity to really experiment outside the classical syllabus. I dropped out of lessons at 15/16 and never learnt to improvise or arrange or play by ear. My daughter's musical experience has been quite different - she dropped out of learning a "classical" instrument at about 10 but then took up several instruments later (all of them except sax initially self-taught) and she does a lot of composition and arrangement. For example after 6 months of piano lessons she's capable of listening to the piano accompaniment for a pop song and replicating it by ear rather faithfully (she works from chords, she is primarily a guitarist so this comes naturally).

I'm not attempting to hold my daughter up as a model of "how to learn music" - this approach has its drawbacks, like being able to play grade 6/7 piano pieces beautifully from memory but having the sight reading skills of a grade 2 student. Technically she is way behind a good classical student of her age (she's 13) on all her instruments except possibly guitar, but since she is never going to play orchestral music at a high level this isn't really an issue. Might be a problem if she wants to study music at uni of course as she will be competing with much more skilled students. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

It all depends what you and your daughter want to get out of music really :) but don't fall into the trap of thinking that exams are the be all and end all.

Aw, she sounds sweet! Maybe it's like reading - just have to nuture a love of it and she'll take off when she's ready.

"Messing about" as you put it is fabulous, and really don't worry about grade 1, she's just getting used to things. If she is as keen as that to mess about and try new things now, she'll probably have a good spurt at some point.

I've played since age 3 and got to grade 5 at about 14/15 then gave up exams, whch I regret, but that said, having what little ability I do have still means a huge amount to me. I played at concerts and in front of family etc but still don't like playing in front of anyone now all that much. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing (so would poss disagree with AnotherEmma there) as I cherish any chance I get to play, and my piano.

Do it! I could confidently teach jazz fiddle but on piano I find it out of my comfort zone.

Yeah it's probably too early to tell but I do think you should give her chance to explore that creativity. I was classically trained and started jazz very late, by which point it felt very scary and unnatural to improvise. If she is taught / nurtured / encourage she could do very very well. I knew some amazing musicians who played jazz from a young age and are very successful now.

"She spends loads of time picking out tunes on the piano and doing variations on pieces she is playing, messing around with minor/major and changing rhythms. And little compositions too."

Awesome. That's the kind of musical talent that can't be measured with grade exams.
Have you considered steering her towards jazz? It sounds as if she could really excel at jazz, given that she's already experimenting with scales and rhythm. Jazz is also great fun as a pianist because most ensembles need one.