Summer Term Music, Musicians and Music Exams thread

Well, we are exam day minus one week and panic seems to have set in in the last week. Not for dd fortunately but for her teacher who I think thinks she has lost it a bit in the last few weeks, we have certainly only had positive feedback til now and then this..

We have been to the teachers house this evening for an extra lesson, lessons are usually in school, and I have learned lots about helping with practice that I wish I had known about a long time ago. I am feeling so guilty that I haven't helped with practice as much as I could have done with this little extra knowledge, and can't help wishing the exam had been a month ago, I think dd has just had enough of her pieces and scales!

Ishouldbeweaving - what great news for your DS and you made me laugh with the PJ too short reference!

Congratulations drummersmumwithdistinction, I wouldn't be able to keep it to myself and I'd tell him as soon as he stepped through the door.

Fleur - it wasn't the best acceptance speech ever, the offer came in person and out of the blue and DS dithered about until I rescued him with "we'll get back to you when we've checked the dates". He seemed to believe that mentors are all very much older than him with superpowers, this is despite knowing a few of them away from the course. In real life they appear to be a year older than him with no magical abilities whatsoever. Once he was over the "I am not worthy" phase he was really pleased, or at least I think he was, it's difficult to tell sometimes.

I am interested in knowing how the piano gets up the front step - is it "1-2-3 heave" or the appliance of science and a step climbing trolley?

Drummers mum, wow!! That is a fantastic result, you must be so proud of him! Good luck for the concert as well !
Fleur I bet you are excited about the piano, keep updating us with your progress!

Thank you ealingwestmum is being delivered tomorrow morning

Ishouldbe what a lovely surprise how did your DS react to that?

Congrats drummersmum grade 7 and distinction, wow! You are lucky, dd's teacher doesn't give me the results, she wants Dd to hear it first. Which means that back in March a had a few agonising hours when she called but didn't share as dd was not with me.

Congrats to everyone - some excellent results here and fleur I am so excited you bought the piano. Noteventhebestdrummer I would love to hear your DS sing!
Just heard DS got a Distinction in his gr7 drums. I can't wait to see his face light up when he finds out. He's playing a piano concert tonight and I may give him the envelope before the performance as an adrenaline shot. Or maybe afterwards? Hmmm...

We had a surprise this week - in fact it was nearly as surprising as a new piano. DS has been asked to go back as a mentor on the national children's summer thing that he's done for the last two years but he's now too old for. One of the reasons that this is such a surprise is that the mentors usually come from the youth group, which is the one that DS had a major wobble about last summer and where he withdrew from the audition at the last minute.

There will need to be emergency pyjama replacement (too short), new sunglasses (too lost) and a letter to school for a four day absence.

enjoy fleur

We bought a piano!

So happy and I can't wait to see dd's face on Wednesday morning when it gets delivered! She kept saying it will take forever until she gets it (it was planned for September-November period).

Exciting times and I can start teaching myself as far as I can with what I learnt alongside my dd.

chocolatewombat the timing of the results depends on which exam board it was, if it was Trinity then the results are with the centre as the examiner leaves, if it was ABRSM then you'll not hear in ten days.

Hi all! Congrats for all the good exam results, not long till half terms and the DCs can have a bit of s break.

I am extremely excited as we have decided this weekend to go piano shopping earlier than initially thought and we did purchase a piano. It arrives on Wednesday and I can't wait to hear it's sound in our living room.

Exciting times!

chocolate I tend to run when I hear of teachers moving from one exam to another without playing anything else in between.

Dd took grade 1 in March and she didn't open a graded book yet. She is now studying Bach (at her level of course) plus various other pieces from other books (Upgrade, Czerny, Burgmuller). She is working on 2-3 pieces at a time.

Her teacher said she can start her grade piece next week veeeerrryyy slowly and maybe put her in for the exam in the winter session. But the pieces will run parallel with repertoire pieces and from what I have seen it is only in the last 2 months they concentrate mainly on the exam pieces.

Piano time Jazz 1 (easyish) or 2 (challenging). Upgrades series 1-2 or 2-3.

Just joining the thread.
I have a DS who is 9. He took piano Gd1 just before Christmas and got a Distinction - was thrilled, as we all were. Last week he did Gd2. He wasn't as confident going into it and not as slick with his pieces, but only had a 6 month gap between Gd 1 and 2. Happily, he came out cheerily. I think he actually enjoys the exam experience whilst he is in there.

We had the last lesson of the term the day before the exam. In his bag when he came home, was the Gd3 pieces book and scales book. I think I might email the teacher and say we are fine about him starting on the Gd3 scales, but are keen for him to spend a term on other fun pieces before starting on the exam pieces. Does that sound like a good idea? I don't think the teacher necessarily intends to only do exam pieces anyway or even start immediately, but I feel pretty sure a bit of a break from exam pieces would be a good idea.

Could anyone recommend something fun for over the summer, for someone who has just taken Gd 2 piano? Many thanks.

We break up in about 10 days - do you think we will get the results before then?

Mine did Pro Corda senior and if the teacher wants yours I'd be satisfied with that. They are well organise but heavy duty, at least the senior one was ...
I would though be concerned with too much playing if she's on another course the previous week. Posture/rs issues. I sent one of mine on a post Grade5 course when he was 8 and Grade 4 with his older bother and he just bumbled along happily. Good luck with it.

Rapidly - I have heard really good things re Pro Corda. I guess if your dec teacher is leading the course she knows that ou child would cope fine? Or is going to adapt a part for her? Also your child might be playing much higher than the next grade? Dd (cello) loves courses - she did do one orchestra last year where she was the youngest and it was g5 to post grade 8 level; she had just taken g4 but had auduitoned and been deemed g5 playing level. It was a big step up for her and she had to work v hard - learnt to play in the other clefs and right down the strings neither of which she had really done. She came home exhausted after the week - def was harder than we were expecting but I think overall it was positive! I would talk to the teacher just to check that she has workd things out for her - you at find there are others not yet at g5 as not all courses get full.

Merit for Grade 2 singing here. I have a rather disappointed 8 year old as she really wanted a distinction. However, the desire for a distinction was in no way related to the amount of practise that was being put in - so hopefully lesson learnt!!

This is the council music service. It wasn't booked through a school. My daughter's private violin teacher picked up the form, I filled in the form and delivered it at their offices. If this lady is not available for another rehearsal I might ask if it's ok for her school violin teacher to be her accompanist as her private one doesn't play piano.
I guess the key is for my daughter to practise and become so confident in her playing that nothing can affect her...but that's so hard on a just-turned-nine year old.

I see. Interesting.
Thanks, runawayhome.
I would hope that if a candidate got put off as a result of the accompanist, the examiner would take that into consideration. This is grade 4 so not massively complex maybe.

the exam centre doesn't usually select the accompanist - it's the school/teacher that does. And they often have to play for loads of different instruments, huge choice of pieces at all grades. So very unlikely that they'd be familiar with them all - they often change every couple of years, as well. The teachers I know who accompany get to know a few of the popular ones on certain instruments that they teach a lot, but often end up sightreading at the rehearsal and having a look at tricky bits before the exam itself. They aren't necessarily note perfect, either - their aim is to keep going and get the rhythm right and stick with the candidate, and sometimes that means making up a bit if needed, specially for the higher grades. It's not the same standard it would be if they were doing a performance where both people were being 'judged' equally, if you like. The accompanist's mistakes aren't going to matter as long as they don't put the candidate off - which sometimes they do, and things like missing out a page you would expect to be sorted before the exam. So the accompanist needs to be reasonably accomplished but not perfect - more important that they can follow the candidate if anything goes wrong and adapt to what they do. I have heard of someone who go so put off by the accompanist playing really wrong rhythms and a jazzy sort of piece that she couldn't come in right, and then that threw her, and it all went wrong from there - but that was about grade 7 or 8.

Ok I feel a bit better now. I hadn't actually thought of asking for another rehearsal but that sounds like a good idea. I could leave her with a copy also, yes. I guess I was so surprised by her not knowing what she was doing...I'd assumed the exam accompanists are teachers themselves and I would've thought music teachers teach alll grades on a regular basis and an exam centre would select accordingly...wrong assumption it seems. I'll contact the music service first thing on Monday.
Thank you.

Essex - quite normal for the accompanist not to know a piece in my experience and also only get one rehearsal. But we always leave the piano part with them or send it beforehand. Can you send them a copy? If it went so badly could you try to fit a second rehearsal in?

Ummm... I never had more than one rehearsal with the accompanist, but we provided the music beforehand.

I've played for ballet exams before where I was literally sightreading (RAD dates changed due to snow and cancelled flights so I had one day's warning as an emergency accompanist). They were grades, not majors. For my violin lot, I play piano so not an issue.

But... Would you expect an accompanist to know every piece from every grade for every instrument? Could you have brought her a photocopy?

I'm worried
Would you expect the accompanist to your child's violin exam to be familiar with the piece she'll be playing beforehand? I don't know if I'm over reacting but we went for my daughter's violin exam rehearsal. The exam itself is in ten days' time. The accompanist's playing was not right and at one point she ended without realising there was a second page to the song. She apologised and asked to continue.
I asked the accompanist if she was familiar with the piece and her response was "I sight read it". That's when I got really concerned.
Is this normal? For an exam accompanist? We had to bring our own accompanist book so it's not as if she'll be expected to practise over the next ten days and even then, aren't they meant to use someone who knows these exam pieces inside out??