Spring/ Summer Music and Musicians Thread

gb.abrsm.org/en/exam-support/practice-tools-and-applications/speedshifter/

I was told that ABRSM has some app that lets you download accompanying tracks and play them at different speed.

Or something.

Exam panic, I usually get Miniprada to do a rehearsal about 6 weeks before with her accompanist then I record the accompanist playing only at the speed she wants on the iPad which she then uses to practice with. Might be worth trying? Good luck!

Icouldbeknitting, yes she knows it's just for the 2 pieces. She has done grade 1 and 2 piano before, when I had to take her to the same centre. So she knows about the routine...

Can't wait till she starts second school. now more hassle of taking her for lessons or exams (well, that is strictly speaking not true, as still ended up taking dc1 for rockschool exam, which wasn't done in school, and dc2 for piano exam when she needed an extra term to practise but couldn't wait till school had another exam session as the syllabus would have expired....).

exampanic that gives you a bit of incentive for practising then. She does know that you won't be in the room for all of the exam - just the two accompanied pieces? I'd still find the name and number of the centre accompanist, just in case you suddenly come down with a severe case of a bone in your arm or something.

hm, I did mention about getting someone else to play. dd2 says "don't even think about it". When suggesting she might get better marks, "I don't care". and about possibly failing "I won't fail!"
So, back to more practising then

Waffle I think saying the exam won't fit in with everything else sounds very reasonable and I'm sure the teacher would understand.
exampanic I don't think I could cope with the stress even if I thought I could play the piece! Good luck to both of you for the exam, hopefully it will be a fun experience. And if you decide to duck out of it before the big day, as others say, you should be able to find a piano teacher willing to step in, or the accompanist booked by the exam centre.

Exampanic there is going to be at least one pianist at the exam centre on that day, make life easy for yourself and book them. We've only ever needed half an hour run through a couple of weeks before the exam itself. Accompanying needs additional skills on top of playing, you have to work together and follow the soloist's lead. Yes, it's "only" grade one and you might well get it all together before the day but is it worth the stress?

DS took G1 in 2008, I can still remember the accompanist welcoming him in and saying "my job is to make you look good" and then discussing with him what they could do to make Postman Pat better. I was very grateful that one of them had taken an exam before and knew what they were doing.

Good luck to you both, whatever you choose to do.

exampanic I pay an accompanist for all the DC's exams (grade 4, the last one). But I practise with them on the piano. I think I can probably do it myself at a push and I think of it as a fallback plan in case the accompanist is run over by a bus or something on the exam day... (Paranoid, me? )

It's ABRSM....(ds did rockschool exam and used a CD) And I don't think dd2 would want someone else to play with her. It would be too much an exam instead of fun playing with me.....
O well, I have 10 min to practise before I have to go to work....

exampanic I would be far too nervous to accompany my own dc. I think for lower Trinity grades you can use a recording? However for abrsm you need a live one.

waffle I honestly think that if in doubt I would save my money! Especially in the summer term when you're likely to be busier anyway.

I think DD's piano teacher has given DD her obligatory audition piece too early and that it's going to be a struggle keeping it fresh and not-too-fast. I would hide the sheet music, but DD doesn't look at it anyway.... On the other hand the Chopin still needs quite a lot of work to get the fast passages really fluent.

exampanic you need to pay an accompanist!

Help, have just entered dd2 for grade 1 recorder...Help.
So amongst my dc about 7 exams have been passed (various instruments). They have either been done at school, or when at primary school (no exam facilities) I have taken them. Dd2 never had any recorder lessons but we have been playing together just for fun. Grade 1 pieces didn't seem to be too difficult. I then had the idea of entering her for grade 1 and dd2 is quite excited about it.So far so good...

Till I realised that the exams I have taken them to myself, were all piano exams, so never thought about needing someone to have play the accompanying part of piano (brass exams of dd1 were done at her secondary school).
Considering I am not a (professional) musician, I have not learned a new piece in piano for over 35 years, I am now panicking.

I have been practising for the last 2 weeks (dd2 nagging me). but although getting better, still struggling. I find it difficult to listen to dd2 as well as playing at the same time. And when I have to play in front of an examiner, on a strange piano, o no................

Exams are really tricky - a lot depends on the child. dS1 doesn't like them and doesn't do many. When he takes them it's usually just to establish a level. I think if he gets through the grade 5 percussion he probably won't take another exam in it until grade 8 and take his time getting there. He'll do the grade 6 bass guitar because his teacher thinks it'll be useful but he hasn't taken any other exams in bass. I think he wants to do the grade 8 at some point, though. Oddly enough, I think he'll enjoy the grade 5 theory exam but I imagine that will be his first and last!

Hi waffle,
I would skip G6. For that extra confidence boost, the teacher can give it to her by letting her know when she's playing the pieces at the exam level, congratulate her and then you just move on. I don't mean move up to G7, but keep learning other pieces G6 standard, prepare the NCO pieces, keep up the technique, building a solid base.
IMO exams are becoming too much the end of it all for our DC and it's good to fight that mentality.
DS skipped two piano exams (G4 and G6) but doesn't mean he didn't learn the requirements for that grade. In terms of tuned percussion he's learning G8 pieces and he's never taken an exam. He will take G8 but that's just because of UCAS points (which I am told are useless anyway!), and to have something to show on paper...

Hi Waffle difficult isn't it? I was going to delay g7 to Xmas as summer term is always so busy/fun but unfortunately first sets of entrance exams and music scholarship auditions have been moved to oct and Nov (from Feb!) and carry on until March so that plan blown! So we are going for a July exam date. But I refuse to discuss g8 for many a year!

Waffle that is a dilemma - your points for and against are equally balanced!
Goo has done an awful lot of exams in a short time. If it were me, I think I'd possibly skip grade 6, do other pieces and then take grade 7 a year later. But I take your point about how she compares herself to other NCO players and if that is a big thing for her then a solid pass at grade 6 this term may be a confidence booster.
I think we sorted out DS1 and his grade 5. Turns out he and the percussion teacher thought the exam would be June, not May, but in fact the teacher is confident he can take it in May anyway. Another teacher at music centre is very kindly helping him with the aural work - the bit he hasn't done is identifying different styles of music but they have covered it a bit at school and she's going to spend some time on it after his next lesson. I'm glad ds2's exams seem a lot more straightforward!

Y5 or Y6. I have no idea where my fingers got the 7 from.

Not such an end of year nightmare then. I thought about it while I was washing the dishes and still couldn't work out whether 10 now meant Y6 or Y7. The other thing to think about is that when she's 16 and you're looking back it won't matter what you did now. It feels like a big decision but the consequences of getting it "wrong" aren't that significant.

Waffle If you're unsure then I'd skip it. Summer term plays havoc with a rehearsal schedule as there's "this thing" then "that thing" and routine goes out of the window. It's her last term so there's leaver's this and that on top of the usual chaos. DS took G6 on the last day of term and if I had my time again he'd have done it in the next session - I had no idea just how many extra things would be popping up in the last term of school.

If teacher is keen and she's keen then it's a different matter but if you're going to have to push it along then life's too short for that.