Summer term 2019 music

Thanks all - she was pretty sanguine about the merit in the end (though not terribly excited). Hope her teacher will be OK. And well done Margia's DD!

Anyone with any thoughts about how to polish pieces to get them from Merit to Distinction? DD2 tends to learn pieces very fast (and her teacher quite often gives her a study and a repertoire piece to learn every week or so, so she plays vast amounts of stuff in a term). It certainly pays off for sightreading, where she got 20 out of 21, but I wonder if she isn't learning how to get a piece really, really good?

She often only has her exam pieces for six to eight weeks before taking the exam, and has quite the low boredom threshold with them. The result is pretty much always a solid merit on pieces (25), decent scales and aural.

What does she need to do to become a really polished player, and is that something that can be learned? Perhaps she just needs to take things more slowly? She's 9, and G4 flute and G3 cello, but has only been learning for 2 and a half and two years (group lessons for the first years) on the instruments respectively? She's also quite small, so is maybe struggling with some of the physical requirements and stamina now.

Any thoughts from people who know this stuff would be fab. She has no need to rush through grades for the sake of it as far as we're concerned.

Best of luck for the audition Karate

Thank you for everyone who replied my post. I applied for NCO today.
Got audition date at our local venue. I am glad we are not in London as many London slots are sold out already! I will wait till NCO 2020 thread will be on.
I like the idea of black belt on ABRSM exam too!

That’s great snowballs, and margia. A merit is a really good mark. I am not expecting fantastic marks for my dd’s... so I hope the run of merits continues 😀

I have just looked at the timetable and my dd’s Exam was very early... glad it’s done and hopefully results before they break up for hols

Well done minisnowball’s DD! Fantastic result! We got Trinity results through the other week - high merit for grade 1 singing so it’s merits all round!

Well done to minisnowballs DD a merit is very good!

Pretty good result I would say! I think nerves often play a part too but I coach horse riding and always say you need to be scoring above what you want/need at home so if nerves come into play and you lose some marks, it's still fine. It's also only a snapshot of one person's opinion so we don't place too much stress on it. Last time, I'm sure the examiner was gentle on the younger daughter ( surprisingly high mark, not that we said that to her obviously) and harsh on older ( would have guessed a much higher one from listening to it through the door!). It is just an opportunity to play under a bit of pressure and gave a goal, which helps some and not others.

Do I win first results for the season? A 125 merit for dd2 in G4 flute- she won't be pleased (and her teacher will be cross about the pass mark on her study piece), but I reckon that's respectable (and that she needs to work harder on her aural classes).

Ah that explains it horsey ! Park sounds lovely, we still have 3 weeks of school to go !

We're in Scotland, they're earlier here. Currently sitting in a park in the sun ( wind) enjoying the first day of the holidays. Still try to have a few lessons over the holidays as they are private ones. Also, we have more time to practice in the holidays so makes sense. Need to knock this grade 5 theory on the head this coming season too.

Good luck to everyone waiting for results. We must have very late dates as the exams haven’t happened yet.. DS has gr5 horn on Saturday and DD gr6 piano in a couple of weeks. Lots of concerts coming up too, particularly looking forward to seeing the 2 younger ones in theirs, they still smile and wave when they spot me as opposed to my teenager who just looks mortified 😬

Waiting for exam results here too, for DS who can be quite variable in his playing so it will genuinely be a surprise what he gets, over a wide range of marks! Hopefully it's a good surprise! DD has her first music camp where she will not know anyone which is a little daunting, but think she is looking forward to trying out boarding school ( being a huge Mallory towers fan!). DD2 still getting to grips with her mini bassoon, so many keys.

DS2 went straight in at Grade 5 theory and was fine, he was 11 or 12 so maybe a bit older than some on here.

We've just said goodbye to piano and brass teachers ahead of DS2 starting JD in September which was a bit of a wrench!

We have a music service concert band concert on Thursday. The week after should be County Youth Orchestra and Choir but DS2 will be at NCS so is missing the concert.

We are waiting for GCSE results - a long summer but not as bad as waiting for A level results for DD last summer

Dd has done 1, 2, and 3 - definitely good preparation but the jump from 3 to 5 was quite large!

I agree with boy swinging.

Some centres have separate rooms for different grades and there are a lot of older kids and adults going for grade 5. Quite intimidating.

My kids knew to expect this as they had done grade 3 in a smaller room with less and younger people.

In terms of the content think it probably helps too, although unfortunately I have little understanding of any of it.

I would recommend doing G3 theory first purely to get used to the set up. My DS was the youngest there by a long shot, the others were far older teens. Having already done G3 he knew what to do etc. I think it gave him confidence in a group of much older kids.

Thistly I think the choice is as wide as you can get, including songs from different countries in native language!! Who knows, we may discover some real gems?

Did anyone’s DCs do any theory exams pre-grade 5? I went straight in on 5 myself but was wondering if it was worth doing an earlier grade with DD in order to get her used to the setup?

We're waiting a Grade 5 theory result. Hope she passes!

3rd 🎻 have lots of 🍰! I will definitely join you in 🍷 post concert; sounds like you have got a lovely one to look forward to. Yes, I agree the ensemble ones are the best. Solos can be a bit pressured!
I am looking forward to my dd’s Folk band playing in a few weeks, and a choir concert, but the music centre end of term stuff schedule has not been done yet.

Also love the idea of black belt in violin!
And unaccompanied folk songs will be fantastic too, how wide is the choice?

Thanks for keeping me company fellow results waiters! 🍰 🍰 🍰 🍰
I asked for extra time for my dd’s Last exam, and it was too late in the day to schedule it, so she had to do without. This time she did get extra time, but I didn’t make the entry so i’m Ignorant about the procedure i’m Afraid. I know the member of staff who made the entry was on the case from the off this time. If adjustments were not made in the end surely they would have no reason to withhold the results?

Thistly I am also waiting very impatiently for abrsm results, grade 3 cello in my case.
Does anyone know anything about the process of submitting supporting documents for reasonable adjustements for ABRSM exams? I got a rather stern letter about a week before the exam saying to submit them to a specific email address or they would withold the results. I did so but never had a response. The exam has been and gone and that email was sent about a month ago now and still not had a response. No adjustments were asked for, so maybe that's why? I don't know, I feel slightly uneasy about it.

Unaccompanied folk won’t really be too bad, I’m sure. It’s the four songs from memory that would phase me!

Sadly DS is too old to audition for NCO this year so I've not kept up with the changes in the auditions, sorry. It really feels like the end of a big part of his life as he's been in the NCO for years. He's loved it so much, learnt so much and made some lovely friends. He's auditioning for NYO this year and while I don't think he's got much of a chance of getting in on his first audition, if he did get in he'd already know loads of the kids from NCO which is lovely.