Autumn / Winter 2025 Music

Thanks- that’s interesting! As far as I can see the performance grade is 5 singing pieces or 4 instrumental pieces recorded back to back - no sight reading / aural / scales. I’m not doubting that recording it is not fun, but I am struggling to see how it’s as hard as the practical tbh. We are lucky as both her Dad and I can accompany as needed. We both took piano plus another instrument plus voice practical grades back in the day and remember the horror that was G8 piano scales. You could be asked any scale and it felt like an infinite number. We would both agree that that component has got easier in the modem practical with less scales asked (although still challenging!) but the performance grades seems easier again if the marking is not harsher. For singing practical it’s an unaccompanied folk song instead of scales, and yes, imo singing G8 is definitely easier than an instrumental G8.

We did performance grade for g4 violin and both hated it as well as all subsequent audition recordings 🙈 DD cannot fully concentrate without an audience, makes different tiny mistakes at each take so it never feels "good" and the digital sound is harsh. It may be very subjective though.

We do all recordings on iphone with no additional equipment.

Her pieces have always been marked within the same range so it doesn't look like they are marked harsher in performance grades and yes, the two types are not fully comparable.

Wait till you have to support your child recording four pieces in one take! Also presumably you need the accompanist as well so can't do unlimited takes. It's hard but in a different way. Also not sure what singers do for scales but instrumentalists have a lot of scales to remember which can go either way. Some think they are easy marks as in your control a lot more, others find them stressful to remember. I imagine the aural tests might be easier for some singers too. Do whichever suits best. If you are taking music further it's auditions and performances that will count anyway. But it's nice to round off that stage by doing grade 8.
I've had one do one with multiple takes and stress. Another time there was only an opportunity for one take with accompanist so just had to ' rise to the occasion '.

Thank you. I know easier is subjective but performance grades must test a much narrower range of skills (playing/ performance only) without the scales, aural and sight reading which a lot of candidates do not enjoy and can be quite stressful. Not all candidates before anyone comes for me 😂 I realise it’s all got to be shot in one take but so is the practical exam, and that really is one shot rather than the several recordings that you can take for performance. My DD wants to do singing G8 and had a cold for her practical G7. She still did well but if she did performance grade 8 we could just change the time to when she was better eliminating a lot of stress. I know lots of takes has its own issues, but am struggling to see how the two are comparable really unless they mark the pieces harsher.

DD’s done a couple. Not sure they’re easier! They have to do all four pieces one after another in a single take which is not an easy ask. I can’t help on recording though as she did that at school. She’s opted for practical grades for her grade 8s!

Wondered what everyone’s experience here is of ABRSM performance grades? My kids have only done practical so far, but the scales, aural and sight reading seem a lot harder than doing a fourth piece. My DD has her practical exam on Wednesday and might fancy a change for her next grade. Any experiences much appreciated. Also, what recording equipment did you use? I have used IPhone for NCO and NYO but would be happy to invest in something a bit better if it doesn’t break the bank. Thanks.

I found this article interesting https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/opinion/pianist-music-performance-perfection.html# but it made me think how it would even be possible to
avoid falling into the trap of perfection if all we do during everyday practice is correcting mistakes (~trying to get closer to perfection) and it's impossible to progress without correcting them. It's so ingrained from such an early age that I cannot imagine how a musician can get rid of this feeling... The guy says we should just remember that mastery is a means to an end, not the goal, but a young child cannot really understand all this.

Reminds me of the classic Eric Morcambe gag: "I'm playing all the right notes, biut not necessarily in the right order."

DD2's old head of music centre just used to yell 'ALL you've got to do is play the RIGHT notes at the RIGHT time' at them in orchestra @TreeAtMyWindow - I've always said she needs this on a tshirt

Love that! On cello DD gets “intonation needs work” nearly every week! This week she got “scales much improved - still much to do”. Talk about damning with faint praise!

DD brought home this gem last week: "Rhythm and notes."

I can't disagree, those do sound fairly important.

that was not as bad as it sounded

LOL love this! 🤣

Mine currently gets 'x pice- very loudly, y piece - louder, z all scales this week louder!!

I wish I wrote down conductor sayings. 50,000 ways to say almost good. That was nearly recognisab, that was not as bad as it sounded, when you all play it at my speed it will be better etc etc.

Mystery solved! Apparently, on the chords in this section her little fingers are (microscopically knowing DD’s piano teacher!) landing behind the others so she needs to remember to keep them together with the other fingers when she plays her chords.

Lol queenmabby! Can't be any help with decoding but I like her teacher already, that's going to be something the student understands and remembers.

Just a bit of light-heartedness but does anyone else read the notes their dc’s music teacher gives them? Dd has all her lessons at school and I get an automated email of the notes. Amongst today’s piano gems was: “Bach - gold section - remember to keep your babies with you at all times”. Any guesses?? 🤣

I think for Trinity you do have to provide copies of music to examiners if you are playing pieces from the alternatives list that aren't in e.g. the Trinity Grade 3 Piano book. But like in festivals as long as the real book is in the room, you can give the adjudicator a copy, or you play from a copy or whatever.

@yodaforpresident - quite normal for adjudicators to look at scores and take notes - they are used to working that way - if you watch BBC YMOTY you'll see them taking notes and its how conservatoire examiners operate (having sat through a couple of examined recitals for DD1 I can tell you noting them scribble is worse for the anxious mummies....)

I don't know about the exams but for the festivals in our experience the adjudicators often look at the copies and also make notes during the performance. We only did competitions when DD was younger though so probably not much to look at performance wise 😂

Thank you @Londonmummy66, DD has always taken her grade exams at school so they always handled it. I just wondered if the adjudicators actually looked at them during the performance, which would seem distracting from the performance to me?

Good tip, thank you @Londonmummy66

@yodaforpresident - you don't have to provide a copy for an examiner but if you are doing an in person exam you have to have a valid copy with you in case they ask to see it - they often do for less well know repertoire (eg harp - DD2s teacher warned her she might be asked to show it and not to worry it was just they were less used to hearing it than G1 violin rep). In performance exams you have to show them a valid copy of off rep music eg 4th piece. Trinity have a reputation for being v strict about it even if its not in copyright. ABRSM syllabi are pretty clear on their rules. I don't know what the rules are for playing off an ipad (if any).

@StuntNun - mine used laptop bags rather than leather cases as they were both girls I usually got them from Roxy or Paperchase. They had a different one for each instrument as it made life easier to keep everything together. Probably a better choice of designs for them than music cases.

Oh dear, 1st day of panto rehearsals and ds is ill with flu. Something is going round. A local school has even closed (ds was home last week). He's gone in, but feels dreadful.

He got lucky last year during panto and stayed healthy.

On the topic of Christmas gifts, can anyone please recommend a music bag? DS has one of those old-fashioned leather cases but I think he might like something more modern.