Music exams - where can I find out a bit more about what these entail?

She's only a wee thing - the exams are roughly designed to be taken one a year for 8 years. She has loads of time.

I have no idea how these children learn the first piece - they come already able to do it - and then I try to teach them something else and they learn about a bar a week. Basically someone has to show them every single note and then they imitate it. They have great memories.

Your dd seeing the music and hearing the notes is wonderful. Ds says this happens for him too - and he has learnt books and books of pieces in the two years he has been playing. 3 or 4 a week would not be unusual, and that's sightreading, self correcting and memorising. He has been known to say "is xxx still playing that piece?"

There's an online copy of "These Music Exams" on the ABRSM website here that is worth a read.

It is certainly not essential to do all or even any exams, although grades 6 to 8 do give extra UCAS points these days. However, they may be of limited worth as offers in unrelated subjects can specifically exclude them or be in terms of A level grades rather than UCAS points total in many instances.

I know children who have take all exams; others who have done just a few (sometimes just launching in for grade 8); and others who have done none and have no intention of doing any (but still play in National Childrens Orchestras etc). What suits one doesn't suit everyone.

They can be stressful - moreso for some children than others. I've worked as a music exam steward & have seen the whole range of reactions to them from breezing in and out, to full-on tears on the way in, or worse, out (rare, but it happens). Normally, they come out smiling.

thirtypence - totally agree.

I hate the way some teachers teach for the exam and don?t take time for a holistic approach to the tuition. Learning an instrument is different from learning an exam syllabus! I used to find it so frustrating when peris would lurch from one group of 3 pieces, exam, then next three pieces. Never any real exploration of genre, style, technique, musicality, etc etc etc to turn the child into a knowledgeable and able musician.

Some kids "know" x, y, z, scales are at grade 5+ and have no concept of the relationships between keys, how and why they are linked, chord progressions etc etc. Astonishing. Inability to sight read easily is a dead giveaway too. Same with aural tests. If they can?t "hear" the concepts in their heads and understand at a simple level, then the music is just robotic repetition and stops being "music" and creativity.

I think exams are a brilliant way to support and accent a learning curve BUT should act more like discreet scaffolding rather than the main building blocks of the progress. If your child is having lessons and they never step away from the syllabus and are never given any different pieces other than the syllabus pieces, I would talk to the teacher and question them about their teaching style.

In some countries they have no such thing as music exams and the ABRSM. They just learn to play for pleasure and fun.

ds2 was really keen on piano playing and making fantastic progress. But when he started preparing for the ABRSM exams he just lost all interest and passion in the instrument. In the end we contacted the teacher and said please could we just forget exams: we weren't particularly interested in them and it clearly wasn't helping ds2 in any way.

Ds is playing grade 1 cello pieces and his teacher does tell us that they are/were on the syllabus. He has grade 1 scales and a grade 1 learn to sightread book.

But at just 6 I don't want him to go into a room with his teacher, and then his teacher leave him with a total stranger (and the examiners are lovely and ds very chatty), so I have never asked the teacher about exams.

I have been into loads of exams as accompanist. I teach in a school that has music scholarships and am deeply suspicious of children that can play 2 contrasting pieces wonderfully and then tank the sightreading. I always ask how long they have been playing the piece for.

I know one boy who can play one piece amazingly, but cannot learn another one to save himself.

Yes, they tend to word it that they expect to hear "Grade 5 level pieces" etc, but that doesn't mean you have to have done the grade exam, just be able to play pieces at that standard.

There is no requirement that Grade 5 has ro have been passed just that standard has to have been reached. The school will determine that themselves via an audition.

You don;t even have to have passed Grades for music college entry, it is all done on audition (though they used to accept Grade 8 practical and theory in lieu of an A level)

ds has a half hour lesson at school with an outside teacher (is also a music specialist school btw) - he shares the lesson with a yr 7 girl

I think he felt it just meant "teaching to the test" to get them through grades, and he felt that some people were pushed through grades who weren't really that good, which meant they were meaningless bits of paper. But we wanted the "meaningless" bit of paper as we were thinking towards private school applications and it seemed easier to have something to put down on the application rather than just "his teacher thinks he's pretty good". DS then did Grade 5 when he was 13, and he's 15 now and doing Grade 7 at the end of the month. I get the feeling that's good but not exceptional, but it really depends on so many factors how fast they will progress.

I meant margaret not maggots sorry.

If your ds was a littl younger maggotts then I would say that the prep test would be a great thing to do. There is no pass or fail, just constructive criticism form the examiner. A great boost.

However the repertoire for the prep test is a little childish.

That can also be a problem with the lower grades full stop though the newest syllabuses have started to address that. In the old ABRSM syllabus there was virtually nothing for adult beginners in Grade 1, it was all children's songs.

That is another reason why I like Trinity Guildhall, also if a youngster likes musical theatre there are a lot of options there.

Is your ds gaving lessons in school? My dh teaches in schools and is very wary of putting pupils in for exams as a. parents often won't pay for either the music or exam fee (you have to take original copies into the exam and some pieces are only available in expensive anthologies). Also if the lesson is a group one or a very short lesson there is not enough time to cover everything. Dh has been known to have been given3-4 students of different abilities in a 20 minute lesson. Privately he would see an 11 year old once a week for 30 mins.

Dd did her Grade 1 singing at the beginning of year 8. Her teacher likes them to do the occasional exam because it gives them the opportunity to sing in front of strangers. Dd did very well, and it has given her SUCH a boost. Interestingly though, she only scraped a pass in her grade 3 clarinet and that gave her a boost too - she was very amused by the very tactfully phrased 'you got this by the skin of your teeth' comments!

Some music teachers don't like the exams, so it depends to an extent whether you particularly want your child to get the grades and why. DS's first violin teacher didn't believe in grade exams, but we wanted him to have something on paper so he did Grade 3. We've since changed teachers and he then did Grade 5, and now is about to do Grade 7. So, it's really up to a combination of the child, the parents and the teacher whether you do them at all and if so, which ones!

thanks islandofsodor - that is interesting - yes,he is 11,not sign of voice breaking yet...am not especially bothered about his doing exams,except that I think it would boost his confidence..I love seeing which new songs he is learning...

Hi

First post so hope I don't do anything wrong.

DD1 (12) has done ABRSM on piano and violin. Started piano at 8 and took 2 years before doing G1. Still hasn't done G2. Started violin at 10 and did G1 in 6 months aand 18 months on is doing G3. Basically, it depends on the child and the instrument but for G1 they need to be able to make a nice sound, play 3 pieces, know some scales, be able to do some simple sight reading and some simple aural tests. Can take a while to get there on a first instrument.

On violin she will need to be using 4th finger, know 'low' 2nd finger, and be able to bow and make a consistently ok sound (slurred and single bows). She would need to do 3 pieces, plus 3 scales and 3 arpeggios. Also sightreading and aural.

A ds in Year 7 (age 11???) may not do any exams for a year or two. Puberty is an akward age for voices both girls and boys and much depends on an individual's development. You can start to develop a good technique, but voice change may have started, or it may be a while off. During this time the voice becomes more breathy, youlose range etc.

I bagen singing lessons at age 18 and went straight to Grade 5 I had Grade 7 piano by that time though and was studying A level music. Dh has just entered a 10 year old for Grade 1, she has been studying with him for around 18 months.

Not got time to reply now but dh is a singing teacher and I fdid singing 1st study at uni.

It is very different to most instruments due to individual physical sevelopment etc.

Incidentally dh ahs just moved to Trinity from ABRSM as their syllabus has greatly improved and theort is done as you go along.

It is much better respected now (wasn;t when I went through the system.