disastrous Grade 1 piano exam

[racingheart]

Hi

just wondered if anyone on here could tell me if you can fail grade 1. DS1 went in for the exam today. Got to the church and was told there's no warm up room and the previous candidate cancelled so please go straight in. We'd arrived early to compose ourselves but DS seemed happy to get straight on with it, so he went in. Completely messed up his broken chords which he's been faultless on for months. Completely messed up one of his set pieces, I mean ended in wrong key, restarted piece three times. Other two pieces absolutely fine. Other scales fine. I'm hoping they'll see from how polished the other pieces were that it's a blip. He also told the examiner that he hadn't been taught any LH broken chords. It was a mental meltdown - he plays them all the time. His mind just went blank.

Now he feels very foolish. I said, don't worry - treat it as a mock - the point of an exam is for you personally to gauge what you know and don't know - for no other reason at this stage, so no shame in needing to resit, but he's good at piano, loves it, practises a lot and just absolutely went to pieces in there.

Sorry - just needed to get all that off my chest. I've been told it's almost impossible to fail Grade 1 but I think he may have set a precedent.
Any advice?

Come over to Extracurricular where there is a support thread for parents of children taking music exams! In short, it is possible to fail Grade 1, though I don't know whether your DS's experience was bad enough to do so. No need to resit necessarily, if he and his teacher know that he can do it and just didn't. No need to take exams at all, come to that. Does he have opportunities to play in informal concerts at all? I think that's better in all sorts of ways, and if he does take exams in future, might help him to get used to having to do his stuff right now.

Thanks. Didn't even know there was an extracurricular - so I'll repost there.
Just dropped him off at school and am feeling so sad for him. He loves piano - practises every day without being prompted. He's gutted. No one in our family can play so we can't help much when he practises.

Yes you can fail grade 1, it's the prep test that hasn't got pass/fail on. Though I did chuckle when a friend of one of my dc told her seriously that her prep test had been pass/fail and most people failed because she saw the fail certificates out and there were lots more of them. Lesson 1 on what not to say to a friend before their prep test.

The examiner will mark on how the pieces sounded, each piece gets their own mark out of 30 (pass is 20) so if they muck up one piece they will get poorer marks on that, but it won't effect the marks on the other two pieces.

When dd1's done her pieces she's always warmed up in the examination room. They have given her a short time (~2 mins) to get the feel of the piano before she starts. When she does singing she has a lot longer warm up as she needs it, then she goes to a separate room for that.

The LH broken chord thing may be something as simple as the way the examiner expressed it. Dd1 was thrown by the aural in her first singing exam because the chap sang rather than played the piano which was what she was used to. Having got full marks on the aural before she dropped 4 marks, which she came out very desponant, but the next time she was fine with it.

It's so hard to pass an exam when you've not been in that situation before.
Please don't worry about it.
now he knows what it entails, and what it feels like, and what he actually needs to do when he's in there, next time he'll be better.
And it's one of those exams that it doesn't matter if you've done it before - you get marked as if it's your first time.

If it helps in any way, my DH didn't do any formal exams for piano - the first music exams he did were when he started learning the Organ at 21. (and he started at grade 4, i think)
He's a musical genius - like your DS, plays all the time, and I've heard tapes of him at 16, playing the most complicated pieces.
Exams don't prove worth or ability, they prove that you can pass an exam.
:)

Aw

I failed grade 1 piano. I was only 8 and soooo nervous. Eventually I got to grade 4 piano, grade 7 oboe so there is hope. I was never gonna be a concert pianist.

Don't be cross , these exams are a shock if you've never done them before.

And it's a good life lesson: 'if at first you don't succeed...'

exactly, Norman.

DH's mantra is "keep practising, you'll get there"

Norman I'm not cross at all, just sad for him. I think it only matters to him because you have to be Grade 3 to join certain youth bands he wants to join. It hadn't occurred to me that he may not have to have passed the exams, so long as he's up to the standard. So if he builds on what he knows and loves, regardless of exams, that will help.

yes, it's likely that the bands want grade3 standard, not grade 3 exam pass.

:)

And he can sit grade 2 without having passed grade 1.

Don't worry, I'm sure he didn't do as badly as he thinks.

Ds did Grade 5 piano last year and for some reason froze in the exam room. When the examiner started off with an easy scale, ds couldn't even think what the notes were. He also had to re-start his best piece three times when he'd done it perfectly half an hour beforehand. The worst point was that I could hear it all through the wall and then the stupid woman next to me who was accompanying the next candidate started saying "Oh dear - what a disaster ". Then she droned on how she knew the composer of one of the modern pieces and how much is suited her protégée (puke).

Anyway, ds still got a merit so I often think one focuses on the bad points after an exam and forgets about all the things that were done right!

Also, in earlier grades, ds has had to contend with the examiner who dropped his cup of tea and biscuit in the middle of a piece, and the examiner who was being examined himself, so marked really harshly.

Yes DD2 managed to
Teacher didn't tell her she had to learn vast no. of scales.
DD1 sings her exams don't have scales.

Have decided DD2 and music is a dead loss because she hates classical music and therefore everything she has to practice.
Ridiculous because she could play an instrument really well and because she loves ballet. She practices hard at that and passes all her exams and doesn't moan about the music at all.

that's a shame.
DH didn't just play classical - he played a lot of show tunes and pop music too.
Okay, to do the exams, you have to learn the music they set, but if she can play cool music too, then it might kindle her love of playing a bit more.
What about learning the music from the ballets? would that help her?

Ah Reality, that's so sad and understandable. We had bad week too. Someone crashed into us and wrote the car off and the cat has been touch and go on every antibiotic under the sun after being bitten by another cat, so DS was not his usual laid back self to start with, and neither was I.

Gramercy at the woman who knew the composer. Bet her protegee was no stronger than anyone else.

There are more important things in learning an instrument Han the failing exams!!

One of our teachers- "A" ( piano and singing) is very exam focussed. It's getting tedious but she has a prep school day job, so " proof" of progress is in her DNA. Most exams are taken when child is " just " capable of that grade.

Our recorder teacher "B" ( who is very very " big" in the recorder world) doesn't really bother with them unless you fancy taking one and the time is right. He will also only put you in for a level very ell within your abilities. He feels no need to " prove" anything ( nd we as parents don't feel that need anymore ).

I rate the musical education the kids get from "B" hugely. From "A" they get a good basic grounding- none of them will be concert pianists but they'll all have acceptable piano skills. But all 3 ( especially the elder 2) are very very good recorder players.

Exams mean little but feel like the world at the time.

Much hugs o your small person

I agree theas - sometimes, it's harder to learn an instrument if you're only playing to pass exams. you get much more joy from it if you're playing to perform, or just for the joy of playing.
:)

This is true. So long as he'll be allowed to participate in bands when he reaches grade 3 level, exam or no exam, that is what he is looking forward to. To be fair to his teacher, she is definitely of the B variety. Forgot to teach him any of the stuff he needs for exams but they will happily spend an entire term on a very tricky piece of Tchaikovsky, well above his level, because he's fallen for it and wants to be able to play it.

I'm going to back down about exams, and just let him play to enjoy himself. He made much swifter progress then.

Meant to say thank you Theas, that last post was in reply to yours.

Meant to say thank you Theas, that last post was in reply to yours.

You are not obliged to go straight into an exam if they have a cancellation- if you need time to compose yourself then you should be able to.

One of my pupils turned up for a clarinet exam once and was told to go straight in (so the examiner could go home earlier) even though we had factored in some warm up time (which is vital for a woodwind instrument as its tuning changes as it warms up.)

I refused and marched my pupil straight past into the warm up room much to the annoyance of the exam centre official.

If two of your sons pieces went well and most of the rest of the exam was ok (broken chords don't count for much) then I am sure he will be fine.

On the youth bands thing - DS learns clarinet at school with a county music service teacher. They do 'levels' - continuous assessment - rather than exams, though the numbering is the same (so DS is learning Grade 3 pieces to be assessed for Level 3 IYSWIM).

He wanted to join a county youth jazz band, which specified 'Grade 2', but I explained that he didn't do exams, and they were fine with that because all they were interested in is whether he could play at that standard, not that he had the piece of paper.