Support group for parents of children taking music exams!

[Wafflenose]

Hello, I'm feeling excited, nervous and wobbly because my daughter is taking her first music exam in three weeks. I'm a music teacher and am very used to getting children through the exams, keeping the parents informed, helping to focus practice, etc, but this is my first experience with my own child doing an exam and for some reason it's more scary than putting other people's children in! I think she will be OK (and the other thirteen I have entered this term) but I'm not!! Any tips for the 'other side' (parents rather than music teachers) for how to keep us both calm on the day would be gratefully received! Does it get easier as they become more experienced? Am thinking not...

She is taking part in the local music festival tomorrow, to gain performance experience. She's wildly excited, and I've got the jitters!!

Fantastic results! Congratulations to little Raspberry! Aural and Sightreading full marks!Remarkable!

Raspberrylemon. THat's fab! Well done!

Morningpurples I think " finding the aural easy" or not just reflects how much singing the children do on the whole, and how broad their musical experience is. My team sing loads and loads and aural has never been hard for them (though DD2 lacks confidence) . It's more " fine tuning" and knowing what the question will be that the teacher does. (lower grades have a very limited range of questions and it's just knowing how they want the answer phrasing etc)

Congratulations on the great results so far. Dd2 is still far from well but she is insistent that she wants to do her exams this week. She's missing a concert this evening (but did one yesterday afternoon, because it involved 'singing on the radio' and will be singing the psalm at a secial mass at school on Thursday morning before her exam (I wanted to say no but she was quite upset at the prospect of not singing)). I can sort of see where she's coming from in that singing is much more important to her than her instruments. But still.

WRT aural - when I was at school, none of the peris covered aural in their lessons. The school was an exam centre, so all entries were done through the school, and about 2 weeks before the exams the head of music scheduled each girl doing an exam for a 20 minute aural and accompanying session either during A and O level music classes (we always had tests those days with someone else invigilating) or lunchtime/pre school/after school. I think that if someone had an issue with aural, revealed during that session, then they did some kind of emergency catchup. But I don't think it happened often - our school was ALL about the singing. My kids have a mixture of peri lessons in school and private lessons outside. The only one who does aural is the clarinet peri who teaches DS in school. None of the people who teach the girls in school do aural with them but that's because they know the girls have singing lessons and do loads of other singing stuff in addition, also, Dd2 is ahead of her other instruments in her singing grades. So they leave the singing teacher to cover it which is fine.

Someone upthread was asking about the frequency of exams. One factor which wasn't mentioned is expense. Teachers round here start from the premise that parents won't necessarily want to shell out more than once a year. And when a kid is learning more than one instrument - or, you have more than one kid learning one or more instruments, it can all add up. Also, some schools (and se teachers) don't like kids taking exams in the summer term.

Well done to mini Raspberry!! That's fantastic.

Hope all the sickies are recovering.

I had 7 pupils do exams today. DD made some mistakes in her solo piece, but everything else went well. The others were a mixed bag, and there were some disasters unrelated to the actual playing, which resulted in a change of room and piano halfway through, a child turning up late huffing and puffing, and frantic phone calls between departments. I can't be more specific here, but all of this did have an impact on everyone. I really, really hope they've all passed. It's TG, so we should know by the end of the week.

DD1 did violin grade 1 today, it went ok. Her teacher said she made some mistakes she'd never made before in her best piece, but my DD1 said that she could hardly hear the piano and it confused her. Anyway, overall she was happy with how it went, so fingers crossed! How long do results normally take with ABRSM? DD1 now has grade 1 piano left on friday...I think she's a bit more confident though as she's been through it and now know what it's all about!!!

Thank you everyone for your kind comments.

Its interesting the comments re aural and singing. Ds is a chorister (fairly new, was made up in September) and therefore spends hours each week singing and sight-reading.

Wafflenose what an awful session! I thought ours was bad when DS piano was delayed because a previous candidate had to go back in. (She had been asked questions from the grade above apparently).

Please can I seek some geniue advice about something else but really related to the main theme of this thread?

My children won 8 trophies recently, including two overall, and local newspaper coverage . This is usually all our out of school business,but how about now?Shall I tell school or not, take awards to school or not? Make a truly deserved fuss or keep it quiet to ourselves?Particuly when they are doing Christmas production almost everyday.
I had a awkward experience before, trophies were kept in teacher's cardboard for a week for nothing by mistake or for any unknown reason.

orangeberries for is it has varied, Shortest was 2 weeks, longest 4 weeks. Good luck to your DD for Friday.

A genuine question!

Curiousmind - I'm assuming your children are at primary school. Do they have celebration assembly or some equivalent? They have this at my daughters's school. Children can take in their swimming certificates, ballet awards etc.. If not, then I would just perhaps take them in to show the class teacher.

Maybe singing lessons would help with the aural. I don't know. I do sing in choirs, but never on my own. And the sight-singing test is fine - as long as I have music in front of me, I'm not too bad. But I've never learned by ear - maybe that's what I think the children find easier, as some of them are used to doing that a lot in primary school or elsewhere. I can't remember not reading music, and I'd always rather see something and translate it to music than hear it. I guess I'll pick up marks on the sight singing, even if I'm useless at the first test. Can't imagine how it'll be in later exams, when you have to pick out a specific line, and then remember that one! eek. I'm wondering about trying to find a tutor, but not sure what they'd be able to do that all the books/CDs/hofnote haven't been able to. I can also work on the answering questions bit for the last test, the style and period one. I guess if I learn some of the 'right' things to say, that should be another place to pick up some of the marks. (I still want to know the answer to the YouTube videoed gr5 exam I linked earlier, if anyone has time to watch it! The level of the whole thing rather freaked me out, and that was apparently only Grade 5).

CURIOUS - agree with schilke - in my DS old primary they announced extra-curriculum awards in the assembly. I would just ask their teacher what their view is. It is good for DC to get some recognition in their school.
Now DS is in a prep school, I just email his Form tutor who will pass it on to anyone else . They will mention achievements in the latest news section on schools website, mention it during various school ceremonies etc.

Last major competition, I got email from the organisers on Monday morning when DS was at school doing his exams. I emailed his Form tutor straight away and he came up and whispered the good news into DS's ear in the middle of his science exam !

curiousmind I remember your other thread when she just left them in the cupboard. Not nice.

DS junior school also has celebration assemblies. They don't differentiate levels of achievement though, so for instance a child with a 10m swimming certificate would receive as big a clap as DSs friend who is a county and regional champion is his chosen sport.

DCs secondary school often has items on their on-line news page of students achieving sporting success, and other achievements outside of school.

Maybe ask the head this time?

Oh,You remembered Raspberry.It is that experience made this so straightforward things now an unsure issue.
We have weekly whole school assembly normally, but these two weeks is full of Christmas production from each year group.

I braved myself up asked the teacher this morning. She said she will ask HT.(Different teacher from last term)Hopefully I can get a reply soon.

Pianomama, This is so sweet :'he came up and whispered the good news into DS's ear in the middle of his science exam !'

Results in just now!!

DD (year 2) got a merit for Grade 3 and will be over the moon! I'll take the mark sheet to meet her with when I collect her from school.

My Year 3s from work got a pass and two merits for Initial, and a merit for Grade 1 (this child had a VERY difficult day/ exam so will be pleased!).

My Year 4s both got a pass for Grade 1. These two had to work soooo hard for a pass that I'm probably more pleased for them than for DD, who finds it easy. She has also worked very hard though, so we'll make a fuss of her tonight.

We've got one this week.

I have just heard some practice and am not confident! For some reason, the tune he has been playing now aounds completely different from what he played before. When I asked why it sounded different he said 'that's how my teacher says I should play it'. It did not sound good!

Wafflenose - that's great.When ws the exam? My DS had his a week ago so I guess its at least another week at least to get the results ..

Santa, can you find recordings of the pieces to listen to? Maybe that will help.

Pianomama, it was TG so only a couple of days' wait. AB usually takes 2-3 weeks, but they've got much better in recent years and I've had results from them after 8-10 days sometimes.

DD2 had flute today (grade 2). Poor little thing has been so ill, and now she has quite bad cold sores (because she's run down) so playing the flute is quite painful, but she was determined to give it a go. The accompanist (who is very experienced and has accompanied my kids for loads of exams) said it went really well - but we shall see. I think we've all adjusted out expectations downwards since she was in hospital. Recorder grade 3 to follow on Saturday - that should stil be solid even given her illness. But again, we'll see. I'll be glad to get this exam season out of the way, really.

Well done to miniwaffle. And well done all your work DCs too.

Poor little Mordion.Still sounds like she did well so well done and fingers crossed!

Firstly good luck and well done to all those taking grades this season. Some seem so young, and real little troupers going though it all when unwell too. Reading your experiences makes me wish even more that I'd allowed DD1 to start younger, avoiding the current struggle she is having juggling grades with GCSE's, but hey you can't turn the clock back.

DD1 did ABRSM Grade 5 about 2.5 years ago and started at a Saturday music school shortly after. No recorder grades since (long story) but will be taking TG Grade 6 later this month. Understand there are 'choices' not available in ABRSM, but she is sticking with he aural and scales, as advised. She does not generally get exam nerves, but is getting quite stressed about this one, and convinced it will be more difficult to get a good grade than ABRSM.
Not sure why, she knows her pieces inside out, and has performed them all publicly, and plays pieces well above the grade standard.

She also thinks the aural may be different, posssibly easier. She has been to classes (for grade 6 to 8), recently took Grade 3 ABRSM piano and found the aural for that confusing in comparison.

There appears to be a great deal of exam knowledge on this thread, so hoping for some opinions of ABRSM vs TG for higher recorder grades.

Received wisdom is to stick with Trinity. DD1 has lessons with 2 former Moeck finalists and that's what they say. They are the ones with the track record for examining recorder. And they are the ones the conservatoire teachers did their grades with (if they did grades). Having said that though a grade 8 is a grade 8.

Well done to mini waffle and the waffle pupils too. :)

Well done to the waffles various, especially little miss waffle.that's a great result!