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!!

Harrogate: Well, I thought ds2 just had a viral infection/cold; I didn't take him to the GP til later in the week (and got my wrist slapped for not taking him earlier).

But I'm glad I didn't know, as I really wouldn't have wanted him to postpone, as he was ready now.

Ironingbored: ds2 has always had distinctions in the past too, but I think he's resigned himself to the fact that this one isn't going to be.

Roisin,
I think even the examiners are fully aware of the quality of the piano, which of course they do, they won't (I don't think they should) take it as an excuse. It's always down to the pianist to learn quickly to get the best out of THIS piano. It's part of the skill for pianist, they have to use whatever provided.
But we learned the lesson today!

Ironingboard,
Styling period is one of the trickiest question, maybe only 50% children can get it right with best luck. It's only played once, gone in a flash, pedal used whatever the styling period it should be, they all sounds so romantic to me . The good thing is this question worth one or two marks only, we've still got 148 at least to play with!

Thanks Curious. Normally she's pretty good at saying which period it is, but yesterday she just wasn't sure. She couldn't even see the examiners feet as she was behind the piano, so wasn't sure about the pedal and that threw her. The fact there were big dynamic changes caused her to rule out baroque. She doesn't really have the maturity or confidence to speak up too much, so hopefully she enough.

She also did loads of scales (7ish) - not sure if this is a good or bad sign!!!

*hopefully she did enough.

Just got DD's result through from her teacher - 82/100 (Merit).

Note to self - make sure she doesn't get run down before music exams in future!

Good luck to those still waiting for results and hope all the sickly ones are feeling better soon.

Dd did hers yesterday. Pianist came out and said dd smiled in between each piece she played (dd said she was happy that each piece played meant one fewer to go!)
I'm wondering if seeming over-confidence is a bad thing

Sounds like a probable distinction, Ironing. But any pass is great at Grade 5 - it's a similar difficulty to taking a GCSE (although not the same breadth of study obviously).

Well done to Mini Beanz!

MiniWaffle got a bit excited and played three accented notes up the octave by accident. So easily done on the flute, especially when you are 7 and excited! She also had a little slip in one piece, but said everything else went well. Straight on with the next recorder one now.

Good luck to your DD Wafflenose, how many instruments does she play?

A teacher at my DD's school suggested she take grades on the recorder but we're already paying for guitar & paino lessons and can't afford a third instrument. Would it be hard to do without lessons?

Three really Beanz, although she is also teaching herself the treble recorder. She's a good Grade 4 on the descant, much lower on the treble as she doesn't know all the new note names yet, and also plays the piano and flute, and has started on the theory. She only has lessons on the flute (20 minutes) as it's all we can afford, so I just help her with the other bits when she wants me to.

Unless you are a music teacher, she would need at least occasional lessons. Maybe start with a grade that's rather easy for her though, and see how well she does learning the pieces and scales? Can she ask the school music teacher for help?

She's moving up to high school in Sept so we may wait until she's settled there. She dabbles on descant, treble and soprano recorder with DH's help (he's Grade 5 flute).

Phew: ds2 got a merit for his gr5 piano, despite messing up his scales and being quite ill.

His teacher has given him a book of tricky jazz duets to sightread through over Easter ... I'm not sure she has a realistic idea of my playing skills :-o

Congratulations to your DS Roisin and good luck for the Easter practice!

Only one more term with DD's current guitar teacher before moving to high school so i think she's going to be doing some fun stuff too.

DS just came out of his clarinet exam. He seems cheerful enough but that's no indication really. He said he played his study 'at the speed of sound' so that the examiner wouldn't notice if he made any mistakes.

LOL at Russians.

To be honest I've got 'important stuff fatigue' this week already. DD1 has had a French GCSE controlled assessment thing, a music GCSE performance thing and the music festival, and DD2 has also had the music festival. And DS has had exams/tests (end of unit stuff) all last week and this week at school. Hopefully his clarinet was OK. But really I think we have all triumphed by just still being standing at this point!

Yeah, I know the feeling: that was us last week!

Oopsy.just remembered dd2 did grade 6 clarinet last Friday and age hadn't even told me how it went =-O

In my defence I was away Thursday and Friday and rather preoccupied by taking my elderly father to his radiotherapy appointments.

I thought we had a lull in exams til piano at
the end of April but clearly not lol.

Russians I agree with the"important stuff fatigue" .just still being standing and in the right place at the right time can be a achievement.

Just been called by the music festival organisers. DD1 has been invited to perform in the closing gala concert. This is usually for the top performers in each category, so, one stringed instrument, one harp, one wind etc...although they sometimes do have more than one in a category if there are two outstanding performances which are wildly different (eg you might have, for example, an outstanding jazz saxophonist in the open section and a similarly great wind instrument player in the advanced baroque, to have both of them in the gala wouldn't be 'samey' at all).

So, anyway - this is Really Good. I'm so pleased for her because she deserves it. She's very unpushy and shy and it's nice for something like this to boost her confidence a bit - she gets very little positive re-enforcement at her school, because she isn't one of the pushy ones.

Well done to all DC!
Going back up the thread about playing on unfamiliar piano- DS had been doing lots of festivals on the piano recently and there was a very good discussion by one of the adjudicators where he commented on performer's ability to quickly adjust to an unfamiliar piano.
I don't know whether it is appropriate to ask to try the piano first during music exam , but would be a really good idea. I guess during the exam it is always better to start with scales so you get the feel of it without compromising your pieces.

PS. Well done Russians DD1! Hope she gets a nice new dress for the Gala.

Pianomama She most certainly won't be getting a new anything. But she did get a Streisand ticket on Wednesday so I think that'll do her (it had better do!).

You should always try a few notes out on a piano, and the examiner should suggest this.

Russians - I pictured you and DD in Harvey Nichols waiving your platinum credit cards in preparation to the Gala. These nick names can be so misleading .

pianomama It's a literary reference. I am neither Russian nor invading Germany. And I'm nowhere near Harvey Nicks (in fact I've never been inside Harvey Nicks). The word gala in the context of this concert is perhaps testing the elasticity of the boundaries of the definition It would more properly be called the 'concert at the end with all the best people in it'. But that wouldn't fit on the programme cover I guess!

We too have had just had our local festival (definitely not the same as your Russians). DS2 was the first piano competitior to try the piano before his piece and the adjudicator commented on what a good idea this was. She is also an ABRSM examiner and says she always suggests candidates try the piano before they start the exam, but most refuse.

We had a week of highs and lows with all 3 DC, but DS2 did get a trophy for the highest piano mark so very proud. No special concert here though.

Tuba Grade 5 for DS1 next week, which I keep forgetting about as it is in the middle of ten days of school exams, plus he already has 2 brass Grade 5s under his belt.

(a literary reference was the first and only thing that sprang to mind for me for your name, Russians! Assuming it is the right one).

we just had the local music festival too. But it's only a couple of days here, but again the same thing with the winners' concert at the end. The classes are sometimes quite small and there aren't that many of them, which is surprising in some ways for a place that has lots of music on. I entered myself on an instrument I have just started learning, because it goes by grades and not age, so there were a couple of other adults who are also gr 4 or 5 etc standard. Not sure I'd have done much lower than that and competed alongside really little children though, hard enough as it is (I hate performing and exams, but this was a way of getting practice, and I knew all the people that were there as they were all from my teacher). Where I grew up there used to be a much more involved music festival, probably 2 weeks' worth, with endless solo, ensemble, and large group classes, so schools were involved, local choirs, etc as well as all the individual performances.