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!!

Hi all DS1 had Grade 1 piano today in 30 deg heat in someone's house!
He did fine except for one piece. the first half went well but then he totally lost it in the second half and ended up, after trying to retrieve it and not succeeding, doing that half again... will he still get some marks for that piece?
Scales and other pieces faultless if maybe a bit stilted.
His aural sounds a bit hit and miss he definitely got the rhythm wrong as I could hear from outside. He is not sure about singing bit but got the note change right. Sightreading was fine except for one note.
I just hope he won't fail because of that one piece. He played it perfectly in the warm up room...
Any experience of this anyone- he is mortified

Happy piglet. This is grade 1 firetly i dont think perfection is expected!He only has to get a pass overall not in each section " perfect if a bit stilted" sounds like it'll get pretty good marks - certainly well over the pass mark for each section, and 1-2 marks above in all the other sections is all he needs to counteract even quite severe dropped marks in the piece that went badly when you look at the Maths.

Tell him not to worry, give him a little treat for his efforts today and wait and see how the results turn out.

(I always give small reward after the exam is taken- a cake at tea time, or a grown up coffee shop visit etc- the actual marks are so dependent on how hard/soft the examiner is, and dare I say it, especially at high grades,if they like your interpretation of the style. We have had criticism of stylistic points the our teacher has really encouraged! )

I'd be interested if anyone has any experience of skipping grades?

DS (13) does his piano grades but has not done any theory grades or singing grades so far. He was however a Cathedral Chorister for 6 years, singing 8-10 times a week, so has extensive experience of theory and singing. They are putting him straight into Grade 5 theory, but we haven't seen the singing teacher yet and we don't know what would be a reasonable expectation for him as to where to start in the singing grades.

If you are asking if its a problem skipping grades. no its definitely not a problem. DS1 went straight to Grade 5 on three instruments.

It seems fairly common for DC only to do Grade 5 theory, certainly DS2 won't do any earlier.

I have no personal idea re singing in particular. DS1s friend (14) who has also been a Chorister has just taken Grade 5 singing (Distinction) and he already has Grade 8s on 2 instruments.

Singing grades are easy; I'm presuming his sight reading is very good. Lots of children we know who've done lots of serious singing have just done grade 8 singing and skipped the rest.

Has his voice started/finished changing? This is the tricky thing with boys and singing. Ds2 is 14 and his range varies from day-to-day. Sometimes his range is very small, then it's not possible to sing more demanding repertoire. Other times his range is immense!

Singing grades probably won't challenge him much at all below 5.Worth doing 5 I guess and seeing how the land lies. Higher grades do just stretch someone with a chorister training in other directions they may not have ventured - eg ornate Italian baroque ornamentation and the work on bringing out the character in a musical theatre song. He'll probably need to actually be taught a good controlled vibrato too - dd1 (chorister trained) has a default setting of a straight,pure boy treble sound even at aged nearly 20 (that's the way the girls are trained) but has a vibrato now she can use if needed as ornamentation. She doesn't have the big vibrato that the girls who "sing pop" have all the time.

Changing voices are interesting. Our experience us singing through the change is fine but it needs to be gently done. Ds didn't really warble /screech/growl- he sort of slid down. Could be training or luck! He has had a nice stable bass voice (and joined an adult choir) at just 14. Would certainly give a year or two to settle before exams.

If he's still a good treble at 13 he's probably coming to his peak, so maybe get a teacher and do grade 5 inthe autumn. If that goes brilliantly amalgamate the extended skills fast and charge into 7 or 8 before he looses his treble voice!

Oh DS did his grade 7 piano on Friday. Text after said " messed up..think failed" :(

However he's just had a text from his teacher - he got a merit:) !!

I think he just has terribly high expectations of himself and is hard on himself when he sees anything that doesn't live up to that. Hope he can adjust his thinking a bit...

Still awaiting dd2 recorder resot. Her teacher is away though

ds got 135 "does that mean I passed?" he said. He really enjoyed his exam, much to my surprise, as he'd started on the pieces too early and got a bit fed up with them. And despite telling me he wasn't going to practise for 2 weeks, he got his violin out today.

Looks like ds likes exams. I found it waaay too stressful. DH can take him next time.

Just seen an email from DD2's ex (just retired) teacher telling us that she got a really good merit for her grade 3 flute. Since DD2 was convinced she'd messed up big-time I think she'll be very happy with that. She's asleep in the bed next to me though - we got back to our hotel from the dr who prom about half an hour ago and she was out like a light! All in all a pretty good day though

Thanks Raspberry, Casey and Theas (and congrats to your DS).

The question wasn't about whether it was possible to skip grades but where to skip to, if that makes sense. Being musically illiterate we just don't know. He's done some medals with the choir - Deans and Bishops - and as far as I know there aren't any more to be done.

Really interested in the feedback that it might be best to wait until his voice has stopped changing. At the moment all we know is that his treble range is smaller than it used to be.

So you think grade 5 might be a good place to start? Okey dokey.

Well done to everyone!

I am STILL waiting for my last exam result (I do know that I've got 38/39 through so far this term).

Meanwhile, MiniWaffle has started her Grade 2 Flute pieces. I'm a bit worried it might be too soon, because she can pretty much play them already, and the exam wouldn't be until Nov/ Dec. Maybe we'll get her to learn all the tunes in the book, and pick the best ones in a few months. She can then play some of the others for the festival.

wuldric looking at the abrsm grade 5 syllabus hes probably got enough repertoire that crosses over to do most of it anyway. Add a folk song and the jobs done :)

Wafflenose- does she need to do the grade 2 exam? Dd skipped straight to grade 3 , having done the piano grades and being familiar with the aural. But if she wants to do it, then learning all the pieces in the book works well. Dd has always done this and narrowed down 2-3 months before the exam. If it had no other benefit, it would still be worth it for my enjoyment! Having to listen to only 3 pieces for months is so tedious.

Quip- that is brilliant. Is that is first exam?

No, she doesn't need to do it. She has done Grade 4 Recorder, so is pretty good at sight reading and aural too. Her teacher suggested taking Grade 3 in a year's time instead. DD is keen to collect the certificates! If she's gone past it by September, I won't pay out £40 though (or however much it costs now).

Viewofthehills - yes, it was his grade 1. I was having my doubts about exams as ds had got a bit bored of his pieces, but I think they appeal to his inner show-off :) I'm sure he'll be wanting to do more now.

Awaiting results for DC's violin grade 5 (possibly scraped a pass, and will be resting for a while to concentrate on GCSEs) and grade 5 clarinet. Next will be grade 5 theory and on to grade 6 clarinet. It will be a relief to stop violin, as it has been an uphill push to get to this exam and I've felt mean insisting that DC goes through with it, having worked on the pieces and scales and not having much enthusiasm. It will be so lovely to just concentrate on the one instrument, out of enjoyment. :D

2 week wait for my ds grade one recorder results. Should have done well but my spy behind the door heard some pretty big problems [losing way in a piece with poor piano trying to find him, some good scales and some poor]. Ds said examiner said well done after aural and 2x pieces went ok we think. Sight reading ds said not good.
Will be a shame if he fails as he will not be keen to carry on and a pass would be a real boost.
He has clumsy fine motor skills and recorder seemed good idea.

Well recorder result is in... A nice high distinction for dd2 grade 6 recorder - she's chuffed, and I think it was a week deserved result.

You don't need to do all the exams at all. DH who plays the viola very well indeed (ie could have been professional but wanted to enjoy playing) only took it up at 13, took grades 5 and 8 and nothing else. Most teachers prefer pupils to do grades because they provide a structure and a great deal of motivation. Absolutely not necessary though.

duchess we know that LOL. THere is another thread about that, did you post in the wrong place?

this thread is for support for those of us going through the exam mill- even if we only do it occasionally.

Trouble is with 3 kids doing 2 instruments and singing and piano (OK maybe 2 kids as DD1 is at uni now) my name will crop up with monotonous regularity LOL (even not doing all grades)

Fadedsaphirre I hope your DS passes his grade 1 OK. Remember it's an over all mark and I'm sure some slips are expected at that level.

My DS has terrible fine motor control- his writing is poor even at 17. Music generally just carries him when he thinks about it not what his fingers are doing. Definitely worth persisting. His main instrument is recorder and 2nd instruments french horn/piano. Brass is much less affected by shaky hands and coordination issues if you want to look for another choice for your DS.

Just found out DD2 has passed grade 1 flute, with merit. :)

She is on grade 5 piano, so she knows what to expect in an exam, and it helped with the sight reading and aurals. Just wish I could get her to practise more. She is so relaxed, and then it's a mad panic just before the exam!

Congratulations to all children and their brilliant results!

My two are doing their violin exam tomorrow, I can't believe it's taken so long, it hasn't been ideal having an exam on the last week of school, when the weather is great outside and they are very tired (= tears and not wanting to practise at all!!!!)

I have stopped caring now, I just want to get them through it tomorrow. It's grade 1 and grade 2 violin. DD1 should be ok as she well into her grade 3 curriculum now, but the exam and she has been switching between the two for 3 months now. Not ideal but hey ho. Will let you all know how it goes!!