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!!

It is a special visit to the school, they have enough pupils for a week's visit by Trinity Guildhall.

ProfessorSunny, it depends on the exam board, I think. Trinity Guildhall you can carry on to Grade 8 without doing theory. ABRSM requires theory Grade 5 to continue to Grade 6 or I think there is an alternative of practical musicianship.

We do a mixture of boards depending on teacher, piano is ABRSM to DSs are learning theory. DD doesn't do piano at present, so she isn't doing any thory but we will sort that out as/when she needs to.

The content of the theory syllabus is the same, regardless of what instrument is being studied. ABRSM and Trinity both do theory grades, although I'm not sure if ABRSM will accept Trinity's Grade 5 theory to carry on to the higher grades.

May sound silly but I have no previous experience with music. :o My daughter has been given inital music pieces for violin by her teacher. I was told she has to play two pieces that are contrasting and show of her skill but does anyone have any more information on this, what else would she have to do.Is this also a "proper exam"?

The board is also Trinity Guildhall.

Is it Trinity's Initial Grade? If so, I'm pretty sure it's more than two pieces - for recorder, it's three, and some simple exercises, plus two of the following: listening games, sight reading, improvisation and musical knowledge. This is a proper (pre-Grade 1) exam and marked as such. The Associated Board offer the Prep Test, which consists of exercises, two pieces and some listening games, and is more of an informal assessment than a proper exam. Hope this helps.

Both are ABSRM, though different instruments. Maybe the one teacher didn't bother with theory or maybe it's different with violin than piano.

Professor sunny, it isn't different with piano and violin. If he/she wants to do Grade 6 ABRSM, he/she will have to do Grade 5 Theory or Practical Musicianship or Jazz first. Lots of teachers just don't bother, then either change boards for Grade 6, or send them to someone else for the theory, or get them to cram for Grade 5 theory before they take Grade 6! If your child is aiming for Grade 6 or higher ABRSM violin, I'd get the books (Music Theory in Practice) and The AB Guide To Music Theory (which is like the textbook for the work books) and some past papers, and get started.

I'd recommend the TRINITY theory work books - they are far more fun and child-friendly than the ABRSM ones.

ds2 worked through the Trinity Gr1-4 books at home, with occasional help from me. Then did the ABRSM Grade 5 book (which was tedious). And a few practice papers this holidays.

He's doing a couple of theory lessons with his teacher this month and sitting his Grade 5 exam in March.

Waf, do you have ideas how to help a 8 years old(MY Ds1) to make his theory work neater.He understands very well, but the handwriting, the notes ,sharps and flats are not in the accurate place (For example, a notes means to be in between the lines, but look like slightly sit on the line).He is doing ABRSM G5.

Thank you for replying Wafflenose :)

Looks like I'm the last to come back with results! (received Saturday via website)

DD did recorder grade 2 and got 130 (Distinction) Well done to all those that passed.

However, school are rather upset as it was an AB special visit and all pupils got at least 5 marks less than expected (including 2 failures). Does anybody know how many examinees are needed for a TG special visit? The school can't seem to find out.

As I understand it, according to their website they will make a visit if a teacher/school has 3.5 hours of examinations.

Thank Raspberry - found it now! It also mentions the choice between Specilist & Non-specialist examiners which got me thinking. If you go down the non-epcialist route are you not going to end up with all the AB 'variable results' problems? In which case there would be no point in the school changing. Anyone with any experience of TG Non-specialist examiners?

Does specialist mean that they are only doing one instrument? Any exams DCs have done at exam centres have been a mix, both AB and TG but I've no idea how teachers felt about it, my DCs always seemed ok.

DS and DD's school is having their own TG visit next month, they have a week's worth. I know it was a different examiner for woodwind at the beginning of the week last year, then the second examiner did brass/strings/singing but suppose they may have been a specialist on all 3.

So who's doing exams this term?
ds2 is doing grade 4 piano and grade 5 theory.

Thanks Raspberry that's exactly what I'm trying to get my head around! I wouldn't have thought trinity would risk their reputation by sending someone who knew nothing about some of the instruments they were examining. Difficult to know where to find the answer, I dare say I could always ring them when I have a moment.

Sorry pugs should have congratulated your DD on her great result!

When DD did her sax exam with abrsm at a local centre she was in the middle of piano candidates if that helps too.

roisin - think ds will be doing grade 3 violin. Got to decide by Friday if going to apply in time!

My eldest (7) is doing her Gd 1 violin on Friday. I took my nephew for his exam in December and I was totally fine, but I'm now petrified that she's going to mess it up somehow! She's usually totally relaxed about performing, but yikes, I'm terrified!! Have to try and stay really calm this week, despite having to practice aural tests with her (the echo bit is a bit of a challenge, she just seems to make it up...). She will pass, but she really wants to do as well as her cousin who got a merit with 125. I'm so proud of her for just walking through the door though :)

No two examiners are the same and marks can vary by up to 10 points, although this would be disputed. So it may be worth mentioning this to your daughter.

"I wouldn't have thought trinity would risk their reputation by sending someone who knew nothing about some of the instruments they were examining."

I played a very 'minority' instrument at school. I only took 2 music exams (Grades 3 and 7) as I mainly played for fun - but both examinders had very little experience of my instrument, reading scale requirements etc out from some battered old tome and having never heard the pieces before! Just one of those things - not abut reputation of the exam board, just that some instruments ARE uncommon and infrequently encountered whereas violin / piano etc are something all examiners probably hear every day.

DD1 is doing Grade 6 flute this term, and DS is doing Grade 3 clarinet. DD's exam won't be till March - her school is an examination centre for the local district and they always have the exams right at the end of term. DS's exam is I think much much earlier, his school is not an exam centre so he will be doing his at a centre in town, but he's very familiar with it, he has seen his sisters do singing and piano exams there before. I think that is about 4 weeks away.

Exam week here. DS is doing Grade 5 trombone tomorrow and DD Grade 5 Jazz Sax on Wednesday. DS couldn't be more laid back and DD gettting more stressed by the hour!

I gave Ds1 theory past paper yesterday, didn't realize there are 4 papers in each book.After 1 1/2 hours, I found he did 2 1/2 papers already!
Why there are 4 papers in a year when they (ABRSM)have 3 exam seasons?

Hi all, long break here and lots going on (including my grandmother passing away last week) but I am back!

I do know the answer to the four theory papers each year - one is for March, one for June, one for November and one for Special Visits, hence the names A, B, C and S for the papers (these are the names of the sessions).

I am an experienced and highly qualified instrumental teacher, but still not experienced enough (or good enough at the piano) to become an examiner. It really isn't easy to become selected. They are all much more highly trained than I am, have usually played a variety of instruments themselves, played in professional orchestras, or been conductors or heads of music departments for many, many years. Believe me, they will know how each instrument is meant to work and sound, and that it can be hard to cross the break on some wind instruments, and difficult to play strings and trombone perfectly in tune early on, etc etc. We were required to learn lots about this for A level music, and Grade 8 theory, and examiners have much more experience than this. Being 'generalists' means that they mark on musical merit - accuracy, expression, style etc - but obviously they are going to know that fingering, breathing or tuning is harder on certain instruments. I can only think that if they all marked just their own instrument, the marks might possibly be slightly lower because they would be even more aware of every single imperfection, or know that a Grade 5 student 'should' be able to play in tune or cross the break effortlessly, for example. I would love to be an examiner one day, but am not sure if I'm getting too old to radically improve my sight-reading for the aural tests...

BTW I have only ever had one big shock with ABRSM results. The children normally come within 5 marks of their mock exam marks - usually improving a little between my marking (2 weeks before) and the big day. Trinity, I have only been using for a few sessions now, but so far they have been roughly as expected, except for a potential distinction last term who got a low pass. As all the other results were OK, I can only conclude that he messed up severely. He did look a bit jittery!