Grade 1 piano & Grade 1 violin: would you do them together or not?

[orangeberries]

My DD1 is ready to do both Grade 1 piano and violin, but I am worried that doing them both at the same time might put too much pressure on her? The violin teacher said he would be happy for her to wait until Feb/March time but she'd be ready to do them in November if we so wish...what to do? Anyone else has experience of this? She's 8 in December if that makes much a difference....

I reckon it would be ok if she is pretty well on with her pieces. They might get stale if you leave it till the next exams. And the aural tests will be the same anyway.

That's what I was worrying about, that she will move onto different pieces and then have to pick old ones again? I think it might be worth doing them together...

It sounds ok to me and i'm sure your DD is old enough to cope with it. If she's ready you may as well get them out of the way. You can always stagger the exams when she's on a higher grade.

You have changed my mind now and I think I am going to have a go at letting her do both, she is very keen to do them now anyway....!!

Mine did grade 3 recorder and grade 2 clarinet on the same day. It's easily doable.

I have just decided against DD1 doing two together, because they are Grade 3 Recorder with TG, and Grade 1 Flute with ABRSM - so two different woodwind instruments, different grades, different exam boards (so none of the aural etc is the same) and she is a year younger than your DD. However, I think 8 is old enough to cope with doing two together, she is unlikely to muddle fingerings up, and the aural will be the same, as Beanbagz said. As time goes on, we'll probably do the same at some point.

Sorry, I got muddled up, I should have said Katisha. Apologies.

Dd1 did grade 4 singing and grade 4 piano on the same day last year. She quite enjoyed it. I had an interesting letter to write to school though, as she was missing the beginning and end of the day.

She should do them together or she should skip grade 1 violin and move onto grade 2.

I was going to suggest missing grade 1 violin too. Dd went straight to grade 2 when she was 6, then did grade 4 last yr & will do grade 5 in march.

I hadn't thought of the Grade 2 violin, I will definitely have a think about that!

Grade 2 violin not hugely harder than 1, but a big jump from 2 to 3 IMHO. That said, if she were mine I'd let her do both. I did