Summer Term Music, Musicians and Music Exams thread

[Wafflenose]

Hello again everyone! I know not everyone in the UK has gone back to school yet, and some of you are overseas, but term here starts today, so it's time for a new thread. Please post away about your children, your own musical studies or any questions about music exams/ learning an instrument generally. We have a helpful and experienced bunch of people here to answer queries or reassure you.

I have MiniWaffle, who is 9, and BabyWaffle who is 6. Mini has passed Grade 5 Recorder and Grade 4 Flute, and also plays some trumpet, piano and ukulele. Baby has passed Grade 1 Recorder and Initial Cello, and tinkers with the piano (when it's not in the repair shop...)

This term for exams, we have Grade 3 Theory (Mini) - as a warm-up for Grade 5 which will hopefully take place next year - and Grade 1 Cello (Baby). Both in June. I am doing Grade 2 Xylophone for the NCO Parents' Challenge! We have been challenged to learn an instrument unrelated to our proper ones, and I'm really a clarinettist.

DD didn't do grades 1-3 (except working through the books) DD did grade4 and 5 books, and 4 test papers for each since January - but she has a talent for composition, so we didn't need to cover that as much as if we were going from scratch.

There were loads of little ones doing G1 in our hall - it was sweet to see - their little feet didn't even touch the floor....

Dd and her three friends said G5 theory was fine today, no suprises and more straightforward than one year of sample papers (apparenlty 2011 was an oddly difficult yr?) and they were all out in 90mins. Apparently lots of teenagers, quite a few taking higher grades upto g8.

Waffle - the terms were not bad - dolce was one, for example. Your dd has done amazingly to memorise so many already. I know you want to take it slow and since you are doing G6 Trinity there isn't the time thing (our syllabus changes, for example, and dd wants to do g6 on current
pieces if possible In Dec) But I doubt it would take your dd a year to get to g5 given how well she is doing - no one we knew today had taken earlier grades.

Glad all went well! The Grade 3 wasn't hard either, and she was pleased she didn't have to group notes in compound time. She hates it.

We heard a couple of 16(ish) year olds coming out from Grade 5 and saying they got dolce and tristamente. Mini said, "Ooh, I know those!" She got andante and espressivo, after all that learning of obscure ones!!

The original plan was to just do Grade 5 when we got there. But because that one matters more and DD1 is a worrier, I didn't want it to be her first ever written exam. I don't know yet whether she'll do Grade 5 in the Spring or next Summer, but she will do a page a day of Grade 4 in the holidays, then school will get in the way. She can probably do the Grade 5 book between Christmas and Easter, then spend a couple of months on past papers. But we'll see how this one turns out.

Sweetly and sadly? Just guessing?

Yes!

Wafflenose I didn't want G5 to be my son's first written exam which is why he did G3 first. It meant he could have an experience of the exam room before being let loose on G5.

Exactly what we have done, Ishould. I think Grade 3 is a great choice if one is going to do that... it's such a jump up from Grade 2, is a "nearly there" but at the same time, doesn't matter too much. After 2 years of doing this on and off (more off, to be fair), I also thought it might help focus the mind!

Glad all the theory exams have gone well!

I'd never thought about what a huge amount of work it must be having to learn all the musical terms as dd has three languages and does Latin at school so she has a very unfair advantage here!

She had her music school prize giving on Friday. As I suspected her sax exam was for the end of "cycle 1", roughly equivalent to UK grade 4, but it's very unusual in the French conservatoire system to do four years in one and some very flattering things were said. I'm more proud of her results in theory, though, as she was in a class of students with 8 years of regular theory classes behind them and she was very behind in some areas at the start of the year (seeing as how she couldn't read the bass or alto clefs at all!).

Yes I can see the merit of doing an exam on the way; unfortunately dd's school forgot to enter her and others for g3 last year so we sort of missed it. Luckily she is used to very formal exams for school otherwise the environment would have been new. Am glad she has got more interested in theory during this process - I expect she will want to do some future grades (if she has passed this time) for interest only. Good luck to everyone still with practicals to do and hope we all survive the many concerts in the next few weeks :)

Hello

I haven't participated to the discussions this term as DD is not sitting any exams this session.

Congrats to all who took exams this sessions or had any musical activities, I am sure the results are fantastic! All done to all involved in their musical education!

Quick question- has anybody self taught piano? I am sitting in lessons with my DD and while I know so much about playing piano in theory, I have never tried to play.

We are now buying an acoustic piano for her around September time and I thought that I may be able to use my DD's previous piano methods to see how far I can get on my own and then maybe ask her teacher for some lessons every couple of weeks to correct mistakes. Is this a bad idea in terms of developing some bad habits or can it be done?

Needless to say I don't intend to become a professional musician or take exams, it would be just for my inner pleasure.

We survived our busy weekend (four concerts between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening) so now just a week of exams (school not music) and another concert next Saturday and then it's the holidays.

Fleurdelise I think it would be fine for an adult with some musical background to learn mostly alone with occasional lessons. This is essentially what my DD does (she now has a 1 hour lesson every 2-4 weeks depending on how busy she is, but she started out completely self-taught). There are a lot of free resources on the Internet for piano, too.

Thank you Mistigri hopefully I can come back later and report I am progressing well.

Hopefully fleur you will do better on piano than I have on the guitar .

Oh yes, I do have a history with picking up hobbies, being really enthusiastic about it (this also translates on spending lots of money on it) and dropping it quite easily so if I don't mention it anymore don't ask.

Now on a different note: as I said we are buying an upright piano around September time to give DD the option to practice on it a couple of months before her next exam which is planned to happen during the C session.

Now a friend of mine put me off a bit stating that there is still a big possibility that my dd would give up piano lessons and that being still at the early grades we should stick to the digital piano as we may end up with a piece of expensive furniture we don't want and that an upgrade to an acoustic piano should happen after higher grades such as grade 5.

While I do agree with this I also feel that my dd would benefit from an acoustic piano massively as I can hear a difference between how she plays at home and how she plays on her teacher's piano (upright).

The question is: am I upgrading too early? Am I investing in her future music development or is this just a bad idea?

Can the teachers see a good improvement between students with an acoustic piano at home and the ones with a digital?

Fleurdelise,

I'd say it depends on what your digital piano is and how much you are investing in the upright. For example, if you're looking at £1000 for an upright vs £1000 for a good Yamaha Clavinova (recent model), I'd personally pick the digital every time. Speaking from experience! If you're looking at second-hand uprights, particularly. But in that case we're also talking about a digital piano that is top quality and also has a piano-style case (psychologically that makes a weird amount of difference).

If you as the parent can hear the difference in how she plays, then it might be worth doing the upgrade. The question is whether the difference is to do with your DD or to do with the inherent differences in the instruments, and also whether you have the disposable cash to invest in a decent upright. I prefer a good digital to a rubbish old second-hand upright, kwim?

FWIW, my teacher wouldn't let me start until we'd spent £3k on a piano. That's three years' worth of lessons.

I had a few not-really-ready grade 1s on Saturday (ABRSM) and the Trinity lot to follow next Monday - probably pulling one out as I haven't seen her for two weeks. It is not my fault if they only start practising a week before the exam!!!

Hello, I've just spotted this on the most active threads list, and wondered if anyone had any words of wisdom for a very nervous grade 1 piano candidate?

I had a few lessons a few years ago, and restarted with a new teacher a couple of months ago, who said on my third lesson that I should do grade 1! I think she thinks it will give me confidence, but I am now absolutely packing it and keep messing everything up at all my lessons and when I tried the exam piano. At home, I have been fine, but now I am starting to panic about practising too.

It's ridiculous really, I did up to Grade 6 violin when I was young...

ScienceRocks what might be unnerving you is the thought of playing to a stranger. If you think this might be the case, ask your teacher to do a 'mock' exam where she pretends to be the examiner. Also, arrange to play the exam pieces to some friends as if it's a concert. In both cases, tell yourself you can't stop and start and you are going to force yourself to keep going! This is the main thing for the exam. Even better, if a friend has a piano you should do the mini concert at their house.
The other thing that can help ease the pressure is just knowing that if you really need to you can postpone the exam and practice a bit more - you've gone very quickly from restarting to exam so there's no harm at all in saying you just feel you need a bit longer! After all, you're doing this for you, not your teacher!
I say all this as someone who is working on grade 3 pieces still and a long way from being exam ready! DS1 postponed his grade 4 drum exam due to being sick with nerves and got a merit when he did take it just over 2 months later. Yes, I lost the exam fee but it gave him a chance to calm down!

Julie the upgrade is around the £3k mark, I hope to strike a deal at around £2,600-2,800, I am looking at reconditioned Yamaha U1 or U3 (this may be over our budget unless we get quite an old one).

My understanding is that they are really good even reconditioned if you buy them from the right place.

The difference in playing is noticed by me in terms of how it sounds and also by DD stating the upright piano at her teacher's house sounds better but is harder to play.

Her teacher is encouraging the purchase saying that this will make a difference in progress as she will be able to notice technique and tone better but my friend said that if she would be in my position she wouldn't invest so much in a piano just yet.

Dd's digital is not top of the market as we got a relatively cheap one (heavy action keys but nevertheless cheap) when she started thinking it will cover it for a while and if she gives up at least we don't have such a financial loss.

Buying a better digital would be a waste of money as I can see the value goes down quite quickly compared with an acoustic that seem to hold their value a bit better.

I guess my question is, am I crazy to buy a 7 yo a "proper" piano even though she will more than likely not become a concert pianist?

Julie good luck to your students taking exams!

ScienceRocks good luck with your exam, my dd told me her secret of how not to be scared in front of the examiner (or in front of 100 people at the school concert) "I am just pretending I am playing for you mummy!" So if you can pretend you are playing for somebody else who doesn't scare you try it, it may work.

Loose which grade 3 pieces are you playing? Dd is choosing her pieces this week and she made a list of favourite ones for her teacher to see if she can do those.

ScienceRocks, good luck with the prep and exam. The psychology is so different learning as adults vs children but if you ask yourself who is actually judging you, the answer is probably just yourself. Focus on why you are learning instead, and treat the exam an extension of the pleasure you are hopefully deriving from learning again. You did G6...so you know you can do this!

Fleur - your daughter sounds like she has a natural gift for the piano. I can't tell you which is better (we went straight to upright acoustic) after all the same arguments, but if you buy well you should be in a position of minimal/nil depreciation if she gives it up. We broke through many brick walls over 4 years but DD is finally really getting her piano, albeit through perseverance. She does not have natural affinity with it like her violin but is glad we didn't believe her when she said she should give it up because it caused too many arguments

Or Science, tell your teacher you did not take the piano up to jump hoops, but to learn instead...may help too.

Thank you. I think I will have to pretend nobody is there during the exam, that is the only time I seem to play OK. Or when I'm so tired, I don't care! My teacher has told me that "we are aiming high", so is keen I get all the dynamics and tempo changes absolutely bang on, but I'm more focused on getting the notes right and getting to the end! She has also encouraged me to play the scales really quite fast and change my fingering so it stands me in better stead for the future, but trying to remember everything just makes me panic and forget what I do actually know!

Mind you, I don't want to put off the exam because I am already seeing that I will soon be fed up of the pieces!

Thank you ealing I do think it is such a shame not providing her with all the resources to achieve her best and while her digital could take her up to another grade or two I do think she'll progress better with a "real" piano.

I did chat to her and asked her if she feels like giving up and she said it is much harder now but she still loves it so I am hoping I am making the right decision, even if I re-sell the piano £500 cheaper if she gives up in a couple of years time it still better than digital value maintenance, a friend spent around £1000 on an Aerius a couple of years ago and it is now around £600.

Science which pieces are you playing? I am sure you will be just fine, it sounds like you are great and indeed aiming high.

Fleur,

I think if your daughter is promising and you're looking at a real upgrade like that it will be worth the investment.