July Music Thread

[Wafflenose]

I was celebrating the end of a VERY busy week with a glass of and realised it's now just past midnight, and therefore July! Have a new thread!

The music threads are for ALL musicians, young and old, beginners and advanced, and every style of music!

I have two DDs, Goo (11) who is currently stropping and eye-rolling her way through her last few weeks at primary school, and Rara (9) who is funny and creative. Goo is working towards Grade 8 Flute, and has been playing the piano for just over a year. She is refusing to take any exams or perform on it though. Rara has her Grade 3 Cello exam coming up soon, and is just moving beyond Grade 2 Clarinet now. Both played the recorder from age 3/4 and got to a really good level, but other than helping out with my school groups, they don't really play any more - they are particularly obsessed with the flute and clarinet.

I am a teacher of woodwind - currently about 80 recorder pupils (many group taught) in two schools, plus two private flute pupils and six private clarinet pupils.

Hello everyone! Sorry to barge in, but would be grateful for thoughts from others who know all about the ABRSM exams.

DS, who has just turned 8, sat his first music exam this term - grade 1 guitar. We entered him through school, although he doesn't have lessons at school. They've just given me his marks - 113, but said to tell him not to be disheartened because all the marks were lower than expected this time.

So, first thing - isn't that a solid pass? They haven't said whether it is or isn't, but everything I've found on t'internet says the pass mark is 100. As far as I'm concerned a pass would be fine and the thought of him being disheartened after passing his first exam is a bit odd.

113 is good! Well done to him. The average mark nationwide is 116-117, so that is indeed a solid pass. Some families are disappointed with anything other than distinctions, which are not that common, though. Maybe his teacher has encountered a few of those?

He has done very well indeed to be sitting an exam aged 8.

My two pupils (not guitar) got 107 and 120.

Thanks! It wasn't his teacher who said that - it was the school music administrator, so maybe the school only enters pupils it expects to get distinctions and to them a pass is a disappointment!

Hope they haven't said anything to him along these lines at school. He deserves to feel proud of himself and telling him not to feel disheartened would have the opposite effect IMO.

113 is quite good, and higher than I got in any of my music exams.

The highest mark a pupil of mine has ever had was 141.

The lowest mark was 101.

Achieved by the same pupil in different years for different grades!

A lot depends on the teacher's approach to entering pupils for exams. Some teachers enter only when preparations are already very well advanced and they know their pupil will do very well unless it goes horribly wrong on the day. Scales and pieces just need a final polish up at the time of entry. This is likely to get very good marks which can be very confidence building and motivational, but can mean weeks of being bored with the pieces instead of learning new pieces or working on other things such as musicality skills or technique. Ideally, pupils will already have played their exam pieces in public at least once before the exam, so that performance anxiety is minimised.

Other teachers use exams as a motivational deadline to encourage pupils to up their amount of practice or to have something concrete to show for their efforts. Depending on the individual I've used both approaches.

I find that it's hard to cover everything required in lesson time without offering extra lessons and even then I usually wish there was more time available to help my pupils with sight-reading and aural.

Sight-reading often improves when a pupil has done lots of different musical activities that involve reading, eg playing a second instrument, singing in a choir, playing in a group.

113 is a very respectable pass so I wouldn't worry and celebrate the success. But I do agree, hopefully when he gets the result he won't hear the "it could have been better" attitude, some adults forget that in the end we want them to pass anything extra is just a bonus.

Well, I told he'd passed his exam, and he said "Yay! What's for tea?". So not disheartened, in the least.

Thanks for all the reassurance. I'd got slightly worried that it was a case of, if you don't ace grade 1, there's basically no point carrying on with the instrument.

Interesting to hear different perspectives on when to do the exams. We only did it because he needs grade 1 to enter the house music competition and grade 2 to join the school guitar ensemble. Because he is having lessons out of school (most have them in school) I have to be proactive in making sure he isn't overlooked for recitals etc. I'm particularly keen on the ensemble - I think he'll enjoy playing with others and this will motivate him much more than certificates. Plus, as said above, it will be good for his sight reading.

He definitely wouldn't be motivated enough by the prospect of a merit or distinction to tolerate the boredom factor, so we'll content ourselves with passes! I've learnt that, at his school, he is a beacon of mediocrity in a sea of academic, musical and sporting prowess! At other schools, he'd probably be considered a high flier.

Flossie, well don to your mini. He sounds a delightful young boy. Hope to hear more about his music making.

String, meant to congratulate on mini's fantastic achievement earlier. Well done to her.

rogue, interesting to see different approaches to entering pupils for exams. I suppose there is one more approach though - entering pupils for the exam which they are comfortably above the standard. This way they don't need to spend many months for the preparation to the point of bearing serious boredom. DS was done in this way so he has never really had to focus too much on exam pieces yet high marks were easily achievable. Other teachers may have preferred him to challenge one grade higher at the time. But this way worked best for DS as spending on polishing three pieces for months wouldn't excite him much.

Having said that, mastering all the scales for such a short time wasn't ideal. It was ok until grade 3, but there were lots in grade 5. Like some of you (at least I know miniFleur does this way), starting scales early would be much more sensible!

Kutik indeed mine always plays scales, the only break she ever had was grade 0 to when she started preparing for grade 1 exam. Since then we are basically asked to buy the next scale book and have it ready a couple of lessons after the previous exams. Even when she skips grades she still covers the scales for the skipped grade so she still learnt grade 4 scales knowing she wouldn't take the actual exam. The reason being is that she would have been in for a massive shock moving from grade 1 hands separate to 3 and then to 5. Covering all didn't feel like a massive transition. Grade 5 were a shocker though.

Alexandra you must be so excited for The Boy and proud. I know I would be. Good luck tomorrow. Are you going to watch him?

DS also learnt all the scales for the exams he skipped APART FROM grade 4. I don't know why the teacher decided to ignore grade 4 scales completely but the result was grade 5 scales being a real shocker. But DS finds less intimidating for higher grade scales (he said they were mostly variation of g5 scales) so nailing down grade 5 scales seems to have paid off.

For violin, he has been taught totally differently from any exam boards so zero idea what he skipped.

Alexandra wow what an exciting opportunity! I hope it goes well (now his bags is properly packed )

fleur my girl does the same. First lesson after G3, she was learning the G4 scales and she won't do the exam. G3 is the only she's done on clarinet, she skipped g1 on piano but she has done every grades scales. In fact for clarinet, she didn't even do the scales option in the exam but had them all prepared. Her teacher says she thinks well executed scales are a good indicator of readiness to proceed with that grade/that grade's work.

I might have missed it however wanted to check with Loose how did it go with your DS2 G4 exam Loose?

We started G1 after 2 years or somethibg learning piano, we actually didnt know there was abrsm until a friend of mine mentioned. For the first year it was completely twinkle twinkle for fun and she was closed to give up as she was very bored. We learnt the G1 pieces for 6 months and she killed them all as she were very bored learning them for too long. Then we took G3 6 months later( taking G1 violin at the same time) then G5 8 months later. To be fair the first 4 months we nearly not learnt any piano as our piano/violin teacher was focusing on her G3 violin pieces as she also skipped G2 violin. We also had to spend time on theory. We were told that she is ok with learning pieces, this stays true until now, she does learn them very fast with little practice(much less than violin). The 4 months learning G5 we were on scales. Our problem is we never like them and she doesnt like repetition. The last 7-8 months we have been learning various pieces for fun, to build up her pedalling technique(the chair is no longer creaking when she presses), playing pieces with crossing arms etc.

Violin is bad bad bad!!! I am very stuck now. We have stopped with our current teacher. Long story...

Just realised that I forgot to tell you Alex that I laughed out loud when I read the Boy'packing skill, I hope he is having a wonderful time in Wimbledon today.

Green what happened with the violin teacher? Wasn't your dd taking grade 5 this term? I hope you find one that suits you.

Green the exam's today and hopefully it will be ok. Scales sounded fine last night so just hope they hold out!
Alex have a lovely day - the Boy will have a great time. I'm v excited to be going on Thursday!
Flossy the only dcs I know who do guitar exams took absolutely ages to get to grade 1, much longer than your DS. I think he's done very well indeed at his age and I love the 'yay! What's for tea!' That's the attitude!

I had my first piano lesson in about 20 years on Sunday. IT WAS FAB!!! Not quite where I was but working on the K283 Allegro. Also had the piano tuner here yesterday. Amazing the difference a good teacher can make.

loose all the best for the exam!
alex aren't you sometimes tempted to let them leave with whatever they packed and learn? I am, but never will

drummers, that's me. I sent DS to school without PE kit knowing he probably needs it today. He cannot participate the activity without the kit so he would be very much frustrated (he loves PE).

Alexandra, sounds a fab day. Enjoy! (assuming you are going to see them?)

Hope I don't sound a horrible mum... For my defence, I reminded him a couple of times this morning. Decided it's time for him to lern from his own mistake. Hope it works.

Good luck to miniLoose and to all who are taking an exam today!

Green, what happened with the violin teacher? I thought miniGreen's violin learning had been going fantastically well by watching how wonderfully she played in the video. She was amazing. I hope all will be fine soon...