Piano exam coming up and DS needs help

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DS is due to take his grade 2 piano exam in a couple of weeks (skipped grade 1 due to lockdown). He does not however seem very confident on either his pieces or his scales. I do not play so have no idea how to help him.

He obviously has a lesson a week at school, but I was wondering if it is possible to get someone in to practise with him. And if so, how to go about it?

I’d speak to his teacher and find out how you can help him at home and maybe if he needs any extra lessons. If the teacher can’t accommodate extra lessons they might be able to recommend someone.

You might find the abrsm piano scales trainer app helpful, and the piano practice partner app too (for the pieces) (assuming it’s an abrsm exam?). There will probably be recordings/ videos of the pieces on YouTube as well (teachers often upload them).

But the teacher can give you the best advice I would have thought. Is there good communication from the teacher generally? (I’m a peri music teacher - we have a paper diary for day to day things but regular email contact too which seems to work most of the time).

How old is he? Does he have the exam board’s book of scales/arpeggios? Does he know the ones he needs to learn? If not you can probably look up the syllabus online - you need to know the exam board.

It’s like learning spellings. You don’t need to know how to play them to be able to help him, he might just need your supervision to put the practice in?

The scales are easy points won if he can memorise them. 10 minutes practice a day consistently works wonders. Get him to play them looking at the book, cover them up and play again, and repeat until the muscle memory comes and he has them memorised.

Otherwise you could look for a private teacher to supplement the school lessons. Google for one in your area and you’d have to sound some out to see if they have space to take him on as a temporary student.

have a look on YouTube too (for the right exam board and year) as lots of tutorials/examples.

Whereabouts in the country are you OP? Somebody on MN might know a piano teacher locally who could run through a few sessions with your son before his exam.

Watching with interest as my 12yo is hoping to take his Grade 2 in the summer (he did his Grade 1 last summer).

Thanks for the YouTube link and the app suggestions from previous posters 😊

Thank you so much for the app links and all the suggestions. I’ve just downloaded both so will see if they can make a difference. xx

Scales are definitely an easy win- we do a scales lot. Write each scale name or arpeggio on a separate slip of paper. Eg c major both hands, a minor, hands separate. Have two pots. Start with all slips in one pot. Each day take out 3 or 4. Play through each scale. If it's confident, put it in pot two. If not, check he knows which note it starts on, which sharps/ flats ( black keys). Check with book and play through slowly then up to speed. Put back into first lot. Day two, draw 3 or 4 slips from pot 1 , repeat process with confident ones going into lot 2, shaky ones back into pot one. In a few days, they should all be in pot 2. Start again! Does that make sense?
With pieces, have a listen on YouTube. Play through carefully and put a little pencil start over any shaky sections. Focus on these, slowly and carefully, hands separately then together. Do the bar before into the shaky section, then do a longer run at it. You don't need to know lots to just sit beside him and help keep some focus and offer encouragement.
Next time, it would be great if he was already easily playing pieces of the grade before doing an exam as it makes it more relaxing for everyone rather than being in a position of struggling just before it. Although some children need the pressure to actually practice. Hope he had a positive experience and continues to enjoy playing. Two weeks of focussed practice will make a big difference.

Should say scales pot! ( Although my kids do do a Lot of scales too!

You've had some good suggestions. Also just to say don't worry too much, default position is trust the teacher. I don't think my kids have ever taken an exam where we didn't get to a point two weeks before where it all seemed to fall apart. Even the one where DD could sight read the pieces at a reasonable standard 4 months earlier. It's always come together again by exam day.

Practice wise, in the run up to exams/performances we alternate between 'keep going come what may' runs and 'stop as soon as anything goes wrong and fix it' runs. Even as a non-musician yourself you are probably familiar enough with the pieces by now that you can tell when it's gone wonky? Maybe do the latter on one piece a day so they all get a turn. And sometimes it helps to go back to basics and play something hands separately or really slowly. They do it when they first learn the piece, but things can slip out of place over the weeks or months and it will quickly help cement it again. We use the same two pots lucky dip method as horsey for scales - as I did when i was a child, classic!

Hope the long weekend can help him to get things back under control!