Exams vs playing - alternative question Options

[VickyB]

This follows on from a previous thread, but thought I'd start my own because that one had lots of other discussion in it.

I have concerns about my daughter's teaching.

She's now 10. Started piano aged 8. Did G1 aged 9 and G2 earlier this year. Got comfortable passes both times.

My concern is that she started her G2 pieces in Sept 2011, took her grade in April, then has been learning one piece for a festival since Easter, and teacher told her this week that in Sept she'll start 3 x G3 pieces, with a view to taking grade in April 2012. that means that for over 18 months she will only learn 4 pieces of music.

She also does scales, dozen a day, hanon, schmitt (do these mean anything to people? I'm non-musical so not sure how well known they are) and sightreading book.

She's very keen continuing to learn piano, but is just so bored with the same pieces and has now lost the ability to pick up a new tune and play it. She's basically only playing from memory.

We haven't really even been asked if she wants to do another grade next year, it's just assumed that she progresses from grade to festival to grade. I have tried several times asking the teacher if she can learn other pieces just for variety, but she says she already plays different things each week (meaning sightreading and dozen a day).

I'm really worried that she'll get so bored she quits, and also that she's not gaining any enjoyment of music. I wanted her to learn an instrument to have an enjoyable hobby she could draw on through her life. I wouldn't care if she never did a grade again, but just can't seem to get through to teacher.

Any suggestions? or is it time to look for a new teacher.

[Scooby Doo]

It all sounds rather tedious and predictable. All too common I'm afraid and you are right to be concerned.

Use the Summer holiday as a good chance to find another teacher - ask around and get some recommendations.

[Seer_Green]

This sounds like a common case of the 'exam treadmill syndrome' - it's not what music's about. I think you have two options: (a) talk to current teacher, or (b) find a new teacher. I think given what you've said, I'd favour the latter of those options. She seems to be doing a lot of technical exercises (Dozen-a-Day, Hanon etc.) which I think I'd have found reasonably dull as a 10-year-old (certainly if the only repertoire we were doing was exam pieces).

[linda.ff]

My concern is that she started her G2 pieces in Sept 2011, took her grade in April, then has been learning one piece for a festival since Easter, and teacher told her this week that in Sept she'll start 3 x G3 pieces, with a view to taking grade in April 2012. that means that for over 18 months she will only learn 4 pieces of music.

She also does scales, dozen a day, hanon, schmitt (do these mean anything to people? I'm non-musical so not sure how well known they are) and sightreading book.

It's always possible tht her teacher didn't mean she'd "only" learn three exam pieces, but in addition to whatever else she does. This is one of the virtues of using lesson books beyond the lowest grades - you may be learning pieces which are below the level of the pieces in your exam, but you'd be learning them quickly as they'd be easier.

After all, if she's going to need those two terms in order to get through the learning three exam pieces, then she won't have time to do anything else at the same level. If she learns them faster, than she can learn other music at the same level. But even if she learns slower, she can still learn easier music faster at the same time, and this must surely help with aural and sight-reading too.

Why on earth is she doing A Dozen A Day AND Hanon AND Schmitt?

[Scooby Doo]

Do not pass GO, do not collect ?200, find another teacher, pronto.

[RoseRodent]

This is one of the virtues of using lesson books beyond the lowest grades - you may be learning pieces which are below the level of the pieces in your exam, but you'd be learning them quickly as they'd be easier.

After all, if she's going to need those two terms in order to get through the learning three exam pieces, then she won't have time to do anything else at the same level. If she learns them faster, than she can learn other music at the same level. But even if she learns slower, she can still learn easier music faster at the same time, and this must surely help with aural and sight-reading too.

I find this a very interesting contribution. The way that I have always been taken through the grade system is that once you can comfortably play most material around a certain grade level you get the grade pieces themselves and learn them. It saves putting in months on the grade pieces and it also means that when you come out with a grade whatever it means you are playing at and around that grade standard across the board, not just that you happen to be able to play 3 pieces from a list. It had never occurred to me to think that anyone would need a long time to get through grade pieces because they are harder, except in as much as they are generally longer, and need to be learned to a high level rather than enough to get the learning out of them and then discarded. Maybe that's what you meant by them being harder, in which case I'm barking up a wrong tree here.

Back to the OP - I'd run. This sounds like someone using grades as a curriculum not an assessment of learning. At this stage I'd expect to get sent home with probably 3 short pieces each week, and none of these would be played for more than about 3 weeks, many for only one week, you wring the learning out of them and then you move on, with only the odd piece here and there polished up for a performance. She needs to do the learning that covers the gap between grade 2 and grade 3, then sit grade 3 - if she goes from grade to grade note-bashing her way till the pieces are of presentation standard then she doesn't learn to play the piano, she learns to pass piano exams. The period straight after the stress of an exam is usually spent on some fun tunes and a good dig through the duet books, not hurrying to the next one. Maybe the teacher is thinking that she will have an amazing technical foundation if she does millions of studies, but what about musical interpretation skills? Aural skills? Theory? All that comes out of a wide repertoire.

And most of all, what about playing something great just for fun? Does your daughter know her own limits enough to be taken music shopping to buy a book full of the kinds of tunes she loves to play? Does she even seem to have aspirations to play anything she knows or has heard? I'd be really worried if she is not expressing any desire to play things of her own choosing, that's the joy of learning an instrument, to tame it to make it do what you dream of doing. If that is squashed out of her then there becomes no point learning the skills.

These are big glaring warning signs. You have already brought the subject up with the teacher and nothing is changing. If you hadn't spoken to her already I'd say give her the benefit of the doubt, have a chat, check on what is really happening, ask her reasoning, etc. This teacher is aware of your concerns and is carrying on regardless - dump and look elsewhere!

[VickyB]

Hi All

Thanks very much for the replies. You've all confirmed what I had been thinking, so it's good to know my instincts weren't wrong.

Linda - It's possible that she will give her other stuff as well as exam pieces in the future, but based on last year I'm not that confident. The only other pieces she did from September to now were some Christmas carols in the final two lessons of the term. As others have said, if she's taking a long time to learn them it's because she hasn't actually improved her playing in between exams. If she then takes a long time to learn them, fair enough, and she can always do the exam in the following session.

RoseRodent - I think you have hit the nail on the head. It's meant to be fun. Your comments about other books were interesting, because I recently bought her an Up-Grade Pop 2-3 book that she chose, thinking that she might like to play some pieces out of that, and she did try, but she got very frustrated with it. I am planning to suggest she tries again now the holidays are here and she can afford to have a week or two of going easy on all the exercises. I suppose the danger of hardly ever learning new pieces is that she hasn't got the confidence to do it on her own.

Another question - as a rough guideline, although I appreciate all learners are probably very different, how long before a grade would most teachers start kids learning exam pieces? Is 7 months about right if other pieces are being played too, or is that quite long?

Thanks again for all your help.

[linda.ff]

Another question - as a rough guideline, although I appreciate all learners are probably very different, how long before a grade would most teachers start kids learning exam pieces? Is 7 months about right if other pieces are being played too, or is that quite long?

I think with good practice many people manage grades at about one a year - give or take a term or so.

My general principle in the past has been:
ist term after exam: no exam work at all other than scales, aural and sight-reading. Build up general ability with lesson book or other work

2nd term: Carry on with lesson book, but if it's felt that the exam will be possible at the end of the following term, try to fonosh the term with one piece fairly securely known, a second on its way and the third at least selected. Plus supporting tests as above.

3rd term: even now, intersperse lesson-book work in the first half of the term, and build up the exam pieces until the big day.Plus supporting tests.

However, my successful grade 4 pupil tuenr up in the second week aftr getting her merit with a new grade 5 book. We are mostly doing simpler shorter stuff (as much of Burgmuleras she can handle) plus grade 5 theory work, with a view to taking FOUR terms over the exam, due to the theory, and we are starting, NOT "her exam pieces" but alkso using the grade 5 lists as a repertoire list to work thyrough gradually and choose the most suitable ones nearer the time.

I am considering this with one or two others, but again, only on top of shorter quick-learning pieces.

[Scooby Doo]

As a rough guide, I would usually get all the scales covered first, working on aural and sight-reading at the same time, while playing lots of repertoire pieces, gradually working towards the standard of the next grade. I might give the first exam piece towards the end of the previous term, then the other two in the first half of the exam term. All this alongside other work (see below). I would expect my students to take no more than 3-4 weeks to learn an exam piece reasonably well. if they are still struggling after this long, it's clearly too difficult for them, or they aren't putting the work in - either way they aren't ready for the exam.

There is so much more to musical life than grinding through an exam syllabus. This year my students will be doing competitions, festivals, concerts, a workshop on a historical keyboard instrument, playing by ear, ensemble work, oh and along the way we will fit in some technical work and some of them will also do an exam....

[Splog]

Hello. My daughter is at exactly the same stage, just finished grade 2 and her teacher has been working on what to give her next. She has always used the up-grade books, which have fun tunes in them. And she was about to start her on the pop up-grade when I said that she wanted to play Fur Elise. The teacher had this in a grade 3 standard book, so she has been playing this and really enjoying it.

This teacher's approach, once the exam is over, is to do fun stuff for a few weeks, then add scales etc, working on technique all the time, and only when satisfied that the work has been done on this, to introduce pieces for the next grade.

I took the same approach with my trumpet student, who had been given grade 2 pieces straight after the grade 1 exam, and was really struggling. We went back to work on scales, technique and sightreading, and only played fun pieces. After a term she has learned all her scales, and sightread two grade 2 exam pieces last week. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[RoseRodent]

As a rough guide, I would usually get all the scales covered first, working on aural and sight-reading at the same time, while playing lots of repertoire pieces, gradually working towards the standard of the next grade.

Makes a refreshing comparison to the way I was taught: Play repertoire pieces, then ask you if you want to get the exam music, learn the pieces, then panic around 5 weeks before the exam and attempt to cram all the scales. In the 2 weeks before the exam the aural test book and sight reading tests appeared, you did a few tests, the teacher gave a moment of flustered feedback then said she'd cross her fingers for the exam.