Need to come up with a stress free schedule, sorry to bore! Options

[MusicalNitWit]

If a student has two pieces near perfect, is once a week enough on a tight schedule?

[sbhoa]

If a student has two pieces near perfect, is once a week enough on a tight schedule?

If they are near perfect then playing and practising (not necessarily the same thing) those pieces once a week could well be enough and will help to avoid boredom.
At grade 5 (or any other...) level once a week practice is not really enough and though an able child might get away with it I think that there is a strong possibility that this would not be the case for too much longer.

[madbassoonist]

... but I do remind DS1 that I'm not the meanest mummy in the world...

Yes - get him to read that book by the Chinese 'Tiger mother' - Amy Chua(?)! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[notmusimum]

If a student has two pieces near perfect, is once a week enough on a tight schedule?

If they are near perfect then playing and practising (not necessarily the same thing) those pieces once a week could well be enough and will help to avoid boredom.
At grade 5 (or any other...) level once a week practice is not really enough and though an able child might get away with it I think that there is a strong possibility that this would not be the case for too much longer.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) What is perfect? Emsoboe has taken lots of exams but I don't think we've ever thought she has had pieces "nearly perfect". There always seems to be so much that can be done to improve them.

Sbhoa is right that it's very difficult to practice an instrument once a week and maintain any sort of standard. We've been in this situation with oboe and Flute recently, where other instruments take over and these two lose out. It's now taking a lot of work to get them where they need to be and no way are they as strong just now as the instruments that have had the most focus.

The only way to deal with being a multi-instrumentalist is to rotate practice. It might be a case of focusing on one or two instruments and letting the others lie in the back ground until exam or whatever is out of the way.

[MusicalNitWit]

He isn't practicing once a week but there are some things he needs to get on top of and with a tight schedule each evening I was wondering if he can leave his songs that are strong (well strong enough to get into RCM) to once a week for now?

[sbhoa]

He isn't practicing once a week but there are some things he needs to get on top of and with a tight schedule each evening I was wondering if he can leave his songs that are strong (well strong enough to get into RCM) to once a week for now?

By grade 5 level it's probably necessary for some practice juggling anyway. There's usually too much to do everything every practice session.

[Chris H]

If he's practising other things, I wouldn't have thought it would matter if he left the pieces a bit. Sometimes they can get a bit stale, and he can always concentrate on them nearer the time of the exam. I sometimes find that if I leave a piece to concetrate on others, it miraculously improves all by itself. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[tonedeafmum]

(well strong enough to get into RCM)

MNW moving on here from the 'moast' to the 'gloan.' (gloat disguised as a moan.) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

When Daughter was getting ready for violin exam she was advised not to practice all her pieces every day because they had 'peaked' and teacher feared they might go stale so maybe less practice on the strongest of your son's pieces might even be beneficial.

However - speaking as one with no knowledge of the systems in place at RCM but with a fair amount of experience of auditions/interviews - I suspect that the school will have been looking for potential more than anything else but the criteria for marking an exam are rather different.

Just a note of caution. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/note.gif)

[MusicalNitWit]

Just a note of caution.

grrrrrrr

[Dulcet]

... but I do remind DS1 that I'm not the meanest mummy in the world...

Yes - get him to read that book by the Chinese 'Tiger mother' - Amy Chua(?)! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

don't... I made myself late for work sitting in the carpark thinking "OMG that's DS1 she's talking about..." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

[Clari Nicki1]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
Started the scales before school schedule today as that's when I'm free to help her with her melodics as I'm often teaching when she wants my help and after struggling with pupils' melodics I'm not keen to go through hers.

Well apparently, I don't know much (like when I say she has gone too far/ not far enough in a chromatic)..... and I'm wrong and her 'wrong' note is right! This is going to be fun! And apparently the Eb is hard to find!

[Arundodonuts]

He isn't practicing once a week but there are some things he needs to get on top of and with a tight schedule each evening I was wondering if he can leave his songs that are strong (well strong enough to get into RCM) to once a week for now?

By grade 5 level it's probably necessary for some practice juggling anyway. There's usually too much to do everything every practice session.

It may not be necessary to always play through each piece either. Attending to the tricky bits regularly and then having a full play through less regularly is probably a better use of practice time.

[sbhoa]

He isn't practicing once a week but there are some things he needs to get on top of and with a tight schedule each evening I was wondering if he can leave his songs that are strong (well strong enough to get into RCM) to once a week for now?

By grade 5 level it's probably necessary for some practice juggling anyway. There's usually too much to do everything every practice session.

It may not be necessary to always play through each piece either. Attending to the tricky bits regularly and then having a full play through less regularly is probably a better use of practice time.

Yes, always playing through is not a very efficient use of time.

[Roseau]

He isn't practicing once a week but there are some things he needs to get on top of and with a tight schedule each evening I was wondering if he can leave his songs that are strong (well strong enough to get into RCM) to once a week for now?

By grade 5 level it's probably necessary for some practice juggling anyway. There's usually too much to do everything every practice session.

It may not be necessary to always play through each piece either. Attending to the tricky bits regularly and then having a full play through less regularly is probably a better use of practice time.

Yes, always playing through is not a very efficient use of time.

Although stamina may possibly be a problem and in the run up to an exam it is probably useful to practise playing the pieces right through without a break between them.

[Arundodonuts]

He isn't practicing once a week but there are some things he needs to get on top of and with a tight schedule each evening I was wondering if he can leave his songs that are strong (well strong enough to get into RCM) to once a week for now?

By grade 5 level it's probably necessary for some practice juggling anyway. There's usually too much to do everything every practice session.

It may not be necessary to always play through each piece either. Attending to the tricky bits regularly and then having a full play through less regularly is probably a better use of practice time.

Yes, always playing through is not a very efficient use of time.

Although stamina may possibly be a problem and in the run up to an exam it is probably useful to practise playing the pieces right through without a break between them.

Yes. My comment "full play through less regularly" wasn't clear. I agree that a student should get used to playing through the whole programme.