The Exam Experience, What has it done for you? Options

[adultlearner]

The thing I think is interesting about music exams - following up on what Mad Tom said a little earlier in this thread, is that practical music exams can't be faked - it's not a matter of cramming book learning in and regurgitating it; you might be able to guess during the oral (OK, that's a confession), but if you really can't demonstrate that you can play at the standard for the grade you can't fool the examiner that you can (or at least if you can, any advice gratefully received!). I've found the exams a good focal point and something to work towards. Of course, it's a personal thing and people are motivated differently, but for me it's a benchmark set by those who have, as it were, gone before me. Nerves and mistakes are inevitable I think, and I've come out of every single exam thinking 'I'm never doing that again', but clearly as I do go back for more, and in my 50s I certainly don't do it because I need them for college entry or similar, they are one source of motivation and help to me.

[trammie]

I think they are a great experience, but obviously not suited to everyone. It's a fantastic way to push pupils to aim for something (which increases their practice!) and allow them to have a record of their achievement afterwards. I believe that they are a really good foundation (if taught well) for younger years as they give a good structure and general overview (scales/aural/sight-reading) as well as the pieces. Although in some cases, if a student if struggling a lot with scales, I will delay learning the exam pieces by learning others as I don't want to bore them with the same pieces.

Nevertheless, I am a strong believer in using many other books alongside exam books to consolidate pupils' learning and widen their repertoire as 3 pieces per grade is minimal indeed. Plus, I don't go through every single grade with all my pupils and so we can learn other pieces, but I do keep up the scales and sight reading.

Although, if I did have a student who did not want to go down the exam route, I would be more than happy just to explore pieces (using sight-reading whilst learning them of course). Personally, doing an exam at a young age (my first was at 7yrs which is late in comparison to some nowadays) I thought was a terrifying experience. However, after moving up the grades, I grew more confidence and by the time I was Grade 6+ was not really intimidated by the prospect of an exam and was happy to enjoy the event and perform my pieces to the best of my ability (admittedly the other parts of the exam were not my strong points).

The fulfilment of playing in front of others is a skill best learnt young, it also allows teachers to receive feedback from the examiner about the pupils' playing which is always helpful. So, yeah. That's it. Sorry for the ramble. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[corenfa]

I may get a lot of flak for this, but having to learn all of the scales and arpeggios was good for me. I did them when I was little so it was kind of like learning times tables, I did it because I had to. What it has helped me with is just knowing the basic building blocks of music, being able to recognise them later, and thus improving my musical comprehension.

I'm not saying that this is the only way to improve musical comprehension, just that it worked for me. But I've always thought that people learn things differently anyway. Some people can learn languages by knowing lists of words and putting them together. Some can't.

[jod]

Wearing my 'Teacher is Senior Learner' hat it has reminded me what pupils go through.

As there were irregularities, it has reminded me how important it is to be an advocate for pupils where there are irregularities.

The process of learning scales and technical stuff was good. Reminding me just how far my aural perception has progressed since I was 17 and since I've taught aural. Reminding me how my sight reading has improved since I've had to do it all the time has been refreshing.

I've enjoyed learning pieces properly (for once).

What I did not enjoy was trying to play Grade 8 Piano pieces on a poor piano whilst not settled.

It makes me wonder about the spec for Grade 8 pianos given to centres. There are pianos and pianos. No self respecting flute player, oboist or violinist would go into post grade 5 exams on an instrument that was not fit for purpose, yet pianists and organists are at the whim of centres.

It is high-time the ABRSM set much more stringent minimum standards for Grades 6, 7 & 8 instruments so that there is not a disparity between those players playing on Steinways and those playing on Cheap Japanese Pianos.

[1993allende]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) I remember it being the same for my trinity grade 5. What was even more annoying is that there was a bluthner grand sitting in the room we were waiting in and a little piano that I couldn't fit the lower part of my 6 ft 3' self under in the basement for the exam.

However exams are good for occasionally making me focus... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[Blackbird77]

Cyrilla - I was very interested to read your comments as my exam experiences have pretty much left me with the same thoughts.

I recently did two exams, one went terribly, the other (in my mind) went incredibly well. Got the marks back for the one that had gone "brilliantly" and I scraped a pass. Although a pass is a pass, I thought I had done better but I'm now terrified as to the outcome of the other exam - realistically there is no hope in Hades that I could've passed.

For me, the exam experience has made we want to give up music because I feel like a fake as I can't make the grade. So I've decided to consolidate, abandon exams for now and focus on building up repertoire and getting to a point where I could perform a piece that an audience would enjoy.

With hindsight, I wish I'd never done the exams (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[JamesK]

On recent reflection, I've realised that the exam experience has been great. I'll go through bit bit by why on aspects of the exams.

Scales/arrpedios/ broken chords etc.:
spot an scale or a whole tone or diminished chord etc in a piece of music. It makes things easier to play, especially if the fingering is terrible in a piece I can adapt to prelearnt fingering.

Pieces:
The 4 main genres of music. A pieces being classical or Boroque, B pieces being Romantic, and C pieces being Modern (roughly). Before I did Grades, I would have only really stuck to Mozart and Beethoven, since that's what I thought piano was all about. So in that repect, it has opened up whole new repetoires for me to enjoy.

Sight-reading is sight-reading haha

Aural Tests:
Although these are my weakest part of the exam, they are very important which I found out about 4 hours before my exam. Sight singing/ playback can help with memorising a piece by knowing what will come up next. Modulations. I only found out how music travels from the tonic to the dominant then to it's subdominant and thus back to the tonic. Periods of music and the transformation of music throught the centuries.

As of when the exams took place, it has prepared me for playing in front of 1 person, someone critical of your performance such as a family member or an adjudicator at a festival. For example, being in the situation where something has gone wrong and I have to forget about it.

So all in all it's been a positive experience in terms of the journey, but just like all exams... I hate them ! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) dearly.

[delicato]

The exam experience has only made me even more determined to achieve what i originally set out to do. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Cyrilla]

Cyrilla - I was very interested to read your comments as my exam experiences have pretty much left me with the same thoughts.

Sorry - I've only just picked this up, although I did respond in your other thread about your results.

I hope that my experiences WILL be of help - my high spot, as far as grade exams went, was 123 for Grade V and I failed VII the first time (96). All the others were, I think, between 103 and 113.

But...now I'm not a bad musician (will never be brilliant - I know my limits!) and my whole life is dedicated to bringing the joy of music to others. Kodaly unlocked all this music inside me that I never knew was there. So how can I not believe that, 'If it can do this for me, then it can do the same for anyone'?

As soon as I started learning this way, things started to fall into place and I learned skills and knowledge that I had previously been baffled by.

So - just because you may not be brilliant at grade exams, this does NOT mean you're not musical. Keep doing the things you enjoy and ditch the things that create negative experiences (life's too short!) - and hopefully you too will find an 'open door that makes music accessible to everybody' (Zoltan Kodaly).

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[katyjay]

So - just because you may not be brilliant at grade exams, this does NOT mean you're not musical. Keep doing the things you enjoy and ditch the things that create negative experiences (life's too short!) - and hopefully you too will find an 'open door that makes music accessible to everybody' (Zoltan Kodaly).

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

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