It's way too late, but I have a pupil going in for Grade 6 in a fortnight, and she still hasn't mastered those dotted quaver runs on page 2. There's a bit of a panic ensuing, and she's now just mashing her way through it with random notes. We've tried changing fingering, changing hands, slow practice, you name it. No joy. Any suggestions. The rest of the piece is absolutely fine.

Emsoboe is playing this for Grade 6 she isn't taling the exam unbtil the next session. Her teacher suggested playing a bar at a time and repeating it until it's correct and working lots with a metronome. You may well have already done this. I'm sure some of the teachers will give you ideas.

Ok. Firstly, susiejean don't believe it's too late to sort, otherwise it'll become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps she believes she can't do it, too and has given up on it a bit? You need to get rid of that notion in both of your heads straight away!

How exactly is she playing it? There are various things you can try. It all depends on what you've done already and what exactly her problems are with the passage. Also, you do have to allow time for each method to work, and if you're panicking a little, you might have already tried the right approach but not allowed enough time for it to settle.

I think the main thing is trying to correctly define what she's doing wrong, and how she's hearing and feeling the piece (both cognitively and physically). Then you can work out precisely what the error is and patch it up. Tell me more about what she's doing, and which bars she's going wrong on and I'll see if I can offer more specific help.

If your student is dedicated and hard-working, she'll be able to do it. It's only a couple of bars, right? (Are you talking about the Oscar Peterson Jazz Exercise No. 2?)

EDIT: If it is the piece I think it is, I think I know which part you might mean - is it the phrase which starts with a high B, a low B - the phrase is played by the RH except for the second note (i.e. the low B)? Sorry - I've not got a score handy!

I was told to slow it down and play it with a metronome. I was consistently starting each bar slightly too late, which caused me to mash up the later notes

Thanks for your reply. I probably would have got more if I had typed in the right exercise number in the title.
It's at the top of page 2. It starts low and heads up the keyboard. The same run appears twice in a row, then there is a slight change of pattern for a similar run. I think the biggest problem is it's just an unfamiliar pattern. It's nothing she's had to do before, and it doesn't seem to matter which fingering or technique she uses, she just ends up with a jumble. I sat down myself and got it to work by using left right right left (I think, can't remeber now), but she seemed rather resistant. It's her last lesson before the exam tomorrow. Might just have to live with it, but her aural is awful so she needed her pieces to be a little better than they are. Who would teach 16 year olds!