How long was it from starting the piano that you passed your Grade 8 (or other grades).

Regards

The Doctor

Dr Sean (assuming for a moment that you have a doctorate entitling you to that title),

You seem to have a fondness for starting topics; however, once started, you never post in them again. Is this intentional, or just an oversight?

Oh, 11 years to grade 8.

A rather harsh statement from my honourable friend,
however thankyou.

I'm going to chance this and shorten it to Sean .

To be honest it's a bit of a pointless statistic. Some people get to grade 8 in 2 years and are nowhere near that standard though; some get there in 15 years and are more like diploma standard when they take it. Some get there in few years and are really that standard; this is, however comparatively rare; most people who do, particularly on piano, it aren't really grade 8 standard and have to go in and fill in the gaps.

No doubt it took you only three days (at the same time as the PhD of course) .

I find this a very harsh forum.


However thankyou again.
PS: Anotherpianist and Yetanotherpianist? strange.

and which grade 8... I did ABRSM 1-7 in seven years, in year 8 did trinity 8 and in year 9 did AB 8.
However... I feel that it's probably in the past year that I've got anywhere near a standard I'd be happy with. C'est la vie.
Dr Sean, perhaps tell us a little more about yourself. May do wonders for dispelling the apparent sceptism

I'm taking my Grade 8 Piano this summer aged 36. I started to play the piano when I was 8. The last Grade I took was Grade 6 in 1987, but I have been playing the piano seriously ever since!

I already have two Grade 8s one in Voice and One on the Oboe. I took my Grade 8 voice in 1988 after studying singing for 4 years. I took my Grade 8 Oboe in 1986 having been learning the instrument since 1980.

However the three years in a university music department, and my work as a musician both as an amateur and latterly as a professional have taught me much more about music than ploughing through Grades in order.

It is becoming a musician that is the really important thing and not just getting a certificate that states you can play a variety of four octave scales, sight read, perform three pieces and do some aural.

The main reason I'm doing grade 8 now? I decided if I was entering my own pupils for exams I should remind myself what it really feels like.

Oh and Dr Sean this isn't a harsh forum , its just one poulated by musicians who judge music making as the most important criterion and not wizzing through grades like a circus poodle.

How dare you !!
Said that our forum is harsh!!
It's full of friendy and nice people!!

I think you found us strange because actually the question that you asked is completely unique...no one really ever asked that...

I think it really depends on your own ablity on the instrument and also your commitment to it.
Some people can manage it in 2 or 3 years (which are super-super quick ) and on average, most people take about 8~9 years. But to be honest, what's the point to rush something?? It's much better to spend more time in the lower grades so that you may learn the idomatic techniques perfectly (ie smooth finger legato for piano), rather than rush through something and only sort of just pass through.

Take my words Dr Sean, a good player can spend 1 hour just on one bar or music. (that's what my friend did in University of music, studying violin).

I started in 1963 and passed Grade 8 in 2006. Being a doctor, you can do the maths!

Edward

Wow, and I thought I took my time...
You have an extra 15 years there.



Yes they did, but I can't be bothered doing a search.

I think Pianist 1210 was being sarcastic.....

AnotherPianist joined first; I joined later, using her soubriquet as a basis for mine. It isn't two accounts for one person, if that's what you're thinking; those who have met us both can attest to that.

Sure can!!!! AP and YAP are definitely 2 different people.

Doctor.....I know someone who passed Grade 8 piano at 5 years of age. Mind you, they had been learning for about 3 years so , since it only took you 1 year, I think you sound like a much more talented pianist. I think the child was diagnosed with' prodidgytellafibitis'. Ever heard of it?

I'll confirm it. I've met both of them.

Thankyou for all of your replies.

Kindest Again

Dr Sean

I've never met YAP, AP or DrSean.
In my opinion they are all pseudonyms of I-L !!!

Beg pardon?

note the

I noticed it; 'Beg Pardon?' was one of GCBS's old catchphrases, uttered whenever anyone suggested that one of his alternative users was in fact him .

ah! foiled again! In fact, it's time to reveal that I am in fact Lorna Linley!

I'm not sure what the above reply means!

read this thread......

Essentially, it means 'you're rumbled'

Sorry Mr Hoppwood

Could you clarify?

"rumbled" please clarify.

How enlightening. How come no-one told me about this before?


How can you expect us to ask you in-depth musical questions if you do not understand rumbled?

'Rumbled' is a word indirectly derived from the latin 'rumbeel' which means to be placed in a rum barrel and rolled down a hill. This in turn gave birth to the expression 'nik nak paddywack give the dog a bone', which of course is nowadays linked to the old Irish custom of placing in-laws in empty rum barrels and rolling them into the Irish Sea. How can any self-respecting speaker of English not know that?!

Wow! I stand in awe of your knowledge of the English language and its origins, Professor Radley. I thought 'rumbled' was a term used by a medieval man when he had been working hard (or playing hard) and had worked up a good appetite for food, hence the term 'my stomach is rumbling'. And if he had been playing hard the object of his affections might use the term "I've been well rumbled" to describe their sport together. (Not entirely sure which sport they used to play in those days - basketball hadn't yet been invented, nor had tennis, I believe, but possibly kicking a pig's bladder around in the early game of foot the ball could have been the sport they would have been referring to.............)

And for the record I reached grade 8 after approximately 3 months - I started playing the piano when I was 6...........

Classic!

Gee thanks MrB/YAP

I skipped Grade 8 and went straight to FRSM - took me about 20-25 minutes, but I wasn't hurrying.

It has taken me seven million, seven hundred and seventy six thousand seconds of practise to go from initial to passing grade 7.
That was 4 years doing one hours practise a day and 1 year doing two hours .. oh and I don't practise on Christmas day or my Birthday and I average 3 days sick a year.

So 7,776,000 seconds ... it doesn't actually seem that much really!!

Cheer up IL, we love you really. You can't deny us a little teasing at your expense given your previous activities can you?

oo, i don't know - think of it in nanoseconds....!

You failed then dude, cuz the requisite recital length is 50 minutes!!

yeh, it took me about 45mins on the bus.

No, they thought my playing was so brilliant (it brought both examiners to tears) that they weren't worthy enough to hear another 25 minutes and just awarded it anyway. No really, they did.

Woooo! go Treebs!

Sadly, my two examiners for LLCM commited hari-kari halfway through the Hindemith sonata. I filled in the marks and sent it back on their behalf, hence my recent "pass" ...

Just looked up what hari-kari meant

ummm....yes?

I'm curious - are you an expert cellist too Dr Sean?


Jane (who you can call doctor in a couple of months time... )

Ye Gods, but you lot are slow.

As a foetus, I performed Rachmaninov's 2nd and 3rd piano concertos with the LSO whilst simutaneously making my debut playing both the Chopin concerti with the Polish National Symphony in Warsaw.

10 seconds later I invented the matter transfer beam, solved all the economic problems of every country on the planet and invented a cure for the common cold. These last three have been supressed by the cruel capitalist governments of the cartel-contolled, big-business owned west; I am writing this from a filched lappy deep in a bunker below the North Sea, where I am being held prisoner. Help me, please help me.

Come on, if you are going to list some achievements, at least make them decent ones.

Steve

> "filched lappy"

nice touch Steve, but what does this phrase represent? In my neck of the woods it has a rather different meaning..

Can't help your kinky bits

No, but you'd like to....

Let me at them..................................

<is suddenly scared about mrbouffant's imminent clarinet lesson> I've obtained special dispensation for you to do your FRSM in May 2006, so that should be enough time. I reckon you could easily learn the Nielsen, Copland and Corigliano concerti by then, and do a written submission on "The twentieth-century clarinet concerto"

Real answer: I had my first piano lesson in 1987, but haven't got a Grade VIII piano certificate. I can play Grade VIII pieces to an OK standard, and would sit the exam if I could get my fingers round the scales and arpeggios

Joke answer: I passed Grade VIII piano shortly before my mother was born. I was hailed in the next edition of Libretto not only as the youngest person ever to have passed Grade VIII piano, but also as the youngest ever person to receive 150/150. The comments section of my mark sheet said that the examiner would have liked to have given me extra marks because of my playing, but as I could only gurgle for the aural tests, he felt that anything higher than full marks would be unfair.

I've been playing piano scince i was six thats...7 years. Im currently at grade seven. By the time i complete G8 I'll probably will have been playing for 8/8.5 years (possibly 9)