Hi, I need lots of help! I'm a working adult and have been studying piano for 5 years now, but have never taken any formal exam. I started Grade 4 theory and practical in July last year, but my progress has been slow. I changed tutor recently coz my last tutor wasn't very dedicated and often cancelled lessons (to my frustration). I'm now enrolled in a nice music school, and have decided to sit for Grade 4 theory and practical next year.
Although I love piano very much, I still don't play the instrument well. My biggest worry? That I may not get through the exam, especially the practical. I would appreciate any advice and help on the following:

1) During practical exam, how may "chances" does the examiner give a candidate who fumbles the notes in the first few bars and have to restart the piece (over and over again)? I'm a nervous wreck when I'm playing for someone (in private, I don't make so many mistakes) and often screw up the first few bars. If this happens during the exam, what do I do? Keep restarting until I get it right? Does the examiner have the time/patience? Or will I be "kicked" out immediately?

2) I understand from the Forum that we can bring in our exam pieces. Can we make pencil markings on the notes e.g. fingering numbers or sharp/flat signs?

3) I have never been taught scales by my two previous tutors. When I told my current tutor about this, she was surprised and said, "Uh-oh, we'll have to get you the scales book later on". Is it too late for me to learn the scales? One of the books I'm using now is "Alfred's Basic Learners Book 5" with a scale practice exercise before some of the pieces. The first scale exercise I tried was for B minor. I've practiced it a few times and have almost memorized the fingering pattern. But is this how one practice scales? Memorizing the fingerings and not have to think about each note we are hitting e.g. B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A#, B..." How does one "memorize" scales in contrary motion?

4) How do I "learn" the position of keys on the piano without looking at the keyboard? When I play, I've to hunt for most of the keys, especially those located further up/down the keyboard. Even then, I sometimes still hit the wrong key. Is hitting a wrong note a cardinal sin during exam? If this happens, do I replay the note/bar or just ignore the error and play on?

5) I think I will flunk the aural test. I can't play without a music sheet in front of me. If someone else plays, I can't tell in what key or what notes that person is playing. Am I doomed? Any advice?

6) My "bass" hand always sound louder than my "treble" hand when played together. Only with the deepest concentration and "emphasis" on my right hand, can I get the right hand to sound louder than the left hand. If the dynamic requires "pp", then it'll be impossible for me to play. The first time I played for my new tutor (Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony Last Movement), I played my usual heavy left hand, and my tutor quickly stopped me, telling me about the difference between the "harmonic" hand, and the "melodic" hand. She then played a few bars to demonstrate. And she could do it with such ease... but I'm still having trouble. How can I master this?

7) For theory, is memorizing the number of semitones for each major and minor intervals enough? E.g. 4 semitones = Major 2nd, 3 semitones = Minor 3rd, 5 semitones = Perfect 4th, etc. I have never understood the significance of learning the names of intervals. Will I be tested on this in the aural test?

8) Any advice on how to turn a music page quickly enough?

9) I practice for about 1/2 hour on weeknights (because of work) and about 2 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Is this practice time sufficient?

10) I now go to a music school for lessons (instead of having home lessons, as previously). The piano at the school is a beautiful Kawai but I've still not gotten used to playing on someone else's piano. The "feel" of the keys is different from my own piano. Also, the piano is placed in a very small room and the music just reverberates in the small space, shocking me each time I hit a note. The worst part (maybe) is that the room is not sound-proof. Which means that every mistake I make is heard by practically EVERYONE in the school, from the other students waiting outside or in the next rooms to the admin staff downstairs. I feel embarrassed and stressful, although I know I shouldn't be.

11) I'm currently using the following books: Alfred's Basic Learners Book 5, John Thompson's Fourth Grade, Czerny Opus 599 (finger exercises), Burgmuller's 25 Progressive Pieces Opus 100 and The Best of Beethoven (Grades 2 - 4). I've also been practising past exam pieces from years 2005-2006. Are these "repertoire" sufficient for my Grade?

12) If a candidate fails one or two parts of the practical, does it mean automatic failure of the entire exam?

13) How long usually before the exam results are out?

Please help! Thanks!!!

You really are in a panic; don't worry so much; it's not really such an ordeal; you're worrying because of lack of information. Get hold of a syllabus and read through all the relevant bits - I think you can do this online, or most music shops will have a printed copy.

I'll answer what I can, and I'm sure others will too.

1/ Personally, I would avoid restarting more than once - or maybe twice, if you're only a few bars into the music. I don't know how many restarts you get away with - but the more times you do this, the less likely you will become to actually get past the bit where you're stumbling! Don't worry about the occasional wrong note - don't correct - just get on! But whatever happens, you certainly won't be kicked out! You don't need to pass every section, by the way. A good mark in one area can cover for a bad mark in another.

2/ Yes, you can. I get my pupils to rub out anything they can do without - just because I think it looks bad, but it's okay to leave pencil markings.

3/ What you're doing here is fine. Keep practising and you'll get there. Consistency with fingering is important in scales.

4/ There is not a pianist in the world who never hits a wrong note. But once it's wrong, it's wrong. correcting it won't turn the clock back and make it right! Try to keep going as much as possible. Within reason, you will not fail because of a few wrong notes.

5/ Read that syllabus - it's not as hard as you think! The tests are very specifically structured and easy to practise. Buy an aural test book yourself and you can practise on your own.

6/ There are other threads on this which it might be useful to read. Called bass/treble or something like that. If I go and look for it now, I'm scared of losing what I'm typing here!

7/ Again, see syllabus! Aural test are listening tests - and practice really helps.

8/ You are allowed, if this is a problem, to sellotape a photocopied page to the side of your music in order to avoid a page-turn.

9/ I'd say this is enough practice. Don't panic!

10/ You'll get over this! No one's perfect! And no one else will really be listening, either.

11/ I think that's pretty good.

12/ See above - no, you don't need to pas all sections.

13/ A few weeks.

GOOD LUCK. You'll be fine!!

To answer a few of your questions

It doesn't matter how much graffiti there is on your music. The examiner is more concerned with your performance, not with how clean your copy of the score.

Practice.
Practice.


You don't have to play the piano during the aural section. Developing aural skills comes down to practice.


Only you know the answer to this one - everyone learns at a different pace. The quality of your practice time is far more important than the quantity.

No. As long as you earn a total of 100 marks, you will pass, no matter where the marks came from.

In the UK, usually about a fortnight.

I would go along with Patricia. You need to familiarise yourself with the exam requirements. Why don't you read These Music Exams? That will fill you in on many of the questions you ask. You can download it from the ABRSM web site in PDF form from the above link free of charge.

I am an adult learner and I did my Grade 4 at Christmas last. I get very nervous as an adult doing an exam ( not a problem when I was a child.) In my Grade 4 I had to restart my first piece SEVERAL times ... and still got the pass mark. I decided I had done so badly I thought "Blow that...." and played my next pieces well and got excellent marks for them ... so don't worry if you have to restart. Obviously it's better if you don't.

Qu 3 ) Contrary motion scales I found really difficult at Grade 4 but learned them by practising daily VERY SLOWLY at first, slow enough to think about where both my fingers were going. Then eventually I became quicker as the fingering patterns got instilled into my head. I began practising one x10 correctly slowly. The scaled I learned contrary motion I now know really well. As with all scales, you just have to keep practising until they become something you "just know".
Qu 4) Where I had tricky moves I practised those bars daily x10 correctly ubtil I "knew" where the keys were. I have been playing the Moonlight Sonata and it has loads of moves and it's only by playing the difficult bits again and again that you learn where the notes are.
Qu5) Don't worry about aural tests. Get a copy of the syllabus, ask your teacher to help you and if you are still struggling, buy the ABRSM "Aural Training in Practice" cd and book .... very helpful... I use these with my pupils ( I'm not a confident enough sight reader to play the piano for my pupil's aural tests) and with my children.
Qu 6) Ask your teacher to help you with the dynamics and relative Loudness of l and r hands. It just comes down to practice in the end again. It is hard to play quietly and get the balance right with L and R hands but you will improve with practice. I'm working on this just now ... and had to for a few of my Grade 4 pieces.
Qu 8) Page turns ? In grade 4 ? I didn't have any. But I think if you have a difficult page turn in an exam you can photocopy the music. I'm still struggling with it in non-exam music.
Qu 9) You do as much practice as I do .... I up it before an exam.

Good luck

THANKS VERY MUCH, Patricia and Deborah for the helpful advice! Thanks also for taking the time to answer my LOOOOONG list of questions!

Yes, I do panic and worry a LOT when I think of my weekly lesson and of the exam. My teacher is always telling me to "Relax! Don't get so tensed up" whenever she finds me playing mechanically and my nervousness showed.

Now I know that there's an exam syllabus available, I will try to get a copy. Also, must PRACTICE, PRACTICE and PRACTICE more!

By the way, is it correct that not all 3 pieces from the same Section of the Exam Paper are of the same level of difficulty? I mean, say from Section A, one piece could be shorter and "look" easier than the other two. Will most candidates then choose the shorter/easier piece?

I also have problem playing allegro/vivace pieces. I normally practice them adagio first, then advance to moderato and at best (that is, if at all I can) to allegretto. I can't do allegro well (will hit a lot of wrong notes). I suppose marks will be deducted during exam if the piece calls for allegro, and I play them adagio!

Rhu and Clari Nicki, THANKS VERY MUCH for the helpful advice! Clari Nicki, thanks for sharing your experiences. Your words of advice have "upped" my confidence level to attempt the exam. I will also try to practice my scales as you advised.

This is a great Forum! (There're certain things that I'm just shy to ask my teacher).

Everyone gets nervous in exams, many people incredibly so, you are not alone. All that you can do is be aware the you will be nevous and ensure tht you're as well prepared as possible in order to compensate for this: practise until it can't go wrong rather than until it does go right . Be assured though, you're not alone, nor will you be the most nervous person that's ever done an exam .



The syllabus is here: Grade 4 Piano Syllabus and Aural Tests. I'd second the earlier recommendation of 'These Music Exams' too . Try not to over work yourself on the pieces in the run up to the exam as too much work on the same pieces can actually make them worse. If you want to work on things, like keyboard geography, try looking at some other simple pieces alongside your exam pieces that you can work through quickly (this will improve your sightreading too). Scales is just a matter of practise, making them harder is often the way to make it stick in your head: playing it in different rhythms along with the metronome helps and also going backwards and forwards just over the thumb turn sections several times (as these tend to be the difficult area).



The pieces are supposed to all be the same difficulty. The difficulty of pieces is, to a certain extent, subjective since different people have different strengths: so what's hard to one person might be easy to another. Rest assured that the official line is that all pieces are the same and you will not lose any marks for playing a piece that you consider easier . The easier pieces may well tend to be the more popularly played but that doesn't matter. Many people will select their exam pieces as the ones they like best rather than the one that is the easiest anyway .



Yes, but slower and accurate is better than fast and inaccurate. The way to speed pieces up is to do so gradually with the metenome: find a speed (however slow) that you can play it confidently at and then turn the metronome up a little (by 5 beats of so) and play it again at the new speed many times until it's confident. Speeding up is a gradual process that you can expect to take weeks rather than hours, so don't become disheartened .

Regarding page turns: if you do need to do them at grade 4 (which piece is it?) then you need to practise that as you would any part of the piece. Find the best place to turn that's reasonably near to the end of the page, may be a few bars early or may be a few bars late if you can memorise a couple of bars to help you, and then practise turning consistently in the same place. The other alternative is just to photocopy the troubling page .

You really should feel free to ask your teacher as many questions as you want: they won't think badly of you for it: they'll just be glad you're interested . If you want to know the solution to a specific problem, in particular how to practise scales, or how to speed up pieces, they will be able to give you lots of helpful tips, and will be delighted that you want to practise .

Clari Nicki, may I ask what books you used for Grade 4 (theory and practical)?
Thanks!

I did my theory a long long time ago when a teenager so thankfully do not have to do that now. I did ABRSM Grade 4 piano and used the ABRSM Grade 4 piano exam book. For piano and violin exams the pieces are all in one book... There are alternative pieces that aren't in the book but I chose 3 pieces in the book. There are a choice of 3 in the book for each List ( List A, B and C). I have used alternatives in other Grades but not Grade 4. I haven't satrted my Grade 5 pieces yet but am using "World Renowned Piano Pieces Book 1" at the moment - compiled by David Wilson.
My daughter is doing theory and uses the ABRSM books but can't say I'd recommend them !!!

The best way to do this is to start with locating the groups of 2 and 3 black notes without looking at your hands. Start with the ones nearest the middle of the keyboard and work outwards. To start with, find a group and then return your hand to your lap. When you are confident with this play either pairs or threes up and down the keyboard, then down and up - one hand or both. Do alternate pairs and threes as well. Use fingers 2 and 3 on the pairs and 2,3 and 4 on the threes. You can think out some other patterns for yourself. Once you can locate the black notes easily you can work out the white ones from these. Make quite sure that you know your notation well - choose some very easy pieces and name the notes before you find them on the keyboard (without looking). Work from bass to treble when you do this, and don't worry about keeping to tempo to start with - just find the notes. After that you can play the piece through slowly. You will find this excellent for improving your sight reading.

Also have a look at the Practicespot website - full of useful practice ideas.

AnotherPianist, thanks for your helpful advice! I'm printing out the exam syllabus now (thanks!). Some of the pieces in my music books cover more than 2 pages (I remember in particular, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 First Movement is 5 pages long!) and I have problem turning the pages "smoothly". I noted also that in the Grade 4 Exam Pieces (for 2005-2006), there is a rather long piece in Section A i.e. Josef Myslivecek's "Divertimento in E No. 1" which comes to 3 pages!! This piece looks far more difficult than the other 2 pieces in the same Section. I've practiced a little on the seemingly "easier" piece called "Polonaise" by J.C.F. Bach - it is only 1 page long (although the music is divided into 2 sections which must be repeated). The music has a very pretty melody (when played right, that is!!) and I can't believe the composer wrote it when he was still a child (what a genius!!!).
The piece is in 3/4 time with speed of 88 crochet beats per minute. It's filled with semiquavers for the treble clef but doesn't appear as difficult as Myslivecek's piece. I've tried playing the latter ONCE and I think it's a real killer (the piece has lots of demi-semiquavers for both left and right hand, and staccatos!). One bar even has 6 semi-quavers squeezed into a crochet beat (what's this type/set of notes called?). I just noticed however, that turning the page of this piece might not be difficult after all because the last note in the treble clef is a "pause" sign.

Hi, Suepea! I like your advice on how to learn the position of keys on the piano. I will definitely try it. Thanks very much!!

You don't play the repeats in the exam.

If you intend to sit your exam after April next year you will have to play from the new syllabus that comes out this July (or is it September ?)
I did Polonnaise. It's a lovely piece ... I also did Freeway - that was great fun. I did Heller's Prelude. That was over 2 pages but in the book they were facing pages. I think there may have been 1 in the '05-'06 book that was over 3 pages ... but I haven't chosen one with a page turn yet. I'm waiting for the new Grade 5 syllabus to come out before I start those pieces.

Yes - A2 has a page-turn. It's not too bad though - at the end of a phrase and the speed is andantino

You asked about starting a pieces several times in the exam due to nerves ....... this happened to one of my students recently. He didn't manage to keep going at all, and after a few tries the examiner suggested they move on to another piece and come back later to the one that wouldn't start. A bit embarrassing perhaps but not the end of the exam! The student actually scored one below the pass mark on that particular piece, but made up the marks on other things and gained a pass overall.

So you see things can go wrong and still end up ok.

Jeez, I didn't know that!

Hi there. Don't be shy to ask your teacher ANYTHING - that's what you pay him/her for. I teach many adults and they ask me all sorts of things, some they THINK are silly but are certainly not - many adults think that because they're adults they are expected to know everything. A child wouldn't think that, they would just ask - it's not a lack of intelligence, but a lack of experience. So, do ask.

I f you tense up when you're playing, try playing with your mouth wide open as if you were holding a Pringle between your lips ( My teacher told me this and it worked - however, I'm still waiting for the Pringle !) - it's amazing but it does work.

All scales, however you start or end, always fall in to the short (3 fingers) and long (4 fingers) pattern. Learn a characteristic for each scale, left and right, as to which fingers play which black keys every time, for example.

Good luck, and stick at it. Try to enjoy your music - try to keep it fun !

Hi, Maggiemay. Hi, helly burnet. Thanks for the helpful advice!

Surprisingly, I'm enjoying my lessons at the new music school more NOW (after 2 months). I'm also better acquainted with the piano at the school. It's not such a "stranger" to me now. It's very well tuned, and I like the feel of the keys.

I'm practicing my scales like crazy now! Thanks for the tip on "handling" scales! My teacher said the wrists should be placed low but the fingers should move "more, higher, sharper" when playing scales and the fingerrnails should always face "front" (about 90-degrees) and not "upwards".

I'm still nervous when playing for my new teacher, but I realize, not as bad as was the case with my former teacher (who taught me at home for 4 years). Sometimes I got so nervous playing for my previous teacher I became physically petrified and forgot what I was playing. My new teacher is correcting a lot of my playing techniques and I think I'll do better under her guidance. She's a superb piano player as well - she plays very expressively and sight reads well. She's got a double-degree in music and teaches cello too.

I know I should ask my teacher questions, and I do, but not as many as I would like to/require because firstly, I'm shy and secondly, my teacher has a full teaching schedule and she watches the clock closely too (so that her next student isn't kept waiting). Usually, when my "time's up", I just pack up my books, say my "thanks" and "bye" and leave.

A question for Clari Nicki:
Hi, Clari Nicki, in the 2nd bar of the "Polonaise" piece (treble clef side), how do I move quickly enough from the high semi-quaver "F" note to the lower pitched semi-quaver "D" (which is more than an octave away) and still sound legato? I have small hands and can only span 1 octave. When I play the 2 notes, they sound "broken off" and not smooth. Did you find the Heller piece (with "vivace" speed) difficult? Thanks!