Here is a little piece of advice I found written down to help with grade one scales

The Art Of Classical Guitar

Overcoming Performance Anxiety in Grade 1 Scales



1. Sitting down: Sitting down is really essential to playing Grade 1 scales. I have found that if your students stand up whilst trying to play their Grade 1 scales, they will invariably not be able to play them very well and end up getting performance anxiety. Try sitting them down on a chair or maybe even a stool.

2. Learning the alphabet: Although most guitarists play with a pick (or plectrum) in Grade 1 you have to use your fingers - 3 of them!!! These have 3 letter names: I, M and A. They stand for Implementor, Modulator and Accelerator. Knowing these letter names is very important as the examiner may ask you to play a scale with I and M, or a really difficult one like M and A. Sometimes he/she may be really underhanded and make up silly words to try and catch you out like "apoyando" and "tirando"; just ignore these silly words and try not to get too anxious, thus avoiding performance anxiety.

3. Breathing: This is very important. If you don't breathe you will fall off your chair and die. If you fall off your chair and die the examiner will not be impressed and may give you a lower mark than you deserved. Knowing that he will be giving you a lower mark will make you anxious and you will get performance anxiety.

4. Playing the correct notes: It may sound a bit pedantic, but if you do not play the right notes (also in the right order!) then the examiner will penalise you - heavily. Learning these notes is very difficult and involves reading a strange type of tab with only 5 lines called a "stave". Many students suffer from extreme performance anxiety when an examiner asks them to play something which he may refer to as a "one octave major scale starting on C". Just remember to sit down, breathe and not to play with your pick.

5. Using Nylon strings: Classical guitar players like Andy Segovia, Julian Tench and JW don't use steel strings like other guitarists, they use Nylon strings. This makes playing scales better and reduces the chances of getting performance anxiety.

I hope these tips help you and your student’s progress to be excellent players that can aim towards Grade 2 and possibly one day be as good as the great masters of the Spanish guitar. And remember: If at first you don't succeed, just keep bunging your clueless teacher £20.00 every week to listen to a load of ###### until you eventually realise that he/she has no formal classical guitar training whatsoever, but just because they learnt that Spanish-sounding thing by Queen they thought they'd give it a go.

Although, don't joke about falling off chairs and dying. It's not outside the realms of possibility for me! I do tend to hold my breath when I'm concentrating.

Yup, I'm another breath-holder! So much so that it's been commented on before when I've played in music festivals and the like. I think it might have even been mentioned in an exam before as well!

I'm a foot tapper....... During one exam when I was really concentrating hard, I looked up to see if I could gauge the examiners impression, only to see her staring at my foot that was going up and down like a piston. I stopped it immediately, she looked right at me and I'll swear she scowled.
It didn't get mentioned in the comments though..

Ah, when I was very young, foot tapping was drummed out of me by an orchestra teacher - I do that toe in my shoe waggle instead.

re Foot tapping - I got shouted at very loudly by an opera conductor when I was so rash as to do this at a rehearsal That was 35 years ago and never done it since

This is classical music of course - in electric guitar you have to pose - gurn - stick your tongue out and eye up all the nubile young woman you can see With acoustic you grow your hair unsuitably long and sing in a squeaky voice about lurve That is if your James Blunt - you then die horribly (wishful thinking )

Oh dear. I don't have a squeaky voice. What shall I do?