Hi guys, Im sure im not alone but im really starting to worry about my dipabrsm, I haven't had dates through yet but 4 of my pieces aren't upto scratch and although iv researched my programme notes I haven't managed to get round to writing them. Im singing 7 pieces and although im trying to practice my throat keeps giving way through being overworked. aaaaaagh!I think I am definately going to fail.

i know how you feel! mine is coming up far too quickly!!! seven pieces though- that's lots! I'm only doing three! (though my whole programme lasts 40 minutes!) I still can't play one of the movements of my concerto, and haven't started my programme notes yet! but if you havent got the date yet then it means it must be at least a month away- so you have plenty of time. I know what you mean about your throat getting tired- I play the horn and sore lips means i physically cant do more than 3 hours a day, when ideally i'd like to do double that. Don't worry though- you'll be fine!

I got the date through for my dipabrsm clarinet the other day its on the 22nd july! Far to close if you ask me! Im really worried that my pieces arent up 2 scratch. Ive got soooooo much work to do. Im doing 4 pieces and i only started learnin one of them about a month ago!!! I think that all dates for the dipabrsm are between the 19th and the 24 th in the uk. Were are you doing yours??? good luck to both of ya

I'm doing mine in northern ireland, the 28th is the very first day of the diplomas here
ONLY A WEEK TO GO!!!

Iv had my date too and its the 22nd july!aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!im really not prepared and am currently picking apart the notes that I have already made for prog notes, mine in Birmingham, I dont want to do i anymore!

Nix!! Wow, I am feeling your pain. I am singing 8 pieces and I feel like I'm only really on top of about 4 of them!!!! As for my notes, I have started reading and researching and all that but as for the actual writing, it is coming very slowly and my exam is exactly 4 weeks today... This evening, my teacher was telling me about an ex-student who did this exama few years ago. She said that the study that he was given to sight read was so hard it was practically impossible and not to panic about it as it'll probably be so hard i'll panic with the extra practise. It didn't make me feel better... Are you a soprano? Would love to hear what your programme is. Best of luck!!! BM.

Hi all

Ive got my piano diploma on 22nd July!! Arghhhhhh! I know how you are all feeling

Good luck everyone

22 July seems to be a very busy day for you all. Good luck everybody.

Good luck everyone!
i did my dipabrsm in piano on the 1st June... WAAAY too early, if you ask me! but i live abroad, so i guess those take place early... I understand how y'all are feeling, i felt really unprepared and i was sooo nervous that my pieces weren't up to scratch.. but in the end it was fine, i did it as best as i could have, so that was that. (though i have a nasty feeling that i failed, for some reason. ) don't over-practice, it can harm you (and your voice!) a lot! and DO write your programme notes.. it took me a while to write mine and i wish I had written them earlier.. so that's one thing i'd advise you to get out of the way.. well, good luck!

Oh my god, you could say im really panicking now!! im singing pieces from the soprano list but i have a problem as my voice has changed since i entered and has dropped to a mezzo quite suddenly so most things have been transposed so my teacher has to write a covering letter!!aaaaaaaaagh! thats making me more stressed as for sight reading, im not even thinking about it and just gona have a stab, throat causing a few problems so only managing to practice about hr a day as dont want to push it to hard. my programme i8s as follows:

Brahms Meine liebe ist grun
Mozart Batti Batti
Handel As when the dove laments
Purcell Hark the echoing air
Schubert Nur wer die sehnsucht kennt
Grieg Solveigs song
Berlioz Les nuits d'ete


whats everyone else doing?

Prog notes are on the way ive managed to complete 3 but are the otehr singers finding it hard to keep within the word limit? i foned abrsm and they said not to include footnotes and we can go over or under by 10% of the limit, so thats abit extra help. Im stressed and could do with a stiff brandy!

Good luck everyone, I think we could all do with some moral support!

QUOTE

but are the otehr singers finding it hard to keep within the word limit?

I suspect that the reason you're having a hard time with this is that you have many, short, pieces. Maybe this is an effect of being a singer: if a pianist plays a piano sonata then that's about 15 minutes of the programme with only one programme note to write for that length of time; I should imagine that there aren't so many songs that are so long on the syllabus (just guessing though...). Maybe the word limit should be made as X words per piece rather than a total number of words, because it's difficult for you to go into detail about each piece with so few words .

Anyway, someone who had done the exam (can't remember who or whereabouts in the forum, it may even be earlier in this thread) that it's best to make sure that your programme notes focus on describing the piece rather than just giving a history of the composer: so I would suggest that you do a very brief section on each composer's life and the context of the work (I know it's hard to describe someone's life in a sentence ) and then make the description the main part (although for one or two do it the other way round to show that you can do both). They'll then ask you about the composer's life a bit more in your viva, and since you know that will be asked you can prepare.

That's just an extrapolation of what various people have said, I'm not an expert, just a suggestion to help you to stay below the limit....

Good luck everyone!

I'm 21st July - aaargh.

I should be writing my programme notes instead of looking at this forum. Bad kitty!

I tried a run-through yesterday in front of my teacher and I just couldn't get the first two bars of my first piece right. I must have started about 5 times. I have never got this bit wrong before. Also later on when my fingers went into the wrong section all by themselves, I accidentally swore before correcting myself - what if I do this in the exam? How many marks do they deduct for expletives????

Id try not to swear if I was you! well only three prog notes left to go now, I have 5 of my pieces under my belt but am getting conscious about getting words, this has never happened but it doesn't help knowig the examiners will hev a copy of the text so will know if i mess up. lets not think about that. Im sure everyone will be fine, aslong as we dont...panic!!

I actually don't know what u r talking about.

QUOTE (hellokitty @ Jul 6 2004, 05:22 AM)

I actually don't know what u r talking about.

I think all the posts are quite clear.