Hey, I'm about to take my grade 6.... TOMORROW!! Ahhhh
Anyway... after this me and my teacher have decided to go onto grade 8 as he and many other of his "teacher friends" don't enter their pupils into the Grade 7 exam as they feel as it is quite pointless in a way.
Personally, I don't mind but i guess if your one of those people who go through every grade then fair enough.

What are other peoples opinions on this teachers and pupils

I have just passed grade 6 and will be taking grade 7 in approximately a year after 6 months of learning fun repertoire, then 6 months to prepare my pieces, scales and aurals (alongside other repertoire too).

I took my Grade 6 just under a year ago and I too, have decided to skip to grade 8.
I think that skiping grades isn't a problem as long as you are up to the standard required for the next grade. I have only taken grades 2, 5 and 6.
I spent a bit of time working on the Grade 7 pieces just to increase experience.

I think it's up to personal preferences of both you and your teacher.

Good luck in your exam tomorrow

My teacher is a type of person who will always make her pupils take every grade, and I don't mind. I'll have a nice row of certificates in the end But skipping grades aren't a problem either, so long as you do spend a bit of time working on Grade 7 stuff. Good luck in your exam!

See my comments for Chopinisque in the thread "Grade 8 in 4 years"

Dangermouse

I took grade 6 in March, have been learning the scales for grade 7 the last few weeks & got the book of pieces yesterday. I think if you're going to skip to 8 then it's worthwhile playing a few grade 7 pieces & looking at the aurals & scales, that way it won't seem such a shock when you come to learn the grade 8 stuff. Good luck with your exam tomorrow.

Lisa xxx

As others have said, skip the exam if you like but it's not a good idea to miss out the work needed to get to the next exam you take.

in my opinion, grade 7 is a vital stepping point to grade 8, and it would probably take the same amount of time to do grade 7 and then grade 8 (exams) as it would do go through grade 7 pieces, learn the scales, learn the aural etc.


you may as well take the exam if you're going the learn the stuff for it!

I did Grade 7 today, and I do advise doing it. It is a step up from Grade 6, it is not more of the same. Also, the aural is a big step from Grade 6, and to go straight from Grade 6 aural to Grade 8 aural may be a tad suicidal. And the scales are a step up too. The pieces are of similar standard, though still more difficult, but it's not so much technical stuff they want now, it's expression and emotion and conveying the piece properly... you can make loads of slips and wrong notes and only lose a couple of marks, at Grade 7, more marks are awarded for playing the piece rather than the notes. If that makes sense! It's a good idea to get used to this.

Good luck!

You wouldn't necessarily learn the grade 7 exam pieces if you were working on towards grade 8, just plenty of things at that sort of level.
As for scales, as all scales have most likely been learned by that level then going on to the grade 8 scale requirements while playing lots of things wouldn't be a problem, it's just new ways of playing around with them really. I don't think you'd need to follow the grade 7 scale syllabus first if not doing the exam.

Even way back when I tokk my last exams (see signature), I went from Grade 6 piano at Easter 1962 to ALCM Diploma in July 1963
I also took Grade 6 Organ at Easter 1963 then Grade 8 at Easter 1964 .

I dont think there is much of a gap between 6 and 8 , or 7 and Associate.
My comment on the piano syllabus thread bear this out when I say Griegs Butterfly (new Grade7) is harder than his Nocturne (Grade 8)

muahahaHAhahahaha

I've just has my g6 exam a couple of weeks ago..
my teacher thought that i should go straight forward to g8 , but i thought that the next year in school is tough enough so i won't be able to do grade 8 well, so we decided to start g7 from next week..

I have nothing else to add except wishing you lots of luck in your exam...

Whooo... thanks, that is exactly what my teacher says
Thanks everyone for the Good Lucks

I just couldn't learn the Butterfly. I gave up eventually, and I'm doing G7 with the next syllabus instead.

I'm not sure it's possible to do G8 now, bearing in mind that the syllabus goes out soon, but that's a personal matter.

Considering how expensive the exam is, it's not completely mad to learn the stuff but not to take the exam.

True...

Deep inside me , i would rather learn the suff from g1 to g7 and be examined in 8

And the in between exam music as well.

How did the G6 go?