Hi all,

I just got my Violin Grade 4 exam result and am little disappointed. I got 126/150. 4 points short for Distinction. One thing I am not quite sure about the examinar's comment is about my vibrato. He seemed to pick on my vibrato in 2 out of 3 pieces, saying that I didn't do vibrato (well) enough.. should use more rubato in here and there, and thus I got relatively low points for that 2 pieces. Also, he kept on saying about my vibrato in the overall comments.

When I was preparing for the pieces, my teacher introduced vibrato to me about 2 or 3 months before the exam, thus I wasn't totally competent in it. My teacher said vibrato is a "nice to have" in Grade 4 so I shouldn't worry about it. However, it looks like the examiner took all the points away because of the vibrato (he didn't criticize my intonation, bowing, or anything else at all). I checked the ABRSM exam guide and it also stated "By Grade 5 violin candidates should have acquired some skill in vibrato." so isn't this implied that a Grade 4 candidate isn't expected to use vibrato?

Just wondering if other ppl have a similar experience.. or maybe it's just both me and my teacher have misinterpreted that sentence from the exam guide..

Hi VioliMac,
I think U shouldn't have played using vibrato since you were not so confident to use it during exam. U have just learnt it few months before the exam and it's dangerous to risk your marks because u didn't play vibrato well. It's such a pity.
I'm doing my Grade 4 this year as a group and we asked our teacher about Vibrato before. She says that normally they will only require you to play Vibrato in Grade 5 exam. U can start learning in Grade 4 but don't rush into playing it in the exams.

My 2 cents worth.

I was advised Not to use vibrato... And i pulled through the exam with a 140! Must have been the examiner...

QUOTE (violinmac @ Dec 18 2003, 07:22 AM)

Hi all, I just got my Violin Grade 4 exam result and am little disappointed. I got 126/150. 4 points short for Distinction. One thing I am not quite sure about the examinar's comment is about my vibrato. He seemed to pick on my vibrato in 2 out of 3 pieces, saying that I didn't do vibrato (well) enough.. should use more rubato in here and there, and thus I got relatively low points for that 2 pieces. Also, he kept on saying about my vibrato in the overall comments. When I was preparing for the pieces, my teacher introduced vibrato to me about 2 or 3 months before the exam, thus I wasn't totally competent in it. My teacher said vibrato is a "nice to have" in Grade 4 so I shouldn't worry about it. However, it looks like the examiner took all the points away because of the vibrato (he didn't criticize my intonation, bowing, or anything else at all). I checked the ABRSM exam guide and it also stated "By Grade 5 violin candidates should have acquired some skill in vibrato." so isn't this implied that a Grade 4 candidate isn't expected to use vibrato? Just wondering if other ppl have a similar experience.. or maybe it's just both me and my teacher have misinterpreted that sentence from the exam guide..

Hi,

I am on my grade 4 violin exam. I think using vibrato makes the violin sound nice!!! I think you should be able to tune your violin by grade four and be able to do vibrato....

Manpreet

As suggested by ABRSM, vibrato is not necessary for grade 4, therefore it's not your problem, it's only the examiner. By the way, i found that different examiners have got different requirement, shouldn't the ABRSM standardise it?!!

I think you should stop criticising (?) the examiner. Firstly, 126 is a good mark and I can't see why you were disappointed. Secondly, maybe the vibrato you used didn't quite work and so gave a negative impression to the examiner.

When I did my grade 4 violin a year and a half ago my teacher introduced me to vibrato a few months before the exam. He did however tell me not to use it in the exam as I wasn't very good at it!!! Maybe you didn't get distinction because you used vibrato when you weren't fully confident with it. By the way you don't have to take any notice of this coz i failed my grade 4 mainly because i just lost interest in it. All I was doing was exam work, as soon as I had done one exam it was on to the next. Consequently I gave it up!!! After a year's break i am now thinking of taking it up again.
Has anyone else had a similar experience of giving up the violin because of too much exam work?!!!

Nat