I'm just curious about this. My piano teacher is an examiner for the AB. This helps me so much when it comes to fine tuning my pieces and scales because he knows exactly what my examiner will be looking for, which means I can have pretty perfect pieces without too much of my own interpretation (although sometimes I want to interpret things my way instead of his), but it helps having his expertise and knowledge to guide me.

Any thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages??

I would be happy to have a teacher examiner.

To your first question My teacher isn't an examiner. But I can see that there would be advantages and disadvantages for your teacher being an examiner.

Firstly, I think it is really good that your teacher can help you specifically with a piece, and know what bits the examiner is looking out for and what will get you the most possible marks. The only thing I can think that would be bad about having an examiner as a teacher is that they are always trying to help you get those extra marks, as they know how to get them. This might mean that they do not allow you to play your own interpretation as yours may not get the highest amount of mark. But I guess as long as your teacher doesn't constantly try to show you how an examiner would want the piece to be played but allows you to interpret the piece yourself it is a good thing (this is in a non exam piece).

Haha - What a load of rubbish

I guess I would like my teacher to be an examiner, so that he/she is able to show me how to get the highest marks possible. Though I a happy with the teacher I have got at the moment

One of my teachers is a VCM examiner so it was quite good when I did an exam with them, and it's also pretty useful that he knows what they are looking for and has the experience of listening for it. The downside is that he sometimes goes abroad to examine and lessons all have to be changed!

My clarinet teacher last year is an AB diploma examiner. Defintely helpful preparing for an AB diploma exam.

My cello teacher is an AB examiner, and also used to be a CT mentor. I find her expertise very useful and can't think of any downsides. She fits her examining round her teaching and other commitments, so her students don't lose any lessons through it.

My teacher is an examiner. That doesn't mean she agrees with everything the "other" examiners would say.

I suppose it is useful. Deosn't that mean that you have to miss a lesson while you teacher is examining sometimes?

i would be happy and lucky having a teacher who was an AB examiner... because he will know what the examiners are looking for in the pieces and he can show me what to do to get high marks for my practical exam... though i'm now quite happy with my current teacher i have now

ShArOn

Definitely helpful to have an AB examiner/concert pianist as a teacher!

My teacher is an examiner as well.
I think it's really usefull , not only by helping you to get a high mark( Music isn't about exams and marks only ) , but also increasing your musical awareness to very high limits.

I have to admit that my current teacher is the one who has helped me the most from all my previous teachers.

I am one - though not AB

My singing teacher, before he retired from it, worked as an external examiner for a number of university music departments, including RWCMD.

Perhaps that's what's made him quite such a stickler for detail (both musical and performance) in the exam pieces I and his other pupils have prepared, whether for grade exams or diplomas. I recall arriving for one lesson to find that the previous pupil (a young teenager preparing to do Grade 3) was being corrected very gently for having the wrong expression in her eyes when singing one of her songs.....

Being an examiner probably doesn't make you a better teacher - just gives you a bit of "street wise" knowledge about the internal running of same and marking I guess.

A friend of mine (who does examine for the ABRSM) recently had one of his candidates fail - that was a surprise to me but not to him apparently. The pupil hadn't put the work in, and he was therefore expected to fail but I somehow felt just a bit better knowing examiners (as teachers) are human too!

I have an examiner teacher, and while she's very good, I think she's an examiner because she's very good, not the other way around. She doesn't give me advice directly related to her experiences examining, but she does have high standards and won't enter a pupil for an exam if she thinks they can't get a distinction.