i hate it when people have grade 8 yet they still cant play the piano.

all they can play are their three pieces, yet ask them to play summit else and they cant, i dont think its right they way people can just slip through the grade system without having natural talent and flair in their playing.

you could train a monkey to learn three pieces!!

this annoy anyone else!!

fair point thats been discussed before however it really doesnt irritate me all that much.some people need a grade 8 on an instrument to get into uni and they'll be quite happy to get that and then works on technical stuff and improving once their at uni. does that make sense?

but i do understand what your saying as some people do have grade 8 but are awful players and dont do anything to improve or correct it.

I think I'd get bored just playing through the grades and not playing anything else. What's the fun in that!? It's a good idea to have an aim, but you have to like what you're doing aswell.
I only know 3 people who've done grade 8 piano, and they all have talent. In fact, you can practically name any piece to one of them, and he'll play it all note perfect, even if he's never seen the music for it before! But, as you say, that doesn't mean that everyone who has grade 8 is a fantastic player.

I get what you're saying. A lot of people I know are doing exams just to put the recognition on their college applications and such. And when you do think about it, it isn't really that hard to concentrate on scales, 3 pieces, sight-reading, and aural for a year(?). But then again, these exams test us on our ability to play as well as express ourselves - people just don't slip through the grade system. There has to be something the examiner deemed worthy in the candidate in order to pass the candidate, even though these aspects might vary the next time you ask the candidate to repeat those same pieces 8 months after the exam.

QUOTE

i hate it when people have grade 8 yet they still cant play the piano. all they can play are their three pieces, yet ask them to play summit else and they cant, i dont think its right they way people can just slip through the grade system without having natural talent and flair in their playing. you could train a monkey to learn three pieces!!

I totally agree it really annoys me and yes its totally no fun at all if all your trying to do is get a load of certificates!!
. I have a friend who started pyear ago and recently claimed he'd just started a piece that was grade 8 standard. I've been playing the piano for 6 years and only just today passed grade 4 with distinction (yay!!!). The thing is anyone could learn a grade 8 piece it could just take them a really really long time before they could play it acceptably. Thats what i think anyway. My friend is till 2 months later working on the same piece and can now play it reasonably well.
However think aboput the rest of the exam, the sightreading n stuff (do u do that at grade 8?) some people may be able to learn a grade 8 piece even though it takes them ages but surely they wouldn't have the experience to pass in the other areas.

Luv ya
xxx

I know, it is annoying!

Someone I know Is doing their grade 7, and I was sight reading a piece when she was round, it was hall of the mountain king, I play it when i feel like it, and she was like, WOW thats real hard!......little did she know it was from my brother book who was taking grade 3 piano....

I think exams only show peoples ability, however the potential and the talent is something else

Yes, i totally agree, even i do it i think. I have never even done a grade test before, and i can play a grade 4 fur elise, which is strange because i cant play, some grade 1 songs!!

I have never taken any exams but i can play pieces that are around the grade 7 mark. I think that the important thing is to enjoy what you do rather than competing for high grades. I'm gonna have to do at least grade 5 soon because i want to go into teaching eventually.

I totally agree with this.
There are at least 10 people in my school who have passed the grade 8 exam.
There are already 4 of them who passed the diploma.
However, I saw one of them accompanying the Salut d'Amour. I played it before, it is really a easy piece!
That people still had many wrong notes after several practices and the piece was absolutely not fluent.

my teacher gave me a piece a few weeks ago, jst 4 fun. after i had played it & everything, she told me it was a G7 piece! i was really surprise cuz it didn't seemed that dificult (i'm doing G5). i believe grades only gives u an *idea* of how well you play, but if u really want to know how good u are jst listen to ur heart! (ok that sounds reallly corny but it's true ya know ) expression and meaning in music can't be measured.

btw Alvin - i luuvvvv Salut d'Amour

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my teacher gave me a piece a few weeks ago, jst 4 fun. after i had played it & everything, she told me it was a G7 piece! i was really surprise cuz it didn't seemed that dificult (i'm doing G5).

Same here

my teacher gave me the mozart K,545 1st movement and i was like isnt this grade 4-5?

and she said that it was 7.

but i was like i thought grade 7 had loadsa flats and sharps and trills and loadsa complicated stuff!

QUOTE (musical_me @ Jul 13 2004, 05:29 AM)

but if u really want to know how good u are jst listen to ur heart!

thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.....