Hi,

Just accompanied 2 violin students for exam this morning. The first student , 13 yr old,was terribly scared in the exam room. Started the 1st piece b4 i started to play, then had to restart the thing over again, then messed up the third bar( skipped 3/4 notes), luckily she still knows where i am for the piano part that we didn't stop. Rhythm was messed up, that i had to follow her to end the piece with inaccurate rhythm. Her dynamics was not clear at all (forgotten what i told her to do b4). For the next two piece, there was inaccuracy in rhythm and intonation too, with dynamics not really contrasted.

The examiner was quite friendly, but v waited some time for him to ask for the 2nd and 3rd piece, since he is scribling sth down....

Scales was played really soft that i couldn't hear after i step out of exam room. NOw, she is really scared, scared that she'd fail grade 1 violin. Can anyone pls give me some suggestion on whether she'd pass? HOw much do you think an examiner expect from a grade 1 student?And suggestions on how to cool her down?

Plz......

Thanks.

well my teacher entered a grade 3 saxophone pupil and he played awful in the exam, scales were played with no sharps and flats even if there should have been! all the rhythms were wrong! and they both thought he had failed badly. he passed with 108. so she has a chance i suppose depending on the examiner. just try to reassure her and tell her all is not lost even if she does fail.


PLEASE NOTE- I AM NOT A TEACHER

All depends on what she managed to pull together overall.

I mean I have failed a piece with 15/30 (I avoid Mozart now, I have something of a phobia, but thats beside the point) and still passed with 108. Thakfully I made it up mostly with my scales and (bazaarly) the aurals!!

Perhaps explain that (if she fails) it isn't the end of the world, lots of people have done it, and (although this possibly isn't very tactful) at least it was grade 1 where at least the exam didn't cost that much.

This is a tricky one, because I know, as a student myself, none of that would make me feel much better, perhaps other teachers have had similar situations?...

When I took my grade 3 cello (having barely practised, admittedly) I played everything too slowly, out of tune and generally very poorly. My scales were a shadow of themselves and I have never been good at aurels. My sight reading attracted the comment: rhythm poor, though if this could be in tune, why couldn't anything else be?!
I got 100. I have never been so relieved/guilty that I didn't deserve it in my life!!

my sister failed scales with 13 marks at grade 5 and still got merit

QUOTE

My sight reading attracted the comment: rhythm poor, though if this could be in tune, why couldn't anything else be?!

OUCH !!!!!!!

Maggie

As many other have said, it is very difficult to say, esp since we didn't actually hear her. I think for Grade 1, they are more lenient with markings and have less demands.

Just my guessing, which may be wrong, at Grade 1 (and probably 2 as well) the student is still learning intonation, rhythm and dynamics and the basic control of the instrument. All of which do go haywire when one is nervous. It depends on how badly she did go out of tune and rhythm. The thing is she held it together, which deserves some credit. The restarting shouldn't affect things too much, esp at Grade 1. I am sure she wasn't the only one to do so (I restarted at Grade 7 piano). Although I probably didn't play atrociously bad, there were many times in exams (piano) my hands shook and the rhythm was affected and I hit some wrong notes or dropped a few, but I still passed the pieces and passed overall.

I *think* for Grade 1, dynamics being a little forgotten wouldn't fail you. More likely if there was great contrasts in dynamics and the piece was articulated well, it would garner a high merit or distinction.

Unless the whole exam was bad beyond recognition, I would think at Grade 1, she would pass, if by a mere 100. As for in the exam, I suffer from nerves big time as well so i can hardly advice. But maybe the next time you can tell her to take some deep breaths, remind her to focus and then remind her to watch you before starting to play. If you are calm and relaxed and taking things slow, she hopefully would be able to follow your pace and relax a bit and not rush. If she is not already so nervous her brain can't process too much of what you say (which happens to me sometimes) then remind her that she can do it, that she loves the violin (presumably!) and to just enjoy the playing. If she is good at envisioning, then tell her to imagine she is in her own bedroom practicing and the examiner doesn't exist.

Most of all, tell her that many many people have suffered from nerves and messed up big time. I have and from reading this forum, countless others have as well. If she did fail, it's not the end of the world. She can always try again. It shouldn't be looked upon as *gasp, that is so awful and you must have been ######*. Rather, esp since she is already so distraught, it should be looked upon as just an experience and learning more about yourself and what to expect/prepare for next time. I am a fan of figure skating, and I have seen many times peple fall all over the place one day and end up last in the first part of the competition, and then the very next day, a mere 24 hours later, having re-focused and putting in a blinding program to blow everyone away. Sometimes it happens in the same program - like mid-way through thinking "This is ridiculous, I am going to darn well land the jumps and prove to them I can do it!"

Being so early on in her studies, a positiveand encouraging attitude is the best you can do for her.

Thank you for all your replies everyone....it did help me a lot...

Well, her intonation is still there...yeah...i guess i just wanted her to do her best and insist her on putting on the dynamics...didn't realize it was grade 1 exam though...

As for the restart of the piece, thanks for the comforting words, coz i've never restart a piece in my life and thought it wasn't a wise thing to do, but we just had to restart the piece since she not only enter wrongly, but actually played the wrong notes too! (which never happen to her during her lessons)

I'll inform u all when the result is out......hopefully everything is ok....

Hi,

The result is finally out, the grade 1 student got 123 after all, which really surprised me! To my surprise, she did quite well in her sight-reading, 18/21, her pieces were 23,24,25. But her aural and sight-reading pull her up.THe examiner didn't mention about the restart of the first piece!And the examiner didn't mention about the dynamics at all!

But the grade 3 just failed her sight-reading, 12/21, which made her got 118, 2 marks to merit...sigh...

Thank you and my advice to others is: never worry about your exam results...

May I ask you, does your student usually perform better if the violin teacher herself/himself is the accompanist? It seems like my other students where i didn't manage to accompany them, they stopped halfway(which i read through the mark sheet), and they didn't observe the dynamics in the exam, according to the examiner,which i am quite sure they did in lessons.

Happygirl.

Congrats to your student on passing

One of my 'lazy' children was 'threaten' by her violin teacher a few days before the exam that she would not be entered if she didnt improve drastically in two days! Her music teacher encouraged me to purchase the violin CD and my daughter practised furiously with the CD for two days. Five days later she passsed with a merit much to her teacher's amazement.

I now always purchase these CD/Tapes if they are available and have also taped the accompanying bit for her to practise to. I do feel that they of great benefit for practise. Unfortunately they can be expensive.

For some its just that the examiner is too close for comfort. I remember (many moons ago) wishing that the examiner would stand outside the room and listen. His very presence always terrified me . That awful feeling returned when taking my driving test: why couldnt the examiner run alongside the car instead of sitting next to me?

Funny although I have offered to accompany my chidren they have all furiously declined and prefer their own teacher.

congrats happygirl!

i perform better if my teacher is the accompanist, it makes me ever so slightly less nervous

I only play piano so no accompanist....it sometimes fell very scary in the examination room...I remember once I was tooo nervous I can't sing...congrats on your students by the way!