Hey, everyone, I've got my piano exam really soon, and want to diffuse any doubts in my mind about the exam...

My first problem is that, the book I am playing from is quite thick, and so when playing forte sections, if the stand clips are not strong enough, the book will snap back and fly off the piano! Tried a lot of things like putting weights on it when it is flat open at the correct pieces and everything, but to no particular prevail. But, anyway, the questions I wanted to ask were:

1) Can you be penalised marks if, when you come to a page turn, you take the time to flatten the book and adjust the clips so that the music doesn't fall out?
2) Even if the end of one page and the beginning of the next seperates a musical phrase?
3) Does anybody know whether the examining pianos have clips on the stand? There are certain pianos in existence that do not, and I would have to resort to bringing 2 large paperweights if this were true!
4) Only 30 seconds for sight-reading a page's worth of music?! It was easier in previous grades when you had less to look at! How to best use this time?
5) In the aural tests, there is a section in which you have to name the modulation, and which key the piece modulates to. Let's say that you got the initial modulation wrong. Would it be preferable for the candidate to give the wrong, yet consistent modulation key with the type of modulation they said; or would it be better for the candidate to shoot up out of the blue with the correct key, even though this is inconsistent with the modulation they stated initially?
6) If you were to fail the aural section of the exam (I am hoping this would be very much a worst case scenario!), does that mean you fail the exam overall, regardless of the points you gained outside the aural test? Or is this just an old regulation?

Thanks,

~Wobby~

I failed my Grade 3 aural (), but still passed the exam overall

Car Expert

Oh, OK, that's good then!

I was most worried about the aural tests, because the exam date came sooner than expected, so I had less time than anticipated to work on them! Now I've just got to worry about if the piano book flies off the stand while I'm playing!!!

I might just pop down for another 10 minutes or so practice again - I don't think I want to do hourly sessions of practice - rather just short on and off practicing of scales etc. instead!

~Wobby~

4) Only 30 seconds for sight-reading a page's worth of music?! It was easier in previous grades when you had less to look at! How to best use this time?

mmm - I'd advise you to work out the rhythm first - even if it's just a few bars, you can establish the pulse and decide the speed of crotchets, quavers etc. and how the main rhythmic figure goes - if there is one.

Keep the pulse steady in your head and fit the notes (more or less) round it. Decide on the key - noting the #s and bs might well be more useful than knowing the NAME of the key, but only you will know that. If you have a real feel for the keys of the grade (rather than needing to memorise eg F# C# G# or whatever), a few seconds deciding on the actual key might be well spent. If A major has a real identity for you ... But knowing it's A major won't help much if you still have to stop to think what #s are in that key .. hope that makes sense!

Thanks! Yeah, I'll give that a go - I'm really familiar with all sharp keys, Eb, Ab and Bb. Other flat keys - not so much! My worst fear would be a/ If it is a funny baroque piece that is written in 5/2 or something like that - I always find setting things as minims is so much harder to decipher! Or, b/ It is a really fast piece that relies on secure fingering!

I would so love it if it were a piece in A Major or something from the romantic/impressionistic period that gives plenty of room for thought and interpretation! But I'm presuming that's going to be highly unlikely - in my grade 7, I swear I got a really strange 20th century mexican piece in 7/8 timing - that was awful! But I got 18 on that, with the examiner's mark being something like I caught the essence of it with 'a few slips'. Which is funny, as I felt like I was more like just improvising roughly around the keys they gave me!

~Wobby~

Sounds very like my Grade 7 sightreading. Was it in A major? I got 17/21 after playing loads of wrong chords.

PS Good luck for the exam.

Officially allowances are made for page turning so if there's a little disturbance you'll get away with it but if it's too disturbing then I'd imagine it wouldn't go unmentioned.

That would allow you more time to do it without the disturbance appearing as large.

This is what I really intended to reply to: don't rely on this at all, most pianos in fact do not have the clips on the stand I'd be surprised if the one you get in the exam does.

Sounds like most of your problems could be solved with a quick email/phonecall to the publisher of the book you're using to allow you to photocopy the pages and stick them together or something.

Good luck, let us know how you get on .

Good luck!

Quite likely! Maybe they weighted-mean scaled it to account for how hard the piece was! And thanks!



Oh no, they don't have the little metal pin things you have on the bottom of the stand? From the pianos I've seen, which admittedly probably covered only about 7 at most, 5/7 had pins on! Hmm... maybe it's just the region! I have got photocopies to avoid the really hard pageturns, just I can't copy whole pieces, so I still have to attach them to my book, which could easily still fall off when it comes to playing the fortes... oh well, looks like paperweights it is!

Thanks, and I shall probably post the aftermath of the exam in a few days time!





Thanks again!

~Wobby~

Hi Wobby

Trying to respond to a few of the things you ask:

Copy: personally, if your copy is such a problem, I'd use the first main page from the book and attach (don't have loose sheets of paper) photocopies of the other pages. Copying to avoid difficult page turns is acceptable and this seems to be what you're needing to do. If you think the book won't stay open at all if the piano has no clips (and don't rely on them - my ABRSM Centre piano doesn't have them) then either get yourself a different book/copy to play from or contact the publishers for permission to copy. If the latter, you'll need to do that very quickly though as they can take a long while to reply.

The other thing I've done with a couple of volumes that cause me the same problem is take them to our local print shop where they have taken the back spine off and spiral bound them for me. Not a nice way to treat expensive music at one level but it's practical and solved the problem instantly of a self-shutting book!

Sight-reading: agree with Maggiemay, rhythm first and ability to keep going to an even pulse. Based results from my own candidates (and ABRSM seminar input) I'd say the message I get is if you play continuously, with a sense of the piece and good rhythm, you'll pass even if some of the notes are suspect. Have a look here in "These Music Exams" and read the criteria for sight-reading.

Aural - modulations: I always tell my pupils (at Grade 8) to be consistent. Give the key for the modulation you've described, like in the first test give the chords for the cadence you've described. If, in the process of doing so, you decide you want to change your mind on your first part answer, then do so, but always be consistent. I think, if I were to be examining someone, I'd be quite disappointed by them telling me it was a perfect cadence and then describing the chords as V-VI. Shows lack of musical understanding to me.

Hope your exam goes well.

Yes - best of luck Wobby.

I did that in my grade 8 exam..... I named the cadence (sort of guessed) then somehow when naming the chords I knew what they were and they didn't match the answer I'd just given so I changed it adding 'I kmew that!' I got the credit for it.

With the problem book one thing that I wonder is whether this means that you've not yet been able to play right through the piece without stopping to sort out the page turn?

Thanks everybody for the replies!

I actually just had my exam at about 11:00, just I didn't say at the risk of looking highly unorganised - I guess we were kind of hoping we could fix the problem minimising the amount of photocopies needed, etc.

But anyway, the sorting out of the music was a bit of a shambles (took about 5 minutes to prepare the music) and in the end, I had to resort to using a cleverly constructed contraption that is a cross between a pen and one of those black clip things! Though I explained to the examiner beforehand, and he said it was OK, so that's good!

However, the actual quality of the music produced in the exam was quite good I think, so it should be all fine! I think the pieces were executed quite well (hehe, executed is probably a bad choice of word), with a few slips here and there down to nerves, but I think it all went to plan, no major hiccups! But the pen in the forementioned DIY piano clip fell onto the piano halfway through the Chopin bit, so when I came to the bit where one hand was free, I chucked the pen on the floor (hope the examiner didn't mind - it was just a spontaneous decision to save problems from occuring later on in the piece!) and carried on until the end.


Sight-reading test, actually was a romantic piece I think, and the instruction was rubato or something, so that was good - I just hope I didn't play it too slowly though!


Aurals went better than expected, which was good! I know I dodged up the sight-singing, but I started and ended on the right note, so I'm all content with that! For the D section, I said as much as I could think of, so that's good - much better than like in Grade 7 where I gave a 3 word response expecting another question!

I was really confused actually a bit about the C section, because he asked for the name of the key modulated to rather than the name, such as 'Dominant', etc., but that made it easier anyway, so that's good!


Scales, fairly good - I think there were two or so I had to stop and start again, but I'm hoping the fluency of the other scales was enough to pull the mark up.



Overall, I'm quite pleased that it went OK - should be a pass, hopefully, just a question of what mark I get now I guess! Up to 2 weeks wait I guess!

p.s. sbhoa - I could play through the pieces all the way through at home, because my piano has clips on. Apparently, it is a rather modern revolution to remove the clips for pianos to be aesthetically pleasing, but I think the problem is, practicality goes out the window!

~Wobby~

I find that I can't trun over the pages with those propping the book open... they get in the way.
Fine if you don't need to turn over but in the way if you do.

Sounds like it went ok, I think you did the right thing with the pen.

Hehe, I'm hoping I did OK, anyway - even though my back was turned, I'm sure the examiner probably raised his eyebrow when he saw this manoeuvre!

~Wobby~

aha - I wondered if it was imminent because I noticed you didn't actually say when ...... sounds as though it went well anyway. Fingers crossed !

as a general rule, they can't realistically penalise you for anything that would look silly on your certificate.