I've noticed that the violinist who plays on the current Grade 1 AB CD uses vibrato. I think this is a bad idea, because one wouldn't normally be expected to use vibrato at this level, so if a young candidate listens to the CD they can only compare themselves unfavourably. Shouldn't the player be playing as perfectly as they can, but without vibrato?

I don't even play violin but I think that that's not the right way to have it, unless they think that that will inspire children to think that one day they will play like that which could be a good thing.

Maybe they're just covering up bad intonation .

Funny you should say that, Yap, because on at least one of the pieces the playing sounds slightly sharp to me. It makes me clench my teeth in places anyway..

And do they play the open strings?
My daughter uses the cello time series (joggers, runners, sprinters) which come with a CD. Not only are all the pieces played with vibrato but the supposedly open string notes (which as you can imagine there are a lot of, particularly in the first book) are played with vibrato.

That's highly unfair I think - I used to hate it when my teacher played my low grade pieces with vibrato. They said "Make sure you get this rhythm right" or something, and I would just be thinking "but it's not fair - you can do that wiggle thing that makes it sound nice "

I think they should do two tracks - one without vibrato and played simply so you get an idea of what the notes/rhythms should sound like, and one with vibrato and just generally performed professionally.

That must be really frustrating for students to hear a sound on the CD and not know how to match it.

The violin teacher in the studio next to me always complains that in our Aust. exam system, vibrato isn't required until around grade 4, but the notes on GRade 2 & 3 pieces often say "use your best vibrato at the end of bar whatever"! We often wonder if you would be scored better for following the notes & using your "best vibrato" (which at this stage could be quite under-developed & wouldn't produce such a good sound), or ignoring the instruction all together.

I DEFINITELY

sorry, I hit a button before I finished writing and posted too early!
where was I?
I DEFINITELY agree that the CD should NOT have any vibrato AT ALL, and if the student is 'supposed to use open strings' in places because they have not learnt a new finger position yet then the CD should also reflect this!
My teacher also used to say 'make the piece sound more like this or that' and was using vibrato whilst showing me, I soon told him he was making an 'unfair comparison', he realised, apologised and never did it again
I told him he can show me the vibrato once he knows I am ready to learn it
Maybe writing to ABRSM and the people who publish the CD is worth it? (or not) I can give it a try, they can only 'ignore me'!

My daughter always tries to play to the CD, sometimes changing things like dynamics, I suppose we have always thought that you were supposed to do that.

I think it's wrong if they are producing sounds on the CD that someone of that grade wouldn't be expected to produce.

My CD for the Grade 2 violin pieces not only has vibrato but the player doesn't use the phrasing that's written either!!!

And he plays two of the pieces much faster than the metronome marking.

I believe it says in the sleeve notes that the cds are supposed to be inspiration rather than "you must play it like this"...

Just checked the notes (from the flute CD), and not going to type out the whole bit, but yes, they're definitely not intended as "thou shalt play like this" at ALL.

Whether one considers that to be the right way to do it is of course another matter, but they are intended to (I quote) "high quality examplar performances" rather than "this is what we expect in an exam".

Personally I think it's nice to have something to aim for, I don't want or need a cd of pieces played only a little better than I could manage, I want inspiration and something to aim for. As long as the cds are presented as such, rather than allowing people to assume "this is what is expected at my level" then I don't see the problem, when other products can fill the gap of a slower paced piano accompaniment (ie pocket pianist etc) or a simple example of "how this goes" which a teacher could provide. But I realise others may feel differently

Whilst we are on this subject..
my piano teacher does not like CDs from the ABRSM grades and suggests not to buy them...she says that too many students are 'disappointed' they can't make a piece sound like the one on the CD...
I have not bought one for the piano, my teacher plays the pieces for me at the lesson, I tick the ones I like the sound of (usually virtually all of them ) then off I go home to learn them...when I have a piece 'under my belt' I play it to her during lesson, she will tell me if she thinks I have a 'nice rythm' for it or should I aim to go faster/slower and she helps me with the dynamics etc, when she thinks I play it really well (and free of mistakes) she will tell me so. I must say I find this way of learning them really good so am not sure why I have got the CD for the violin pieces I think I will stop listening to it and only use the tracks with the accompaniment so that I can practice to go 'together' with the piano

I'm hesitating over whether to get the Grade 8 violin CD or not. I bought the Grade 5 CD (previous syllabus) and it was a helpful guide to what level of performance was expected, and made choosing pieces easier (since some of the music isn't easily available or well known here). The CD didn't seem to be too fast for a grade 5 level student, but it WAS faster than the tempo marked on the sheet music (which worried son Viohazard a lot).

But at Grade 8, would the CD be a guideline "here are the basics, now go away and make a piece of music out of it", or would it be an individual rendition that might even be an obstruction to a young performer trying to feel his or her way to an interpretation??? What do you think of the Grade 8 CD, Violinia, if you have heard it?

I will sometimes play a couple of pieces from the CD for pupils in a lesson but discourage them at the lower grades - even if they are the sort of pupil who likes to 'play along' to practice I find that this can often do more harm than good as pupils will try to play pieces too fast too soon and end up with a rather scrappy performance.

By the time I get pupils to grade 7/8 I encourage them to listen to not just the ABRSM (or TG) recordings but also borrow others from me and/or the local library to start to think critically about interpretation.

It can also depend on how people learn. I tend to use aural memory myself a lot and when I have to learn a new orchestral work I put it on my ipod (downloading, if necessary off iTunes!) and listen whenever I can, especially travelling.

The grade 8 CD was excellent, but mainly as a guide as to what pieces to try out. If you listen to them to pick up how to play pieces, I think the way that the violinist plays tends to influence your own playing too much, esp. at earlier stages.
I never listened to any of the pre-gr8 CDs, there didn't seem much point; it's not as if the pieces are so hard that you cant pick up the tune, and yes, I agree, some of the lower grade stuff should really be played like a lower grade violinist would play it (esp re:vibrato).

Sometimes its's just nice to listen to the grade 8 CD and think, I swear my version sounds nicer than that

A forum member and I listened to one particular piece on the Grade 8 piano CD, and when it was finished we said, "well, we're not going to do it that way ... "

That's half the point though, isn't it? To be able to listen critically and either go "oh, hadn't thought of that, I'll try it" or "what??? no way - I'm doing it my way!"

And we sure didn't!

Damn straight we didn't.