Hi there

I have had an enquiry from a student who reached grade 8 piano & violin about 10 years ago. The violin playing was ticking along for sometime so she considers herself to be a more competent violinist than pianist. Used to be good from what I can gather. However, she wants to start playing 'seriously' again but has lost a little confidence in her abilities - she's obviously finding she 'can't play the stuff she used to play'! If I was to take her on can anyone offer any tips on how to get her going again, particularly with regard to repertoire for both instruments (particularly Piano).

I would also suggest that you make sure they are not her exam pieces. I can still play my grade 8 exam pieces from over 20 years ago (and chunks of them from memory) reasonably well but can no longer play most of the other things I used to be able to play.

I agree with the other comments. However, on both instruments there are lots of anthology type books around which are quite good for getting somebody back up to standard. On the violin I would suggest Sheila Nelson's Romantic violinist which covers about grade 5 -8 so that she can start building confidence but also see progression. There are others ( also in that series) which are good but I have had some success with doing something similar with that one. i am also biased- Sheila was my teacher and really knows what she is doing!

You can find similar ones for the piano, but the short Romantic pieces published by the board would be good. Probably start at grade 6/7 and progress her from there.

Generally the hardest bit is rebuilding the confidence, but once that comes back they usually "fly". It's also worth pointing out that it is the beauty of the music that matters and a lot of good music is pigeon holed at less than grade 8! I have had to explain that to returners sometimes as they can feel demoralized if they feel they have dropped several grades!

Hope that helps.

Kim