Hey!
I am debating as to whether to enter for my LRSM piano performance this winter.
I was just wondering if anyone else is contemplating a performance diploma this session.

Contemplating, yes. But still have to get permission to play what I want to play, for LTCL.
And maybe I ought to get on and learn another piece .

I'm retaking mine (clarinet DipABRSM) because I messed it up in July!

I'm retaking the recital and quick study this time (piano dipabrsm)

I'm toying with FLCM, but the closing date is 1st Oct and I'm unsure... I mean, I have a programme and everything but its not in a good state and is 8 weeks or so enough time to straighten it out? Hmm....

Just out of sheer curiosity Mrb why do you want another fellowship?

I'm taking flute DipABRSM

I feel I would like to finish off all my strands of performance, if I am good enough to get there...
You have multiple dips from multiple boards, so I guess you understand where I'm coming from!

/edit: Just heard from LCM that I am going to be allowed a page turner for my future exam.. Their regulations explicitly prohibit it, but I seem to have argued successfully that organists and organs are a special case!

Oh dear, I seem to have inadvertently entered myself for FLCM...

How very co-incidental of you....

Best of luck!

Good luck MrB!

Wow, mrb! GO FOR IT!

I wasssss thinking, only thinking, about some dip of the LCM, or Trinity, or whatever, but... just another paper in a folder in Spain none of the boards is recognized...!!!!

Having trouble getting permission .
*Growwwffllllllrrgrrrrrrgrwrrrrrr.*

You're definitely going to have to get those computer skills sorted out! Otherwise you might inadvertantly enter for FTCL (if there is one!)

Is there no stopping you?
Best of luck! When is the exam? Incidentally, do you add this to the list, or do you replace the LLCM?

No,
Thanks,
No Idea
and
it would be a replacement, if I manage somehow to pass...

That's a very eloquent growl!


I suspect that MrB will eventually accidentally put himself in for FTCL

<gets excited about FLCM page-turning and looks at mrbouffant with big puppy eyes>


...closely followed by an accidental entry for FRCO, no doubt!

Good luck, MrB. Which pieces are you going to play?

Not quite sure yet, possibly some Reger, Bach, Lemare, Franck, Vierne and Leighton - a right old mixture!

Once again I will be taking DipABRSM flute but just the quick study section. Fingers crossed for 3rd time lucky!

Good luck, Matthew

I'm doing my LRSM in about three weeks. Although I haven't received the official letter yet, I am starting to feel my nerves because neither my pieces nor my programme notes are ready yet.

Like I mentioned in my post on the Viva Organ forum, I would appreciate if anyone could throw me possible viva questions.

Am now not attempting to get "L" plates this time round. Programme turned down .

Why did they reject the programme? Was it because they thought the standard of pieces wasn't high enough or was it the range of pieces?

It's an odd one, because Trinity do not give much guidance on selection of pieces - and at this level, there is not much of a hike in difficulty of pieces from ATCL to LTCL; it's as if the recorder repertoire experiences a bit of a plateau, really. There is another huge jump up to FTCL, but at the intermediate level there is a lot of overlap. Four of the pieces I'd chosen were deemed suitable - I'd nicked a couple from the LRSM list, two from the LTCL one - and the fifth, which I'd not found any easier to learn than any of the others, was deemed to be of grade 8 difficulty only. It's on the dipABRSM list for flute, and often flute pieces will appear a level or two higher in the recorder repertoire. Trinity hadn't responded to my initial inquiry about this piece - they want a complete programme before they'll comment, I think. I really think they should publish previously accepted programmes; their repertoire list for ATCL is comprehensive and attractive, the LTCL one very short - only about 14 pieces in all, and a lot of overlap (eg, I'd not programme Uccellini with Castello because they're too similar in style).

There were other quibbles, one being that there wasn't enough balance because I had four baroque pieces and one 20thC - to be honest, I don't much care for programmes which contrast 20thC and baroque music anyway - it is very difficult to tie the pieces into each other in a way which doesn't jar. The 20thC one is based on a medieval dance tune, so it did tie in; the baroque pieces were all rather different from each other, and one was in any case early baroque, the rest later. If I have to learn a second 20thC piece, it'd almost certainly have to be an avant-garde one, because the likes of Staeps or Berkley doesn't really appeal that much to me; the worst thing about learning the avant-garde stuff though is the enormous length of time you need to spend learning how to do all the peculiar noises demanded - once I get that into my head, I usually find I can play the notes OK. The oddest quibble was that I'd programmed three treble pieces, one descant and one tenor - I'd been thinking three on an F instrument, two on C instruments - which probably reflects the balance of repertoire available for recorders anyway!

Recorders really are an exception in so many ways - no classical or romantic repertoire, and whereas you may play a second member of a family of instruments for any of the other woodwind - so a piece on cor anglais in an oboe exam - for recorders I'm expected to balance the number of pieces evenly between members of the family . That's even before looking at our dynamic range problem...

I had hoped to try for ATCL Performance (Recital? forgotten!) at the end of the year but after my last lesson my teacher tactfully suggested it might be better to wait until the spring.

I can see that she is right and in some ways it is a relief but putting the thing ever back sort of removes the impetus. I just hope the syllabus doesn't change in the meantime.

Good luck to those taking it this session.

Mel

I don't think the syllabus will change. Better make sure you know which one you are doing - one requires some supporting technical work (performance), the other judges the recital and that mysterious something called stagecraft...

I am THINKING about doing my violin DipABRSM in Performance, but am going weak at the knees at the mere thought. I'm quite sure I can't do it, but my tutor is persuading, coercing and generally shoving me in that direction (for next summer). I am an EXTREMELY nervous examinee (I do exams on beta-blockers) - so please can someone tell me:-

HOW BAD IS IT REALLY??

Misterioso, unless you can offer appropriate professional experience, you'll need to pass Grade VIII violin before doing your Dip (your signature says you only have Grade VII).

Thanks for that, Deborah. It would be a good opt-out clause, wouldn't it? But my tutor says I have appropriate professional experience that would count as a valid substitution. But I still want to know, as I dither over whether or not to commit, how nerve-wracking it really is. Worse than the average exam, for instance? Or just different, because there is no aural or scales to worry about?

It probably depends what makes you nervous and what kind of performances you are more or less used to doing... maybe people are reluctant to comment because it will rpobably be different for everyone?

Thanks, Sarah-flute, I'm sure you're right. Most kinds of performances make me nervous, so I will just have to get a grip!

I would have said that if you truly have the APE to substitute for grade 8, it should be a walk in the park.

LTCL (organ) on 21st november at 2:00pm...won't be attending the 11:00am till 1:00pm lecture though, would be busy scrambling in last minute practice....haha...

my programme was rejected the first time, (they wouldn't let me play Litanies), but with slight alteration (replaced the Litanies by Langlais' Te Deum and added the F. Couperin piece from the syllabus), it went through fine. i didn't start learning pieces from the LTCL syllabus till march this year, only two pieces ready by late june (the time when i finally had a finalised programme), didn't practice on the organ after Oundle (due to the back problem and organs unavailable at concert halls at home)...only started practising again when i came back for uni in mid-september...only have the very last bit of the first movement of the Mendelssohn organ sonata (no.6) to learn/polish up.... hv been doing at least 4 hrs per day, on top of uni work and committments.... hope that i'll pass...

Good luck LK! Hope it goes well

Do you have to do any kind of paperwork for the performers dip?

I'm allowing the thought of LRSM to cross my mind again.....and linger there for a little longer this time! On cello, I think.

Hmm.....

It's all in the syllabus, MrT, and I strongly recommend that anyone considering any kind of diploma reads the syllabus in full first


cellocase, unless I've missed something and you're overseas, the next session you can enter is summer 2008; keep us posted on what you decide.

Yes, I know I'm forward thinking! I have to decide soon-ish because it clashes with an orchestral tour I've been asked to go on. It will be around my A-level time, but it would be nice to get an LR done before I leave school.....hmmm.

LRSM at the same time as A-levels? Rather you than me!

Just a thought regarding the summer session - based on this year's exam timetable, the Scottish session was a couple of weeks before the England and Wales session. Would a trip across the relevant border make things easier with the orchestra tour?

Oooh, that's something I didn't think of.....! Definitely something to look into, although transporting both me and a cello and an accompanist could be tricky (and expensive - we live in the South!) - but if the dates won't work, I'll have a look at that. Thanks!
As for LR and A-levels, it shouldn't be too bad. I did do dipabrsm with GCSEs without a problem, and I'd obviously be keeping up practising around exam period anyway, so it would just be a case of finding time to put in work on viva and programme notes. I agree it's not ideal! But it would be nice to get LR done before I go to university, where regular lessons will be rather harder to have.

unless you are really dedicated and your instrumental tutor is really dedicated... it's quite impossible to have regular lessons once you set foot in university. i'm doing well with lessons, as my organ tutor and i are both very demanding and pushy people. anyway, i would be looking to ARCO (hopefully get it before i graduate from university) once i've done and passed my LTCL.

That depends on a great many variable including which uni and which subject one studies - as well as, I imagine, which instrument you play. I didn't have any instrumental lessons while I was at uni, but knew many people who had regular lessons throughout their uni careers, and even a few who found the time and opportunity to keep up their music (though not necessarily their lessons) on their years abroad. Not particularly dedicated-to-music people, and by no means all of them music students, though _generally_ (not always) the music students had more help in terms of finding teachers etc and sometimes even help paying for the lessons.

Well.....I think I'm looking more and more likely to take the plunge! LRSM.....hmmm. I just spoke to my cello teacher, who thinks I won't have any problem being ready so....there's no excuse any more! I'm listening to the Walton cello concerto now, which is on the syllabus, and liking it.......