Just under 2 weeks to go.....snowed under at work so practice time is limited....how can I make best use of my time between now and exam to maximise my marks?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks.

use one week to practice all your scales + SLOW practice of pieces with METRONOME.

the last week, practice your pieces up to speed (gradually, perhaps) and all scales as well. Scales are indicative of your technique, so yeah.

Thanks rai, that sounds like a good structure. I have Friday and next Monday off work so plan to get lots of practice done on those days to make up for some lost time recently. Looking forward to the exam though - I love playing with the piano accompaniment and good secure scales should help my marks. I have signed up to hofnot for the aural practice too so much get a few hours of that in over the 2 weeks. Hoping to pass anyway- anything beyond that will be a bonus!

This is just my personal experience and I'm not taking Grade 3 until March but I was playing all the pieces slowly and after weeks and weeks wasn't getting anywhere and they didn't seem to be improving

So I started trying to play them 'up to speed' with the cd which has felt like pushing myself and they're very much improved! I reckon if you can play them slowly it's time to push them up to the correct speed. (Oh and the same for scales). Maybe we need to stretch ourselves sometimes

But I'm not an expert. Lots of luck for your exam...

Which pieces are you playing for your exam?

It's getting close now - on Friday morning - have my last lesson before the exam this evening. Yikes!!

I am doing Watkin's Ale, Romance and Down by the Riverside - a good set of contrasting pieces I think. Fluffed a bit of Watkin's in the rehearsal with accompanist yesterday but expression of Romance went better than expected. It's 10 years since I last did a music exam and that was piano exam at 16!! Feeling quite nervous but hoping to do pass and looking forward to moving on. I feel getting grade 3 will make me feel like I am progressing from true beginner status!!! I'm sure it's all in my head but feels like a milestone none the less. How are the other grade 3s getting on with the new sylllabus?

Very nervous now - scales practice yesterday evening was not great. :-(

Working late today and exam at 10am tomorrow so really not much practice time left. Getting nervous now cos it's so long since I've done a music exam.

Thanks for all the support here - I'll let you know how it goes.

Orla

Good luck, Orla. Try not to get too nervous this evening; you've spent time getting everything as close to perfect as you can and by this stage there's not much more you can do to improve things! Maybe play a few scales and things, but don't panic if they're not great, the adrenalin in the exam should act in your favour. Again, good luck for tomorrow, but I don't think you'll need it!

Thanks Miss Ross. My last music exam experience wasn't great - passed my grade 8 Royal Irish Academy piano exam by 2 marks. Pretty poor but a pass none the less.

Hoping for a better mark this time round for violin :-)


Definitley run through the scales tonight. Doing a sneaky few hofnote exercises at the moment too! Every little helps I guess.

Good luck today Orla - we'll be rooting for you!

Enjoy yourself and your performance... we'll be applauding in the background!

Yes, GOOD LUCK!

Good luck!

Well I'm back and it's done......

The centre was lovely - in a hotel - and the examiner was very nice, really put me at my ease. Pieces were ok apart from some issues with intonation that I struggle with. Scales were terrible - I'd forgotten what music exam nerves were like- feel like I messed them all.The last thing he asked was arpeggio of A major - I started and then he said oh no I'm sorry the dominant 7th ...... I was flustered and didnt cop that we don't have the dominant 7th of A major on our syllabus so ended up just playing the one that starts on D......now I'm thinking maybe he meant start on A.......oh not expecting much at all from the scales marks section :-( To be fair I probably didn't have my scales known as securely as I should have - lesson learned for next time.

Sight reading and Aural was better than expected. I'm no singer so that echo singing bit was a bit off but the rest I was happy with.

3 lessons learned from today:
1. Don't underestimate the effect of exam day nerves even though you feel relaxed about it -don't know if that makes sense. My bow was bouncing a bit!
2.. Prepare scales really really well - don't try and wing it.
3. In spite of all above it's great to be back doing grade exams - I got a real buzz out of it - it felt so short though at only 14 mins.

Here's hoping for a pass..........(and aspires to a distinction some day in some grade :-) )

Thanks for all the good luck messages!

Orla

Well done Orla, you've been through it!!! now the nerving experience of waiting for the results!

OMG!!!!! 127 :-) :-)

ORLA KEANE
List: A02 24
List: B01 26
List: C01 25
Scales⁄Trad Song 17
Sight Reading⁄Quick Study 19
Aural Tests 16
Total Marks 127

Over the moon!!!

Congratulations! That's a fabulous result.

WEll done!!

Congratulations!!!!

Oh well done - that a brilliant result and really even marks too!!!!