Please could I ask for some advice? I've been given an exam date of 10 March, but the organ, which is being rebuilt, is still in bits and not likely to be ready by then, although it was supposed to have been completed this month. My choices are:

1. Ask the AB to move the date to the end of March (with the chance that the organ still won't be ready);
2. Ask the AB to move the venue to another organ in another town, on which I won't have had the chance to practise;
3. Take the exam on a 'grim' electronic, which I haven't seen yet;
4. Postpone the whole thing until the summer....

Any thoughts gratefully received (I have to sort it out by Monday)

What a nightmare! But how on earth did it happen? Were you not included in the plans to rebuild the organ?

You don't mention what you are practising on - if you have an exam coming up, surely you haven't been left high and dry with no instrument! I wonder if you are having lessons on your own or your teacher's instrument and if the latter, could you possibly use theirs?

If it were me I would ask for the thing to be re scheduled for the next session - if only to be sure I was adequately prepared as you surely can't be if your instrument is in bits.

Hope something can be worked out!

Mel.

Thanks Mel. Yes, I knew about the organ, but it was always going to be finished 'in February' so I didn't think too much about it. I practise on my own electronic, but normally have lessons on the organ I was intending to take the exam on. Last week I had a lesson on a different organ which was brilliant, but I won't have the chance to practise on that one, and it's very different to the usual one.

As it's my first organ exam (G5) I want everything to be right, if for no other reason than that nervousness will be enough to upset things, without anything else .

But your advice is good - I should think about rescheduling for next session, when I'll have a (promised) superduper new organ to play on!

Organ rebuildings are seldom completed on time, and there are often teething problems for a few weeks afterwards.

I'd reschedule, if I were you, or try to arrange it on another organ and try to arrange practise on that instrument.

Yes, what a nightmare. Goodness, I do sympathise. Presumably you've talked to your teacher about it etc?
Do you not have reason for being allocated some practice on the other instrument, in the circumstances?

I would ring the AB office on Monday morning, explain the situation, say you are thinking you'll have to postpone till the summer - unless they have any other ideas?

I was just wondering whether they have other candidates doing organ exams this session within reach of where you are ? might there be a location you hadn't thought of? I realise practice may still be a problem though ( and it would need to be a nice manageable organ, not a monster that you'd need a year to tame ; )

Anyway I'd start by putting the office in the picture - this must at least count as good grounds for a re-schedule!

Let us know how you get on with this one!

Thanks Holz Gedeckt & Maggie

Yes I could take the exam on the university organ (my teacher is the university organist) but the chapel has to be booked and I wouldn't be allowed to use it without his being there - I've only had one lesson there, and with three weeks to go, probably would only have one more. I don't suppose I'd be doing myself any favours by risking it as I want to do well

I am not sure if the Board would give you a full credit for the exam fee if you postponed the exam to the next session. I think you should explain your situation to the Board and take your exam on the electronic instrument. As you are doing only Grade 5, an electronic instrument should give you most of the stops that you need.

What about taking the exam on /your/ electronic, rather than the grim one that you havn't seen yet?
At least it's a familiar instrument and environment for you.

T.

Hi Teigr - yes, that would be good, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, I sold my piano (to a local organist!) so I wouldn't fit the exam criteria .

I'll sort it all out today and let you know how it goes.

Good luck !

Could you borrow a keyboard? The examiner for my grade 5 organ was quite happy to play a Yamaha electric piano.
Hope you get it sorted. Good luck.

Have you got a neighbour with a piano? Some churches have a piano in a different room to the organ, so going next door to do the aural is probably not that different from going through to the church hall or whatever.

Or, as SueHM said, a borrowed keyboard would probably be fine. I think I've even head of examiners giving the aural from the organ (a surprisingly high proportion of examiners are organists), though a piano or a velocity-sensitive keyboard would make it easier for them to do the question where they play something and ask you about things like dymamics and articulation. (An organist could produce those on a organ, but a non-organist might struggle a bit.)

Or, if the examiner is being fetched from and/or returned to a local exam centre, could the aural be done there?

T.

Thanks for all the good advice!

The Board has managed to find me another date, 25 March, and my teacher assures me the organ will be ready in time to have a few practices before the exam, so here's hoping........

Phew!

Cool! :-)

When should it be ready?

T.

Well, I should be able to have a lesson and some practice time on it during the week leading up to Easter....

....it isn't all good news, though, because my teacher can't be there on that day, so I'll have to make sure everything's ready (and the church open!!) for the examiner....although, come to think of it, it means my teacher will be out of earshot on the day, so I'll be bound to play better

...just to report that I played the newly rebuilt organ yesterday and the sound is amazing - even scales sound fantastic - now I've just got to retrain my fingers to cope with the tracker action!!

"....a surprisingly high proportion of examiners are organists,..."

This is regrettable, for organists are not always the best people to be dealing with the broad spectrum of music. For example, an organist in the 'cathedral' tradition will not have the full understanding of the proper technique of an adult singer unless, exceptionally, he or she has been trained professionally as a singer, which is highly unlikely. It is, surely, far better, for examiners to be specialists in their own subject, so that horn players are examined by a horn player, etc, as happens at diploma level. There is no objection, of course, to organists examining organists.


Barry Williams

Whilst I agree that, in an ideal world, it would be better for, say, a horn player to be examined by a horn player, I don't think this practical for grade exams.

I don't know why you think that it is regrettable that so many are organists! Among my many musical friends, it is among my organist colleagues that many of the most knowledgable all-round musicians I know are found.

Delighted to know that the rebuilt organ is now ready. Good luck with your exam.

I understand that the Guildhall Board always used to send specialists, though I have no knowledge of the current practice.

My experience is that organists are generally unsuitable to examine orchestral instruments and singing because they have the least knowledge of the techniques required. (The late Lionel Dakers was an exception - he could play most instruments, but he had studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music where playing insturments was then a requirement for conductors.) A 'cellist will know more about string playing, for example the violin, than a keyboard player who cannot play any strings at all. Organists' lack of knowledge about singing technique is almost legendary. It is very difficult to find an organist that has had years of singing lessons, yet they are still permitted to examine at the higher grades. It is not an issue of being an 'all round musician' but of having specific detailed skill, technique and knowledge. Some might think it less of an issue at Grade Four, but is is certainly a major problem a couple of Grades up.

I gather from a friend who did grade examining (and had to examine all instruments) that the training given was a somewhat perfunctory three-day course. Obviously, this cannot impart the knowldge of a specialist, which is why she used come and see me whenever she (a pianist and singer) had organists to examine.

Barry Williams

I had an organist as the examiner for my (grade 5) recorder exam and it was fine. I don't see how an organist would be any less suitable than, for example, a 'cellist. (I had a 'cellist for my organ exam the following week, so if the timetabling had been slightly different I might have had them the other way around.)

I also don't see why an organist would necessarily know less than an orchestral player about singing - at least many organists have experience of conducting and training choirs.

It can be very nice to have a specialist examiner - I had an organist for my grade 3 organ exam, and he made lots of comments on the mark sheet about things like registration and articulation. For grade 4, with a non-specialist, there were no organ-specific comments. But any examiner should be able to judge the general musicality of what's delivered on the day and give a reasonably fair assessment, even if they can't give instrument-specific comments.

T.

Absolutely, Teigr!

As for Barry's observation that a 'cellist would be better able to judge other strings than a keyboardist with no ability to play a stringed instrument, by the same argument it's also true that an keyboardist would be equally better able to examine another keyboard instrument than a 'cellist with no knowledge of keyboard technique.

The best solution is to recruit those with as broad a working knowledge as possible, which I am sure is what happens.

Well, all the examiners are pretty good pianists, so all keyboard instruments /are/ examined by keyboardists. But as organ technique is so different from piano technique, I'm not sure that this helps organ pupils at all.

I agree that a 'cellist will understand other bowed strings better than someone who plays none of them, but that doesn't help someone who's taking a flute exam or a trumpet exam.

I think there's something in "These Music Exams" which explains the board's rationale for using non-specialist examiners. While specialist examiners may offer some advantages, I don't think that there's anything particularly bad about having organists as examiners under the current system.

Specialists vs. non-specialists is one thing, and there's definitely a case for specialists as well as valid justifications for not using them. But non-specialists who happen to be organists vs. non-specialists who happen to play an orchestral instrument? I really can't see much difference there.

T.

"It can be very nice to have a specialist examiner - I had an organist for my grade 3 organ exam, and he made lots of comments on the mark sheet about things like registration and articulation. For grade 4, with a non-specialist, there were no organ-specific comments. But any examiner should be able to judge the general musicality of what's delivered on the day and give a reasonably fair assessment, even if they can't give instrument-specific comments."

This is exactly my point and I am grateful to you for making so well. The examiner with knowledge and skill can do so much more, at all levels. These examinations are not just about 'general musicality' but about technique. Pupils deserve more than the 'general musicality' being properly assessed. How can a lack of 'general musicality' arising from inadequate technique be identified by someone who cannot even get a tune out of the instrument in question?

Instrument specific comments are, in my view, an essential part of any musical examination. Merely being a choir master does not qualify anyone is understanding singing. There is as much technique to singing as there is to plyaing any instrument. Very few organists are trained as singers - though they usually think otherwise! (Very few organists are trained as conductors either, which is why they so often come unstuck with orchestras.)

Whilst examiners need to be able to play the piano, for obvious reasons, that does not qualify them to examine outside their sphere of specialism, unless the examination is not about technique as well as musicianship. It is, surely, essential that the examiner looks beyond 'general musicality'.

Barry Williams