I have just done my Grade 6 violin and I am currently in Year 11. I would like to get my Grade 8 before I apply to university in October 2009... if I get at least a merit on my Grade 6, would it be a good idea to skip Grade 7 and take my Grade 8 by July 2008? Or will the jump be too high? Thanks!

Many of my pupils 'skip' many grades - in practice I usually only put pupils in for an exam if there are good musical and personal reasons for doing so. This could be something like needing more performance experience, preparing for auditions, or sometimes even as a good motivator (for the right pupil) to move up a gear.

Although my philosophy is very much that music should not be just about ticking exam boxes and collecting certificates to stick on the 'fridge, I do regard actually doing the grade 7 exam as a very worthwhile preparation for grade 8 - almost a 'mock' so that they can see how they are fareing at the top level of expectations for graded exams. This is especially valuable to help the pupils become comfortable with the standards expected for the supporting tests.

Above all you should be guided by your teacher - he/she knows you best and is in the best place to advise you about how feasible this would be and which areas you will need to concentrate your efforts on.

Also, do not undersestimate the amount of work and other distractions that present themselves in the 6th form. 'A' level coursework and curriculum requirements from your teachers will almost certainly be a BIG step up from GCSEs, not to mention jobs, friends and eventually the hunt for a university/college course.

Make sure you make time to ENJOY your music. Good luck, whatever you decide.

I favour the idea of 1, 3, 5, 6, 8 - no more, possibly less. Trudging through all the grades one by one would surely turn the whole thing into one great big chore and who needs that?

Those are exactly the ones I did on the piano many years ago.

It all depends on the person. Some are slow learners and like to plod through the grades. Others can miss out as many as they want.

Look at the pieces and practise them. How much practising can you reasonably get in every week?

It should be pretty obvious to you if you can master them or not before July.


Steve

I went straight in at Grade 5 (piano), am booked for the June sitting for Grade 6 and after that am planning to go straight to Grade 8.

However, I have left my exam strategy completely up to my teacher. I would have happily done Grade 7 but she's told me it would be more worthwhile just to go straight in at 8 as the jump between 7 and 8 is not that big.

The key difference for me though is that I'm not in anyway time limited. I think if I had to do Grade 8 by July I'd be less comfortable (read panicked). I'm not sure when I plan to do it, I'm just looking forward to having some time after the Grade 6 to work on a variety of different pieces.

What has your teacher said?

That should be fine. I jumped from 5 to 8 on flute in just under 2 years, which was tricky but doable. So long as you're prepared to put the work in, you'll probably manage it fairly easily (well, maybe not easily, but you know what I mean!)

Well its a long time ago, but I did Grade 6 piano in 1961. Teacher wanted me to get to diploma by 1963, as my A levels would be 1964, ie 1963 was my lower 6th year between GCE and A levels.
I didnt do Grade 7 or Grade 8 at all , and went straight for ALCM over the two year period, but of course didnt spend the whole two years on the same pieces, kept playing them for a while then occasionally going back after a bit. In the end I actually had to wait until I was 16 to take it, as there was an age restriction then. The entry date for the March exams was before my 16th birthday, so I had to wait until June.
Anyway, I got there in the end. I was able then to do Grade 8 organ at same time as A levels.

My teacher made me go through grade 7 pieces but I never did the actual exam - I went straight to grade 8 from 6.

I think skipping exams makes a lot of sense. I get so nervous that I have to know any exam pieces inside out before I perform them - this takes a lot of extra time. Also I actually don't think there is a big jump between grade 6 and 7 BUT grade 8 seems a lot harder. As far as I was concerned it was better to devote my energies to grade 8. Exams are exhausting - the less I have to do the better.

i skipped grade 7, but there are several things which you need to take into account if you do
1. its obviously going to take longer to do the leap of the technique, and it may be harder...but it will probably be quicker than doing grade 7 then 8
2. AURAL....the skip between 6 and 8 is HUGE! its something i really struggled with...but aslong as you do it early enough and for long enough im sure itl be fine
3. if for some reason you dont get to do the exam before you apply...you can only really write grade 6, and will only get the corresponding UCAS points for that

just give yourself enough time, dont rush it, most people take a year to do grade 8 from grade 7, so make sure you leave atleast that if youve gotta bridge the 6-8 gap!

it obviously depends alot on the person, and if your prepared to put the extra effort in!

id say, if YOU think your up to it, go for it!

I don't think grade 7 and 8 is much different in terms of the dificulty of pieces...



Just the examiners are expecting a lot at grade 8, so you have to be completely ready.

Just curious - why not 1, 3, 5, 7, 8? I've always felt with piano 7-8 is a bigger jump than 6-7, but I know nothing about the violin in this respect.

Interesting, I was always led to believe that the jump from 7 - 8 in the piano was quite small and the key thing for all the higher grades was the level of 'musicality' the examiner was looking for.

Hence 6 gives you 'easier' pieces but lets you test your level of performance and then 8 gives you the difficult pieces with even more expectations of a musical performance. Therefore 5, 6 and 8.

Going 5, 7 and then 8 would give you two lots of technically difficult pieces rather than one (I have nothing against technically difficult pieces but the ones I play tend to be ones I enjoy and have been chosen to help with particular areas I have difficulty with not those required simply to pass exams) - this is not terribly well explained but hope you get what I mean.

Having said all that, when I came out of my Grade 5, the steward said that I should just go straight to 8 that would have been scary but I understand a lot of people do it.

Yes I would agree with this. Rather than spending lots of time on trying to do the Grade 7 exam on piano, I learned some of the pieces and then me and my piano teacher decided that we would rather spend the time concentrating on Grade 8! I found this works really well, so if you and your teacher are happy to do this then I think you should !!!

Yes I think you'd get worn out preparing for Grade 7 followed by Grade 8. Why put yourself through all that rather than spending longer preparing for Grade 8 and enjoying some other repertoire as well along the way?




It's a big jump from 5 to 6, so 6 is probably best not avoided, unless you got a distinction at Grade 5 and just want to go full steam ahead.

It is certainly possible to skip grades. Many years ago I failed grade 6 piano then, under a new teacher, skipped both 6 and 7 and went straight from grade 5 to grade 8, though I "only" managed a pass.

There is another member of these forums - cdpiano27 - who is thinking of starting with grade 8 piano - but he just took second prize in a competition in Paris playing some fiendishly difficult pieces, so grade 8 is hardly going to stretch him!

As to whether it is "advisable" for you to miss some of the grades, no-one on this forum is in any position to say, unless they know you and have a good idea of your outlook on life, what motivates you and so on, have seen and heard you play, and are good enough musicians to judge how good you are already, and how quickly you are capable of improving.

I skipped Grade 6 piano and promptly failed Grade 7...

Him Indoors only ever did Grade 8s - in piano, organ, cello - and Grades 5 and 8 Theory - and had a couple of diplomas by the age of 16/17 so I don't think missing all the other grades out did him much harm .

Further to my earlier post I had forgotten I hade dome 5, 6 then 8 on the organ.

I did Grade 6 organ April 1963, then ALCM piano June 1963, then Grade 8 organ April 1964, right before my A levels.

I think my situation may have been slightly different to yours, primarily because I am a singer! But I started at grade 4, then did grade 5 and then went straight from grade 5 to grade 8. Providing you are confident with your playing and go through the repertoires of a grade 7 standard, like many other people have said, I don't think you have a problem!

Annetta

I did 1,3,5,6 and 8 on piano but wouldn't say I skipped any as there was a long time between each of those exams.

Grade 6 and 7 violin are very similar, i skipped grade 6 and did grade 7 and 8. however, i did do all the work for the exams, you cant just go from grade 6 to 8, your playing doesnt improve overnight.

i think you can skip them, but only if you do the work.

Thank you for your input, everyone!

i would say do grades 1, 3, 5, 7,8
as 7 and 8 are quite similar, do yh.
thats my opinion =]

I skipped grade 7 with singing and I got a distinction in my grade 8. I felt much happier because I got to spend a lot more time on my grade 8 pieces.

It's all down to the person and the teacher at the end of the day. My teacher was happy with me going from 6 to 8, especially as she knew that I wanted to have grade 8 before applying to uni.

However, I did straight from 3-8 on flute, and I felt that doing grade 7 benefited me with the technical aspect of things.

I'm skipping Grade 7 after my Grade 6, just because my teacher says Grade 6 and 7 are too close to eachother to spend two lots of £40-£50. Grade 7 Clarinet is good to take, but I think skipping out one of eithe Grade 6 or Grade 7 is a good idea. The higher grades are just too expensive to take all three.

If I still to my plans, I will do grades 2,3,4,5,6,8

I probably would have skipped out Grade 3, because I think Grades 2,3 and 4 aren't that much of a step up from the previous.


Sam94.

I'm in a fairly similar situation to you... I'm also a violinist and in year 11 and I want to get my grade 8 before applying for uni.
I did my grade 6 violin about one and a half years ago (I think) and was then planning to go straight on to grade 8 the next year. However, for a variety of reasons I changed teachers and my current teacher then said (rightly) that there was no way I was ready for grade 8 and if I were to do any exams any time soon, it would be grade 7. However, for the last year and a bit, we've done loads of work on my technique and sound and I've worked for a couple of auditions for things. Now we're looking at me doing grade 8 next march hopefully, but I've already done grade 8 piano, so I don't need to do too much work on the aural and I have an idea of the level of musicianship that they're looking for.
I would say that it could be possible for you to do grade 8 maybe next summer, but it would be alot of work and you would have to use this long summer as a chance to put loads of work in and to boost-start your pieces and scales etc. and then it still might only be a scrape pass.

I skipped grade 7(piano). I did the all the scales, exam pieces, aural, etc. Just didn't go for the exam. Just had my grade 8 exam a few days ago, but I don't think I did that well so err... I'm in year 12 this year so it's a little difficult to find the time, you may want to take that into account.

But if you prioritize, practice hard and productively enough, you should be fine. It's a matter of knowing what you want and working for it (cough, look who's speaking)

My daughter's first Grade exam on Viola was G6. As a parent, I just think "not another exam fee!" We agreed with my daughter's Viola teacher to work through grade 7 pieces, scales etc, without her actually going in for the exam, which is precisely what he has done. He gave her an 'exam' and a low distinction mark. Then she moved on to the G8 repetoire which she will take in June 2009 when she is in Year 12. She doesnt want to be doing any music exams when she is in Year 13.

Grade 6 to 8 is a big jump. I wouldn't advise any student to skip the Grade 7 exam unless s/he is willing to practise very hard and already possesses a good understanding of various musical styles (from playing another instrument to a high standard).

Even when a student does skip the Grade 7 exam, I would still cover the technical work and pieces of Grade 7 standard.

As a teacher, I would be more willing to push students through the earlier grades. I would still cover the skills required for each grade, but in an accelerated mode if the students can absorb the materials quickly and are willing to practise, say, an hour instead of 30 minutes a day. But I would rather have the students take more time with the higher grades because the advanced repertoire takes longer to master.

But depending on your goal, if you just want to pass Grade 8 before going to uni and don't care too much about getting a merit or distinction, then you can certainly try. Keep in mind that that you do have to put in the practice time.