I am taking my Grade 6 violin exam on Monday.
I was fairly confident about my pieces, however, I played my C piece (Tico-Tico Bird in the Cornmeal) for a GCSE music performance a few weeks ago. My violin teacher had told me to play it with a swung rhythm as she thought it added to the piece - though it was not marked as swung nor did it say I should play it as swung at the bottom of the page where it informs you about how to play the piece.

I was really confident and felt it went well, however, I got my mark back today and found I had lost 7 marks for playing it swung when it 'wasn't supposed to be'. I lost marks for playing the rhythm incorrectly and misinterpreting the piece even though I played the swung rhythm almost perfectly.

With my exam in 4 days and not enough time to change the rhythm I'm really worried. May the examiner also deduct marks for playing the rhythm swung?

As Tico Tico is a Latin piece, it should be played "straight". Te convention is to only swing in jazz and swing music (hence the name!!)
You may well lose a few marks, but the important thing is to get all the other features in - dynamics, articulation, suitable tempo, tone quality - so that you achieve a good overall performance.

Good luck with your exam - I'm sure it will be fine. let us know how you get on!

Okay. With the exam so soon I shall just have to do the best I can, but I feel fairly confident with that piece dynamic etc. wise so hopefully my marks wont drop too much.

Thanks for the advice.

I swung one of my Grade 6 pieces and it wasn't marked swing (or latin, or anything else) and I scored 29/30 with the examiner's comment that it "really swung".

To be honest I'm surprised your teacher thought it would sound good to swing a Latin piece! You might as well play a waltz in 4/4 because it would 'sound good'...

Are you sure you haven't got enough time to relearn in the original style? If you played it the right way for a couple of hours between now and then you could probably do it!

Thanks for the comments, I did actually ask my teacher whether it was okay to play it swung when she first suggested it, but she said it was fine so I just forgot about it and I presumed that given how long she has been teaching it would be fine.

As for changing the quavers to straight, I don't have another lesson until Monday morning just before the exam. I also have a different piano accompanist meaning I would be playing the quavers straight for the first time with the piano whilst in the exam. It worries me that I might switch back to a swung rhythm halfway through the piece - which would probably double the marks I'm going to lose.
I could probably manage it but I think its probably better to perfect my other pieces.


I'll just have to do the best I can and hope the rest of my exam goes well enough to gain me any marks I might loose on that piece. But, I'll speak to my teacher again tomorrow anyway and see if I can possible get an extra lesson.

Thanks again for all the comments