Has anyone out there started with Grade 5 as their 1st practical exam on the piano?

If so, I'd like to hear about your experiences:

• How long did you prepare for?
• How much daily practice did you do?
• How did you find it?
• Did you pass 1st time?
• Did you do a Theory exam at the same time?

can't answer those q's as i don't know the answers and grade 5 wasn't my first exam, but you might like to take a look at this thread:

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=29420

xx

Thanks for the link to the other thread but I'm not a complete beginner, I'm not in a race and I'm certainly not doing it for a bet!! I just don't want to spend 5 years (rate of 1 exam per year) getting to G5 when I'm already playing at around G3 level.

I'm not in a huge hurry but my plan exams wise would be to do Grade 5 Piano and Grade 5 Theory, followed by Grade 8 Practical and then go for a Diploma.

Timescale wise I reckon I would be ready for the Theory G5 first, probably in the next 6-12 months. Would probably be a push to get to G5 Practical within a year but who knows. I'm guessing I would then need at least another 2 years to get to G8 level and then another 3 to get to Diploma level.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan? Is there any benefit in actually taking the G6 & G7 exams in between the G5 and G8 Practical exams?

I wanted to do G5 as my first piano exam but chickened out and took G1 Jazz and G3 Classical instead, last Easter. It wasn't a great effort to prepare for these - which is a sure sign that I'm above that level - although I didn't realise it at the time. I got 94% for my G3 and so took G5 the next session (last month) and passed comfortably. I'd recommend taking G3 first - it's no extra work for people at G5 standard and gives useful general experience of a piano exam.

To answer your questions - at the point of my G5 exam.....

How long did you prepare for?
From finding out I'd flattened G3 to the closing week of the next entry period - about a month - as I wouldn't enter an exam without having prepared first.
How much daily practice did you do?
Two hours
How did you find it?
Scary - the hardest part was that the music rest on the exam piano was 5 inches above what I'm used to.
Did you pass 1st time?
Yes.
Did you do a Theory exam at the same time?
No - but I did do G5 Singing the week after.

I've done each of the practical grades up to G4 and each of the Theory grades up to G5. I've tried to do the exams in different sessions so that I could concentrate on one or the other in the run-up to the exam.



PS. Welcome to the forums Gerry!

My hubby's guitar teacher just did Grade 5 theory, and Grade 8 practical. Didn't bother with the rest. Played all day and all night apparently, was an adult student at the B'ham conservatoire and passed top.
Bev.

I don't know if you're asking people who started out as children as well as adults, but grade 5 was my first exam. I took it about 5 years after starting (I was 13) and got a distinction.

I have an extremely ambitious student who wants to go straight in at Grade 5 - she was already an accomplished pianist. She's 27 and has been learning violin for eighteen months. Her progress was staggering in the beginning but she's also working full time and doing an OU degree, so her practice time is very limited and her progress has slowed right down since the initial surge. She knows about half the scales now, is pretty good at one of the pieces and is making good headway with one of the others and has just started the third. God knows when I'll be able to put her in, though, unless she finds the time to practise more than about two hours a week....

- 4 months
- Started with 1 hour then flirted with 3-4 before dropping back down to about 1 hour
- Fun
- Nope
- Yes, Grade 5

It took me two years from starting lessons (aged not quite 13) to passing Grade 5. I took grade 1 at the first available slot after starting lessons, and grade 2 pretty soon after that. Then skipped 3 and 4. In the year leading up to Grade 5 I worked at the piano for about 12 hours each week. That was a little over an hour a day Mon-Fri, and about 3 hours on each Saturday and Sunday (but sometimes much longer).

1. Erm, well I did about 6 months of work on it I suppose. probably more. That was after playing for about 6 years.

2. About 30 minutes. I don't practice much

3. Not too difficult, but it was my first exam...

4. Yes

5. No

Hi Gerry,

Yes, I took Grade 5 as my first exam a while ago. I had been playing piano for 3 years before. Can't really remember how long it took to prepare because it was ages ago, but I think roughly - not more than 6 months. Erm... practise was probably about 1/2 - 1 hour a day...?
I thought Grade 5 was fine, the only reason I was nervous was because it was my first exam. All the pieces and other work I was okay with. I passed 1st time with distinction and got full marks in aural, scales and something else which I can't remember! I took Grade 5 theory at the same time - spaced exactly a week apart - and did fine. I got 97% i think, which was distinction too.
So yes, I think this is completely do-able and you will manage fine Good luck and let us know how you get on

Lil_miz_music xx

Many thanks for all the replies.

Hi,

Not piano, but guitar. Possibly similar situation, being playing for many years but never took any formal lessons.

I started to take lessons and then decided to to the grade exams.

I started at Grade 5 in May 2006 then Grade 5 Theory in December 2006

Grades 6 and 7 in May and December 2007 respectively

Grade 8 in May 2008.

I live overseas so our exam dates are slightly different to those in the UK.

I didn't start with any time line in mind, however after Grade 6 my focus was on getting to grade 8 as quickly as possible.

The odd thing was that I found the grade 6 pieces easier than the grade 5, and the grade 7 pieces easier than grade 6!!

However the Grade 8 pieces absolutely floored me!! I found them incredibly difficult compared to the other pieces. Because by this time I was adamant that I wanted to have a go at Grade 8 in May, I carried on and simply ramped up the practice time.

As for practice - I was diligent, but looking back could have done more - Work, unfortunately tends to get in the way!!!

I was really fortunate to have great tutors - one for the guitar and another for the aural.

Got good marks on my scales - but never learnt any!!!!

What I did do was memorise the patterns, which meant that I was solid in the exams. HOWEVER - if anyone stopped me half way though a scale and asked which note I was on I would not have had a clue!!! Not sure if you can do that on the piano.

My view is that as long as you are diligent in your practice, take things steady, don't get distracted or dis-heartened you should be fine.

I hope you find the grade exams as rewarding as I did. Best of Luck.

Nigel

My first exam was G5 singing, when I was 15- I think I'd done 2 years of lessons prior to that and had come from being able to read music etc but having a very small and unconfident voice, to what I would call being able to properly sing. Didn't do theory at the same time as was doing GCSEs and had no NEED to do it then. But I also didn't practise very much, am not good at discipline!