Hello all,

Been reading the posts for a while now and finally thought I would interact. I am at the grand old age of 33 and have played piano my entire life. Back in the mists of time I passed grade 8 and have never looked back. A career in I.T. has left me practicing when I can and trying to keep my skills up. Now I am finally spending some quality time with my piano and I thought the ABRSM Diploma would be a good target to aim for, perhaps leading to a change of life after.

The recital I can work on - ultimately I just need to practice lots, including all those excercises. What I am concerned with is the viva since I have never studied the history and theory in great detail. The theory side I can cope with since I can see what needs to be learnt and how to go about it. However, I wondered if anyone had any advice as to where to begin with everything else!!?!

I could, of course, start with form and style and move on to period and composers. I'm just putting it out there really to see what anyone thinks.

Anyway. First post over.

Be gentle with me...

Simon

Welcome to the forum Simon,
I cannot help with the Piano playing as I play the Clarinet,
But always nice to hear from new members especially new adult members.

Regards, Peter.

Thanks Peter. Nice to be welcomed.

Never could play the Clarinet - just got a headache trying...

(I stole your signature idea, sorry)

Hello Murlock and welcome to the Forums


One useful resource, giving ideas of what to put in your programme notes and some topics of past viva questions is at http://www.forumconcert.co.uk/diplomas


Best of luck.

Hi Murlock!

The viva really focusses on your programme notes and the pieces you are playing, so you don't need to know all there is to know about the history of the keyboard.

Katyjay's link is very useful, particularly for pianists (as most of the notes are written by pianists). Do spend thought and time on choosing your programme, as the examiners like to see a nice balance of styles and periods.

Once you have chosen your programme, you will have to do research to write notes for each piece. This might include things about the composer's life and work; the place of the work you are playing within his total output; other important pieces/composers from the same era; the structure of the piece; who premiered the piece if it's modern, etc. By the time you've written the notes you'll have covered a lot more ground than actually gets included, and hopefully you'll be able to draw on that knowledge during the viva.

Best of luck with your diploma. Enjoy!

Thanks Katyjay and BerkshireMum!! The speed of response in here is fantastic! I have watched so many enthusiastic people talk to each-other, some very dedicated people.

Right. The link looks useful although it looks like refining my programme is the first step. At the moment I am looking at the whole selection of pieces and working my way through to find a nice selection of both complexity (for the exam) and enjoyment (for me).

I can't play unless I like what I'm playing...

...at least for this sort of thing. I have played all sorts of things when asked - I'm sure you all know what I mean.

Music IS for life - not just for untuned church hall pianos.

Yes, I have that t-shirt in the back of the wardrobe.

If you're considering a diploma, the best piece of advice ever is READ THE SYLLABUS. You probably didn't need me to tell you that, but you'll save yourself an awful lot of angst if you do. Especially if you then re-read it.

As for the complexity, if you're working entirely off the repertoire list you don't need to worry about any works you're considering being difficult enough - it's the standard of performance you offer which is key. "Is it difficult enough?" only starts to become an issue if you're including an own choice work or two, but there's enough good music on the repertoire list to be able to provide many a satisfying programme: I had about three potential programmes before I finally settled on what to play for mine.

If you look around the diploma forum (or on the forumconcert website), you'll see that a fair number of people have posted their actual or proposed programme, which should give you some idea of what's generally considered a well-balanced and suitable programme.

Yeah. I work in I.T. and 'Read the Manual' comes up quite often. I have seen a few suggestions for programme and a recent post has led me towards other pieces in the syllabus that I had not thought about before. Most of the pieces are really nice, some of the atonal ones...well...

Hello Murlock, welcome to the forums.

Like you I did serious piano a long time ago (see signature), much much longer ago than you ! I have also tried to keep my standard going despite a busy career, and have had a lot of fun. I'm about the same piano standard as I was at age 16. It's good that you now want to spend a bit more time on it and 'do' a Dip.
My problem is that , being now 2/3 of years away from retirement, I will be wanting to spend more time on music, though I'm not sure whether I will have the motivation to do any more exams ! Im a bit lazy at times and play a vast repertoire, but maybe only to say 80% standard. Maybe I need to do Dip ABRSM to kick start me.

Anyway good luck with your endeavours, we regular posters are a friendly lot, and you will find us at times educative and entertaining.

I was in a very similar situation last year when I decided to have a go, i.e. been playing clarinet for 25 years but at the age of 35 and working full time as a chartered accountant, practice was very much restricted to when it could be fitted in. ( I won't mention the further complication of partner who hates the sound of the clarinet)


Some mistakes I made which I recommend you avoid:

1) Approach - I ended up entering myself after one practice session with a friend who plays the piano. The diploma was then approached in the spirit of "do you fancy having a go at one of those diploma thingies. It'll give us something to work at and it might be quite fun". No real consideration given to the requirements.

2) Get your self a teacher - I didn't and so was picked up on all sorts of things during the first attempt that I hadn't even considered as issues. They were obvious once someone pointed them out, but you need someone with that experience to do so.

3) Have a go at playing for an audience - The first time (well in 20 years) I did this was after I had entered for the exam but before the date itself and it was terrifying. The terror was completely unexpected so I had no idea how to manage it. I was therefore glad I had experienced it before the actual exam and anticipated some degree of nerves and some mechanism for dealing with it.

The above is a bit negative but I hope someone else could benefit from my mistakes!

NOTHING is negative. Your being kind enough to share your experience helps a lot. I fully intend to find a local teacher in a few months time, once I think my work with the pieces has reached a level where I am roughly happy with both the programme and my abilities.

Playing for an audience happens every so often for me; sometimes just me, other times as a group. Nothing like a bit of nervous tension to tighten up those 'easy' passages...