Grade 3 exam tomorrow and I'm struggling to play my pieces .
Last night when I was practising my wife suggested I change one of my pieces- not a great way to boost my confidence.

Good Luck tomorrow. From what I can gather what is happening to you is perfectly normal, looking at similar posts. I wouldn't recommend changing your pieces at this last stage.

I recently went on a piano course and was advised before performing, to take a deep breath and relax and tell yourself that you are confident and if you look confident the audience will have confidence in you, thus you then play confidently. Not quite the same, but then the examiner is an audience.

This does work, as when we had to perform in a concert, when it was my turn I wanted to run away, but instead I stood up and walked across confidently and sat at the piano. I played well and it was my first concert performance in my life.

So just try to relax, play your pieces very slowly and in seperate hands, start from different parts of the piece, that way you will be secure. This is also advice I obtained on the course.

I will have to practise what I preach in Spring when I will take my Grade 4, my first practical exam.

ET

ianporsche, all the best, cheer up and you can do it! We are waiting to party with you when you return after the exam to this forum!


Don't think of the mistakes. Think of the parts that you play well. You'll be awarded marks for those.

In case you haven't had an practical exam yet:

Smile and shake hands with the examiner, ask to try out the piano for a minute or two, and remember whether you want to start with scales or pieces. If there are scale groups to choose from, tell the examiner which you have chosen so that you won't be caught by surprise when the examiner asks from the wrong group.

Remember the order and numbers of the pieces you are playing (or write them down), so that you don't have to flip furiously through the book.

Mentally rehearsing with yourself on what to expect could calm you down.

Just relaxation ... lots of breathing before putting your hands on the piano and confidence in all the work you've done. That's all that is needed. Let us know,
Juan Carlos

Hope it goes well tomorrow !

Best of British Luck to you. You will be fine on the day Ian. It always goes badly the day before. Remember, bad dress rehearsal, good performance
Bev.

I'd second all people have said about having confidence. If you go in telling yourself that you can and will play the pieces well, you have a much better chance of a good outcome. Forget how they went today, and remember the occasions when you played your pieces best; then tell yourself you've played so well once, and it can and will happen again.

Very best of luck - we're all behind you!

Good luck

Good luck - all power to the adult learners! Have a banana half-an-hour or so before your exam - it can help you keep calm (that's if you like bananas, of course....)

Thanks everyone for your support- I played through the pieces last night and they seemed to go a little better.

good luck for you ianporsche, hope it went well

let us know the results

m_b_r

Ian, how did the exam go?

ET

Not great to be honest- but not as bad as I expected.
Scales- I fluffed 1 or 2, but the examiner let me redo them. (I played 1 with the wrong hand too !)
Piece A- All OK until the third bar from the end when it all went wrong and I missed notes- I managed to pull it back for the final bar.
Piece B- OK
Piece C- OK

Sight reading- not too bad I think
Aural OK- but then I can never tell. (During the spot the difference test me examiner made a mistake and had to start again !).
For the first time I had an examiner (female) that wore casual clothing- that little touch of informality seemed to help a great deal.

Oh- If anyone is doing an exam at Abingdon- the practise piano is awful, it can really put you off !

ianporsche, great work! Sounds like you have done quite OK. *clap clap*

Now you can relax for a few days and treat yourself to great food and fun!

It sounds like you did well then! At the beginning of that post you said "Not great to be honest" but there doesn't sound like you had any real negative points. You may think that the missed notes will really affect your mark but for one of my piano exams I played the opening section so horrificly I just had to stop, take a breath and then carry on, and all that only seemed to cost me one or two marks!

Sounds like you have done really well. Well done. I don't think that the examiners expect perfection, they know that candidates suffer from nerves and I think this is all taken into consideration.

Let us know when you get the result.

ET

Looks as though you did well actually.

Put your feet up now and look forward to the results.

Looks like you did well! I hope the results go well!

Just got the result
109 Pass Yay !

Congratulations, Ian!

Well done Ian

Congratulations!

Well done!

Congratulations Ian - onwards and upwards!

Well done - better than you expected then! Congratulations

Yay! good for you Ian.

WELL DONE
keep up the work!

Well done Ian!!!!

Well done Ian

Congratulations!

Conratulations

Thanks for you support everyone.

I was in Swindon on Saturday and so I thought I'd get the Grade 4 music to scare myself a bit. When I got to the piano shop I found it was now a Subway !
It seems to be getting harder to find sheet music these days- I always used to go to a music shop in Abingdon but that closed about six months ago.

Well done Ian!

I did my Grade 3 on 21 November and after so much intense practice feel I really messed up one piece quite badly (Franck), the Purcell Hornpipe I did last and can hardly remember and my first piece the Bartok was pretty OK. I wonder which pieces you chose and how you found them?

I was shaking so badly after messing up my second piece the examiner kindly suggested I did some scales before attempting 3rd piece! A Much appreciated gesture. I am now indulging myself playing a few pieces I really like instead of all that hard cramming before the exam.

I did Aria by Telemann- this was one of the alternate A pieces, I didn't like any of the A pieces in the book.

Die Wandhuhr and round dance.