My time and date has just come through for my exam. Friday 27th March at 16.42.

It would be a date my son does something after school and Friday afternoon the traffic will be awful!

I was hoping that it would be early in the day whilst he was at school. My only hope now is that if hubby will leave work early and take son to tennis. Need to see if one of my friends might run me down to the centre if I give them petrol money.


Now I need to try and sort out things.

ET

Sorry, can't remember if you have a teacher - if so - you may be able to go earlier in the day if they have a whole list of candidates - it is possible for a teacher to change the order of their students. Also worth speaking to the AB if it is a real problem - they can usually do a bit of shuffling if necessary (or fit you into a cancellation or something).

Hi thanks Sue, I do have a teacher and I will see her tonight for my lesson. Will see what we can do, I booked online myself though, will that make a difference?

Hubby came home said he has a 3 day event at work, but already started to look to see if he can move things round a bit.

16.42 and a 15minute exam, does that mean I will be the last applicant for the day, or do they run into the evening?

ET

Hi EldaTom,

You may want to take a quick look at the Horizon Programme on BBC2 last night because you might find you want to keep that slot!

Good Luck for your Grade 4 exam!!

If you booked online for yourself, I think you were using your own applicant number, so unlikely that you could have been a candidate under your teacher's list. I don't think you could ask for a shuffling of order in this case, at least not under normal circumstances. But no harm asking you teacher, teachers are often very bright and resourceful!


You might want to take a trip down to the venue first to take note of the time taken for travelling. At the same time, maybe you could book the studio for a practice session to get familiar with the piano there. But I am sure with the slightly heavier touch on your Gebr. Perzina, most pianos should be manageable

(My Wolf has a heavier touch, so I found the Kawai at the exam venue quite easy to play on, and that gave me more confidence for the actual exam this Friday. In fact it was very light, so I have to remind myself not to bang too hard on the ff, and not to play too softly for the pp).

Hi Fantasia

Thanks for letting me know about the Horizon Programme, watched a bit but will definitely watch more later. If we can manage to swop I think I will be a lot better at 1.00pm than after 4.30pm as I seem to get a real tired spell late afternoon.

Thanks for the luck. Had a great lesson last night and my A piece my teacher said that she had nothing to say except how lovely I play it, and will I play that first for the exam. The B piece, ok except when I get to the semi quavers she said I come in to loud and like a herd of elephants lol! will have to watch that! and for the C piece, she was amazed at my improvement and the only criticism she had was that she could see that I was dancing whilst I played. She said that could be seen as negative by some examiners, so I will have to watch that. because it is so jazzy I have tended to really get into it with my whole body and found that I kept to the rhythm and beat much better, but will have to control myself to keep still.

We did sight reading from her book which was the old syllabus and is twice as long as the current and she said I did really well, and she is really pleased on how my aural is coming along and siad that I am really quite laid back about it all now, whereas when we started I was a nervous wreck.

We didn't do scales last night but I know all my scales and arpegios inside out, will do them all for my teacher next lesson.

ET

Hi Teoani

You are right, I did book online myself and have my own applicant number. However, I did put my teachers name on there too as her presenting me. My teacher seems to think that she can do this, so I will just go with the flow. If it turns out that it can't be changed then I will have to take it as fate that this is meant to be.

I hadn't noticed that my piano has a slightly heavier touch? When I tried it against the other pianos in the shop I felt it equaled the yamaha, only I liked its sound better. Is that there reputation?

Good idea to do a dummy run to find out where it is I agree, but unfortunately no studio there to book, they hire the pianos from the local piano shop (where I bought my piano from funnily enough) and get a different one each week.

I don't think I will have a problem with a different piano as they are coming from the shop so obviously going to be quite new, as when I did my course at Pro Corda I played several different pianos and got on with them all - mind you particularly the Grand!!

I came home and was quite despondant about my piano for a couple of weeks after playing the grand!

ET

I tried the Perzina a couple of times, and am under the impression that it is slightly heavier than Yamaha U1. But then again I might be wrong. My friend felt that the Yamaha U1 was "deeper" than the Perzina. But we were both affirmative that the Perzina had a nice bass.

Don't be disappointed about your piano! I think it is a reasonably good model. A grand would have cost too much and taken up too much space. And if you had one, you might dislike all uprights, which would be such a shame! Imagine, not being able to enjoy the delight of the simple fish fillet (sorry, I love fish), just because you feast on expensive sashimi every single day!

[
Don't be disappointed about your piano! I think it is a reasonably good model. A grand would have cost too much and taken up too much space. And if you had one, you might dislike all uprights, which would be such a shame! Imagine, not being able to enjoy the delight of the simple fish fillet (sorry, I love fish), just because you feast on expensive sashimi every single day!
[/quote]


Oh dear I feel that I have given the wrong impression here, I was momently dissappointed in my piano when returning home after playing a Grand. This was back in October just after I had bought my piano.

I am in love with my piano and think it is really beautiful and if I had my way and time would be glued to it all day and night because it is such a pleasure to play on.

Even my piano teacher thinks it is beautiful, I have a sneaky feeling that is why she comes round to me now rather than me go to her, but then I am sure that she has her real reasons for it lol

I got my piano in August and I have had no problems with it at all and I still haven't needed to get it tuned, what more could one ask for?

ET

Glad you've got your date at last, ET, and good to have a month's notice! Will keep my fingers crossed for you

Thanks Skylark, I will let you know.

Providing the nerves don't get to me I should be fine as I am more than ready for it.

Still, this exam will show me whether I am made for exams or not, if it is a disaster then I just know not to do any more practicial ones, you don't know unless you try, do you?

ET

I doubt if it will be a disaster but even if it is, that doesn't necessarily mean you're not cut out for exams if you want to do them. It just means that you'll know what to work on next time, whether it's nerves or whatever. Anyway, let's cross that bridge if you ever come to it, as I doubt you will - you're too well prepared for it to go wrong

Have a couple of bananas about 1/2 hour before the exam - bananas are supposed to do wonders for nerves!

So I have heard, but unfortunately I have a food intolerance towards bananas. So sad, because they are great when you play tennis too!

ET