Dear Musician Friend,

I am taking a grade 5 piano on the upcoming August.
I have been practicing the exam material,
however, I feel that i do not see any progress regarding my skill.

My goal is to achieve distinction.
Therefore, I need advice on :

how should I organize my time to practice each module (scale, arpeggio, pieces ) ?

As I completely have no Idea of the practice guide on the ABRSM web (top tips for practice)
which say that, "Always work to a plan", "Know what needs to be achieved in each practice time",

so , How should I make my plan?

Thank you.
-Pixel-

You can prepare as much as possible do infinate amount of practice but there is still no gaurantee that you will get distinction on the day.

My daughter hoped for distinction on G7 Oboe, she did as much as possible to prepare for the exam in the time she had available. Taking GCSE music cut some of the practice time down (this wasn't envisaged when she began preparing). Having her morale and self belife lowered by her school music teacher. The single biggest effect though was having a virus on the day, coughing through one of the pieces and having difficulty with aural and general breathing. in the end she was 3 marks off distinction.

No matter how much, in the end, it's down to what happens on the day.

"Dear Musician Friend" ??? That is like the opening line of those eMails I get from Nigeria offering me a share of billions of dollars. Are you auditioning for a career composing junk mail? This is your first post. Is it a serious inquiry or a wind-up?

In that case one or more of the following applies
- you are not practicing the right things
- not practicing in the right way
- you have not practiced enough yet
- you are impatient, and have not waited long enough for the improvement to show
- you are aiming too high, too soon

I fail to see why. Grade 5 is still a relative beginner's standard in the larger scheme of things. In the long run it makes no difference what mark you get. It is just setting yourself up for disappointment to set your heart on a Distinction. To pass is an achievement, to gain a merit is very creditable, to achieve distinction is a bonus. If you really really want near-certainty of a distinction at Grade 5 you need to be a good enough player to pass Grade 8. And if you are that good, why not just take Grade 8?

This is something your teacher should be helping you with, not strangers on a web forum, who have never heard you play, and know nothing about you (age, intelligence, capacity for co-ordination, background, previous experience, present standard, personal circumstances ...) . If you don't have a teacher my advice is get one. If you do have a teacher, and they are incapable of helping you with these matters then my advice is to find a different (better) one.

If, for some reason, that is not possible, then the excellent book "Improve Your Piano Playing" by John Meffen will set you on the right path.

Wow ...
If she hadn't prepared her exam excellently,
I believe she wouldn't have achieved the "3 marks off distinction"

LOL ... This is serious, I need your advice and I am not Nigerian.



Please tell me how to practice things right.



It does makes different in my countries,
when a piano student (who usually are the rich) want to learn
only from the teacher with the high ABRSM score.
Therefore, I want to be a teacher with this particular qualification on the next few years.



So, you mean that the guide in ABRSM is just written
by a stranger who knows nothing about the exam participant on other countries?



Thank you for this part.

Regards.
-Pixel-

Well that is good to know!

It is not the sort of thing you can do in a short post on a forum like this. And I don't have the six moths to a year it would take to write it. And when I was finished it would be unlikely to be as good as the Meffen book I recommended

I understand that high scores will give you more credibility, but in my opinion Grade 5 is not a high enough standard to be an effective, all-round piano teacher. You really need to be aiming for a DipABRSM or equivalent piano teaching. And when you have that your score at Grade 5, on the way there, really should not matter.

To some extent ... yes. They can only give general advice.

They can't see why you in particular are practicing and making no progress. For that they need to know a lot about you. That is why a teacher is valuable. Someone that plays well and has a lot of teaching experience knows more than can ever be written down, and can select from that knowledge just what you need to know and what you need to do to progress and get past the point at which you are stuck.

What I was getting at is that you can prepare all you want but then something can happen on the day.

@ Mad Tom

Thank you for your advice.
I have seen the main point of your advice.


@notmusimum

I presume that you want to say "just do it... do the practice"
Is that right ?

Thank you for your advice.

Pixelcrafter wrote: "This is serious, I need your advice and I am not Nigerian"

Pixelcrafter, I am sure this was meant as a light-hearted remark, but it is not acceptable. I don't know what country you are from, but Nigeria is a marvellous country of hard-working, highly moral people. Every country has it share of dishonest inhabitants - certainly the UK does.

Exams? Don't ignore scales, sight-reading and aural - it's easy to put all your effort into the pieces and forget the rest.

I think you'll find it was Mad Tom who brought up the Nigerians!

Listener, lighten up ... or read the previous posts in the thread before jumping to conclusions.

Pixelcrafter is totally innocent here. I was responsible for bringing Nigeria into the discussion, not because I have any prejudice against Nigeria, or its people, but because the country is infamous as the place of origin of a well-known Internet scam that tries to get hold of your bank details and passwords and/or trick you into paying fees by fictitious offers of a share in a large sum of money in exchange for your help in getting it out of the country.

The opening address ('Dear Musician Friend') of the OP reminded me of one of the fraudulent eMails that we must all have received at some time or other. Pixelcrafter understood how it was meant and took it in good spirit. A shame that you imagine slights and insults in it.

As for dishonesty, I would go further than you and say that the UK has more than its fair share of dishonest people, with an especially large concentration in the higher offices of Government, and in the media that act as apologists and provide smoke screens for its despicable foreign policy. (And by that I mean the real policy as revealed by its actions over the last several centuries - including the last 50 years - and not the highly moral position presented to us in state propaganda).

I wouldn't presume to tell you to do the practice Don't want to be accused of being a pushy parent

Seriously it goes without saying that I wish you the very best of luck (I want everyone to achieve their dream), work at it but don't pressure yourself too much. Don't be too hard on yourself if you feel you've done everything right and something unforseen happens on the day.

RE: MadTom's response:

Pixelcrafter: I apologise

MadTom: I am not going to derail this thread so am not responding to your comments