I'm considering asking my teacher for a break from consistently doing grades. I've been playing the flute for just over a year, and am taking my grade 5 next month.

I've realised though, that I haven't actually played that many pieces, and haven't really played pieces to develop technique- I've only ever played pieces supposedly for exams.

I skipped grades 1 and 2, and went straight to 3. Then I skipped grade 4 too.

Has anyone else ever had a break from doing graded pieces? To focus on studies/techniques such as double tonguing, vibrato, fast fingering etc?

And maybe skip grade 6 and go for grade 7 in a year or two?

Any advice, or experience to share?

Taking a break form exams to expand your repertoire and build your technique sounds like a really good idea in view of your rapid progress so far.

I'm not a huge fan of ploughing through the grades either but it doesn't sound as if you're 'consistently doing grades' when you went straight onto Grade 3 and are now doing Grade 5 within a year! But having said that, you need to play a wider repertoire than just grade pieces. If you don't like your teacher's approach, ask her to change it or find another teacher for whom grades aren't the be-all and end-all.

Funny but I was just saying the same thing yesterday. I am doing my Grade 3 violin next month, but after that I decided to tell my teacher I want to concentrate less on exams and play some other stuff for a while. She has done exactly what I asked though so far, I wanted to race up to and through Grade 3 so I am pleased. Its just that now I realise how poor my ability to keep time is if I don't already know the piece (and haven't heard it on the accompanying CD), so I need to work on that more.

I skipped grades 1-6 on the bassoon
I had taken grade 6 on two other instruments

Personally I hate teachers who do this....

I think you're absolutely correct and should suggest looking at non'exam pieces which focus on other areas that you wish to improve on.

Dare I say, I also suggest you should swap for a teacher who doesn't use exams in this way and thinks more about your long term development than aiming for few pieces of repertoire and a certificate to put on the wall.

Sorry, I didn't make this clear. My teacher is really relaxed about what we do, and will teach me what I'd like to learn. I requested we work on grades for a while, so that I can catch up with friends who have been playing for a long time.

Now I'm wondering if I should request a break from grades, to work on technique. She'll probably be more than happy to do that with me (she says she's got loads of pieces which she can't wait to teach me, and loads of techniques too )

I was just asking if it was the right thing to ask her.

One of my flute-playing friends took grade 2 last summer, same as me on clarinet. I'm pretty sure that now she is playing at around grade 4-5 standard, having heard her play both solo and in ensembles, she seems to be of a similar ability to another of my friends who is taking grade 5. However, despite her having sight-read the grade 3 pieces fairly well in a previous lesson, and having a very good technique in playing, her teacher doesn't believe in skipping grades and she is doing grade 3 this term. This is an example of where I think her teacher is wrong.

However, all teachers and all pupils are different and your teacher will have their own idea of what you should do. I think you should ask her, she will probably agree, or have a good reason if she doesn't.

I hope all that made a tiny amount of sense...

Yup, made sense

I've got a friend sort of like that too. She's been playing the flute since she was 9, and although has been grade 5 for some time now (probably above grade 5), when she started with a new teacher, the only exam she'd taken was grade 1 (but was further than that, because her teacher wasn't doing grades). So now, since the age of 11 when she started with the new teacher, she's been doing a grade a year, and only now at 14 is she starting to work on grade 5 pieces.

All because her teacher thinks it's essential that a grade per year is the only way to go...

I am an adult piano student and went straight in at Grade 3 in 2007. I then did grade 4 after a further year. My teacher and I then decided to have 6 months trying a variety of repertoire based on what I liked the sound of, nothing more complicated than that really. The material in fact ranged from grade 2-6 standard and I had great fun with no pressure. It did me the world of good because I then myself recognised when the time was right to start preparing for another grade (5 in Nov/Dec 2009) and my preparation has been transformed by the break. Somehow the gradient doesn't seem quite so steep and I am enjoying it enormously (sight-reading apart).

Everyone is different of course but I certainly plan to "clear my head" for a while in the same after grade 5. I expect it might do you good too!

The potential problem with this approach is that you might get the exam passes but may not actually catch up with your friends.

True, true.

It's still nice to have the grade certificate though, just so that you can try to reassure yourself that you're not that far behind...

I am not sure if this was a reply to me, or to Bobziekins, I suppose it applies to both. I am in my 50's so I expect the teacher to teach me what I want to learn, it is for no-one's benefit but mine and like I said, I am really pleased with what she has taught me to do so far.

It is just that now I play with other people more (which is why I wanted to wiz through to Grade 3), I think I need to branch out a bit more. Also it has given me a chance to figure out what I want concentrate on now - sight reading timing off music I don't know, which I consider to be my weakest point.

I have always played other stuff than my exam pieces as well because I wanted to, but on my own, not with the teacher.

When I started lessons again this year on my clarinet at an advanced level, my teacher asked me what I wanted out of it. I said that I wanted to play better, push my standard up and just to be able to improve my playing for my own pleasure and for band (which he is lead in) I said that maybe somewhere down the line I may like to do grade 8 - just to say I had it if asked etc as I've played at about this level(ish) for a while but stopped graded after grade 5 (Due to circumstances at the time but they are not relevant here).

At this he smiled, shook his head slightly and said "You could do that now, but the thing is it would just be an exam. It wouldn't necessarily improve your playing..."

He went on to explain that people could be taught to "play the game" to pass exams but would have huge holes in their ability/musical knowledge etc. He also said that he thought the exam repertoire was so restrictive and he had lots of music he'd love to get me playing and that would do me a lot more good than exams. I think he's right and totally agree here.

As a mainly retired teacher I don't think he really wanted to go down the exam route and at present neither did I so we meshed really well on that one.

I think you are right to give exam stuff a break but just be aware that if you are doing music to get somewhere, e.g. music degree etc (not sure how old etc you are... ) sometimes it's the certificate that counts, whether that's right or wrong could be the subject of much debate in itself (but that's the stuff of another thread...)

I can't say that I rememeber taking grade 1 clarinet although I could have in the past? I only remember taking grade 2 (this was back in 1998) I stoped playing for years and picked up around grade 3 standard. I only play for fun now. Looking at pieces etc I won't take any exams in clarinet. With the violin my teqnique is important but I would also like to do exams. Ask your teacher about doing some pieces for fun to improve your teqnique rather than working on grades. You can take the grades when you feel you've improved.

I'm not really playing towards an exam on the violin at the moment, as I seem to have spent the entire time I've been playing learning to pass the next exam, rather than learning how to play the instrument. After failing the last exam I took (Grade 6), I decided it was time to learn to play the violin, rather than how to scrape through the exams. I have a different teacher now, and have been learning more technique etc. A "musical" diet of nothing but an exam syllabus is really not ideal. After all, we don't take our instruments up just so that we can have a qualification in jumping through hoops with them in front of someone!

I agree - I have certainly had that experience in the past; lots of hoop-jumping without really learning how to play. I think that ideally the exams should be a picture of overall ability, rather than an end in themselves and so I can't really see the point in doing every grade. There are lots of aspects to playing which are not really covered in the syllabus anyway.
However I have found that the pressure of the exam experience can be quite good for focusing practice, as well as giving confidence.
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Just reading my previous post and can't remember how to edit - I think I might have implied that anyone doing lots of exams can't play and I didn't mean that at all! Apologies for any potential offence taken by anyone, I was really just referring to my own experience.
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