I have just taken on some piano teaching for my music service at a high school. My final pupil turned out to be a keyboard player, rather than pianist. She's working towards her Grade 3 (Trinity) which she said she wants to do at Christmas as she was meant to do it in the summer period but couldn't for some reason. I know nothing about keyboard playing as opposed to piano playing so I'm looking for some advice.

When she played her pieces to me I didn't consider them to be anywhere near ready for exam:
*She didn't know how to play some of the chords required in the left hand, and couldn't tell me if she was meant to play them fully herself or rely on the 1-finger chord function on the keyboard.
*She wasn't using proper hand shapes in her right hand to play the melody.
*She didn't know how to use split voices on the keyboard which one of the pieces asked for.
*She didn't realise she had to play her scales without the music, and had no idea what contrary motion was.

On top of this she told me she wasn't very confident in reading music and preferred to memorise things. Fair enough, I thought, until she said she wasn't happy reading her exam pieces (which she's been working on for a year). Also, she's never heard of aural or sightreading. I'm quite worried that she was told she was ready to take the exam last summer, and I tried to gently suggest we should wait and see how learning with me goes before deciding on doing the exam at Christmas. That, of course, didn't go down very well!

Sorry about the long post. Any information about these keyboard exams, or how you think her preparation sounds to you would be greatly appreciated!

Poor girl is WOEFULLY unprepared.

Although I am not fully conversant with Trinity, I have much experience with London College and with ICMA Keyboard exams - both as a teacher and and as an examiner.

Both London and Trinity will have comprehensive scale sections to their respective exams and will expect the same standards as ABRSM piano. You will find that the range of the scales will not be expected to extend the higher the grades are, obviously due to a full "keyboard" size being 5 octaves, same as the organ.

She most certainly will be expected to play chords fully and NOT NEVER EVER use one-finger chords (perish the thought )

All Keyboard examination boards expect the candidate to use the keyboard extensively within the grade and and least change voices/sounds according to the piece. London College has some very specific instructions on their expectations.

If she is as unprepared as you say, and probably through no fault of her own(?) then she's going to work jolly hard if she hope to do the exam before Christmas. I would (were I in your position) delay the exam until a later session as it seems she has no real understanding of the instrument itself.

ICMA, London and Trinity expect the same standards of performance and pieces should be chosen to reflect a contrast of style, rhythm and tone-colour, and this of course will display the students ability to perform just this.

London College publishes its own book which contain pieces composed and arranged specifically for their exams.

ICMA allows a freedom to choose from any publication/edition outside its published syllabus, as long as approval is given - well in advance of the exam of course!

Hope this is of some help

PM me if you have specific questions

diapason

I too enter pupils for LCM keyboard exams and I would second everything diapason has said. This poor girl doesn't even sound up to Grade 1 (or Step 1) let alone Grade 3.

I use fully fingered chords from the start with my pupils and even a step/ initial exam will expect fingered chords. If she can't even split the keyboard she has so far to go. My pupils by Grade 1 are putting in their own registration changes within a piece and by Grade 3 I would be expecting registration changes within a piece, octave shifts, use of fill- ins, endings, intros and some improvisations, at the very least. Things like secure, well shaped melody line, the music fitting exactly to the rhythm and fully fingered chords with proper fingering go without saying. What on earth has she been learning before coming to you? Someone has been selling her short, poor child.

Keyboard is not piano. It sounds almost as though she has been doing piano on a keyboard, which most definitely won't get you through a keyboard exam.

I don't have knowledge of Trinity, I'm afraid, but the standard required is going to be similar.

No disrespect to you at all, this has obviously been thrust upon you, but I think it would be very hard to come straight in to teaching Grade 3 keyboard if you have no previous knowledge, however good your piano background is. Would this girl swap to piano and use the high school pianos to practise on? It sounds as though you might both be on safer ground unless she is going to go right back to basics.

It might be worth pointing out to the music service to cover your own back that you are a piano teacher, not a keyboard teacher - they are not one and the same and unfortunately not everyone appreciates this.

I do hope it works out for you. I'd stand firm over the exam, though. Let us know what happens!

This pupil doesn't sound at all ready to me. If the pieces are not fluent and she doesn't know how to play the chords, then she is not ready. I'm sure the requirement is for fully fingered chords by then. You can download the syllabus, marking criteria etc from the Trinity website - www.trinitycollege.co.uk to get an idea of the requirements. For supporting tests you choose two out of aural, sight-reading, musical knowledge and improvisation. Dual voice is required from Grade 2, Voice change memory is required from Grade 3. She will need to know how to do this on her own keyboard - more specifically the one she would take to her exam. I often have to try to explain to pupils how to work out/look for buttons on their home keyboard for rhythms/accompaniments etc because the school instrument is generally not the same as theirs at home. Trinity require you to take your own keyboard to the exam - the pupil must know the keyboard they will take the exam on in order to set up for the pieces - voices/rhythms/tempo etc.

Good luck with this situation - no disrespect to you, I'm sure you could learn the requirements given some time and effort working on a keyboard suitable for the exam, but it sounds like she needs a keyboard teacher who is able to guide her through the mechanics of the keyboard facilities to understand/be able to use them according to requirements for the grade.

Does your music service have an experienced keyboard teacher who might be able to give you some help/support with this so that you can work with her towards the exam for next session rather than at Christmas. Does the school instrument you teach her on have the facilities required for G3 - the keyboard I have at school for teaching certainly doesn't but then none of the pupils have reached beyond Grade 2 in the time I've been there (just over a year).


Louise

I've done a lot of TG keyboard exams. Surprisingly, fully fingered chords are NOT compulsory for the pieces grades 1 to 5, but I personally would not let a student take even grade 1 with single fingered chords. The grade 3 syllabus in particular is really quite hard with some complex RH chord work, and some of my students find the pieces in the main book quite uninspiring.

You need to be sure that the student' keyboard up to the requirements of the exam. As others have said she will need to use registration memories (split voice is quite different by the way and not necessary at all in the early exams). Sometimes managing the keyboard and changing voices mid-piece is the most challenging part of the exam.

I wouldn't even think about Christmas - as others have said, you need to make sure you yourself are fully conversant with the syllabus and with the standard of keyboard required.

Do please pm me if you have further queries - as I said I'm very familiar with the syllabus.

Thanks for the replies, you have all confirmed my suspicions!

The other factor affecting this is her mother has said she's only willing to pay for lessons up until Christmas so she can get through the exam! I think some straight to the point conversations may be needed as the girl really had no idea how unprepared she is or what is required. I have no idea who was teaching her before but my music service has just taken over all the tuition in the school (it's not even in Salford...we're trying to take over the world! ).

I realise I'm not really qualified to be teaching her but as budget cuts have only just hit our service, it's either me or no one for now, so I will spend today doing as much reading about it as possible and analysing my keyboard. I'll get some copies of keyboard music as well. As soon as I saw her exam pieces I realised that this really wasn't anything like piano!

I was hoping her exam pieces would be out date so we'd have to abandon them and work on something else, but unfortunately not! I'm not really sure what she's been doing for the whole year if that's all she's been working on. I'm seeing her tomorrow morning so I'll let you know what happens...

Thanks again!

Don't do yourself down, you have made a good summary of her situation, and no one is criticising you! When it comes to exam driven results, I'm afraid after my experiences with parentzillas this year, from now on, they take the exam at my say so, tough if they don't like it.

I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to learn to teach keyboard and the requirements for the exam syllabus - at least for the lower grades to start with. If you can use the school keyboard to play around and experiment with (if you have time for that) or ask if the music service has one you can borrow temporarily, then this will help.


Louise

I've got a keyboard at home already, which I've been looking at in more detail... I only really use it as a piano normally. I've got to go to the music shop tomorrow anyway so I'll pick up a copy of the keyboard syllabus.

Go on you can do it, you know you can!

It might be worth picking up a couple of keybord tutor books for yourself, you'll pick it up really quickly as a pianist but it is often useful to have something to guide you - then some of the technical terms are not so daunting!

I'm really surprised TG don't want fully fingered chords (I've always done LCM), but it might make your life a bit easier with this girl if you do find yourself in the horrible situation of trying to get her through the exam. I often wonder if parents who push like this realise just how much is involved to pass.

I'm sure you'll do just fine - it's a bit of a shift in thinking for keyboard but great fun once you get to grips with it!

I know nothing about keyboard, but just to come from a perspective where I have been lulled into believing that all was required for an exam was to bash through the pieces I got a similar rude awakening as a child. I would print a copy of the syllabus out and take it to her to go through it together, can you do this? Did you know you need to do that? Which of these choices would you like to present? If you make a hit list of what she can manage and all the things that are missing to be able to do the exam then maybe it will scare her out of it. I don't mean that in a bad way, but if you are gentle with her, accept that someone has sadly misled her and reassure her how much you don't want her to be embarassed in the exam room she might conclude with you that she can't do it, rather than you imposing it upon her, which might not fit with her high school ego and her mum's pressure.

Well she had a lesson with me today.

Firstly, it turns out her keyboard isn't up to scratch for the exam.
She also has an odd mixture of how to play chords. Some she plays as full chords and some she plays as one-fingered which of course doesn't work when you mix them together. Her full chords were coming out as different chords to the ones she was expecting as she was playing them in 1-finger mode (whatever it's called!) on the keyboard!

At the end of the lesson, after I'd explained the other parts of the exam and what was required of her, she says to me "What does having grade 3 even mean? It's not important is it? It doesn't mean anything". She really didn't care if she was playing the same pieces for the next five years, let alone if she was taking the exam.
I have a feeling there is a pushy mother behind this girl!