Hi all. Been a while since I posted here, as an adult beginner, I got busy with my piano lessons as well as all those things in between (wife, kids, day job, etc.)

In any event, I got my candidate notification today (here in New York) that I am scheduled to take the piano exam (grade 1 practical) in a forthnight. AckZ! I was hoping it would be a bit later so I had mroe time to prepare, btu so be it. Procrastination is the thief of time....

My Pieces. I know my pieces, btu not perfectly, so I feel a bti nervous about this. Sometimes in my practice I play them as if I would earn distinction, others times I play them as if I might not pass. I'll continue to work at it and go through the wrinkles with my teacher, but wondering if anyone has any final wisdom with half a month to go for me?

Scales, arpeggios... I know those excellently. Still practice them every day, but I am not concerned at all.

Aural, Sight Reading, etc... I know these the *least* well and have spent the least time on there. I am trying to spend time working on random sight reading pieces from the ABRSM practice book... but it's slow going... and I hear that most candidated find this the hardest part of exam.

ANy final words of encouragement?

Thank you.

Cheers,
Ezra

Best of luck, Ezra! Which pieces have you chosen?

Hi Ezra - best wishes for the exam. Do remember that the aural tests don't make up much of the marking scheme, so do put your efforts into what you think you do well, ie the piano pieces themselves.

Hi, my top advice is to know where to place your hands for the beginning of each piece. Try to do that from memory. Good Luck

All best wishes Ezra

My recent Grade 8 piano candidate was convinced she was "no good" at aural and still got very embarrassed at the singing section. She actually received a very good mark for that section.

My advice was - go with what you hear, follow your instincts and NEVER say "I don't know". Give an answer even if you are not sure. It could be correct!

In the sight reading - DON'T STOP TO CORRECT A MISTAKE that you think you have made. You get more credit for continuing the beat (hopefully).

Check through the sightreading carefully. The examiner MAY give you a few seconds to try it out first before you play it for real.

I and a friend came to New York last year (first time across the Atlantic) and found, by chance, the COLONY sheet music store just off Time Square...........HEAVEN

GOOD LUCK - ENJOY - and let us know how you get on!

Focus on those pieces in the time that's left! There's a limit to how much you'll improve sight reading at this stage. Just do your best with it on the day. And don't be phased if you're in a waiting room full of confident kids; there are more adults than you might imagine doing exams - they just might not be there at the same time! Good luck!

Sitting in the waiting room is the worst part.

Good Luck Ezra. Try to keep calm, and imagine yourself playing your own piano in your home. Have a stab at the aural, you get marks for trying, and marks for attempting the sight reading, so do do it.
2 weeks is along time, so you will be better at your pieces by then. Keep practising, and keep calm.
Let us know.
Bev

You should get around half a minute to look through the sight-reading, and you are allowed to try it out in that time as well. Look for the hardest bits and give them a quick practice.

Which grade are you doing? Good luck!

Good luck Ezra.

You sound like you know your stuff pretty well.

Try to stay calm and just do your best.

I'm sure you are a lot better than you think.

Put most time into the areas where you are weakest. Do a random selection of scales etc each day (write them down, cut them out and shuffle them)

Don't worry about playing the pieces up to speed for a while. Spend a week or so playing DEAD SLOWLY and accurately with the correct fingering and by then they should be more secure. (Says she who doesn't take her own advice with piano; it worked very well with an organ exam earlier in the year though)

Good luck!

Here's my tips for what it's worth....!

Make sure you are practicing your scales/broken chords in a RANDOM order.

I would say to try to memorise your pieces if you can. Not necessarily play them from memory on the day - but the very act of memorising will help you to know your pieces at a deeper level.

As for sight-reading practice - at this level both hands stay in a 5 finger hand position so make sure you know which notes are under your fingers of each hand, which finger has a black note if there are any. Since the biggest interval you need to worry about is a 5th that limits the possible steps and skips you will encounter so try to think ahead regarding intervals and hence finger numbers.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Good luck Ezra,

Do you have a teacher ? Could she give you a 'mock' exam without commenting on your playing inbetween so that you get a feel for playing each piece in the order that you will play them on the day.

The good bit about the aural is that, by the time you get to that stage all your pieces have been played and you are nearly home and dry !

I found the exams go so quickly, so really try and stay calm, thinking of the music and not on how nervous you may be feeling (easier said then done !!)

Remember, the examiner is not someone nasty who wants you to fail, they want to be able to give you good marks!! Try not to focus on any problems too much, just concentrate and think about what you do well.

Relax, don't forget to breathe slowly and have fun.

Re sight reading, I'd say - play through a couple of egs from the ABRSM book each day; that way it's less of a shock in the exam. Before starting each one, count the beat SLOWLY a couple of times in your head so it really sticks in there (eg. ONE two three, ONE two three; or ONE two three four, ONE two three four) and play deliberately SLOWLY so you can keep going at the same pace. And check what the last note is in both hands - makes you feel a whole lot better if at least you finish in the right place!

Good luck,
PatC

With the sight reading go slowly, make sure you end on the right note and go up when the music goes up and down when the music goes down and don't worry if most of the notes are not actually right. If you stop and start and try to get every note right the rhythm will go completely and it wont sound like music. (Not that the sight reading pieces ever sound much like music)

Enjoy it! You're doing something which you love, you've made this much progress, and it's one opportunity to show someone else just how well you are doing. Examiners are not ogres; they want you to do well so they can give good marks and write nice things - and they will expect you to be nervous, nerves are normal!

GOOD LUCK EZRA and let us know how you get on

Hi Ezra

I have never done a piano exam, but when I participated in a student recital, I made sure I practiced on different piano's (e.g. in the library). So where ever you have access to a piano (a store, pretend you're a customer) if you have the courage, play one of your pieces. Playing on a piano with a totally different feel than you are used to, can be confusing. And I have read that you can ask to try the piano half a minute - 1 minute before your exam. Don't hesitate to use that opportunity, you can decide in advance what sections or scales you would like to try out before you start.

And don't forget gloves: if you get nervous your hands can go icy cold, and that would not help your performance.

Good luck!

hello Ezra.

I'm an adult beginner too - I'm taking grade two piano next month.

I don't think there's much I can add to the other posts regarding what to do before the day..... However, on the day make sure that you get to the centre early enough so that you have some time to warm up in the practice room beforehand. You do indeed get a minute or so at the beginning of your exam to get used to the piano in the exam room. If there's more than one then you can pick which one you feel more comfortable with.

try not to worry too much - grade 1 is over in 12 minutes at the very most. If you can just be calm and collected for those 12 minutes it will be fine :-)

I am doing mine soon too Ezra,

My advice is ask your teacher for a mock. Mine has experience marking gradings in the past, and I asked for one. I said mark as harshly as possible, and I got 133. The aurals seem scary, but I did best on them - it seems so hard but when you are doing it I have every confidence you will be fine. If you get one or two things wrong with it, it won't knock your mark down by half or anything, the marking is much fairer than that.

On sight reading, get your fingers in the right place. They won't have to move anywhere else on the piano as they are 5 finger sets on both bass and treble. In my mock, I played the first half right, then got the fingering wrong and accidentally ended up playing every note in the second half one note too high! I managed some of the dynamics, and I still got 16. Dynamics are important, so take note.

Which pieces did you pick? Dynamics are important with them. If they don't have many, add some, the examiners like you to. I added a few into African Dance. Makes it more interesting.

Focus on getting the rhythm right with the echo singing. Even if you don't hit the right notes, getting the rhythm right will get you points.

Get used to playing in front of people. This was the hardest thing for me, but find it surprisingly ok after a couple of times.

Ask someone to fire randomly the scales at you. Do G Major. D minor Harmonic. C Major. Chuck in the broken cords (did you say arpeggios as they aren't in the grade one over here now).

Most of all HAVE FUN with the piano. Play for enjoyment, remember that you enjoy playing. You have played the pieces and scales to distinction standard, so you KNOW you can do it! Just brush up a bit with the aurals and sight reading and I'm sure you'll be more than fine