Finally I have a date for my Grade 8, yippee! And a time - a very, very accurate time. I start at 3 minutes past the hour and finish at 33 minutes past the hour.

So 18 months' hard work will be crammed into 30 minutes. If I play my pieces back to back (which I doubt I'll do on the day) they take up the best part of 20 minutes which won't allow much time for aural, scales and sight-reading. I've heard that examiners sometimes interrupt candidates' pieces to keep to schedule - how likely is this, particularly at the higher grades? I've worked really hard on the pieces, and am so excited to be able to share them - I will be gutted if I'm stopped before the end.

More concerning though is the thought that if I'm interrupted it will throw me and put me in the wrong frame of mind for the rest of the exam. I'm paying over 70 quid for the exam alone and have put so much of myself into it. I'm worried that the time constraints are going to spoil things.

It happens occasionally, and it indeed happened to me when I did my grade 8 clarinet many moons ago. But experience of entering many people for the higher grades seems to suggest that being stopped mid piece is the exception rather than the rule. But do be aware that the examiner may stop you.

I think that unless you are getting close to full marks, it's a horrible prospect that you may get stopped... I would feel genuinely aggrieved if I was given say, 25 marks for a piece that was stopped halfway through, as it would mean that the chance to redeem yourself through the remainder of the piece would have been denied.

The only time it happened to me was in my ALCM in 1963. I learnt a whole Beethoven Sonata and he stopped me after th Exposition and Development sections of the first movement . I got 17/20. I still don't know if I would have got more or less if I had played it all. But I passed , so wasn't too concerned really . (I was only 16)

I got stopped in my grade 6 clarinet exam while I was playing one of my pieces. I had never been told that they can stop you but my accompanist told me that it meant that the examiner had heard enough on that piece and that I'd done well. So since then I've always been under the impression that if they stop you it's because they think you've played very well.

Lucid

When I did my Grade 8 many moons ago you had to do a full Sonata plus 2 other pieces, the examiner had me play the first part of each movement of the sonata and the other 2 in full. I think it was a time thing though. It certainly wasn't because I'd done well, I just scraped a pass.

At the time I didn't mind being stopped but I think I would feel a bit aggrieved now! Thought it does say that they can do that.

I was stopped in my first piece in G8 bassoon a couple of years ago - I had started with scales and the first piece was quite long. I was surprised the examiner let me continue as far as he did but as at least 15 minutes of the exam had gone by this point, he said if he didn't stop me, we wouldn't fit everything else in! So I had 15 minutes for 2 more pieces plus the sight-reading and aural - it all fitted in the time.

I also remember being stopped occasionally in the higher grade piano exams in the 80's - my teacher specifically warned me that this might happen and not to be worried or put off by it. I don't remember being stopped in G8 piano in 2003 - I played the 1st movement of a Haydn sonata which could have been stopped at the recap.

All the best for the exam - don't allow yourself to worry about being stopped and you can choose what order you want to do things in. If some pieces are shorter, maybe play the short ones first which are less likely to be stopped and don't stress about the possibility of the last one being cut short. Even if your pieces are 20 minutes, 10 minutes for aural, sight-reading and scales is not that tight.

Louise

When I took grade 6 piano many years ago I played a Theme and Variations by Beethoven. The examiner interrupted me in the theme and every variation. As if that wasn't enough, he told me where to start in each variation, which was rarely at the beginning. I found the whole thing very disconcerting.

When I was accompanying a grade 7 exam one piece was really hard towards the end, but as it was really long I was hoping it would be stopped before we got there. I had a very low feeling as we got to the last page and it was clearly going to go on to the bitter end.

Sounds like a fair few people have been stopped then. David, that must have been horrible being stopped during two pieces! I think what I'm really worried about is that in all three pieces the end is either the climax or the most beautiful part of the piece. It wouldn't be doing them justice to stop prematurely. Besides which I could potentially rack up more marks if I finished them. I'm not aiming to just scrape a pass here!

I was hoping to be stopped before a tricky page turn in my grade 8 piano but it dion't happen.

Hmm. But you could also lose marks if you made a silly slip near the end or didn't quite pull the end off as well as earlier sections of the piece. Go in prepared for either, and then you're less likely to be thrown either by being stopped or by having to play to the end.

I did my Grade 8 piano in the days when you had to learn a full sonata - and was stopped mid-way through all 3 movements, but then told to pick it up half a page before the end!

My piano teacher told me that I would likely be stopped before the end of my Grade 8 Beethoven sonata way back in the late 80s.

I wasn't and this threw me - there was an awkward page turn that I'd banked on not having to do - triplets in one hand versus quavers in the other. However, it didn't affect my mark and I still got a merit despite deciding to take the exam at the same time as my A levels!

I think, as others have said, just be prepared for anything to happen. I remember (slightly off topic) having our aural tests in O Level stopped as they decided to cut the grass on the playing fields (right out side the music room) with the huge sit on mowers! It seemed to be the end of the world at the time and yet here I am, x years later, teaching violin and piano and loving it!

Good luck with your exam.

Catherine

I have just found this thread and read it with great interest because only yesterday in my last lesson before my Grade 6 flute, my teacher told me to be ready for the possibility of being stopped, perhaps in my first piece which lasts just over three and a half minutes. I must admit I too was a bit taken aback by this eventuality, on the grounds that I might start badly but overall pull it back. I found it difficult to admit to the inverse possibility for this piece, that is starting well and finishing badly.

I didn't discuss it much, but talking about it with my brother, he suggested that the examiner will have looked at all the pieces in advance and decided how far each needs to run to have covered all the tricky points. He also suggested that perhaps the examiner will only cut it short if he has definitely made his mind up as to how many marks he is going to give and that nothing more that he hears is going to change his mind. Practically speaking he can only really do this if he has a good mark in mind for what he has heard, or if you have completely wrecked so much of it that you will not be able to redeem yourself!

So I am going to be positive - if I get cut short I am going to be pleased!

THe thought of being stopped mid piece is awful. Why do they choose pieces that are too long for the exam in the first place??
Bev

The last bit makes sense to me. In the first case - starting badly then improving - I would imagine the examiner would carry on listening and not stop you. Because you are getting better, settling down, etc, so he'll keep on listening to the piece until you've clearly got to your level. So I don't think a bad start is the end of the world


As for them putting pieces that are too long on the syllabus...well, it probably depends on which combination of pieces you choose. A 3.5 minutes piece may be fine with shorter pieces, but if you pick the longest piece from each list then you may need to be cut short. Programme length isn't a consideration for instrumental grades; though singing grade exams do have a maximum time given (e.g. at Grade 1 the three pieces must total less than 4 minutes)