Argh.. I have my practical on Tuesday and am really not feeling happy about it at all. The last month or two has been taken up by family issues with a few people being in hospital and I've not had time at all to practice much at all - I have two weeks off work but am pretty much in full-on stress mode as what was supposed to be "me" time is being chewed up by hospital visitsand other stuff

I have completely the wrong mindset and have been playing and practicing everything *but* my exam pieces and scales so am wondering whether it's even worth turning up at all... The only piece I am confident I should get close to full marks with is my C piece. The A piece is just a mess as I have subconsciously altered fingerings and the B piece has just fallen apart with the pedalling. I can no longer force myself to follow the sheet as I've gone through them so many times that the notes are ingrained into my memory.

I've booked extra lessons with my teacher but I can see that she is a bit frustrated with me (not her fault).

Has anyone had a similar experience, and if so, is 6 days enough to brush up my pieces and scales? I'm trying to do an hour or two's sight-reading practice a day but I seem to have gone backwards. 2 months ago I was reading quite difficult stuff, and now I can't even get through the Grade 3 examples cleanly.

I did a mock exam with my teacher and got 128 which is extremely poor compared to last time. My Aural is fine but my scales and pieces have fallen to bits. I can't help thinking that I would have been better off doing the exam months ago.

Any advice would really be appreciated. Practicing is fine, but the problem is how to practice effectively!

if you don't turn up, you can't possibly pass. what's wrong with 128?

128 would be a fantastic mark for most people at the best of times. 128 with life doing its best to get in the way is tremendous.
If you must compare yourself to others, remember the average score is 117 for exams - i.e. high pass. Merit or distinction are extras.
If you must compare this exam to your previous experience, remember that you are increasing the difficultly and life was kinder last time round as well.

I'd say go for it with your exam. There is nothing to lose by having a go! If it doesn't go as well as you hope, the world won't end, you won't have your 'piano playing licence' revoked, it'll just be an experience you had and went past and moved on. So you roll on to the next pieces, new scales, etc, with the hope that life won't be throwing you all this stuff the next time

This is the sentence that says to me you should go for it. 128 is a very good mark. You have had a lot thrown at you of late, and if you're still achieving that sort of score, I feel there's nothing to lose by going for it. Onwards and upwards!

Thanks, Maizie/Barry. I'm a bit nervous about the mark dropping quite low under the stress of exam conditions to be honest... I suppose I'll plug away but it's so annoying having worked so hard and then seeing things go backwards...

Yes, I wondered what 's wrong with 128!

My two candidates (ok, teenagers, not adults) did their mock exams last week and scored 110 and 111. I think they will pull up a bit in the intervening days, ( a little longer than you have) but in any case I am reasonably content with where they are at the moment. One of the two gained distinction in his last exam and was clearly disappointed with his mock - I think he'll be fine.

It sounds as though you possibly were ready to do your exam a few weeks ago, Solari. But I really wouldn't fret about that. it's almost impossible to get the timing 'just' right. Maybe it all worked in your favour first time round. I have a pupil who scored 145 (in another instrument, not with me) last session. I think that is a really hard act to follow and I hope he won't be disappointed if he doesn't match that again.

I sympathise with you over the stress surrounding hospitals and social services - no doubt very frustrating. Try playing your pieces slightly under speed over the next few days, building back up on Sunday and Monday.

I certainly would go and do the exam - you might look back and be surprised.

I was really sorry to read this - you usually sound so positive!

I have Grade 2 coming up in early December and I have every sympathy with you! I suffer appallingly from nerves, so my pieces really need to be absolutely spot on to compensate for this and I too am feeling the pressure!

My practise time is very limited and it is rare for me to be able to spend more than 30 mins at a time at the piano. I also play clarinet (of course you wouldn't know this from my username!!) and have to divide my time between the two instruments. To make maximum use of the time I have, I always have a clear idea of what I am going to work on. For months now, the exam stuff has been priority with the piano - scales and arpeggios first, followed by the exercises and finally the pieces. I've found that doing the 'work' first warms my fingers up nicely (particularly for the one with the octave stretches which was causing me real problems a few weeks ago!) and I then play them as well as I can. If I sit down to play watching the clock and charge straight into my pieces, I never play as well as I do with everything else out of the way first.

In other words, I have a routine and I find this approach works best for me. For me, it is not productive to sit and play the same piece over and over and I think it is possible to over practise a piece in this way. Have you tried starting the piece which you are less confident with in different places? This might be help you to follow the music again, rather than going onto auto pilot! Also, there is nothing wrong with just working on the bars which are causing problems, rather than going through the whole piece every time. I would follow the little and often principle - if you can get three or four thirty minutes stints in each day between now and the exam and work through everything in these sessions, hopefully you will be feeling a lot more confident by then!

Unless you are feeling extremely stressed out and unable to get through the exam at all, then I think you have absolutely nothing to lose! If you can get 128 marks playing under stress, then I think that is an achievement in itself! I read of a teacher locally (not piano) who says that he only enters students for exams when he feels that they are capable of achieving a merit. His reasoning is that if they are then having a good day on the day of the exam, they will get a distinction and if they are having a bad day, they will get a pass. If 128 is your 'bad day pass', then go for it!

You've paid for the exam. You might as well take it. Whatever the result, you'll learn something. In any case the excitement of the situation can make you excel yourself.

Pieces quite often seem to fall apart just before they are due to be performed!

6 days is plenty of time to repair pieces that you already know. Start by playing them through a few times very deliberately at a tempo that you can manage with complete accuracy while following the score. Take especial care to use exactly the fingering that comes most easily to mind (too late to rethink the whole fingering at this stage). Then home in on any sections that are insecure or musically unsatisfactory to analyse what is wrong and fix it by sectional practice and many repetitions.

128 is a great mark. Besides, all you need is a pass. In a few years time you'll be performing at a much higher standard and the marks for this exam will be irrelevant.

I think the issues with exams (especially for adult learners) are when we start an instrument we all aspire to obtain distinctions in our exams, however I think as time passes and we gain experience we realise that it is not everything. It is a piece of paper with a result of a performance at that particular time.

Solari, I know from hearing you play you are talented and I am sure that many people would agree, so if at the end of the day the result doesn't reflect this, then so what. I can understand that you want to do the best you can and it is very frustrating when you can play pieces to a certain level that are now not as good but that's almost par for the course I think. Its the stress/pressure of wanting to do well that's causing the problem!

Can you just leave the pieces alone for a day or 2? I know that hard but sometimes I find it helps.

Keep your chin up though... you CAN do it. Go in there and play for you, not the examiner, and enjoy it as I have seen when you played in London.

P.S. I know if I were in your position I would be exactly the same situation so this is the advice I would give to myself (even though I probably wouldn't take it on board ).

Right, Mr Solari. You have never seen Annoyed Floss. You are about to!!

You are good. Very good. I know you can do it. And I think, ultimately, you know you can do it too.

Life can be really cruel (and it always seems to happen to people who don't deserve it at all ) but go on - show it what you're made of.

Go Sol!

Your right Celeste. That will give him a kick up the bottom! I went for the more tactful approach

At times like this, my tact goes scooting out the nearest window

I was about to go (kindly) mental at you but see others have kicked you up the a$$ so I don't need to do that

The only person who sets such high standards for you is you.

Do the exam.

Remember, you cannot judge your talent on what one person thinks of your playing in a stressful ten minute slot. (Even if you've paid for the pleasure).

Oh yeah, and do what Mad Tom says

If you feel as if you're going backwards, I would say you need a break. It's happened to me before an exam, and I know from reading threads that it's happened to lots of others. I think I had a break of a few days, but maybe a couple of days would do it. I might be wrong but I think the worst thing you can do is to keep doing the same thing as you've been doing. If you can't bring yourself to take a break, then at least practise in a different way, like not attempting to play through your pieces but to concentrate on sections of them.

If your exam was a long way off, then I might play devil's advocate and suggest forgetting about it in order to take pressure off yourself as you seem to be under a lot of pressure already. But if you only have the next 6 days to get through, it seems a shame to give it up at this late stage. It sounds as if you were ready for it a while ago, and I'm sure you'll rise to the occasion when it calls.

Good luck Solari, and I hope the pressure reduces in other areas soon

Sol, go for it! To be honest I reckon your standard is well higher than Grade 3 so even feeling like you are I reckon there is no way that you will fail. I think that you are right though about having the pieces hanging around for months and then feeling like you can't play them anymore as this happened to me. I had planned to do my Grade 4 in the November and left it until the March. When it came to the exam the piece that I had worked less on got the best marks. My favourite piece which I felt was my master piece fell appart completely. However, thankfully I still passed, only just but it doesn't say my mark on the certificate, just that I have passed.

You have 6 days to work on things, I reckon that will be fine, just spend your time on the scales and work on the particular bars of the pieces that you are having problems with. Do it left hand and right hand and then both hands, play it really slow all the way through. Make yourself start from different places on the score, start from the end.

At the end of the day you will be fine, go for it and I think you will find yourself with a nice extra Christmas present with a lovely mark.

ET

Thanks, ET & all. I think I've cracked the problem with most of my scales, and I'm close to cracking the A piece now... this might sound weird but I played it with my Roland set to orchestral strings at first, and it sounds so nice and natural - it made it much less of a chore to go over as I was sick of it before. I've now rediscovered some affection for the piece! The notes are now pretty securely in my head so it's a matter of just making sure I get the dynamics right on the Piano now!

B piece has improved somewhat. I was being an idiot and see what my teacher was talking about now. I think that hopefully with 5 days left I should get the 3 of them to an acceptable standard (although I'm sure my teacher will still find room for improvement no matter what I do! )

You can probably tell I've been working hard as I've been conspicuous by my lack of posts on here!

I am *so* going out on the town large-style once this exam is out of the way.... Might have to down a keg of DOOOM BARRR!

Sending 'huge' good luck vibes your way

Go for it, we're all rooting for you

Well done Sol, sounds like you have got things back on to an even footing. I know what you mean about hitting the town etc, that is how I felt coming up to the A214 exam, however, I am still waiting to hit the town! Decided will definitely do that when I hear that I have passed - champagne I reckon! lol

ditto!!!
I'm sure you'll do well Sol!
And we can all have a celebration drink when you get your nice shiny certificate around Xmas time!!!!

I've discovered a new one this week....Tangle Foot. At the end of the evening my feet were certainly tangled

Badger Brewery - I think I mentioned that at the last playday - I had the same experience, it's as if someone's tied your shoelaces together after too many!

Oooooo, interesting website they have with some recipes. Think I will have a go at this this weekend.

http://www.tanglefoot.co.uk/recipes/meatycasserole.asp

Great... btw, Jo, where is this Lodnon of which you speak in your location tag? Does it take long to get to the piano playdays from there?

Oh, that is a GLORIOUS beer...

ooh - yes - Tanglefoot is lovely.

Hah, it started off as a typo one fine day way back when, but I decided it amused me (sad, I know) so I kept it.

Glad to hear you're getting back on track.

My Grade 3 on 5th December and I still haven't mastered my B piece yet but I've got my clari exam on 25th so that is taking presidence at the mo. I'm sure you'll do much better than you think you will. I had a mock clari exam tonight and was convinced that I'd just scraped a pass after a disastrous lesson on Monday but I got 121 (my teachers hubby is an examiner for the board) much to my delight (although I have had to have the week off work this week so much clari practice has been done ) It's amazing what you can do in a few short days.

I often get despondent just before my exams (although I've never had the problems you've had lately) and it always turns out OK in the end.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing about your wonderful result in a few weeks time

Lois

What I'd say to anybody at this stage is that it's damage limitations time. Look at where the most marks come from and maximise there. There's not going to be much you can do to significantly improve your sight reading at this stage, so leave that to chance. If your fingering is erratic, write in what you want to do and stick to what you've written - this can make for a huge improvement in consistency if you want to learn something quickly, or relearn something that you've allowed to slip. Practise keeping going in your scales, regardless of fingering, and play them at the minimum tempo required. Look ahead on the keyboard with arpeggios and keep them as slow as you can get away with too. Since I don't normally use AB I don't know exactly what you need to do for Aural tests at this level, but I do know that a little practice on one of those websites can make a huge difference.

Anybody above who knows you seems to think you're up to it - so don't forget that a musical performance can make up for quite a few duff notes! Just go for it, and then move on, whatever the result. Good luck!

Good luck for Tuesday, Sol! I think you'll do really well, but at the end of the day an exam is just a snapshot - you know the progress you've made already, and you've built a good foundation so you'll make lots more progress over the next few years. That's the important thing.

On a side note, I think the Study in F sounds much better at around c=144 rather than 104. If I got all the articulation and dynamics in, would I be likely to get a better mark, seeing as it is a "Study"?

Getting dynanmics and articulation in would get you better marks whatever it is.
Up to grade 5 just getting the notes and rhythm gets you a pass.

Just wanted to say...

GOOD LUCK!

You sound as though you have worked really hard, so I hope things go really well for you tomorrow!

Good luck Sol!
Try to get a good night's rest and all the very best for tomorrow!!!!

Good luck Sol!!!!!

Lesson tonight at 7.. I'm going to bed after that. Also, playing with cold hands = impossible.

Thanks, all!

Good luck tomorrow and afterwards, treat yourself to one of these

http://www.westcountryales.co.uk/WebRoot/S...71/3FBF/041.JPG

DOOM BAR!

Best of luck !

Good Luck Sol, I am sure that you will be fine. What time is your exam?

ET

Best of luck!!!!!! You'll be great

1:45pm which isn't that bad I suppose. My brain doesn't even start working until 10am and all my best playing is done in the evening...

I just made an Excel spreadsheet to demand random Scales and Arpeggios from me which seems to be working well. Forces me to do them without checking the book!

Probably quite a good time, do you have far to go? My friends 13 year old was doing her Grade 6 today, think she had 12.30pm. I hope that she has done well. My son heard her play as their lessons overlapped last week and he said that she was very good, so heres hoping.

ET

Good luck for tomorrow Solari.
Try to enjoy playing.

Hope you play to the standards you set yourself! Best of luck

Best of luck, Sol.

Hope all goes swimmingly for you tomorrow Sol

If it goes as well as my mock test tonight then I'll be pretty happy...

Positivity is good

I shall think of you at c. 1:45pm !

Ta - off to practice scales now

Don't stay up too late!

Best of luck tomorrow.