It just seemed like everything went wrong, for no apparent reason. Couldn't play without squeaking. Couldn't do sightreading. Couldn't do the ##### "spot the difference test" in the aural even when my teacher gave me the hint that it was melodic and then played the relevant 2 bars several times over. I felt like such an idiot.



Not sure what to do, other than go and have a glass of wine and forget about it (which I am about to try).

Go and have a glass of wine and put it behind you - we all have bad days and just because your lesson didn't go well doesn't mean your exam won't. I have a piano exam in a couple of weeks and can feel the nerves building already - see my thread in Viva Piano! I think that we can often feel under more pressure in the lessons running up to the exam than we do in the exam itself, however understanding our teachers are! Do try not to dwell on it, although I know that can be easier said than done!

Sounds like normal pre exam nerves.
Try to put it behind you and don't overdo anything now.
Do you have another lesson before your exam?
If you do try to keep it as relaxed as possible...... I'm pretty sure that this is what your teacher will be aiming for if you do have another lesson.

Yes, I've got one more lesson to go (my teacher was talking about doing a "mock" exam ).

I'm really not sure where this all came from, because I wasn't feeling nervous before my lesson at all. In fact, I'd been pretty chilled about my pieces, to the point of mostly ignoring them apart from a quick run through now and again (with no problems).

I doubt I will have time to overdo anything (even if I wanted to), for various reasons to do with 'real' life and the day job! But I could have done without this just on the confidence front: I had to take a deep breath and pluck up a lot of courage before I agreed to go for the exam in the first place, so this wasn't what I needed.

Thanks for the advice and sympathy, though!

Isn't a bad dress rehearsal meant to mean a great performance?

Have a glass of wine and relax. You've got all the mistakes and things going wrong out of the way, so you'll be fab in your exam!

It sounds as if you're feeling the pressure building up towards the exam - and I've just been reading your posts to see which exam you're doing, and I see it's Grade 3, and that it's the first exam you've done for 25 years! No wonder you're squeaking in anticipation! From reading posts, I think most of us have probably experienced this, and I know I have. I couldn't even remember how to play A Minor before one of my clarinet exams and that was Grade 3 or 4, when I'd been playing it for the previous three years or so!

You know you can do it - you were playing your pieces nicely a few weeks ago, so have faith that you will play them nicely again when it matters. It's not as if you don't know them

As far as the "spot the difference" test goes, have another read through your Aural Tips thread and remind yourself of the tips you were given. There's a link to some tests as well.

Do you know about the booklet called These Music Exams published by the ABRSM? (link to a PDF at the bottom of this page) There's a section in there which shows you what marks each section carries, and what the examiner is looking for. You will get marks for making some attempt at the aural, which will go towards your overall mark even if you don't pass the aural section. And it's possible still to get a high merit if your pieces are good, even if your aural isn't - I know because I've done it so please don't worry too much about the aural. I've never been good at aural but it hasn't affected my mark too badly.

And anyway, isn't it a well-known "fact" that on the stage, if the dress rehearsal is a disaster, the first night is a triumph?

Edit: flobiano got there before me on the dress rehearsal front!

What a great sentiment!! I'm sure you might not believe it right now but it does have a basis in truth.

Relax, then sleep on it. Things always feel better (and more in perspective) in the morning But all the same

When my daughter first fell off her bike quite badly after learning to ride without stabilisers she was very upset and not sure about getting back on. I asked her how many times she'd done it perfectly without falling. Answer: Loads. Me: and how many times have you fallen off? Answer: Once! Me: There you are then so one time out of loads is not all that bad is it? To which I got a smile and a shake of the head. She got back on the bike and off she went not to fall off again.

Maybe you could try thinking in this way? It's a knock yes. Total failure? NO!!

Re the mock exam thing: If you'd rather not then tell your teacher how you feel. Hopefully she'll understand

Try ignoring music for a whole day - or even two. No scales, no listening out to things which might sound like an aural test, no pieces, nothing.
Then go back to it, and you'll find you're suddenly waaaay better again. It works .

And the very best of luck .

Been there. Many times.
Enjoy the wine and chill out and then go back in a while and remember why you're doing this and enjoy your music. You're only putting yourself in the position of being assessed in order to do just that - enjoy - even more, after the benefit of constructive criticism. We all make a b@lls up once in a while, so don't worry about others think, be they teachers or examiners; just have that glass or two of wine and don't make the b@lls up next time if you really want that constructive criticism!

Take a breather, and just keep at it! Very best of luck!

I like the riding the bike analogy, just because you've fallen off once or twice it does not mean failure, look at all the other times you have not fallen off.

our thoughts are with you and you will be alright at the end

hope you enjoyed the wine

I had a bad lesson yesterday as well and my grade 2 exam is next week. kept hitting the wrong notes and the more I tried to correct it the more it went wrong. I've been playing the pieces perfectly well for weeks now..... it was really frustrating.

I find that this sort of a lesson just before an exam is traditional for me better to get all the bad things out of the way now - that way everything will be fine on the day.

Completely agree with this. I remember back in the days when I did grade exams and occasionally even competitions, that everything would go to pieces in the last couple of weeks - however well I knew the pieces. I came to regard it almost as an essential step in the run-up to the final performance. Don't let it knock your confidence. And best of luck!

I'll chime in as my first post. I do recall some horrendous lessons close to exam time (I'm still doing grades...)

In fact my grade 5 piano was such a nightmare of nerves that I vowed to myself that no exam in the future was worth getting that uptight about. My view was that I would rather be relaxed and fail an exam, than be that uptight and stressed (I figured that at 39 years old I ought to know better!)

Since I am a school teacher I can offer the advice I would give to students (and really ought to have given to myself) - if you've done your work (scales, pieces etc) then it will probably be fine. Of course you can have a bad exam, but the examiner ought to be able to see past nerves to the underlying ability. So, if you have done the work then it would have to be a truly atrocious exam for you to not pass!

Good luck.

Hello Neil, what a good piece of advice on your first post!

Welcome to the forums (sorry for diverting the thread slightly). If you put a newbie post in the New members forum we can welcome you there.

Oops, forgive my forum faux pas! I have added a newbie message on the welcome board.

Regards
N

I'm glad it's not just me that has had this type of experience.

I am due to take Grade 2 piano this time next week and in my last lesson there were slips in scales and mistakes have just popped up from nowhere in one of my pieces and I am generally feeling not too happy with the looming exam.

Last weekend I tried to play my pieces in front of a family member and completely fell apart to the point I didn't have a clue how to play one of my pieces. This has given my confidence a huge knock and I just hope it will all gel together by this time next week.

I keep telling myself it's not the end of the world if I don't get a good result, but I am scared of just having a blank in the exam. Back in March when I did my Grade 1, as soon as I made a mistake my hands were shaking terribly and unfortuantely I don't feel I know these pieces quite as well as I knew the Grade 1 pieces. I am just hoping to divert disaster in the exam

Thanks to everybody for the sane advice; and, like JazzChicken, I'm really glad of the reassurance that it's not just me! Sometimes it can feel like everyone else in the world sails through these things and I'm the oddity quivering in the corner. (eg my son had his Grade 4 piano on Tuesday and was cool as the proverbial cucumber about it - he was even looking forward to it because he got the afternoon off school ).

I have to say I hadn't thought I was that nervous about it, but obviously my subconscious is a lot more uptight than I was previously aware. Anyway, I have other things to keep me busy in the interim, like trying to get a dentist's appointment (I managed to break a tooth yesterday evening - and before anyone asks, no, I wasn't trying to open the wine bottle with my teeth !!!).

As for the aurals - hey ho. Obviously I just have a blind (or should that be deaf?) spot with some of these. I was seriously wondering whether just to tell the examiner to skip the "spot the difference" test, since I'm just so pants at it, but I guess that would mean definitely getting 0 for it, rather than just being odds on likely to get 0, so I will probably grit my teeth (oops! maybe better not, actually ) and have a go.

Thanks again, all!

Yes, give it a go - even 1 is better than 0!

I know exactly how you feel saxophile. My last lesson before any piano exam was dreadful and I could just hear the disappointment in my teacher's voice. It was ghastly. But I went on and passed the dreaded exams. I think you need to give yourself a strong talking to, as you say, it's not worth getting too steamed up about. While the examiner is still scribing away, think about the next piece and take a couple of deep breaths before you start.

On the aural test front, do all the tests. My son must have made a real mess of his aural at grade 6 - I think he scored 11, but that did mean that he achieved a merit which he wouldn't have had if he'd just abandoned the aurals. Just guess!

Saxophile and Jazz Chicken,

Just try and do your best.

It's really hard not to get nervous and we all come out of exams thinking "Wish I'd done that better, or shouldn't have slipped up there", but we all make mistakes and the examiners have to take that into account.

Try and keep a cool head on the day - don't rush too much - the adrenaline will push you, so slow things down a touch and try and keep in control.

Also - (if you can) try and at least look as if you are enjoying it !!!!!

All the very best - good luck,

Kind Regards,

Nigel

Just try your best.

It was funny when I did my last exam. I was the only adult there and I was getting all nervous and scared, whereas all the kids were as cool as a cucumber, as if they didn't care. I felt more nervous for that exam than my university exams or going to job interviews! I think being adults, we are more critical of ourselves and we try too hard. My teacher always tells me to chill out, music meant to be fun. You'll be fine

Do the examiners actually take nerves into account, though? How can they?

I certainly find that this is not unusual - and it's normally followed by a good result.

Sol - the answer is not exactly - but I think what they can do is try to hear 'beyond the nerves' for evidence of careful preparation.

They can only mark what they hear on the day. But sometimes other qualities will shine through the nerves.

I think adults do tend to be more nervous than kids. One adult returnee who took a first exam (gr3) in late-ish-middle-age tells the story of how he commented to the examiner at the end of the exam that he hadn't known how he would react, since it was many years since he'd done any kind of exam - and the examiner replied that he was the first adult candidate that day (and it was late afternoon) who hadn't gone to pieces.

Hmmm... not entirely sure that that story is especially reassuring!

At present I am in a state of calm denial about the whole thing - practising pretty much anything other than my pieces (though I'm still doing scales as a warm-up), and generally acting like the exam won't happen. I was never a fan of last-minute revision for any kind of exam, and I don't think that anything I do now is likely to have much effect on the outcome, so I may as well chill as far as possible and remember that I play music in order to enjoy it!! My theory is that this is more likely to net a good performance on Saturday than stressing: since I have my last lesson tonight, we'll see whether my teacher agrees!

I think that's right - getting all stressed at this stage won't do anything for you.

Keep a cool head - don't worry about slips in the exam, we all make them, and above all be musical.

Good luck,

all the best,

Nigel

I think I agree with Saxophile - not especially reassuring!!

8 days to go until my Grade 5 flute. In between wondering why on earth I put myself through it, I try to remember that I took up flute FOR FUN, and to play an instrument that I didn't teach.

I have a feeling that your big day must now be imminent, so just wanted to wish you good luck - hope all goes very well!

Same from me!
Eat some bananas on the way!

I can sympathize with you. I think I get into such a state before an exam that I convince myself the last lesson before it will go badly, and then of course it does!

The last lesson before the LRSM my hands were trembling so badly that when I adjusted the piano seat I didn't lock it properly so when I sat down to play I promptly slid off. Very embarrassing, and If I tell you that was the best part of that lesson....... well you can guess the rest!

Just had the penultimate lesson before my exam. It was as if my ears had suddenly refused to participate in any way - intonation totally awful. I hope things improve or it will be a very bad 25 minutes for everyone! It's good to know I'm not the only one who gets a bit stressy.
N

(and to Dulciana)! Yes, exam is tomorrow morning (gulp!). I keep alternating between being dead calm and absolutely petrified! However, I'm looking forward to getting it over with, either way...

And good luck from me too....

The very best of luck to you saxophile

Best of luck!
N

Yikes, good luck!

One of the best pieces of advice I read was to realise that the examiner is *on your side*. They want you to do well, want to give you a good mark and they're not there to try and trip you up or catch you out. And also the advice to try and treat it as a performance rather than an exam - which I think means try and enable them to enjoy what you play rather than thinking of it as an ordeal to get through.

Look forward to hearing how you get on!

Well, I survived! Which in itself feels like an achievement. Some slip-ups in everything:

- muffed one scale and one arpeggio, but did them OK at a second attempt. Chromatic (which had been just horrible in the previous lesson) was fine - phew!

- Piece A was OK; piece B the climactic accented ff top D didn't quite come out right, but I kept going; similarly in my study the second to last note (fairly quiet and on the start of a diminuendo down to pp) failed to come out at all at first, so I ended up with more of a crescendo because I blew harder in panic ); but otherwise the pieces felt like they went well.

- sight-reading was funny (in retrospect): I played it through fine as a practice and then promptly fluffed a couple of bars when doing it for real. Kept going, however, which for me is good since I'm a dreadful one for going back to "fix" mistakes!

- the dreaded aurals: ahem! Tests 1 and 4 (clapping the pulse and listening with musicality or whatever it's called) were fine. My dodgy aural memory let me down fairly spectacularly in the other two tests: I think only one of the 3 echo singing phrases bore any real resemblance to what was played, at least as far as pitch was concerned, and in the spot the difference test I thought I'd got it first time through, asked for it again to be sure, and heard a different difference second time . Ended up just guessing, really.

However, I hope the pieces and scales / sightreading should be enough to compensate for the aurals, and frankly I'm a lot less bothered about doing badly on the aurals than on playing, since the playing is what I'm doing this for . (The aurals are just this bizarre hurdle which the ABRSM insist on having in their exams, and which has no relevance to real life .... )

Now I'm going to go and enjoy playing again....

Well done, for not just surviving but doing pretty well by the sound of it! Fingers crossed for the result

I have heard people naturally remember mistakes more than the good bits. My teacher says that just because you got a note wrong, it doesn't mean they mark harshly down. Think on how many notes you have to play through the entire exam - how low can they mark one wrong one lol.

Don't think thats particularly relevant to the original poster (well done, sounds like you did really well!) but for any first timers (including me!) starting to worry about exams it may be something to think about

Just to add to the thread, I just had a dreadful lesson. One week before exam lol. After twice as much practice through the week, easily worst lesson yet!

Hum I wish I'd asked if I could have tried my A Maj contrary again because I got one note wrong... I just cursed myself and left it, assuming that just trying it again would annoy the examiner. It'd be nice to see if we could get the AB's take on whether retries are allowed at the examiner's discretion.

I didn't think to ask for permission! I just stopped once I had mangled the first attempt and started again from the bottom of the scale. But then, at Grade 3 level maybe the examiner was just being kind by letting me do that. It's quite possible it will make no difference to the marking that I got it right second time, but it made me feel better at the time, which was a major plus as far as the rest of the exam went, especially since I started with my scales

Hrm my teacher hinted that I shouldn't keep restarting/retrying as it'll just irritate the examiner. Like I said before though, he did make me play quite a few scales so perhaps was sussing out if it was just a nervous slip.

I have been told not to carry on again from the start, as being able to recover from the worry and disruption of playing something wrong takes off less marks than having to start over.

I'd agree with that on pieces, and on sight-reading, and did exactly that in my exam. But when your fingers just get tangled up in a scale (which is what happened to me)? I find it pretty impossible to know where to pick it up from if I've gone wildly wrong in a scale, and it just felt neater to start over and do a proper rendition, without errors. Without doing that, I'm not sure how you can demonstrate to the examiner that actually, you do know that scale, and it was just a nervous slip.