I noticed the above comment in another thread. Does the examiner actually stand over you then and watch your hands And if so why, if it doesn't affect the mark, as the above comment seems to imply?

In my experience they sit, listen and write and therefore barely look at what your hands are doing. In one case I actually had my back to the examiner and it was impossible for him to see my hands.

This probably refers to sight reading, so the student would have put their hands in the wrong place, then obliviously played all the wrong notes, reading the piece by shape.

They don't stand over you, and I've only ever had 1 dodgy fingering comment, that was in a Trinity exam for Bb major, the young girl always got her fingers in a pickle and crashed.

I did a flute exam once where the examiner came and stood close to me

Last year, I hadn't known what to expect, not having taken piano exams for decades. I feared that the examiner might loom over me watching every movement of my fingers, but the only time during my scales and pieces when I was aware of him was when, seated at his desk, he leaned to one side, once, presumably to see my pedalling.

Many years ago, in a guitar exam, the examiner was wandering around and knocked my music off the stand in the middle of one of my pieces. I managed to carry on (I wasn't really reading it) but he hurried to pick up the book - and in doing so, nearly knocked the guitar out of my hands...

W

I think Elvira was talking about a pupil playing in a five finger position and by "covering" she just meant which notes the fingers were above. In which case, you wouldn't have to look, you could hear the notes were wrong. It was also a prep-test where there is no mark.

Odd you should mention that as I have a guitar exam next week - with that same examiner who stood close to me (years ago) - I wonder if he's the same one you had. I've never know an examiner to wander about during the exam before (or since).

Now, should the examiner feel compelled to dance, in direct response to your playing, surely that would mean nothing but praise!

Mind how you go with that flamenco piece next week!

The only time I remember the examiner watching my hands is when I did my grade 7 or 8 and this involved playing the scales in thirds hands seperately. I think examiner was checking what fingering I was using.

We had one who did that - stood and looked out of the window, and, for one poor girl, stood between her and the accompanist so they couldn't see each other.

Why do they never cover such anomalous behaviour by examiners in these seminars on what to expect/do in examinations?

That's awful


But otherwise it sounds from what everybody has said as if the examiner doesn't look at your hands particularly which is a big relief - it's not that I'm worried about using the wrong fingering, I just thought it would add to the pressure to have someone standing over you...

I think the candidate in question was doing the Preparatory Test. That is how I understood that post. If that's the case the examiner may well have sat or stood close to the child to make it more lesson like and less like a formal exam. They don't get marks anyway, just comments int the Prep Test.

I once had an examiner who came out of the exam room and went into the waiting room to fetch the Prep Test candidates and led them by the hand into the exam room chatting to them as they went. I thought this a nice idea for these young children - only she forgot that as they were French and she chatted to them in English and they couldn't understand a word. The children, who are use to me sometimes forgetting in which language I am teaching, all thought it was very funny.

The examiner wouldn't have had to be watching the hands or even able to see them - the first exercise for the Prep test is in D minor position, he'd certainly have heard if the child played it all in, for instance, C major position.

In my experience, though, the examiners quite like to see the hands - they usually move the piano and their desk around to get the angle they want.

N.B. Aquarelle, I send all my candidates in with the little running slips of paper with their list of pieces in order and with 'FRENCH' or 'ENGLISH' written in big letters along the top - we've had quite a few mix-ups of language too, although, as you say, the kids are quite used to it, it doesn't bother them!