Hi,

I've been booked in for my grade three piano exam. It'll be around late November/Early December.

I've got my scales & arpeggios going along with sight reading.
The main issue is some of the timing in the pieces.

Especially Menuet In G, A1 is strange to me.

Has anyone who has done this exam/played the piece got any advice?

You can take your pick from the versions on Youtube.

I learned that piece too but then decided I preferred "the Month of Maying" to play in the exam.

I found the middle section of that menuet to be extremely stubborn, but got there in the end. I don't see how the timing is weird, there's no odd rhythms, really.. For some reason, A pieces always seem to be the most difficult for me to get on with!

It's a nice piece though and well worth learning. I think it's actually quite fiddly in places despite the apparent simplicity on the sheet (this sounds familiar).

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do great!

Difficult to say, without knowing a bit more - can you elaborate on where in particular you find the timing odd?

Make sure you keep a steady 1 2 3 , and lighten the 2 3 a bit at the ends of phrases.

Don't rush the triplets (this one's a classic - I inherited a student who'd already learnt this piece for grade 3, and we never did quite nail the triplets!) - if you rush them they very easily turn into a group of two semiquavers - quaver.

Hope this is at least partly useful.

If you struggle holding a steady rhythm, try slowing it down slightly and making sure you really focus on even rhythm. Then start to speed it up again, always keeping the rhythm up to standard.

I really didn't like the grade 3 pieces, so I have next years pieces for grade 3 and I am learning those. They click better with me

I've just found my that my exam is on the 25th of November, the last Thursday of this month.

That gives me plenty of time to get everything tidied up etc.

Also, has anyone heard of the examiner Mr William Thomson, I think his name is, if so, is he a nice guy or?

You are'nt allowed to discuss individual examiners on here.
They are'nt allowed to discuss you on here either so fair enough.

Don't think we're meant to mention names on the forum? Think I read that somewhere?

How much practice do you do each day/week?

Fair enough.

Each day I generally fit around half an hour in at school and then when I get home at least another hour, if not an hour and a half.

I practise each day! I can't go a day without playing, ha!

I warm up by playing over my scales and a few finger dexterity exercises. Then I'll look at a couple of sight-reading exercises and then get stuck in with the pieces.

My teacher says I have a good routine and just need to continue. He says I should get a decent grade.

Which other pieces are you doing Paul?

Im doing :
Now is the Month of Maying
Study in F
Quajira

Lol thats what I do - scales and exercises, then sight reading, then pieces. How is your sight reading? I went straight from grade 1 to 3 and saw a massive difference but starting to catch up now

My pieces are:-

A1 - Menuet In G
B1 - Petit Berger
C2 - Top Cat!

Yeah, I went from grade 1-3 also. It was quite a leap but I managed to get up to the standard fairly quickly. The sight reading's OK, just takes time to get used to!

They're all nice pieces. I think they would be my second choices! The only piece in the book that I don't particularly like is L'Elephant.

I took the exam June-July and my pieces were

Menuet in G
Study in F
Top Cat

It was my first exam, unfortunately there were 2 examiners in the room ( one examining the other )

Examiner had this to say about it.

Suitable temp, played confidentyly with emerging sense of dynamics. Then he went on,, saying it was foursquare (anyone able to help out what that means ?) ~ and a little uneven
I got 26/30 for it as same as the other pieces.

As we are here, topcat make sure to add lots of dynamic shaping, it was the comment I had against my piece.

Overall dont panic, when its over.. you wait for your results and commentary. Commentary gave me a big boost, when I didnt feel like playing !

4 square? Weird lol well to me 4 square translates to 4 by 4, so he might have meant he didn't pick up on it being a piece in 3/4?

I'm taking my exam next week and I'm doing the same pieces in lists A&B... I'm doing top cat in list C though. Couldn't quite get the hang of quajira..... I can play the notes fine but I don't think I can get into the style.

Re: now is the month of maying - I'm finding it very hard to keep a straight face during this piece because all I can imagine in my head are the lyrics that the two ronnies put to this tune when they were dressed up in pink dresses as part of a women's choir....video here

Thank you for a good laugh.
I might have to change pieces now...........

Ah yes - same goes for a whole group of previously fairly innocuous tunes!

The brass band sketch is the one that always does it for me (... 'prawn chop suey and a chicken fritter' to Entry of the Gladiators!).

And there is a tune in Oxford pieces book 1 (the Polar Bear) that was ruined for ever by Rambling Syd Rumpo and a load of double-entendre in Round the Horne - before your time, no doubt - but suffice it to say that it's very difficult to teach with a straight face.

So yes, I feel your pain!!

ahem (sorry - back on topic).

Best of luck with your grade 3 !

I did.........Now is the month of Maying, Petit Berger and Topcat last year.
Good Luck.

I did the Menuet, Study in F and Top Cat.

Hrm, might have a go through them again tonight, haven't played them for ages. I really liked the Study in F

I love Study in F.
I played it at The Brum Bash on Sunday. I was a little surprised (no, quite a lot surprised, I nearly fell off the stool) at the height of the music rest on the grand piano. So now Ive built a pile of boxes on top of my digital piano in an effort to hold my music at Grand-Piano-Height. (I will be taking my exam on a grand in about, errr.... two weeks.

Yep, I've made a similar sort of rest to keep my books higher up - I find it a nightmare in my lessons now that they are on a grand!

One week to go.
How come I can put expression and contrast into my playing at home but for my teacher I just clatter through with hundreds of mistakes and no discernable difference between pp and mf?

Because lessons always go appallingly before exams, then the exam goes fine

I hope that's true, because last night's lesson was a trial! My pieces were mere close approximations to the written score. On the other hand, the aural tests my teacher laid before me were a piece of cake, especially the singing bits!

So here I am, a middle aged man with 40 years' singing experience getting a little anxious over a grade 2 piano exam next week!

Yes, as a teacher I would say that has often been the case.

Your first sentence, stetenorve, I mean, not your second one !

Oh good. Maybe I'll be alright then.

Perhaps it's got something to do with the way a rubbish last lesson makes you work even harder.

Many thanks for the video - I've just forwarded it to my adult pupil who's playing this in her exam in a few weeks. A good giggle, especially for us Saturday-night-nostalgia players.

The Meneut is fine but my only pupil who played it got marked down for taking it too slowly (a fair ccomment and a strategic decision because when played faster she lost all control and it completely unravelled). The Clementi has always been a safe-ish choice as an alternative.

Petit Berger is lovely but quite a subjective piece, and the Study is very pretty too (difficult to balance the hands well). The Elephant has grown on me and it's not quite as straight-forward and 'banal' as it seems at first.

My pupils have always got good marks with Top Cat, more for bounce and fun, I think, than dynamic shaping. Quajira is great but needs good finger precision. Surprised no one's mentioned Tell You - it's a gorgeous piece - quite different but very rewarding - my 11 year-old loved playing it and though in many ways it's an 'adult' piece she made a very good stab at it (25 from recollection).

Before I decided to do the new 2011 pieces for grade 3 I had selected Tell you. I really do live it - a bit dull in the middle but all round it was one of the only pieces I actually liked in the book!

Very soon indeed now.......

I'm nervous already.

I know my scales and I can play my pieces but I still get random mistakes. I can play with more expression than a week ago but the more expression I put in the greater the chance of random mistakes.
Sight reading I can do but slowly.
Aural should be fine.

So nothing left to do now but get some sleep.

You'll do good I'm sure The stupid mistakes usually disappear in exams when the adrenaline is going

Well, I've done mine. Good luck to those whose exams are yet to happen.
The examiner was lovely. I only wish my playing had been!!

aw! it was probably better than you think. We tend to remember the things that went wrong, rather than all the things that went right. My two did their exams yesterday. Apparently one (who's done 2 exams before and plays really well) went to pieces somewhat and isn't happy. I'd like to bet it was better than she thinks - but have to admit I'm keeping fingers crossed a bit. Other pupil (grade 1) came tonight, and seems to think it wasn't too bad. 'I made a mistake in one scale'. Hmm - if that's all that went wrong love you did ok!

Ha, yes, it's always very difficult to remember exactly what happened when so much and so much emotion is crammed into a few minutes.
In my case I remember it was a very nice examiner and a very nice piano. The rest is a bit of a blur, thankfully. I was very nervous which spoilt it rather.

Now him outdoors is saying I should avoid exams if they make me nervous but I'm more inclined towards conquering the nerves rather than avoiding them.

Bet you did well Moo. Good luck.