I have noticed that one of DS instrumental teachers adds dynamics and pauses to his exam pieces. It sounds good but different to the CD. Is it possible to add to a piece in this way or to interpret it differently to the exam CD?

I believe that for grades 1-5 this is OK to do, but after this, for grades 6-8, I think it can be frowned upon.
Regards,
Wurlitzer

It's quite likely that the markings the teacher has added are aids to playing in a more musical way.
You are not expected to copy the CD. I'm not sure that most students or teachers will have listened to the CD anyway.
I would have though that at grade 6 - 8 more of your own interpretation is needed, not less.

Er... are you sure you don't mean exactly the opposite?

So is it bad G5 and below then? DS says the CD has a different interpretation to the music anyway!

It depends on what the piece is, to an extent. A piece by a modern composer may well have all the markings written into the score and the player would be expected to follow them to obtain the effect the composer wanted. A baroque piece is likely to have been written with minimal dynamics, articulation and ornamentation, and it is up to the player to supply these. The edition used in the exam book/on the CD may well be only one of a large number of valid interpretations.

Not necessarily bad, but depending on the context it might be risky. For example, I think it is more likely at younger grades that dramatic rubato in a tough section might be viewed as a sign of technical weakness rather than a musical choice, since more interpretative maturity is expected at the higher grades. But again, it depends on the extent and the context. I think a discussion similar to this came up on the piano board recently, if you want to check it out: http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=45936

EDIT: Also wanted to add that I don't think the "CD" interpretation is in any way definitive. I remember thinking that the CD performance of one of my grade 8 pieces was incredibly dry and boring, and my teacher agreed I played it my own way, which I HOPE was nothing like the CD, for the exam, and the examiner liked it just fine!

What about those of us who don't use the CDs ? I really don't know if the way my pupils play their pieces is anything like the CD or not.

Ditto to maggiemay...

ABRSM even say that the CD is just ONE way of interpreting the exam pieces...

I generally don't listen to the CD, and put in lots of extra markings in exam pieces of all grades for my pupils, but especially in the lower grades...because in the lower grades they need guidance on how to play "musically" whereas in the higher grades, the subtle crescendos/diminuendos usually come through understanding the piece rather than having every little thing marked in.

You beat me to it, I was just typing exactly the same thing. the one and only exam CD that I have states this very clearly in the sleeve notes.

I agree - I don't use the CD's and have never really had any pupils who've been that keen to listen to them. In the end, you must, at any level, present a musically convincing performance. At all levels, there is a degree of interpretation because in the end, we're all human - there's nothing worse than robotic performances! What is important is that you can justify your musical decisions through your performance. I would say that as you progress through to the higher grades, an individual performance is expected. This leads on to diploma level where for AB diplomas, you might have to justify such decisions in the viva.

I did a jazz version of Beethoven at grade 5 - which passed without comment. But at grade 7 my take on a Country and Western piece (mine was much more Romantic) was criticised as being "not at all in keeping with the implied style". But then I got the exact same comment on my sightreading ("not at all in keeping with the implied style") in the same exam and received almost full marks for it and so maybe the examiner didn't mark me down for producing an unexpected style after all. I'd have thought it would add interest. Surely it shows a degree of skill?

I never listen to the CDs either.

Yes but I think that as well as considering how YOU want to play a piece you also need to be aware of playing in the right style.

.

On the whole, I don't let DS listen to the CD's but I listen to them on my own so I know if he is playing it correctly as I cannot read the music. Occasionally he does listen but ususally after an argument about how fast he is playing. Does anyone else have this problem where their child plays every piece at break-neck speed? When he does listen to the CD though he realises that playing in a softer way generally sounds nicer than his foghorn mode!

Have you tried recording his performances? It's very difficult to hear what's wrong when you're playing; I use this technique a lot ('To hear ourselves as others hear us'), and as soon as I play back the recording, they can immediately hear what's at fault. If he is playing everything too fast all the time, then the teacher needs to know this and should be addressing it. If he plays things at the right speed in the lesson but too fast at home, then that sounds more like trying to get it out of the way quickly!

.

If B2 is Violaboy then his method seems to be working!

.

I seem to head off at a rate of knots when in lessons - even though I don't practice the thing at that speed at home (coz I totally can't play the thing at that speed either).

Having agreed that my first tempo was a "little" ambitious, I then did the exact same thing on the second page (which i haven't worked on much), realised in the first bar what I'd done, but had no rit markings or potential rubato options to rescue the situation, so kept going until the wheels fell off. Think the mental swearing at myself (in bar 2!) might have been visible, from the wry smile on my teacher's face.

Really need to work on (a) getting the piece faster anyway and (b) picking and sticking to a suitable tempo in the first place!

I used to listen to as many recordings as possible for any piece I was preparing for an exam (admittedly they are easier to find for higher grades). It can be illuminating. e.g.when your teacher has told you not to play an open string on the violin at a certain point in the music and then you discover that Maxim Vengerov does - followed by hastily backtracking teacher.

The CD is only intended as a guide and not intended to be taken literally.

I'm in the situation where there is no exam CD for my instrument. So for me, there's iTunes and Spotify, the latter better because it is free! Though recorder music isn't always the easiest to find many version of, for most of the stuff I play I can find at least one recording.
One of my exam pieces, I've got four different recordings of it, and they are all different. None are wrong, they are just different interpretations. And it is very interesting to hear the differences, decide if there is one you like better (or bits of different ones that you like, and can mash together, if they work together). Adding myself as a fifth recording is...well...illuminating

Remember the examiner isn't standing behind the instrument reading the music in the exam. The examiner is not going to be intimately familiar with every nuace of every piece on every syllabus. So small changes here and there, especially done musically, are likely to not even be noticed. One of my pieces has been written with some insane dynamics and ludicrous slurs - basically by a composer who didn't seem to be aware of the limitations of the recorder with respect to dynamics. So, we are paying some attention to these things, but only in so far as we can - some slurs are being broken because there's a necessity to breathe, some notes are not going to be pp because they are well above the stave and simply can't be quiet. But as gets pointed out to me, don't be afraid of doing this, because the examiner isn't reading the music as I play making sure I am note-perfect in absolutely every respect. No, he's across the other side of the room, listening for a musical performance, which is so much more than just the right notes in the right order

Oh dear, sorry tonedeafmum, I don't know what happened there! But DS's main purpose in live is also to play every piano piece as fast as he can. Somehow he thinks the faster, the better....sigh

I'd never considered dynamics on the recorder - eek!

I have a 'Play it fast and play it loud' pupil who is preparing for Grade 6- he is doing the Finzi prelude and in the lesson we listened to 4 different versions. He doesn't naturally get interpreting pieces- and it was interesting as when he listened to them, he could hear they were different and we had a discussion about which speed he liked best (he liked the slowest interestingly) and how they were different and how he wanted to interpret his performance.... and then he played the best he played....
Unfortunately by next week he was back to fast and loud.....I really should make him listen every week- but it takes up a lot of time!(he doesn't do it at home if I tell him to).

When I first had pupils take exams, to answer OP's question, I used to try to get them to play it like on the CD, but I found I got more positive comments if they/ we interpret the pieces ourselves. If there are very few dynamics, I get the pupil to experiment with adding some and we decide what sounds the best etc. I have never had an adverse comment about doing that. I have had pieces done at various tempos. Adding rubato at appropriate places to appropriate pieces goes down well with examiners- if it's musical....
Totally agree with Maizie- Spotify is great!

This is where I find the cds most useful - for parents! If a pupil has a long way to go with a week or so to go till an exam entry date and the parent thinks he/she is ready, I'll tell them to get the cd, and it either changes their mind about the 'readiness' or else encourages them to encourage at home, and the child just might then be ready after all! Once all concerned know how everything 'goes', though, we largely disregard the cd with regard to perfecting. In higher grades we listen to Youtube, and have fun criticising and picking out what we like about different performances.

Exactly!! I actually explain - in terms they can understand - that even at Grade 1 an authoritative performance is what is required. Play as you are convinced it ought to sound. Of cours as they go up through the grades elements of musical and historical knowledge play an increasingly important part but in the end what counts is that the music speaks to the listener.

I didn't mean the exact opposite actually. My piano teacher has always said to me that dynamics do not have to be followed extremely striclty up to grade 5 - that I could change dynamics in places where perhaps, they sounded better in a different way. I have been told that after grade 5, dynamics should be followed more closely, and other performances directions on the score should have more attention to paid to them etc. This is what I meant originally... sorry if it came accross differently.

It depends to some extent on whether they are the composers markings or editorial.
Attention to detail isn't something you suddenly add at later grades.

I was wondering how this discussion would pan out, and I agree with this last comment. In any grade, though, I think you'll get away with individual interpretation if it's tasteful and convincing. 'Tasteful' requires a little experience and education, but once that's in hand, 'convincing' is extremely important. If attention to detail is evident, and nothing seems left to chance, then a deliberate, specific deviation will work. I particularly held my breath recently when a pupil did his own thing with dynamics in Rachmaninov at Grade 8 (TG), but the mark for the piece was one mark short of full marks.

I'd say that 'attention to detail' is different to 'playing the page'. When I played Baroque piece in higher grade exams, examiners frequently commented on "appropriate choice of ornamentation", while adding that more attention to detail was required for trills. I always took this to mean that with my nervous tendancy to take off at 3000mph (or maybe that should be bpm? ) the trills tended to get rather "skoo wiff", that is, I would end up playing a slightly differently shaped ornament every time.

I guess this illustrates the difference between and informed (appropriate ornamentation in place) and authoritative (ornamentation sounds consistent/convincing) interpretation.