I had my grade 6 piano exam today, and was quite nervous.
Two reasons:
1. I did not practice much for the past week due to school exams
2. A previous experience of stage fright where I completely stopped in the Middle of the piece.

Scales: misheard d major for d flat major. Realised it after I played, but it was too late. The diminished seventh I had to restart. Fingers just collapsed. Other than that, no mistakes.

Pieces: had to restart halfway through the first piece. It was going well at first but I got too caught up with staring at the keys that I forgot how to continue. Tried to sight read but Realised I was lost. The restart had no mistakes though. The examiner was quite sympathetic and told me to take a minute to calm down. Will the restart affect the marks by a a lot?
Second and third piece went well, no mistakes.

Sight reading: generally ok but slow in some places and one wrong note.

Aural: went well.

My teacher didn't know what to expect because she has never had a student restart a piece before. I was told a distinction is not possible, but I should get a pass. Can anyone comment on this? I tried my best to control my nerves, and it still went wrong. I don't think I will want to take an exam again. The results will take months to arrive, and I don't know what to do now.
I really enjoy playing the piano, but after the experience of stopping in the middle of a performance I took some months to recover and convinced myself it was just a one off incident. But now, it has happened again. Maybe I'm just not cut out for music? Feel like giving up altogether...

I have had multiple experiences with needing to restart in the middle of a piece during performance and it is utterly terrifying The worst thing is that, as you say, once it happens, you can't help but be fixated on the possibility that it will happen the next time you perform, which perversely makes it more likely that it will happen. I can't really comment on how it will affect your exam mark, but I will say that it has helped me immensely to not think about my playing when I perform, and instead to go on "autopilot" and listen passively rather than actively. I know others may disagree and suggest that this leads to bland performances, that you need to be actively listening and adjusting during a performance in order to play well, but this hasn't been true in my experience (based on others' assessments of my playing in addition to my own). Of course, this is only possible to do if you are very well-prepared (but not over-prepared/obsessive), but it's only to be expected that better preparation helps! Beyond this, definitely don't give up music and take things one performance at a time

I wouldn't worry too much.

I've certainly had a fair number of students have re-starts. Usually a lot earlier than half-way through though. Often just after the first line.
And it's true that Grade 6 may well be stricter about it than at ealrier grades.

But I remember one grade 4 student who re-started the piece twice and still passed it.

I'm not a teacher, nor a pianist. But from reading these forums a lot and seeing how other people's exams go, I would say this about restarting:
* Will it make a difference to your marks? Possibly yes.
* Will it make a catastrophic difference to your marks? Probably no.
So, unless you were playing to an only-just-going-to-pass-with-100-exactly standard, I doubt that stopping and re-starting would cause you to fail. The examiner clearly understood that you were nervous - and while they can only mark what they hear on the day, they do understand nerves and will be sympathetic.

I don't think you should give up music. I think you should carry on playing it and enjoying it! Maybe just do music for yourself for a while. Then perhaps at some point you might like to do a small performance - even to one person (perhaps even your teacher). Just perform one piece to one person, make it a short piece and reassure yourself you can perform without stopping. Then you can build up - a longer piece, perhaps, or a bigger audience (sympathetic family can be useful here - non-musical parents can be great as they may well adore everything you do [seriously, I'm 36, I could play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to my mother and she'd still think I was a genius!]) Rebuilding confidence takes a lot longer than losing it, but it is possible.

Thank you so much! I most certainly hope i can rebuild my confidence. I guess what caused it was great expectations. I got 142 for grade 4 2 years ago, not sure why but managed to not screw up the exam. Really hope to get over the nerves issue. Surprisingly, i don't get nervous at all when playing for my teacher, for family and friends, or even on the school piano. It's just formal occasions that this happens.

I know it's a different instrument..... but for my grade 8 clarinet my mouth suddenly decided that it had had enough halfway through my list A piece. I couldn't form the correct embouchure and had to stop. The steward came in and said he was going to fetch me a glass of water. After a few minutes we did the aural tests for a bit and then returned to the pieces. It still wasn't right and I could hear air escaping from the sides of my mouth all the time I was playing.

In the end I still got 128 so I agree with Maizie that it won't be a catastrophic effect on your marks. I was a bit upset at the time because it ruined my run of distinctions but now I'm happy with 128.

It's not the end of the world

I certainly hope so! I see you have got a string of achievements there. Phd in mathematics?!

I had a grade 5 pupil stop about 1/3 of the way into her first piece and the examiner let her restart and she passed quite well (not distinction, but a merit I think).

My daughter's scales fell apart spectacularly in grade 8 saxophone. The teacher was listening outside the door and had to walk away as they sounded so much worse than normal. At the end of the exam she was asked for one of the scales she had already mangled again, and played it perfectly. She got a distinction. I think examiners are able to tell if it is nerves or a lack of practice. I think it is quite common to play the wrong scale in the exam too, and the examiner is likely to either ask for it again, or ask for a similar one to see if it was deliberate avoidance. Probably 90% of the people they see are pretty nervous.

If you think about the marks scheme you can drop 19 marks and still get a distinction. Messing up a couple of scales might lose a couple of marks, and restarting a piece, maybe 3 or 4 if they were being harsh (assuming it was fine on the restart). All the scales played too slowly, hesitantly and with multiple errors will lose a lot of marks as they will sound unprepared. Unless you were a marginal pass to start with you will probably have done fine.

In case you haven't seen it, page 38 of These Music Exams gives a guide to the examiners' marking criteria. Hopefully reading through this table will reassure you that although you may have dropped a few marks for stopping, you will certainly have scored some marks for restarting, playing the whole piece through, and for playing it well. Incidentally, it takes real mental toughness to do that under exam conditions, so credit to you.

And of course, that's only one piece. From your account, all other sections of the exam went fine, so sit back and relax. The results tend to be through in a matter of weeks, not months, so you'll be put out of your misery sooner than you thought.

If you can score 142 at grade 4, then I certainly wouldn't say you aren't cut out for music. Please don't give up playing unless you stop enjoying it.

Thank you! This is really encouraging! It takes months because i live in Singapore, not UK, usually the results will come by june, i think. But that's a really long wait

Congrats on your Grade 4!

You've spotted the issue I think. I knew a child who went from a high distinction to a relatively modest mark in the next exam. Once that had happened, she ceased worrying because the next time she wasn't starting from such a high place - but she knew it was possible to get there and aimed to do it again one day.

In my experience examiners fully understand about stage fright, and that horrible sensation of having lost the plot entirely.

One of my students collapsed into inconsolable sobbing during a grade 6 exam and had to be mopped up by her mum. The examiner was totally supportive, suggested she sit in the waiting room for a while to regain her composure, and that she should come back later to try again. She did exactly that and gained a merit mark.

The cause of her distress was hearing another student, somewhat younger than she was, playing the same pieces brilliantly in the warm-up room.

Based on what you have said in your posting, I would suggest you have nothing to worry about.

Good luck.

Thing that happened to me: I went to sing the chorus of my last song for my Grade 7 exam, and then a bar or so in realised the accompanist was playing the verse again. I just jumped right into the correct bit. Passed with merit, and distinction level marks on all my pieces including that one.

Thing that happened to my student: Went to sing the second verse of her middle song and forgot the words. She and her accompanist stopped and restarted the verse, finishing the song. She too passed with merit and no comment on the slip.

Things that happened to professional actors: I saw the guy playing Emmett in Legally Blonde completely forget the words to an entire verse of one of his songs. He just carried on acting and came in on the chorus.

All of these are voice-related stories, but I always find it reassuring that the ABRSM give huge credit for professionalism, because even professionals have bad moments and forget what they're doing. What seems to matter most to them is that you deal with the situation maturely and sensibly, and do your best to play as well as you can. As far as I can tell, that is what you did, and everything else was fine, so you can be proud of yourself for coping so well!

As at least one signature reads, music is for life not just for exams. Don't give up music because of one slightly duff experience at a quite high level exam. On the other hand, it may be that you're just not cut out for music exams !

You have my complete sympathy, but like other posters, I really doubt that the effect on your marks will be as bad as you fear. I completely lost where I was halfway through one of my Grade 5 piano pieces earlier this month, and ground to a halt. I then floundered for what felt like forever (including briefly reading a bass clef F above the stave as if it were in treble clef and therefore a D ) before picking up the thread and continuing.

I still managed to get a distinction (just!), and the mark for the piece itself was 26, so the examiner must have made allowances for nerves and judged primarily on what I actually played, with a few marks off for the big pause in the middle!

Like you, I also have previously had a dreadful experience of "blanking out" in the middle of a public performance, which meant I was extremely wary of even trying the exam. Paradoxically, the fact that I managed to get through the exam despite a similar (though perhaps less severe) "blanking" experience this time has encouraged me to think that some day I may be able to play the piano in public without this kind of thing happening!

Good luck for your result, anyway.