I'm steeling myself for my first pupil failure in 5 years of exams, and am not sure how to approach it. The boy, grade 1 violin, stopped in two out of his three pieces, and asked to restart them - twice, on one piece. he's lovely, musical and conscientious - too conscientious, as he simply can't carry on if he makes a mistake, despite my pleas. i'm so sad for him, as it will really knock his confidence - not to mention that his mother is a good friend of mine, so i feel dreadfully guilty. fortunately it seems that results will come out after the end of term, so he won't be in the thick of result comparisons at school. but what shall i do? say, 'well, you so nearly passed - see how well you did even though you stopped in those pieces? imagine how well you would have done if you hadn't!' and so praise him for the marks that he has got, without mentioning the word 'failure'?

That sounds like a good approach - I like the idea of 'nearly passed' rather than 'failed' - it sounds so much more positive.

I think you can be honest and praise all the good things in his playing, and gently point out that the thing that held him back was the stopping, then say something positive about how you're going to help him with that over the next few months.

If Mum is a friend, then in some ways, it may make it easier - perhaps best to talk to her first while her son isn't around. You can tell her all the positives about his playing, and she probably won't be all that surprised at the result. He didn't fail because he is a rubbish player, or hasn't got the makings of a great violinist, but because he hasn't yet learned to cope with mistakes in performance.

Can you find him some more performance opportunities over the coming months - perhaps start with very low pressure like overlapping his lesson and playing to another pupil (they can do the same), then progressing to an informal concert and so on.

Yes, I agree with the above comments. It is bad luck that the exam situation, in a way, is not kind to some pupils.

You may find that in fact he DOES make it. I attended an exam workshop a couple of years ago, run by the chief examiner, and we had to pretend we were examiners ourselves and give marks and feedback on a video performance. It was very interesting indeed, and one comment that CE made stuck with me ... ' is there evidence of careful preparation? in that case the mark should be a pass.'

Since your pupil is conscientious and clearly has worked for his exam, you may find that is what shines through. And if he plays musically, despite the stops - this will be appreciated too. Yes, marks will be lost of course through the restarts - but don't assume at this stage that he didn't quite pass.

I agree with Maggiemay - you might well find your pupil has passed after all. I have a student with the same problem and he stopped completely in one piece and had to pick it up at the beginning of the next section. He still passed the piece (as MM says, he was well prepared and I think that showed) and got an easy merit for the overall exam.

However I think the problem of not being able to carry on if he makes a mistake needs to be tackled if the boy is to become a good musician. The fact is, as students go up the grades, it's highly unlikely that they will play pieces without mistakes - therefore they need to learn to cope with errors. Try to discourage constant playing through from beginning to end. Encourage him to break the piece into chunks and work a bit at a time. Identify suitable 'starting points' within the piece he can go to if he 'seizes up' mentally. You can also point to random places within the score and get him to start from that point. That's just a few things but I'm sure others here will have different strategies for working through this.

Yes, also agree with maggiemay. One of my grade one (piano) students took fright half way through the first piece and fled from the room! After a lot of coaxing and reassurance, he was allowed to go back in at the end of the group. This gave him twenty minutes to get his nerves back together.

He went back in, settled himself down, and despite having to start the second piece again, he still passed. This was because he was extremely musical and knew his pieces inside out. It was purely the exam situation that got the best of him. He's preparing for grade four now, so luckily it didn't do any harm!

Agree with LizzieT too. I teach my students to start from any random place in the score to prepare for any slips. They can then carry on from the next bar. I do this for all pieces, not just for exams. I had one student in particular who insisted on starting again if she made a mistake just a few bars from the end!

Hopefully your student will pass despite the setbacks.

Hope you don't mind me dropping in here. Very interested to see the comment above. Although I'm a teacher (not music!) and can deal with the written exam experience I'm a very nervous performer despite many hours preparation. I was convinced I had failed my G3 piano exam earlier this year but somehow passed (despite restarts etc). It is comforting and also encouraging to know that examiners do look for evidence of preparation as there are clearly many students, young and not so young, who find the exam experience difficult, indeed traumatic.
Best wishes to vimski's young student - do hope he passes .

I wouldn't assume that he has failed, you can fail ALL the pieces and still pass if your supporting test marks are high enough. Even if he has a fail grade on the one piece he could well pass. Examiners tend to ignore false starts as much as possible.

Either way, it will definitely be something to work on for the future. I think this is where pianists have it a bit harder as they so rarely play in ensemble compared to other instrumentalists and singers. You cannot play in orchestra and be obsessive about restarting from the beginning, you have to ignore the bar you just messed up and plough forward because everyone else has carried on without you. The conductor will then make you restart wherever it is convenient for what needs to be achieved, so if it's a violin entry then the violas have to pick up mid-phrase. You get so very used to doing that in orchestra that you don't realise it's even a skill. I think you might have to just push him to keep going, whether by duetting or by making him play through pieces and yelling (encouragingly!!) to keep going if he makes a mistake and stops.

thank you for all your very helpful replies. i think the chunk bit is particularly useful, as it may make a piece seem less like a mountain to climb. he does get incredibly anxious about performing, so i will also make sure he has more audience exposure. thank you!

Doh, reading this late last night, I didn't realise you hadn't had the result yet!!

Have you thought about videoing this pupil during his lessons to get him used to the idea of being watched. Also LCM do exams where you send in a DVD of the pupil playing their pieces only which have to be taped in one run through. Perhaps this could be an option as preparation for the real exam environment. Hopefully though the result will be more positive than you think and these options won't be necessary.

I too have had a candidate like this. It was an adult taking Grade 1 violin. She was perfectly well prepared although apt to have intonation issues under pressure. However, in the exam situation her nerves completely got the better of her and she stopped twice in her first piece - the examiner suggested she start again at the first stop. She then stopped once in the second piece.

I think after that she assumed that she had failed because she then adopted the "let's just get it over with" attitude and plowed through everything else. The examiner was exceedingly kind to her with some lovely comments and some decent marks for her supporting tests which meant that she scraped through with 105.

So, don't assume that he has failed just because he stopped, you might be pleasantly surprised by the examiners attitude towards this.

Cheers

Catherine

We all feel bad when our pupils fail, but it's not the end of the world if they do -- I have known a couple who failed a grade, then picked themselves up and went on to become good players. Conversely, some get a distinction and then give up. That makes me feel much worse !

really good idea! i could use it to point out the good elements of his playing, while also revealing to him how frustrating it is to watch someone stop all the time. thank you.

I should have posted this earlier, but, having clung onto your words and hoped for the best... I was shocked and thrilled that the boy did pass!
\ I'm putting into practice all the suggestions I received over that thread, so that the problems this time will be overcome. thank you again.

Excellent! your news has brightened my morning. Congratulations to you and your pupil.

Thanks for coming back and telling us the outcome

Yes, well done. Often we fear the worst but the examiner may well hear lots of good things that outweigh the nervousness and the restarts. My advice also would be to make quite surre that at the next grade the supporting tests and scales are very well known. That can boost marks if there is are moments of weakness the pieces.