Another pianist -
It isn't really too hard to understand. The average student does a grade a year and it follows that someone who does twice as much practice can do two grades a year. It is all a question of practice.
Take me for example. I actually failed grade seven piano five times. On one occasion I got full marks on scales aurals and viva (this was a Trinity exam) and STILL failed. You see, I'd managed grades 5 and 6 by doing just a couple of weeks real work (no teacher), when the date came through, and scraped through both. You can't do that for grade 7 (well, I can't anyway!). Recently, finding time hanging heavy on my hands, I decided to start practicing again and have been able to average an hour a day of really focussed practice. I have only attempted one of the grade seven pieces so far but in less than two weeks I have got that piece up to the level my pieces were up to when I took the exam before. There's no magic involved,not at grades level anyway, it's just a matter of doing the work.
Liz
Full Version: Yah! Just Completed My Piano Exam!
QUOTE(elidatrading @ Jun 7 2005, 07:17 AM)
Another pianist -
It isn't really too hard to understand. The average student does a grade a year and it follows that someone who does twice as much practice can do two grades a year. It is all a question of practice.
Liz
It isn't really too hard to understand. The average student does a grade a year and it follows that someone who does twice as much practice can do two grades a year. It is all a question of practice.
Liz
Well I have to disagree...that me for example, I do practise as much on the violin as well but my violin skills are too bad....>< Actually my grade6 violin exam is coming up next Tuesday.....I don't think I can even pass it....><
QUOTE(elidatrading @ Jun 7 2005, 08:17 AM)
Another pianist -
It isn't really too hard to understand. The average student does a grade a year and it follows that someone who does twice as much practice can do two grades a year. It is all a question of practice.
It isn't really too hard to understand. The average student does a grade a year and it follows that someone who does twice as much practice can do two grades a year. It is all a question of practice.
I'm not entirely convinced by that though: I'm of the thinking that if someone does twice as much practice instead of going through the grades more quickly they will expolore a lot more repertoire and play what they do play to a far higher standard. After all the last 10% of the work on a piece takes about 90% of the time; but I'd suspect that one can pass an exam having only done the first 10% of the work on a piece. Those who practise more and/or are more talented are probably the only people that will do that 90% of work. It's also true that the average student gets 114 for their exam, but the talented, hard-working student will probably want more than this and indeed will need to be better than this if they want a career in music. Therefore each student has to put an amount of practise in to the piece depending on how good they want it to be: someone doing twice as much practise is probably dedicated enough to realise that actually putting twice as much effort into one piece does have benifit, rather than steaming ahead.
I don't dispute that it's possible to do grades in a short length of time but that if one is putting all of one's practise energy into going forwards and not sideways one is likely to end up struggling at a later date due to a weak foundation. If one wants to be good to a certain extent one has to direct some of one's time that would be spent just moving onto the next exam or the next piece or whatever getting less obvious gain but more long term technique benefits. I'd expect that someone doing twice as much practise but still doing one exam per year would be a lot better in the long run than the same person doing two exams a year with the same amount of practise.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Don't worry: saying that you were overambitios is not showing off, indeed it could even be classed as modesty. So basically you're saying you spent 1 year learning various 'too hard' pieces; then one year on your exam pieces (for both grades?) then one year mostly working on your scales and sightreading. I have one more question for you then: do you feel that you have missed anything by missing out the earlier learning stages?
Incidentally, in case you're wondering why I'm asking, I usually say to people all of the time that rushing through grades is unadvisable etc. and I wanted to hear the other side of the story from someone who has done it to take a fair opinion of it. I was quite suprised that you said that you didn't struggle at all with sightreadting, for example, because that's something that needs a lot of experience I guess you must have just done a lot of practise on it this year, I suppose you did dedicate a whole year to the other parts of the exam.
Good luck with your piano playing and I hope that you can begin to enjoy yourself again now without the pressure of exams after the trouble that you had with grade 7.
Don't worry: saying that you were overambitios is not showing off, indeed it could even be classed as modesty. So basically you're saying you spent 1 year learning various 'too hard' pieces; then one year on your exam pieces (for both grades?) then one year mostly working on your scales and sightreading. I have one more question for you then: do you feel that you have missed anything by missing out the earlier learning stages?
Incidentally, in case you're wondering why I'm asking, I usually say to people all of the time that rushing through grades is unadvisable etc. and I wanted to hear the other side of the story from someone who has done it to take a fair opinion of it. I was quite suprised that you said that you didn't struggle at all with sightreadting, for example, because that's something that needs a lot of experience I guess you must have just done a lot of practise on it this year, I suppose you did dedicate a whole year to the other parts of the exam.
Good luck with your piano playing and I hope that you can begin to enjoy yourself again now without the pressure of exams after the trouble that you had with grade 7.
I agree with the last bit of what AnotherPianist just said especially the point, I suppose, that music is about so much more than exams and you should be able to enjoy it without having to worry about such things. 
pianist 1210- out of interest what were your mark breakdowns the 1st time you did grade 7 and the 2nd time you did it?
QUOTE(pianist_1210 @ Jun 7 2005, 07:34 AM)
Well I have to disagree...that me for example, I do practise as much on the violin as well but my violin skills are too bad....>< Actually my grade6 violin exam is coming up next Tuesday.....I don't think I can even pass it....
Yes but violin is harder than piano
Liz (ducking and running for cover!)
QUOTE(elidatrading @ Jun 8 2005, 08:58 AM)
QUOTE(pianist_1210 @ Jun 7 2005, 07:34 AM)
Well I have to disagree...that me for example, I do practise as much on the violin as well but my violin skills are too bad....>< Actually my grade6 violin exam is coming up next Tuesday.....I don't think I can even pass it....
Yes but violin is harder than piano
Liz (ducking and running for cover!)
I do think that there is some truth in what you say there, I think for someone like Pianist_1210 who likes to move quickly it is true. I think violin (I've played little more than twinkle twinkle little star so this is an expert opinion
) is a lot more about techniques, discipline and learning to play the instrument really laying excellent foundations; whereas piano, although it has this aspect too, has it's difficulties as a learning pieces instrument i.e. working on co-ordinating complex note sequences with both hands rather than working hard on the basic techniques of playing the instrument to get the notes out of it. That is to say that violin is more of a hard worker's instrument in terms of technique and piano is more of an instrument for those who like a big intellectual and coordination challenge in each piece. Perhaps the best way to put it is that the violin is a harder instrument to learn to play; but the pieces on piano are harder to compensate.Disclaimer: I don't mean to imply that either instrument is easy; just that the major challenges in each are different (I'm sure there are violin pieces that require a great amount of finger co-ordination and likewise I know that piano playing at it's best does require good technique!).
I agree with you there, AnotherPianist. This was exactly the point I was trying to make with my reply to the Grade 1 post, and it applies just as much to flute as to violin.
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Jun 8 2005, 01:50 PM)
I agree with you there, AnotherPianist. This was exactly the point I was trying to make with my reply to the Grade 1 post, and it applies just as much to flute as to violin.
Actually thinking about it further it reminds me of a comment by Cheeble a while ago about grade 8 singing along the lines of 'you can do grade 8 singing without really having any technique'; I suspect the same is true on piano too really (not if one wants to be a good player, but certainly doing the exam; I suspect that if one wants to be a good singer though one would have to have technique by grade 8...), but I don't think that anyone would ever manage grade 8 on violin or flute without quite a lot of technique!
You can scrape a pass at the higher grades with a marginal technique, but merits and distinctions are harder to come by.
Acquiring flute technique is a bit like crossing the Alps - as soon as you've breasted one peak there's a larger mountain on the horizon.
Acquiring flute technique is a bit like crossing the Alps - as soon as you've breasted one peak there's a larger mountain on the horizon.
QUOTE(AnotherPianist @ Jun 7 2005, 12:10 PM)
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Don't worry: saying that you were overambitios is not showing off, indeed it could even be classed as modesty. So basically you're saying you spent 1 year learning various 'too hard' pieces; then one year on your exam pieces (for both grades?) then one year mostly working on your scales and sightreading. I have one more question for you then: do you feel that you have missed anything by missing out the earlier learning stages?
Incidentally, in case you're wondering why I'm asking, I usually say to people all of the time that rushing through grades is unadvisable etc. and I wanted to hear the other side of the story from someone who has done it to take a fair opinion of it. I was quite suprised that you said that you didn't struggle at all with sightreadting, for example, because that's something that needs a lot of experience I guess you must have just done a lot of practise on it this year, I suppose you did dedicate a whole year to the other parts of the exam.
Good luck with your piano playing and I hope that you can begin to enjoy yourself again now without the pressure of exams after the trouble that you had with grade 7.
Don't worry: saying that you were overambitios is not showing off, indeed it could even be classed as modesty. So basically you're saying you spent 1 year learning various 'too hard' pieces; then one year on your exam pieces (for both grades?) then one year mostly working on your scales and sightreading. I have one more question for you then: do you feel that you have missed anything by missing out the earlier learning stages?
Incidentally, in case you're wondering why I'm asking, I usually say to people all of the time that rushing through grades is unadvisable etc. and I wanted to hear the other side of the story from someone who has done it to take a fair opinion of it. I was quite suprised that you said that you didn't struggle at all with sightreadting, for example, because that's something that needs a lot of experience I guess you must have just done a lot of practise on it this year, I suppose you did dedicate a whole year to the other parts of the exam.
Good luck with your piano playing and I hope that you can begin to enjoy yourself again now without the pressure of exams after the trouble that you had with grade 7.
Thanks for reading the story of my life...
Yes, I think if I have taken the exams later, my technique would improve more.
Although I have pass G8 with d. I think I 'm still need more techniques on the piano...ie. fingerings in baroque....more dynamic contrast in romantic....etc.
"Things always will be better if done with care and time", I agree.
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Jun 8 2005, 02:42 PM)
Acquiring flute technique is a bit like crossing the Alps - as soon as you've breasted one peak there's a larger mountain on the horizon.
Hmmm yes same with violin. You pass one grade and think you can do it, and then the next grade throws up a load more challenges. There is just SO MUCH to it.
I think there will always be something new to master.
QUOTE(janexxx @ Jun 9 2005, 06:01 AM)
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Jun 8 2005, 02:42 PM)
Acquiring flute technique is a bit like crossing the Alps - as soon as you've breasted one peak there's a larger mountain on the horizon.
Hmmm yes same with violin. You pass one grade and think you can do it, and then the next grade throws up a load more challenges. There is just SO MUCH to it.
I think there will always be something new to master.
Hm... couldn't agree anymore!! Yes indeed!! I start doing G4 for the violin, I found it easy but now I'm finding my G6 difficult!! Much more technique needed to achieve at a higher grade....correct indeed...correct indeed...
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Jun 8 2005, 02:42 PM)
Acquiring flute technique is a bit like crossing the Alps - as soon as you've breasted one peak there's a larger mountain on the horizon.
That sums it up so neatly. I feel really cross when friends who are pianists make statements like " how can it possibly be as difficult as playing the piano- you're only playing 1 note at a time". I've given up trying to explain..
QUOTE(Andy-piano-flute @ Jun 9 2005, 11:00 AM)
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Jun 8 2005, 02:42 PM)
Acquiring flute technique is a bit like crossing the Alps - as soon as you've breasted one peak there's a larger mountain on the horizon.
That sums it up so neatly. I feel really cross when friends who are pianists make statements like " how can it possibly be as difficult as playing the piano- you're only playing 1 note at a time". I've given up trying to explain..
Just get them to try and produce one note on the flute. Anyone can play one note on the piano!
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Jun 9 2005, 11:06 AM)
Just get them to try and produce one note on the flute. Anyone can play one note on the piano!
Is it that they don't really listen to that one note- is it in tune & focused for starters - they play a note on the piano & there is no more thought to it than that. Most people realise that playing a stringed instrument in tune is difficult but very few seem to realise that you have to learn how to play a flute in tune & fingering a note correctly doesn't automatically make the right sort of note come out.
QUOTE(Andy-piano-flute @ Jun 9 2005, 10:35 AM)
QUOTE(andante_in_c @ Jun 9 2005, 11:06 AM)
Just get them to try and produce one note on the flute. Anyone can play one note on the piano!
Is it that they don't really listen to that one note- is it in tune & focused for starters - they play a note on the piano & there is no more thought to it than that. Most people realise that playing a stringed instrument in tune is difficult but very few seem to realise that you have to learn how to play a flute in tune & fingering a note correctly doesn't automatically make the right sort of note come out.
Yeah, I learnt the flute as well but had given up on it...it's always hard to remember all the fingerings for the flute...
And also it get's really crazy if you get to the top few notes... 
Yes, people reckon playing a flute is one of the easier instruments but it isn't really! Although the piano is hard to play in the sense of using 2 hands and pedal etc, it is really hard to consistantly produce a good quality, "fat" sound on all the notes on a flute.
QUOTE(pianist_1210 @ Jun 7 2005, 01:23 PM)
1.Yes, piano is my first and also my most be-loved instrument. I do not found sight-reading difficult, overall I seem to get about 18~19 for sight reading.
2.Me, myself was a over-ambitious person.( excuse me but I'm really not showing-off okay?? IT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!) I started play Beethoven's fur elise after 1/2 year of piano lesson.Started play other sonatas of his like Moonlight (1st mvt only) and patheique(2nd mvt only) after 1 year of learning.However I now see my acts were stupid, foolish and unclever; althought I can play them, I never observed the music fully and I was just wanting to show off because I could play such difficult piece after 1 year of learning. At my second year, I pretty much stuck to my exam works quite often, however I still play other pieces( much more difficult ones which I found in the internet of from friends). However at my third year( this year) I accomplished both grade8 and 7 so I spend almost 2/3 of my time doing scales, sight-reading and aural works rather than just pieces.I also play any other pieces which sounds good to me but now, I take them seriously, my policy is if I have to play something, I do it to perfection, although I got excellent marks for my music exams. I sufffered from not doing enough school work....so I regret now, school and music should be equally important in any case.
3.Yes, my teacher helps me with a lot of things, mainly pieces.She will tell me what to get better,ie. phasing stucture...legato, staccato....etc...etc...However, she did not help me with my senior grade aurals much...(maybe that's why I didn't really do well at them...)
4.Yes, I do exams at every single lots( that is every 1/2 year).That's how I can fit piano exams in three years.
Thankyou very much for taking time to ask me about my piano exams and my strategys I doubt anyone would think that I'm not showing-off but it's the TRUTH.
2.Me, myself was a over-ambitious person.( excuse me but I'm really not showing-off okay?? IT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!) I started play Beethoven's fur elise after 1/2 year of piano lesson.Started play other sonatas of his like Moonlight (1st mvt only) and patheique(2nd mvt only) after 1 year of learning.However I now see my acts were stupid, foolish and unclever; althought I can play them, I never observed the music fully and I was just wanting to show off because I could play such difficult piece after 1 year of learning. At my second year, I pretty much stuck to my exam works quite often, however I still play other pieces( much more difficult ones which I found in the internet of from friends). However at my third year( this year) I accomplished both grade8 and 7 so I spend almost 2/3 of my time doing scales, sight-reading and aural works rather than just pieces.I also play any other pieces which sounds good to me but now, I take them seriously, my policy is if I have to play something, I do it to perfection, although I got excellent marks for my music exams. I sufffered from not doing enough school work....so I regret now, school and music should be equally important in any case.
3.Yes, my teacher helps me with a lot of things, mainly pieces.She will tell me what to get better,ie. phasing stucture...legato, staccato....etc...etc...However, she did not help me with my senior grade aurals much...(maybe that's why I didn't really do well at them...)
4.Yes, I do exams at every single lots( that is every 1/2 year).That's how I can fit piano exams in three years.
Thankyou very much for taking time to ask me about my piano exams and my strategys I doubt anyone would think that I'm not showing-off but it's the TRUTH.
I think that you could be a child prodigy if you started earlier. Three years in learning and already grade 7? That's amazing, considering the fact that you hadn't studied ANY music before you started to learn piano. Even if you took 2 exams a year, normally people wouldn't just do that in the higher grades. But I think that instead of doing and redoing exams, you should catch up with the others because of that late beginning by studying something else. How much time do you practise a day?
Something else - your decision to stop showing off playing difficult pieces was right. Anybody could just "play" a piece, but not everybody can play it well.
QUOTE(DGA @ Jun 11 2005, 07:53 AM)
I think that you could be a child prodigy if you started earlier. Three years in learning and already grade 7? How much time do you practise a day?
Something else - your decision to stop showing off playing difficult pieces was right. Anybody could just "play" a piece, but not everybody can play it well.
Something else - your decision to stop showing off playing difficult pieces was right. Anybody could just "play" a piece, but not everybody can play it well.
Oh really?? Lol...but I'm no child anymore!! I guess...(but my mummy still calls me her little child....lol) I'm grade8 already, not grade 7...And I practise about 3 hours a day for the piano.
My decision is right?? Thanks, I think you actually suggested me not to play showing off difficult pieces....and I think you were right, so I stopped doing it.Thanks for the advise anyhow, not I'm enjoying my time of being a pianist.
Overall, I think music should be nice and relaxing, should be enjoyed rather than to compare....sure someone has the point!
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