Dear George:
Thank you very much for taking some time to actually understand me. ( unlike others whom just critising me for retaking G7 which is not even my choice!)
To your question: yes NCEA means National Certificate of Educational Achievement and indeed it is in New Zealand. Considering the fact that I'm still form 6(year 12) so I can't get scholarships (you can only get them at from7).

However, my music teacher's going to enter me for music scholarship next year, which is for sure because she said I'll do well and there's no reason for stopping me to do so. Because I don't have friends in here and the fact that I'm asian, I don't know much competition for piano in here( which I doubt there is any at all! )But I did enter one of my composition to the NZ Chamber music contest which will take place on Sunday this week(me playing as a violaist in a string quartet).

I hate to admit it but I really love my piano, I would rather play on a piano for fun than a violin.Piano is my first love.Unfortunately my family hate music ( even I use to hate when I was young, really starting to love music when I turned 13...a really long story actually, don't know why I fell in love with music....).My family will not let me study piano in university or futher because they think music is useless and music can't make money.They said I'll never sucess as a concert pianist because there isn't hard any concert pianist arround, so it'll be difficult to became one. So they'll force me to study in architecture instead. I don't have much money so I can't study further on the piano after I finish my grade8, so I tried to work as a piano teacher to earn money for further study but then I understand that being a piano teacher is actually rather difficult...

For a conclusion, life is tough...and piano is my true love.FULL STOP.

Anyways Violina, any chance on an update on how the pupiul is progressing?

We don't really want!




I said no such thing! But at least you admit showing off!


Make up your mind! Somewhere else you said three.

I'm not sure quite what my reaction is - I would have thought that 135 and distinction for an exam (especially at grade 7) was a good achievement in itself. Examiners can only mark based on the performance on the day and their opinions are surely to a certain extent subjective, even with the strict marking criteria and training that they undergo. If any of my pupils had 135 for an exam I certainly wouldn't be asking them to take the exam again. In fact for many candidates just passing an exam can be a massive achievement especially for the less able learners.

Yes, I agree the enthusiasm is to be encouraged. I was just Grade 7 when I came across this beautiful and thrilling Waldstein (Opus 53) by Beethovan. Of course I was determined to learn it and longing to be able to play like the impressive pianist in the CD. I recall buying the book on my own and looking at it. But that didn't stop me from asking my teacher to teach me. As I recall, she told me later on that it was a piece set for the LRSM or something and she could teach me but I would need to put in a lot of practice to make it even sound like half of what it should be. I agreed and so I learnt it painstakingly phrase by phrase.

I don't really recall the process, but all I knew was that there were some parts I enjoyed tremendously although it WAS a series of starts and stumbles. But I'm so glad that she did not reprimand me nor damp my enthusiasm and allowed me to learn it although the end result was probably only a quarter of what the pianist in the CD achieved. So I am really happy when a student finds a piece she is keen to practice-which is pretty rare nowadays... they'll mostly be thrilled to tell you about their Playstation exploits and their trips then to play any music at all! *Sigh..

Fine then, if you want, I can put all my achievements on the signature and stop starting threads on them.

[/quote]

We don't really want!
[quote]

Don't you or "we" want what?? Want me to disappear eh??

[quote]noodle told me to put my achievements here, so don't blame me for showing off!![/quote]

I said no such thing! But at least you admit showing off!
[quote]

Excuse me but I don't know who actually started "suggesting" that I'm showing off!! Or is it because some people are not as good as others so they keep cristising others and say that they're such show-offs!!

[quote]only learnt piano for two years[/quote]
Make up your mind! Somewhere else you said three.

[/quote]

Fine, I mean three but two is a typo, you guys all know it, how can if fit 6 exams lots in 2 years??

I've just finished my first year as a teacher and still think of myself as a student.

I think it may be useful to consider how the student feels about the work being set for them. Possibly teachers could be over-cautious when setting work for students. This will result in the student becoming bored and they will naturally move to more advanced material.

A careful assesment of the students ability will help and remember that an enthusiastic student will always want to move on, try to meet them somewhere in the middle.

why can't you help them to learn the piece?
i learn pieces that are above my standard, and have found them really great experience - i might not be playing them brilliantly, but i enjoy it and they're really great for more difficult rhythms, higher notes, harder work!
the pupil doesn't have to learn this piece as a serious piece to really pick faults with, but they could learn it for fun, and if you could support them while they are doing this then they will enjoy it and it will probably help their confidence as well.
don't tell them not to do it. and don't get annoyed. its part of the job, im afraid!
i have done crazy things like this before, and my teacher has supported me 100% with it - now she gives me harder pieces than i give myself and i can't thank her enough for that!
so please let them have a go, and support them. they won't apprieciate being told not to do it and it won't do their confidence any good either.

Yes, I was forever wondering why my teacher kept torturing me by giving all those darned difficult pieces. But now that I look back, I see the value of it all. And they were not of an unachievable kind. It designed to be just hard enough for me to gain some skills and not too hard that I would want to give up on them right away!

Oh okay, just because my teachers always tell me to do the basics( like exercises and studies) before moving on to the hard ones...but I'll give my students a go at what they want anyway..just of the fun of it.

Nice one. One of the great things about these forums is that we can find our inbuilt beliefs challenged and we find ourselves reconsidering our ideas.

Yeah, everyone helps each other!! like a big family:>

Hi Pianist 1210
Who teaches you in NZ? Whereabouts do you live?
I live in Auckland and I learn at the University.
I am surprised you write and I quote directly from your post ' I don't know much competition for piano in here( which I doubt there is any at all! )'
Are you unaware that New Zealand is the country that in the last 3 years produced Henry Wong Doe who moved to the United States shortly after graduating with a BMus from the University’s School of Music. Considered one of his generation’s most talented pianists, he is also completing a PhD at Julliard in New York.
And, only last year John Chen the 17 year old University of Auckland student won the prestigious Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition. in Sydney. He too has won a major US scholarship. Both have played here recntly - I went to several of their concerts.
Strange that two such top pianists - and many others- found sufficient competition in New Zealand. Let me assure you that there are a number of prestigious piano competitions here - as well as a number of excellent players who could easily match many from elsewhere in the world.

Returning to the initial question I sometimes ask to play a piece that my very wise and experienced teacher ( ) thinks is too hard for me.
This is what she does - if she thinks I might manage it she will often let me have a go at part of the piece and see how I get on. For example a few years ago I desperately wanted to play Bach's Italian Concerto so she let me start then gently suggested I put it away for awhile after a try as she could tell I was getting frustrated. I accepted that better than if she had said a flat no.
If the piece is right out of my league she has this encyclopaedic knowledge of pieces so finds a similar style piece but easier.
She is brilliant at picking pieces that I like

I was right, there ISN't many piano competition happening in our country, those John Chen entered the competition in AUSTRALIA and got his frame there, although I don't know much about Henry Wong Doe, I doubt that he got his frame via winning competition in NZ.
I believe that the Chamber Music NZ should organise some competitions for piano, and they should let everyone to enter, not just the ones with the grade 8 certificate!!

I feel sure that John Chen had previously won the NZ Young Musician award - he may have entered it more than once.

Also Competitions societies all over New Zealand offer recital classes and a few offer concerto classes.

I just wish that those competitions that *do* exist were a bit more enthusiastic about promoting themselves! It's as if the first "audition" is the effort required to find out about them .

As far pieces that are too hard...maybe it's more that we have become used to lessons that are too short for solid work! If Viohazard and his teachers get carried away with something new and unusual and there's no lesson after his, his lessons sometimes run 70-90 minutes. (Very kind of his teachers, but also impossible to explore all those side-roads in 30-40 minute lessons).

Sorry 1020 you are quite wrong - there are (not isn't) a number of good competitions.
Start with Rotorua / Nth Shore / Wellington and then, when you have won those you can move onto the NZ Musician of the Year and the Secondary Schools Chamber music if you can find a group happy to play with you. If you had entered the Concerto class at Nth Shore this year you could have played with the Ak Symphony .. funnily enough I don't recollect seeing your name in any competition in NZ
No one is suggesting winning an NZ competition will immediately open doors to the world stage but I do believe that, as a 16 yr old grade 8 player there are plenty of students in NZ to give you decent competition .. Jason Bae comes to mind for one and he is only 14yrs- I personally know at least 6 gde 8 players who are much younger than you and excellent performers.
if you want to compete on the violin the Michael Hill competition is world class.
Mr George Burrell .. were you at Ak Grammar Sch ??? if so you know my dad

Yes...but none of the people I know here in Japan who enquired got so much as a reply, let alone an application form! Wonder what happened...one girl who enquired is a regular place-winner in Japanese competitions, and was looking forward to trying her wings in a country she felt (rightly or wrongly) was a good choice for her first trip overseas.

I plan to try to find out more when I'm in NZ next - though it certainly won't be anybody in my family entering .

Yes I know, I personally know about about 20 who have got their grade8 and younger than me, but the difinition of "grade8" is pretty undefinable. You can do an "half empty" grade8 exam and just get a pass, or merit. Even if you get distinction, it means nothing at all, it could just mean that you did well on the day. If there are so many people who are good at the piano at the professional level, how would other people judge them?? If they're all prefect,there will not be an judgements. Music is always undefined...

I don't think something is ever perfect (not getting at you here) because I'm sure even the most amazing players must think from time to time that they could've played something more expressively, more rhtyhmically etc even if it wasn't apparent to anyone else. A boy at our school did what I would've said was an absolutely flawless version of Gershwin's 3 piano preludes and when I told him so he said "I played the last chord wrong, it didn't come out how I wanted it to, The dynamic was a touch too loud in such and such a place, I didn't pedal this bit right" and he has a piano and organ diploma under his belt at the age of 16. His teacher also had some other points to make.

Perfect, I think, is like whatever religion uses the path to enlightenment. Ultimate goal is to get there, and then if you do, I suppose it all stops.

The next Michael Hill is in 2007 and the email is mhivc@aucklandphil.co.nz and the website is http://www.aucklandphil.co.nz/ if that helps your friend all ears.
How easy is it for people of other nationalities to compete in Japanese competitions? I expect we would have similar difficulties in obtaining information if the situation was reversed.

If you pianist 1210 know of the other good players here I am even more surprised that you wrote ' I don't know much competition for piano in here( which I doubt there is any at all! )' Doubting there is much competition in NZ appears to me somewhat arrogant.

Well, you will need to teach the [basic skills] before you teach a piece.
I don't mean give lots of scales etc, but the real basics, you should teach. So my guitar teacher teaches me arpeggios, so that I can use it in any piece.

So for example, "I want to do this piece" says a student. Then you should reply "You should learn this stuff first, before you do even a note of that music." If I only do lots and lots of exercises, when I do a new piece, it feels as if I've already played it lots of times and it's not exciting. Even if you sometimes teach your student something they are not ready for, it still may be more fun for them.

So you should give them the technique that they need the most for each piece, because it will be easier and they can learn more about music by learning techniques that way. But they should know the basic stuff before they try anything especially hard.

How hard is it to enter Japanese international competitions? Well, how about an English version of the homepage, with a downloadable entry form in English?
6th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition

The list of participants for the 5th competition shows mostly foreigners, with a small scattering of Chinese candidates who couldn't attend due to SARS quarantine.

Japanese are famous for ignoring questions, letters, or e-mails that they don't want to answer, but there are a lot of companies whose job is simply to organize international events and provide language support and administration skills, to avoid such problems!

A small country like NZ needs impeccable PR and organization for international events - it may not be fair, but it would be very effective!

The address and e-mail you give are the ones I gave the people who asked about the Michael Hill Competition, but at least for the previous competition, the website didn't even give a postal address or phone number, and since there was no reply to e-mail enquiries, there wasn't much else to be done. However that was then, and this was now, and I certainly don't want to make the organizers of the 2007 Michael Hill Competition suffer for the sins of their fathers before them.

Yeah right.... I don't even think I can be second to last by entering it.

I agree! I have several pupils who are attempting (and have actually managed to learn some of it!) major works when they cannot even sightread Grade 1 sightreading examples without difficulty!! I mean its all very good that they are enthusiastic and I have by no means said "dont do it" but I tend not to focus on this too much in lessons. Of course I will listen but I say to them "well done and keep going!" but I try to focus on 'the basics'. One particular group of pupils use a clavinova so they have heard these famous classics (eg Moonlight sonata) and half use the music, half make it up!!
I find it quite bizarre that they can learn pages by ear but then struggle massively when it comes to playing much simpler pieces!!