Hello adult learners!! I was wondering whether anyone has achieved the higher grades as an adult? I've restarted piano lessons as an adult, about to do grade 1, but was wondering if anyone has gone to grade 7, 8 etc as an adult learner...it's very difficult fitting in lessons and practice working full time, but I'd like to get to the higher grades eventually....has anyone done this?

Not piano - I learnt that from when I was a child - but I took up clarinet a few years ago, teaching myself with the help of advice here and there, and did my Grade 8 last year. I think there are quite a few adult learners on the Forums who have reached a high standard, actually!

I am working on Grade 8 piano, will be taking exam in Oct/Nov. But I started playing piano when I was a child (aged 8 I think). I have restarted piano lessons a year ago after a 18 years break!

I think there has been discussion on this forum about practice vs working full time, perhaps you may look through them.

Hi
I took up clarinet 4 years ago as an adult learner. I took my Grade 7 in March and got a Merit (128 marks). This term I am taking my first Sax exam (grade 4) , planning to take Grade 5 Sax in the winter and then Grade 8 clarinet next spring. Seems ambitious, but it's really to get me more relaxed in the exam situation. I left it two years between exams and found the whole experience traumatic!!! I am hoping that if I take some "easier" sax exams, then the Grade 8 next spring will just seem like a routine experience!!!! Nerves seem to be my biggest problem - however I have had some sympathetic examiners - maybe they think how they would feel if it was them standing there!!!



Capriwidow

Well Im planning to get to grade 8 at some point... Id love to be grade 8 as although i play lots of instruments I have never gone beyond grade 5 on anyone... I have been teaching myself cello since september

Im doing my grade 5 cello in a few weeks time and then im gonna get myself a teacher and go forward from there.. id hope to do grade 6 in about a year and then grade 8...

I think there are quite a few on the forums who have go their grade 8... and we wouldnt want to be left out now would we!



pink

Hi! Frankie82

I started playing the piano from scratch (!!) when I was 17, took grade 5 in 2 years and had a 10 year break. I "restarted" having lessons last year as I moved back home and "re-united" with my piano. I am about to take grade 7.

I agree that it can be difficult fitting in lessons and especially practice time with work. I have a very high intensity job and sometimes work up to nearly 90 hours a week! I only book my piano lessons in my "quieter weeks" to ensure I have time to practice before it. Sometimes I can go through a few busy weeks when I can hardly do any practice and found myself going back to sqaure one in a piece! It can be really frustrating.

However, the piano is my "escape" and I really enjoy playing it. Some adults do not like taking exams but I think they can make you REALLY try hard to play a piece well and improves your skills. I won't rush into grade 8 after this exam but wil do it some years later when I feel ready for another challenge.

Frankie82

I have found the link re: practice vs working full time. It's here.

A few years ago, I coached a lady to success in grade 8 piano. She took the exam a few days after her 60th birthday.

Well done to her ; is she still playing?

wow that's fantastic..well at least I have another 37 years of practice till I get to her age, I might just make it!

Yes. She comes for her next lesson on Friday. She will play the first movement of Beethovens' F major sonata (op 10, no 1,2 or 3 - can't remember which) and the famous Rachmaninov C# minor prelude.

Not bad for an 'oldie'

No doubt you all wish her the best. I shall pass that on.

Steve (and 'oldie' Pauline)

On the recent "Hard Statistics..." thread, andante-in-c mentioned a chap who started piano in his early 40s and reached Grade 8 within about 5 years. Though I guess many of us may take a little longer

Also: you piano learners are very lucky. There's an enormous amount of very serious and very beautiful music just at Grade 5-ish, even at Grade 3-ish. No?

This topic should be linked to the thread on "ageism surely we are never too old to learn"

It depends on whether the adult is learning from scratch or is a false beginner i.e.learnt as a child and taking it up again as an adult. If the latter, it should be like the proverbial bicycle but the received wisdom from teachers on this forum is to start again a couple of grades below you left off.

There are a few adults on this forum who have gone from complete beginner to grade 8 (Katjay springs to mind) but I think that this is the exception rather than the rule. There are other adults who have chosen not to do the grades so it is difficult to judge what level they would be at if they had taken the exams.

On the original thread that I started last year called adult beginners (which became this adult learners forum), we discovered a number of us adult beginners who had passed grade 6 (in my case - just!) but I am sure that there are a goodly number who have gone from scratch to grade 7 and 8 who have yet to come out of the woodwork!

That's a point. Some of us aren't terribly committed to taking the exams what with one thing and another but I use graded material just to develop, if that makes sense - music from the exam syllabus or supplementary material published or recommended by the A.B. So I have an idea of the grade I'm at (which is not to say I'd pass it)!

If you like playing, don't mind some practice, criticise yourself sensibly and have a few lessons when necessary, you can only get better which translates into higher grades eventually.

Congratulations to those who do pass their upper grades. I might yet be among you!

PF

Hi,

I started playing the piano when I was 29 and I'm 34 now and about to take my grade 7 piano exam in a couple of weeks. I have done all the previous grades and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I just wish I had started as a child then I would be alot better now!

Shelton

I started playing when I was 24 got through to grade 6, but family and work commitments stopped me in my tracks, I have been in a holding pattern for about 10 years, up until this year. I have made a conscious decision to continue up to grade 8 and hopefully beyond. I found when doing the exams that the examiners looked almost relieved to see an adult. The only exception being a very sureal situation, when I took my grade 5 theory. The school was a Juniors and so all the desks and tables where designed for 8-11 year olds, I had my knees up by my ears, The only "Big Chair" had the teacher/examiner on, and felt a good 10 years older than her!!! Then exiting the exam, the looks from the parents picking up the other examinee's whose average age must have been 9. It could have been a sitcom.

Andy

Same here when I did mine. I was 51!

I knew I wouldn't be the only one.....

Hiya Frankie82,
I took up lessons again 18 months ago (after 15 years) and very new to forums.
I sat gr6 and gr7 piano and gr6 theory last year. Next week i take my gr8 piano and plan to study for the gr7 theory for december.
It's been difficult to balance things as last year i was in my final year of a part time degree too, so i put off the gr8 til now when all the uni stuff was over.
practice has also been difficult for the exam as my 2 year old keeps insisting on me playing 'the wheels on the bus' for her!
keep practicing, don't be in a hurry to take the grades if you're working full time other wise you might find it becomes less fun and more work to play. i'm SOOO glad i've taken up the piano again, missed it for so long but had no access to a piano or the money to buy one. at last reunited
Good luck with your grade 1, the beginning of a great musical journey!!
mrs_ted

Hi. I started playing the piano in my early 30s when my youngest child started school. I had three young children but still managed to pass Grade 8 in 6 years. I have been teaching since then (about 30 years).

Wow! That's really really good. Congrats to her, and I'm in awe. If I get that far by 60 I'll be impressed, though I have 33 years to make it

Hi

I started playing the piano from the age of 7 yrs and went through all the grades up to and including grade 8 (practical not theory).

It was hard, even as a child, and I had a very strict teacher who was prone to wrapping pupils(including me) across the knuckles with a 12" ruler if mistakes were made when playing arpeggios and scales. Of course you wouldn't get away with doing that sort of thing today; but even though this practice was a little on the barbaric side, it did somewhat instill a greater desire to achieve accuracy in one's performances. ( more by fear than anything else)

I think for any mature person to take up the piano(from scratch) is quite a challenge, and of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but as one gets older the body, hands and fingers in particular, are less inclined to do what the brain tells them to do.

However, a challenge is a challenge and if the motivation and desire to succeed are there then I'm sure a self-satisfying level of success will ensue. (Just don't expect an Ogden or Askenazy type performance)

[quote=Espanol,Jun 29 2005, 03:38 PM]
Hi

I started playing the piano from the age of 7 yrs and went through all the grades up to and including grade 8 (practical not theory).

do you still play or teach?
I sat my gr8 piano today, thinking of doing my gr7 and 8 theory next

Hi - nice to see there are so many adult learners! I learned piano and violin from the age of 6 and went up the grades, taking Grade 7 on both instruments. I stopped playing when I was 17, which I really regret now, I even sold my violin, which I really regretted because I think it was a good one! I have started playing again 15 years later, inspired by my son learning the cello, and haven't looked back. Bought a fabulous Gliga violin, joined an orchestra, and I am just having fun playing! Playing as an adult is completely different, I am much more motivated and enjoy playing both instruments so much more, especially the violin. Practice time can be a problem, with 2 children both playing instruments their sessions take priority. I would love to take my Grade 8s, I have just about mastered the piano syllabus, but the aural and scales worry me ! Think I might start from Grade 6 and work up!
Helen

As a teacher - of all ages - this is a sentiment that I carefully disregard when I'm teaching adults, as I don't believe it has to be true, although of course it may be true in a few cases - and to be fair you did say that there are exceptions. I believe there are many exceptions.

I work on the assumption it's not the case, and if the student raises it I take it with a pinch of salt and encourage them to do the same.

You may be interested to have a look at :

musicalfossils.com

which has some fascinating insights into how adults learn. Don't take the name too literally !

Good luck - and don't assume that youngsters always do better than you!

Started completely from scratch in my late thirties. Am hopelessly "unmusical" and dyslexic to boot but am preparing to take my Grade 7 piano so if I can do it anyone can.

N.B I have a friend who is an examiner and he has admitted that he sometimes wears earplugs especially if he is in a small room with a Grade 1 trumpet student...!

I started piano totally from scratch as an older adult (43) 4 years ago. I don't take exams but have a wonderful teacher and am using Michael Aaron Grade 4 book. I depend on him to assess my level. I don't plan to take exams but I fully expect to get beyond the grade 5 level that I hear many people (adults anyway) give up on. I think if you are determined and have a good and encouraging teacher there's no limit. I'm hoping to get to grade 8 some day.....it may take a good few years however.

p.s. I'm new to this forum and am wondering if there's a place where adult beginners post their pieces if they feel like sharing (or asking for constructive criticism. )

I have a web page with several mp3s and wonder if others have something similar.