I AM SPEAKING ON THE BEHALF OF MY FRIEND.

My friend did his Grade7 on the piano just recently and got 131/150. He asked me whether he should move on to the grade8 at the end of the year.As my point of view, he should. What any of you think about him?? Will you move on if you were him?? ( If he will really do it, He'll only have 3 or 4 months till the exam lot).

PS. ( please do not mention anything about my exam result in this thread now, considering that it's nothing related to my friend's behalf, and please be polite!! I DON'T ANY CRISTISING AGAIN!!THANKS!!)

Well, does he have to take the exam at the next available sitting? Couldn't he work on technique and repetoire and then move on? Anyway,131/150 is fantastic, and is not a bad mark in any way.

Nicki - you still here? I thought you were revising from 10:00

The revision police will be round

Jane

Thankyou guys, I'll tell him then.

It doesn't matter to me what you do with your achievements.

I'm surprised you aren't advising your friend to repeat grade 7.

Well, I did 45 minutes of History revision, but I didn't want to wear myself out or confuse myself.

I started doing Science, but it just makes me feel panicky!

Personally I'd work on repertoire and enjoy playing pieces around the appropriate level and a number of pieces harder than grade 8 (there's a big list in the dipABRSM syllabus) before embarking on grade 8 at a later time; giving me a broader experience of playing around that level before entering. It does of course depend on his situation and whether he needs the grade 8 exam for anything soon; otherwise I'd always advocate expanding one's repertoire in moving between exams.

I'm afraid I don't understand all the rush to get 'all the grades done'. What's the hurry? There's a big difference between being able to play all the notes with the dynamic and articulation detail and being able to play grade 8 pieces at grade 8 standard which for me means getting behind the notes to really understand the pieces and to be able to put both a musical and artistic interpretation into the performance. I would say there is a big jump between grade 7 and grade 8. I agree with the advice of AnotherPianist to work on other repertoire at around the same level to broaden musical experience.

Take your time! I believe that you should do one practical exam per year AT MOST. One a year seems to mean that your main focus is on exams, not on obtaining a good technique. True, exams help with technique, but you have to explore a varied repertoire and many styles in order to gain full maturity as a pianist, rather than just exam pieces. This is, of course, as long as there is no immediate need; eg. you need Gr. 8 in order to do Music A level or something similar.

Take your time! I believe that you should do one practical exam per year AT MOST. One a year seems to mean that your main focus is on exams, not on obtaining a good technique. True, exams help with technique, but you have to explore a varied repertoire and many styles in order to gain full maturity as a pianist, rather than just exam pieces. This is, of course, as long as there is no immediate need; eg. you need Gr. 8 in order to do Music A level or something similar.

EXCUSE ME NOODLE!! I THINK I HAVE ALREADY SAID DON'T MENTION MY GRADES OR MY REULT IN THIS THREAD!! I HOPE YOU READ MY POST CAREFULLY!! I AM SPEAKING ON THE BEHALF OF MY FRIEND, NOT MYSELF!! SO DO NO DRAG ON ANYMORE!! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED THAT I AM SHOWING OFF JUST BECAUSE I START THREADS ABOUT MY RESULTS BUT NOW WHO INTEND TO DO IT??

1. I didn't mention your grades or your result here.
2. You admitted to showing off in your signature which you have now changed
3. There is no way I would EVER start a thread about you or your results
4. Why should anyone do what you say?

You know that you'll be ban from this forum if you are being abusive, offensive or have aggressive postings. Moreover others don't want to hear "tired cold war" stuff which keep going on and on and on and on...so will you stop the previous cristising comments and get over it please?? I am sure that I was the one who started it and I was the one who was being rude but why trigger and why argue?? My friend's decision has nothing going to do with my results. Just stay apart ok??

See that's a trigger!!
It's not funny at all!!

I took about 18 months between Grades 7 and 8 - there's no hurry!!

Also, there is so much music out there to be played - -take time to enjoy it!

I wouldn't hurry- I took my grade 7 piano in April 2004 and I've been enjoying just widening my experience and exploring the repetoire before thinking about my grade 8 seriously- I've played a few of the pieces but I wouldn't contemplate taking the exam until at least November, when it will have been 19 months since my grade 7 exam.

Now who's being aggressive?




It wasn't meant to be funny. It was an observation. I was stating a fact.

Ooh I've missed this, it looks exciting!

I went from grade 6 to grade 8 in cello in 9 months. Although I continued lessons over the summer, and worked through a large amount of grade 7 and 8 repetoire, also learning some of the old and new syllabus pieces, so that i had learnt to play a wide variety of pieces and not just the exam pieces. it can be done, but it needs a lot of practice and hard work, and if there is time, i would advise to spend the time working on other stuff between the exams. (I needed grade 8 for university, btw.) It'll be more beneficial if there is time for a break from exam pieces. Often, I know people, who take a year or two between grade 7 and 8.

I'm not even trying to work out where this one started...

Don't try lol, you will just end up so confused!

I know, I've given up. It just seems that people have been misunderstanding each other's tone and language again.

I did forget to mention what Cello86 has said subsequent to my post which is that it IS definitely possible to take a relatively short amount of time between grades 7 and 8 or even 6 and 8 AS LONG AS YOU HAVE TIME and are prepared to put in a lot of hard work which might be easier to fit into a longer time span. I also think it is important not just to live on a sole musical diet of exam syllabuses as my violin teacher was taking this approach and it became really boring. When I mentioned it to her she suggested a whole range of other things I play and I learned a lot more about music and musical history in general.

However, I think we should be kind to each other

Just out of interest, what are ur grades and results?

Why isnt anybody allowed to mention them?

What do you both do in your spare time?

My guess is that they don'ty have spare time ....and even if they do, they spend it practising

We aren't allowed to mention them because there were , erm...confrontations about pianist_1210's results, if you want to find them just do a search in the piano forum for "Yah! Just Completed My Piano Exam", read it from the start.

I agree with noodle, it was simply stating a fact.

Yes, Nat is right!! I practise in my spare time...but only for piano though....
just feel relaxing playing on the piano.

Me too!!

Let's be friends, my friend!!

Ok. Friends!

I would personally advise him to take time to do his grade 8. There's no point rushing and then having a larger chance of him failing. I would say about 7 months at least to prepare for an advanced grade.

Yay it's good to hear that noodle and pianist 1210 are freiends again phew!

Yaey! And here's to World Peace!

Ok,thanks guys, I told him about all of you guy's opinions however he said he really want to do it as he really like the piece a1,b1 and c3 and he said the scales abd sightreading will not be a problem as well. The reason why he wanted to get his Grade8 so quickly is because he would like to teach at the end of this year to earn some money. I don't really know if he's on the right track.

Yes, teaching does earn you money but surely it shouldn't be the whole reason you do it! How old is this guy exactly?

Grade 8 is not a teaching qualification.

Liz

Why does he need grade 8 to teach? Grade 8 doesn't mean you are qualified to teach. I know some people who have passed grade 3 and are trying to teach.

"Trying" sometimes being the appropriate word!

Exactly, but its not fair on the students they are trying to teach. This year I have been teaching three children who failed pre-grade 1 exams because they were taught by someone who was not much further on than they were.

He's 17.

I like your use of terminology "right track" because both of you seem to be on a race track - with Grade 8 seen as a finishing line!

If your pal was going to teach someone who was a beginner up to (say) Grade 4, the difference between having Grade VII and Grade VIII would be almost invisible!

I do not want to undervalue qualifications however - they are a starting basis by which the prospective customer can qualify you.

A broad knowledge of music, and a genuine love of music, and the ability to inspire and encourage - these would be other relevant qualities that I hope your friend can offer.

I know, but you know in the society, people seems to trust those who got Grade8. This is because the "non-musical" do not know how good you are, so if you tell them that you've got Grade 8 from royal school, you know that you are good because they believe royal school. I also get upset with those people...My friend's opinion is very understandable to me as I thought of that when I finished my Grade7 one year ago. In my case, I think my choice to do grade8 is correct...but everyone is different, so I don't know if he's going to manage or not, I'm really worry if he's not going to make it properly...

But I'm afraid, he's not that "genuine love of music"...he only do it for money!!

Then if he doesn't have that genuine love of music, how is he going to inspire it in his pupils?
Would you want your child to learn with someone like that ?
M

I'm very upset that I missed all the fun NOT

What's fun??

If he's not doing it for the love of music and only for money - he shouldn't be a teacher. Is it his teacher who's pushing him through the grades, or his parents or he himself? I once had a pupil from Hong Kong who started at the school I teach at and I had to teach him piano. He'd just done grade 3, and told me his teacher was going to start him on the grade 4 pieces but he wanted to do grade 5, and asked if I could teach him the pieces but he could hardly read and couldn't play his scales - he kept trying to play them as fast as possible which meant they were rubbish. So I told him where to go. (He did tell me that was how his teacher in Hong Kong taught him but Im sure not all teachers are like that, and I don't mean that every piano student from Hong Kong is like that either but the experience was totally new to me and it horrified me that there are teachers who do teach like that.)

dear chocolatedog:
I 'm sure not ALL HK students are like that, but i would agree that the majority are ...
As a busy city in the busy country, all Hkers would like "to be fast"...fast in the mind means unique, glory,winning-like. And mainly it's the culture's problem, as HK parents are more likely to push their children to process faster than other kids.
I personally see not harm in processing fast but I do against people who just want to play difficult piece but ACTUALLY NOT TAKING TIME TO LEARN THEM AND JUST PLAY THEM TO LIKE A HALF AND HALF STANDARD or even worse. Although, I 'm a HK student as well, I got educated in New Zealand and I had the chance to learn music as my interest rather than just try to play them fast but always "half and half". I believe younger music learners should take ,more time to do all the basic things first, i.e. excerises and studies....then to move on to the harder piece only if they are confience enough to do so, all they need is experience, students should try to gain experiences from performing in the public, ie. school assembly, shows, silent movies...etc...etc... The more experience you have; the more you grow to love music and therefore the better you do. As I always believe.

I think I may be beginning to realise why many of the people from Hong Kong I've spoken to on this forum are so concerned about what diplomas their teachers have. In this country it's reasonably common to have a teacher who only actually has as their last qualification grade 8 but has several years of experience since then and could actually pass a diploma if they wanted to; but they don't need it as they're already set up. It seems in Hong Kong that grade 8 represents now about three years of playing experience generally: in which case no wonder pupils don't want a teacher with grade 8 as that's not very much experience to teach with at all (and getting to such a level so quickly necessitates missing out or skimming a lot of ground work). I also get the impression that if it's physically possible for a person to pass a diploma they would do as such importance is placed on them; meaning that in many cases a teacher without a diploma is a teacher that can't get one.

I know there are exceptions to this: I've spoken to people on the forum who are exceptions to this case. Is this the general culture or just something I've picked up wrongly from what people have said here?

I'm from Malaysia. The people here would be horrified if anyone could do Grade 8 in three years! Either they're incredibly talented or have been practicing nothing but Grade 8 pieces for the past two years. Although I admit that most of the parents here are hoping their children will be able to finish their Grade 8 by the time they are doing their SPM (GCE O Levels) and on the average, the kids begin piano lessons or electric organ lessons at age 6. Can't say much about violin, because most of the good teachers teach in the town center. So they will have a total of 11 years in which to complete their Grade 8. The rationale behind this? So that if all else fails (including their O level's) they can then begin teaching while they are waiting for results or while waiting for their next course of study to begin.
But if you explain to them about building the necessary foundation and stuff like that, they'd listen to the teacher. Some of them are even quite helpful when you discuss the practice plans for their children to do at home, because nowadays, a lot of parents have a little musical background, be it accompanying their younger children for their Junior classes or having learnt music when they were younger.

There are really two kinds of parents here, the concerned ones being the helpful ones who'll follow you word for word, or the rushed kind, who are bogged down by so many things that they don't have time to see you and leave their children to practice as they please (which as you can guess is hardly ever, since they also arrange 101 tuition classes for their children). *Sigh...