Hi, I'm gonna take my DipAB Piano exam this August ( Singapore ). Seems like the more practise I put in, the more mistakes I get. Even the easiest parts would not go right. This is getting frastrating, as I could play better 2 months ago, and when I practise harder, it gets worse!

Does anyone have this experience before ? And how did u overcome it ? I remember I did have this experience preparing for my Grade 8 exam before, but I don't remember how i conquered it, haha...

Hope to hear advice from anyone of you.

Perhaps less is more? Spend a week away from the instrument and then come back to it.. Saying that, I go a week between organ practices anyway and that works fine for me

Good luck !!

I have found this very confusing. It is often true that more practise gets you nowhere or even deteriorates your playing. As a wind player I am wary of the need to keep regular practise, so I do try to practise every day, but I think there comes a point when you get saturated, and have to leave it for a bit.

I remember reading somewhere that a musician who practised 12 hours on the day of a concert performed with zilch imagination, while some that play relatively little perform magnificently. That puts it into perspective.

Interested to read other people's responses.

You can indeed overplay a piece of music. I've been finding the same thing with my Grade 8 pieces. My advice is leave them for a few days, they won't go anywhere, and do other stuff like sight reading etc. When you return to them you will hopefully be fresh again and recapture your earlier performances.

Gae

Yes, this often happens. Try not to get frustrated! This happens to me when I practise like mad in the morning in order to play it well for my piano teacher in the afternoon, but of course I am all tired out from the morning practise and nothing goes well at all. Take it down a notch - go for two or three days without practising too hard. Really relax; when you are tense or thinking about something else (like the exam!), this can distract you from your playing and cause you to fumble. And one more piece of advice - remember to play the pieces because you enjoy them, and learn them because you think it would do justice to the pieces if you learned them and played them beautifully. In other words, don't learn them juuuust for the exam. Once you enjoy the pieces, every time they come out from your fingers you will have a great performance, and the exam will be just another enjoying performance!

Good luck!!

Dont worry about that! The more you worried about that the more you cannot do it properly.
Relax yourself n be confidence if u can do it in your exam!
Just practise your pieces slowly n with pressure in each note for several times and than just try it to play as usual. Usually it can be better n take more advantages from playing slowly though it makes me borred.
Tell me whether u can solve ur problem or not after doing this!

Thanks for all your suggestions....I did managed to perfrom better after I relaxed myself....but yesterday I heard only 30% of the candidates in Singapore ( that's where I am) passed DipABRSM, I got stressed all over again & today my playing was so bad ! Oh no ! I think I'm not very confident of myself.....

Just be confidence with yourself!! Everything will go for the best!! Good luck for all who wants to take the exam! n dont forget pray before playing in the exam.
What date is your exam?

I don't know the exact date yet, but it's gonna be August. I still have around 13 mistakes ( including those only obvious to the performer) for the whole recital. That's a lot ! Haha....

Take some time away from the instrument - maybe instead of practising for a couple of days, take the music away from the piano and study from the point of view of your viva. Or sit yourself comfortably and play through in your head, visualising how it ought to look and sound?
You can overpractice, but worse, sounds like you're getting yourself in a tizz. As Gae suggests, try something else for a couple of days - then you won't feel guilty for not working for the exam, but it'll give the grooves you've obviously worn in your poor old brain a chance to ease out!

Then again you could be in that 30% of people who are properly prepared....