I'm not a teacher, but hope someone might be able to explain my daughter's exam report. She recently did Grade 2 piano, for which I think she was very well prepared (my 2 older children have already done Grade 2). However, her score was disappointing, and she failed on scales with a score of 13 (which she says she messed up). One of the comments was "Arpeggios were safer although some had split notes". Can anyone explain what this means? Her teacher is mystified too.

Thanks

Are you positive it says split? Seems a weird term to use for a piano!

It definitely says split. Her teacher says that she would only expect a comment like that when they are played hands together and the hands are not quite synchronised, but at Grade 2 they're played hands separately.

Very weird! Hope you get it cleared up.

Maybe her fingers slipped and played 2 notes at once? That's all I can really think of.

yes, that is it pretty well, when you sort of play in the nick and 2 notes sound.

yes - that's what I would think it means too - notes not cleanly played.

Yes, that's right. I call them 'splashed' notes with my pupils!

Yes, I'd agree with everyone else-I take it to mean sometimes she clipped the note next to the one she wanted to play by mistake.

I'd agree that she probably missed a few notes on the way up or down her arpeggios. "Split" is a strange term for a pianist (sounds more brass-like to me) but I'm guessing that's what the examiner meant.

I'm not convinced by these explanations, although I can't think of another answer! I would contact the AB (or ask your daughter's teacher to, if she made the application) and ask for a clearer explanation. I've never heard of split keys. It sounds a bit ambiguous and not a term normally applied to the piano imho.

We are DEFINITELY right - it's the only thing that the comment can mean, and I've heard it called that before!

Hi Folks,

This is the sort of thing that can happen in an exam and dosen't happen at home! It is definitely catching the note by accident that is adjacent. Under exam conditions a pupil may not realize that it has happened.

One way to help eliminate the problem is to practise scales and arpeggios with the eyes closed, slowly at first and then faster when confidence and accuracy is assured. The problem, minute though it is, is with the spacing and distance between notes.

If you can play them with your eyes closed, this 'splitting notes' accidentally on the piano should dissappear altogether.

Grade two scales are played hands together. Did your daughter play them hands separately? Sometimes an examiner may request hands separately but the norm for grade two is hands together. Did she know this??? I have heard of a pupil whose teacher did not read the syllabus correctly and the child did not perform as required and therefore lost a lot of marks. It can happen and I wonder if this is what has happened although I am not sure what split notes mean.

As a matter of interest has your daughter ever practised her sacles hands together? You need to calrify this with her teacher. I can't help thinking from what you have said that maybe it is something to do with this although I cannot be sure.

I would be interested to know.

This comment is correct but the original question related to arpeggios - at grade 2 they are definitely all single-handed. So, I still think we're closest in suggesting notes that weren't hit cleanly.

Sorry...I didn't read it properly. Yes.....arpeggios are separate for grade two. I thought for some reason scales were being referred to!

Thanks for all the replies - it looks as though she probably caught adjacent keys. I've passed on these comments to her teacher. Does anyone else ever feel that some of the comments on the report are unclear?

On another point related to exam reports, does anyone find some examiners' handwriting totally unreadable? None of my pupils can ever read the report, I always end up having to type it out so they can see what it says, and even that is a struggle for me sometimes!

The best comment I had at Easter was:

"The last note misfired"

David

Was he playing the 1812 ?

Sadly not - only her grade 1 list A piece.
David

Misfired! And I thought I've heard all the strange ones before.
Rainbowkeys, another suggestion about split notes from me... could it be that the notes were not joined together very well and played slightly separated?
Just a suggestion, even though I quite favour the ealier suggestion that it meant two notes played together.

just pity that some reports cant be read cos of examiners terrible handwriting!

It could mean that, although I think my daughter had played them smoothly when she practised. Mind you, she said herself that the scales went completely wrong, so who knows what happened with the arpeggios? I spoke to her teacher today and I think she is going to ask for an explanation of the comment. Just out of interest, has anyone else ever queried comments on the report?

Rainbowkeys, no I have not queried reports before but I had one Grade 3 girl get the following sentence on her B1 piano piece, 'A sympathetic approach and some changes of colour' and I believe it was a cradle song. A rather interesting choice of words there.

Absolutely. Sometimes it takes me ages to decipher what is written. I know examiners have little time to write but some of my students do not speak English as their first language and if I can't read it - what chance have they got. Having said that, my students are used to my writing ....

Ooh, I'm sure nothing as bad as my student's examiner last year! Everything was either a straight line or a few tiny curls here and there. Took me almost the whole week to grasp what was written, for by the time I had deciphered one word, I'd forgotton the flow of the sentence. I even had to help my teacher decipher her student's results, since English wasn't her mother tongue...

Last year the writing on my students reports was so small I had to enlarge the report several times on a photocopier to be able to read it.

Now that takes the cake! I only had one examiner whose writing was so huge this year, all he wrote was three lines and that filled up the whole column! Hence nothing but maybe half a sentence on what went wrong.

I hope that meant your examiner had written a LOT more, Noodle!

I've just had the best report ever from an examiner!! Not only did she give very fair marks, but the comments were brilliant, so constructive and encouraging! Why can't they all be like that???
I could read it no problems too....

After seeing the replies here, my daughter's teacher decided to query the comment with abrsm, and found them to be very helpful. She was put through to someone who played the piano, and he said that it meant that she had caught adjacent notes, probably when she turned her thumb under. He also agreed that "split keys" was a rather odd way to describe it.

Thanks for all your replies - very helpful.

HI. A Russian teacher at my college always called them "dirty" notes which I found amusing. Especially with arpeggios rather than scales "dirty" notes are easy to happen lol

Yes I took it immediately to mean that she accidentally caught the adjacent note together with the one she was intending to play - it probably happens more under exam conditions as nerves make you tense and tension in the fingers can shorten the stretch slightly and lose the fluidity and ease of movement.