For my grade 6 flute last term my examiner was also Neil bit of a coincidence. I've only done four practical exams ever.

Yep, I've only ever met two so far! A rather strict one for grade 4 and a really lovely one for grade 6!

This is making me nervous....reminds me of past driving examiners......

Yah, I remember mine.
The first was a man, looked young.Was very chatty.
The second was a young lady.
Third was a man.Middle aged.Was very encouraging.
Fourth was a lady.again, very encouraging
Fifth, done same day as fourth, so same examiner obviously.

Ive been lucky with my examiners so far, havnt had any nasty ones......

I had Joan Dixon for Grade 4 piano. I thought she was very nice (well, she did give me a distinction!)

I had Judith Clare for piano Grades 1 and 5. I liked her too, she gave me a distinction both times. Imagine my delight!!!

I can never remember my examiners names...
All I remjember is
Grade 2: Nice, Old man
Grade 3: Strict-ish Woman
Grade 4: Nice Man again (not the same one)

Grade 1 - oldish chatty man - gave me a distinction, which was nice of him. Had the most illegible handwriting ever. Had great fun deciphering his writing, granted I was 10 at the time
Grade 2 - Can't really remember him, he seemed alright though, and he gave me a merit. Not bad for some shockingly bad scales.
Grade 4 - Another guy, quite old, can't remember much about him.
Grade 5 - I think I also had Joan Dixon for grade 5. She seemed OK, gave me some pretty useful comments on my mark-form, which was good. She also passed me after some hopeless scales and iffy sight-reading. First examiner not to give me 26/30 on the 'list C' piece though lol - understandable though. I hadn't really prepared the piece that well to be fair.

Having read this topic, I think that we tend to refer to examiners as "nice" if they gave us good marks...

I've had a pretty varied list of examiners too:-
G1 Flute - horrible woman, who scared me stiff
G3 Flute - really nice oldish guy, didn't mind me playing repeats
G4 Flute - guy, quite quiet but gave me a nice comments
G5 Flute - oddest examiner I've had - a woman - she looked like she was trying to hypnotise me during the exam!
G6 Flute - really nice, slightly eccentric guy
G7 Flute - nice old guy, gave me a great mark
G2 Piano - very quiet old man
G4 Piano - man
G5 Piano - nice woman - only nice woman i've had....

Lol...

I think 1 of my examiners could've been from Songs of Praise...my friend who also had him said that he was...

Has anyone had Douglas Blew as their examiner? He was my examiner for my Grade 3 piano exam, and he seemed like a nice, funny chap!

Car Expert

These are all Guildhall examiners thus far, but...

Grade 1: Oldish guy. Now reminds me of second orchestra conductor but obviously not him.

Grade 2: Youngish woman. Rather abrupt and perceived by me as a bit mean but very nice/lenient with marks and good mark sheet (missed High Honours by one mark!)

Grade 3: Dark-haired bearded guy with glasses. Middle-aged.

Grade 4: Ginger-ish old guy. Think he was a Horn player and suspect he had perfect or near-perfect pitch because mentioned my tuning on the mark sheet (tuning complaints aren't very common at Grade 4 level and my tuning is usually not too bad). Quite nice and chatty but I was feeling in a little bit of a state so not much of my mind went on that!

Grade 5: Dark-haired oldish guy, glasses. Picky about cut common and allabreve and looked a bit bored generally. Tried to give me musicianship questions on a totally new piece until I pointed out there weren't any meanings on the old one.

Grade 6: Youngish dark-haired guy, quite nice. (don't think he was bearded). Considerate since my accompanist managed to mess me up really badly (we had to stop half-way through).

Conclusion: Guildhall employs a lot of oldish, dark-haired guys.

I have only taken one exam before

Grade 2 oboe: I don't remember his name; well actually I was never told He was a scary oldish man who scared me. He kept giving me odd looks and started quizing me on my oboe. He wasn't a particuarly generous marker and he failed me at both aural and sightreading. When I did the aural test he scared me so much that I kept stuttering and shaking. He had truly the most illegible handwriting ever. It took me and my teacher my whole lesson to desipher it.


My examiner for my exam on wednesday is called mr "someone" ellis.

Yeah, my examiner for grade 3 clarinet had a grey beard, and not much hair.

That's about all I remember. Oooh, he was wearing a blue shirt!

Who was the one that grave-dig this topic...I remember making it ages and ages ago!
I seem to remember one of my examiner wearing sneakers, forgot who.

Yes, why are 90% of examiners oldish?




Hmm...I don't remember her as a very nice chap.(only a high pass even with nice comments)

Sorry, that was me!

Car Expert

When I was doing Grade 3 violin, the examiner was a really good friend of my mum's and didn't feel able to give me a fair exam... so I couldn't do it! ABRSM arranged for me to do it somewhere else a week later!

When I did Grade 7 piano, I remember the examiner was a guy who had glasses and they fell off the table when I was going into the room so I picked them up for him and he said thank you. I then proceeded to play very badly... thought I'd failed the exam but scraped a pass. I'm sure he passed me because I'd been so kind picking up his glasses!

Grade 3 Cornet - Some posh lady who was quiet and very well spoken called Mcloed or something like that.

Grade 4: Man (Distinction)
Grade 5: Woman (Passed)
Grade 7: Man (Merit)
Grade 8: Woman (Distinction)

my friends said that male examiners are usually more lenient with marks,
females are stricter.
i agree with this saying up to a large extend.

I've done something like 30 exams, and had a man for every single one! All I remember is that the Trinity ones were grumpy, but lenient, my grade 5 practical musicianship one was clearly in a bad mood (and gave me a rubbish mark, fair enough though), and my grade 8 one was lovely, I had actually met him before when I sang evensong at the cathedral where he is organist Don't think he remembered me though. He was nice during the exam, and even nicer on the marks. Oh, and all my examiners for jazz piano were so kind, let me do scales one hand only if i wanted to, were ever so complimentary for some reason. I don't remember all the others...

I had Graham Salvage and he was WONDERFUL with my very small scared violin student.

I did my grade 8 piano yesterday, and my examiner (I think her name was Dianne O'Hara - maybe Dianne but definitely O'Hara) asked me G# minor contrary motion! I felt myself starting to panic and squeaked "contrary motion? at Grade 8?" and she was very nice and apologetic for putting me in shock! Iw went on to play it in 6ths and I'm proud to say it wasn't wrong either - I regained composure!

I can be unbiased now because I don't know my mark... I thought she was very nice. In that way it won't be swayed if she fails me or something!!

Hopefully shes not one of those nice smiley but evil and strict examiners! I had a few of those before

I can't really remember my examiners the only one I do remember is the same lady I had for Guildhall grades 3, 4 and 5 violin. Apart from that I don't really remember any of them.

I've had her!

Can't remeber any name apart from her though! I remeber for my initial piano grade when I was 5ish I had this horrible man - so grumpy and I couldn't open the door to get out so I had to go back and ask him - I was crying my eyes out it was scary! lol!

Bex

xxx

SNAP!! Exactly the same thing happened to me when I did my grade 6 about 3 years ago..I couldn't actuallly see where the door was... And the man was horrid.

Yesterday, examiner was Ian Clarke..lovely man. I made a few mistakes and couldnt get the words out in aural but I got the impression he was laughing with me not at me like horrible grade 6 dude.

Aww good luck with your results!

I cant remember names

BUT

I can remember the female examiner dancing in her seat as i played in my grade 4 violin exam, I was hoping it ment she was enjoying it!

Overall male examiners are better (not to be too sexist) but they get the job done quikly, ask fewer scales and generally show no emotion,

Besides, i usually force myself to forget exams within a few days, forget the pain!!!

Grades 2-5 did with another board and can't remember names.

Grade 6- A Nice examiner, but tried to kill me on my scales, and failed. Richard Stangroom.

My last examiner was called Howard Seymour and the examiner i had before that i can't remember his name but his initials were DW and i can't remember any others.

Their faces? More or less. Names? Well, I had never bothered to know.

Grade 1: A nice and friendly elderly man ( the best I've ever met )
Grade 3: Indifferent, scary old woman with white bushy hair in red suit
Grade 5: (Can't remember)
Grade 8: A frightening round-eyed old baldy
Diploma: A nice and friendly and bald-headed elderly man with impish almond-shaped eyes




Agreed!!!!

The good thing about these forums is that I always learn new adjectives and ways to describe people.

BTW, I never ever look at my examiners eyes...I always see their hair first.
My Grade 2 or 3 was a tomato head[it's very red] though

Oh so have I - I'm still hoping....

Ha! My last examiner would suggest otherwise. I got about 15 scales, took ages over the aurals because he kept chatting about random stuff, and if being very friendly counts as emotion, then he was that too!

I never had such an examiner that chatted about anything other than the exam. The best examiner I got was my Grade 6 one who pointed out at the end of the exam that I did very well in my 1st and 3rd piece but I was too slow at my 2nd piece.

hmm lets see *looks at examination sheets*
piano
grade 1 -christopher tilbury,(had a trainee in the room, and didnt no which one was actually christopher)
grade 2-stephen somehthing or other, cant remember his name, ( was really nice, gave me a merit, when i did really bad)
grade3- clara taylor -chief examiner(was getting really scared as shes like top rank and stuff but she was really nice, got distinction as well)
grade 4-russel burton- (was kinda unfriendly)

oh yea and for my violin grade 2 i had that guy that writes those books, cant remember his name, anthony something.

SAME HERE~THO,I REMEMBER WHO'S THE MEAN ONE AND THE COOL ONE lOl

Has anyone had Nigel Carver as examiner? I am too lazy to go to the exam venue to read his bio before my exam day and can't find any info about him on the internet.

If I were you, I wouldn't look him up! I looked up mine on Google (can't break the habit of 'googling' anything and everything) and was mightily scared by his credentials, and wished I hadn't!!!

Wow! Now that is a really well deserved distinction.....

Grade 4 recorder : Christopher Foster
Grade 3 treble : something Radcliffe
Grade 1 violin : Don't know ....
Grade 2 recorder : Don't know ....

Cant remember my piano grades 1,2 and 3 but for Grade 4 flute and piano I had Libby Crabtree