Thoughts about Piano Exams!!

[CarolW 10]

I've been learning to play the piano for the last couple of years, I'm now roughly a grade 3...

 

My piano teacher has been suggesting I start doing some of the exam grades :help:

 

Have any other "adult learners" done any of the piano grades and how did you get on with them??!!! Did you find them easy??

 

I'm in 2 minds whether I want to just play the music for enjoyment or go for the exams!!

 

 

any thoughts??!!!

[Chris_Sleeps 10]

I've taken them and they are useful. They're a stressful thing, but musical performance is. Ultimately no matter how badly they go, you'll learn something about your playing from them and that can only be a good thing. Put the work in, that is the only truth about the exams. Practice, practice, practice and more practice.

[MTheo 10]

Speaking from a guitar perspective..... i've never taken any gradings or exams, I realise they would help me out but the practice and study is something I don't have time for...also I feel that I may lose some of my creativity and enjoyment of music if i start learning the 'rules'.

[Fantomas 10]

also I feel that I may lose some of my creativity and enjoyment of music if i start learning the 'rules'.

 

Don't hide behind that. Learn as much theory as you can stomach - you'd be surprised how much it adds to your creativity by giving you new ways of thinking your way out of musical corners. If you then choose to break the rules that's no problem, nobody makes you stick to them (and in fact you definitely shouldn't in my opinion).

 

Having said that, I've never done any grades but I do try to learn as much as I can and have only ever found it useful.

[CarolW 10]

I've done one of the theory books for grade 2 - I seemed to remember quite a lot from learning music as a youngster....!!!! I played the violin - got to grade 4 or thereabouts, but again, never took any of the exams!! So it would be a bit of a new venture for me......

 

I've got a few bad habits which my piano teacher is desperately trying to knock out of me.... Like memorising the music, instead of reading it... Or as soon as I make a mistake, that's it, I stop completely and have to start again....... She definitely doesn't like that one!!!

 

I think I'll give the grade 3 music a try and see what happens........

[juliehoward 10]

Hi I'm writing a novel about a young eleven yr old Sheffield girl in the sixties.... does anyone know what music exams she might have taken... piano or violin? Maybe you did exams then. Love to hear about your experiences. Cheers

[Joeycrew 10]

My two pence worth . . If you have ambitions to be a concert pianist and just play classical piano taking exams are essential. I you would like to study music at music college, then again you need have passed a grade 8 music exam and done some theory as well to get accepted.

Taking exams mean you have to learn lots of different scales which are really helpful and important to be able to play (properly)!

I took exams but found having to learn a piece I didn't like and having to play exactly what was written down on the score restrictive?

I really started to enjoy playing when i realised I could improvise, so I threw most of the books away and played by ear with the help of a few basic chords (Fake Books).

 

---------- Post added 04-01-2018 at 14:17 ----------

 

Julie Howard

I had piano lessons in the sixties. They cost five shillings (25p an hour). I went to a piano teachers house who lived nearby . . her name was Mrs Walton from Hoyland. She was very strict and had a ruler which she used to bang your knuckles with if you played something wrong! I was a good pupil so it didn't happen to me that often!

You had to pay for your music books which were quite expensive.

I never took any exams with her (can't remember why not). But the piano exams were the A.B.R.S.M (Associated Board of the Royal School of Music) exams, just like they are now, don't thing they've changed much in 50 years. I took some exams later on when I was in my thirties.

Hope this helps with the writing of your book.

Stewart

Edited January 4, 2018 by Joeycrew
Extra information.

[juliehoward 10]

Hey... this is great. I have a character, an eleven year old girl who is a talented violinist and I wanted her to have also passed some piano exams but I wasn't sure which ones she would have taken in the sixties. Any more information from anyone would be great ...cheers

[Joeycrew 10]

I've told you all I know really.

Ask me specific question and I'll try and answer it!

[Becky B 31]

I've done one of the theory books for grade 2 - I seemed to remember quite a lot from learning music as a youngster....!!!! I played the violin - got to grade 4 or thereabouts, but again, never took any of the exams!! So it would be a bit of a new venture for me......

 

I've got a few bad habits which my piano teacher is desperately trying to knock out of me.... Like memorising the music, instead of reading it... Or as soon as I make a mistake, that's it, I stop completely and have to start again....... She definitely doesn't like that one!!!

 

I think I'll give the grade 3 music a try and see what happens........

 

Performance is about the art of bull****ting, I think. Never let on that you've made a mistake and the audience probably won't realise! It's really obvious if you pull a face, or stop though It's not a wrong note, it's a spontaneous creative decision...

 

There was a lovely quote that a friend of mine shared recently, from an ABRSM examiner, Peter Wild

"Little slips don't matter hugely as long as you have the confidence to continue the story".

[woolyhead 15]

Hey... this is great. I have a character, an eleven year old girl who is a talented violinist and I wanted her to have also passed some piano exams but I wasn't sure which ones she would have taken in the sixties. Any more information from anyone would be great ...cheers

 

If I can hijack this thread for a moment you may be interested to learn that I heard Eddie Calvert for the first time in 1948, just after WW2. His playing fascinated me and all I wanted from then on was a trumpet. But I was only 12 years old and we weren't well off so Mum and Dad couldn't afford a trumpet. Then on my way home from school a miracle happened! I saw a beautiful, gold coloured, used trumpet in the window of a pawn shop and priced at £25 but without a case. I asked inside if I could have it by paying weekly and the reply was no, but he did offer to put the instrument aside for me until I had enough money. Dad suggested I get a weekend job in the local Coop and use the money from that to buy the trumpet. I managed to get the job and spent every Saturday for the next year skinning cheeses and sweeping the shop etc for ten shillings (50p) a week until I had the £25. I paid the money in to the pawn shop weekly and got my receipt book signed for that week. Then came the wonderful day when I carried the beautiful object home. It was a Besson New Creation large bore model. Unknown to me this was a professional grade instrument and it's now worth about £500 or as much as you can get for it. It's now a vintage instrument and my one is in mint condition. The same model as played by Eddie Calvert, by quite a few others, including that trad jazzer with the bow tie, Harry James and another professional whose name I forget. I learned to play on it but then the chance of playing someone else's cornet came along and I played that instead. My beautiful trumpet stayed in its box that I'd since bought and now it's about 65 years old. I could go on but you may find this boring so I'll give it a rest but not before I've told you that using a different instrument I have played professionally in many sorts of orchestras and bands and all with no exams at all. I've played in Cy Laurie's jazz club opposite The Windmill theatre in London, with Sadlers Wells ballet, in the 100 Club and in countless dance bands all over the country. I know many other professional musicians, some with lots of exam passes, some with few or none. Getting work is more a case of who you now, not what exams you've passed (assuming you can play well in the first place.)

Edited March 2, 2018 by woolyhead

[juliehoward 10]

Loved reading this... you really brought the times alive for me.