All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers
-
FantasyLandDreams:
Is it a must to pass grade 8 practical before a candidate can take the diploma exam?
For DipABRSM, yes, need to pass Grade 8. For the Teaching Diploma, there is additional requirement of grade 6 theory.
For ATCL, LTCL, no prerequisite at all, even a toddler can register for the Diplomas.
For DipLCM and ALCM, no practical grade required, but need to pass grade 5 Theory. -
Dreamaurora:
:thankyou:FantasyLandDreams:
Is it a must to pass grade 8 practical before a candidate can take the diploma exam?
For DipABRSM, yes, need to pass Grade 8. For the Teaching Diploma, there is additional requirement of grade 6 theory.
For ATCL, LTCL, no prerequisite at all, even a toddler can register for the Diplomas.
For DipLCM and ALCM, no practical grade required, but need to pass grade 5 Theory. -
Dreamaurora:
The pieces are really really long, right? Way longer than grade 8
For ATCL, LTCL, no prerequisite at all, even a toddler can register for the Diplomas.
And need to submit a report or something. Manageable?
How many years or how much time commitment to prepare for ATCL, LTCL?
Which one would you recommend ATCL or LTCL? -
sleepy:
Yeah, the duration of the pieces required for both ATCL and LTCL are exactly the same for DipABRSM and LRSM respectively. ATCL and DipABRSM require 32-38 minutes of pieces. LTCL and LRSM require 36-44 minutes.
The pieces are really really long, right? Way longer than grade 8Dreamaurora:
For ATCL, LTCL, no prerequisite at all, even a toddler can register for the Diplomas.
And need to submit a report or something. Manageable?
How many years or how much time commitment to prepare for ATCL, LTCL?
Which one would you recommend ATCL or LTCL?
ATCL and LTCL only need to prepare the programme notes, which will not be discussed during the exams. I am aware of instances where the some young students preparing ATCL and LTCL have the programme notes written by someone else. Whereas for DipABRSM and LRSM the programme notes will be discussed in the Viva Voce, so if the candidates do not write them, it is pretty obvious.
How long to prepare the ATCL and LTCL will depend on how strong the student's technical foundation, amount of practice time, and also the difficulty of the program. If the technique is poor and can't do a lot of things properly then may be a good idea to fix things first before the exam is prepared. But generally, if the students have reasonable technique and can practice around 1-2 hours a day, 2 years is a comfortable timeline to prepare ATCL after grade 8.
I don't recommend jumping to LTCL immediately, though I know some teachers promote this by smartly choosing the easier pieces in the list. I recommend grade 8 graduates to spend some time exploring and learning more repertoire from the list rather than just learning the bare minimum 32 minutes required for ATCL or DipABRSM exam. So learn around 45 minutes - 1 hour of music from the list and then choose the best 32 minutes to be performed for the exam. This will make learning more meaningful rather than just preparing for another exam. -
Dreamaurora:
Good summary for both ABRSM and trinity exams requirements!FantasyLandDreams:
Is it a must to pass grade 8 practical before a candidate can take the diploma exam?
For DipABRSM, yes, need to pass Grade 8. For the Teaching Diploma, there is additional requirement of grade 6 theory.
For ATCL, LTCL, no prerequisite at all, even a toddler can register for the Diplomas.
For DipLCM and ALCM, no practical grade required, but need to pass grade 5 Theory. -
cse1217:
Good summary for both ABRSM and trinity exams requirements![/quote]Toddler will not have the computer skills to register for the ATCL or LTCL DiplomasDreamaurora:
[quote=\"FantasyLandDreams\"]Is it a must to pass grade 8 practical before a candidate can take the diploma exam?
For DipABRSM, yes, need to pass Grade 8. For the Teaching Diploma, there is additional requirement of grade 6 theory.
For ATCL, LTCL, no prerequisite at all, even a toddler can register for the Diplomas.
For DipLCM and ALCM, no practical grade required, but need to pass grade 5 Theory.
:rahrah: :rotflmao:
-
Nissan,
My 3 children are happily learning in music key. The eldest child has moved 5 grade in 3 year. I don't think what YoU say is correct. We have been with them since the day the school started.
I agree with what sacredmusical say. Where got cheap and good teachers do home visitation.
-
phankao:
I agree, it depends on what parents expect. My child's teacher is strict, but I am ok as long as she gets her cert. I understand that to have a fun loving teacher, she may not had gotten her grade 6 at the age of 11.
Your teacher who's too far away for mine. haha.chamonix:
One thing I like about teachers with performance experience is that, with their network, it might be easier for them to find opportunities for their students to perform.
Not all music school teachers are of a lower standard. You just have to sniff out the good ones that work well with your kids. But first, one must define what a good teacher is. My kids had an excellent violin teacher but not all kids like him. He's extremely strict. Because of his strictness, my son has a good grounding in violin. Others might consider a good teacher as one that is friendly and enable to engage the kids. -
Lovely baby:
I agree, it depends on what parents expect. My child's teacher is strict, but I am ok as long as she gets her cert. I understand that to have a fun loving teacher, she may not had gotten her grade 6 at the age of 11.[/quote]I think it is important to define the exact parameters of what we are looking for in a teacher before actually starting the lessons, that will help narrow down the range of teachers to select. If say you are looking for a teacher who can produce grade 8 distinction before 12 years old or competition winners, then the circle of teachers who can do these is incredibly small.
Your teacher who's too far away for mine. haha.phankao:
[quote=\"chamonix\"]One thing I like about teachers with performance experience is that, with their network, it might be easier for them to find opportunities for their students to perform.
Not all music school teachers are of a lower standard. You just have to sniff out the good ones that work well with your kids. But first, one must define what a good teacher is. My kids had an excellent violin teacher but not all kids like him. He's extremely strict. Because of his strictness, my son has a good grounding in violin. Others might consider a good teacher as one that is friendly and enable to engage the kids.
What often happens is parents often get a conveniently available teacher first, and then start to impose demands outside what the teacher can do as the child progresses. So let's take for an example an 8 year old-child learns with a home visiting teacher preparing grade 2 and then her parents found out one of her classmates already passed grade 5. Parents then started to wonder why their DD did not progress the same and expect the home visiting teacher to be able to achieve the same. Teacher refused to do so and then parents thought teacher no good and scrambled to find another good teacher.
The above story actually happened to one of my friends. It is unfair to her obviously because it is outside her job scope and capability. I always caution parents who have the mindset to only get stricter and technically more proficient teachers when the child 'shows more interest',usually because such teachers are significantly more expensive and do not travel. It is really confusing to the child as the first teacher may be much more lax in enforcing good playing and technique. When the child switches to a strict teacher, then he/she would encounter a massive difficulty jump and realise that it actually takes so much more effort and discipline to play well. Child got turned off by lessons and then asks parents to stop lessons. I can tell you from personal experience that few students survive this kind of transfer unless the students themselves are very competitive themselves.
So my advice to parents is if they desire to see their children playing all the fantastic grade 8 and diploma pieces in the long term, then get a teacher who can achieve this right from the start. If a teacher is chosen more for the children to enjoy piano as hobby, then don't expect the teacher to produce awesome exam results and very high standard of playing. -
Dreamaurora:
:goodpost: Dreamaurora, what you described is similar to what happened to me a few times. It is disheartening when parents remove students from lessons despite us putting our heart and soul into lessons just because they start comparing progress with other children. I hope parents will take heed of your advice.
I think it is important to define the exact parameters of what we are looking for in a teacher before actually starting the lessons, that will help narrow down the range of teachers to select. If say you are looking for a teacher who can produce grade 8 distinction before 12 years old or competition winners, then the circle of teachers who can do these is incredibly small.
What often happens is parents often get a conveniently available teacher first, and then start to impose demands outside what the teacher can do as the child progresses. So let's take for an example an 8 year old-child learns with a home visiting teacher preparing grade 2 and then her parents found out one of her classmates already passed grade 5. Parents then started to wonder why their DD did not progress the same and expect the home visiting teacher to be able to achieve the same. Teacher refused to do so and then parents thought teacher no good and scrambled to find another good teacher.
The above story actually happened to one of my friends. It is unfair to her obviously because it is outside her job scope and capability. I always caution parents who have the mindset to only get stricter and technically more proficient teachers when the child 'shows more interest',usually because such teachers are significantly more expensive and do not travel. It is really confusing to the child as the first teacher may be much more lax in enforcing good playing and technique. When the child switches to a strict teacher, then he/she would encounter a massive difficulty jump and realise that it actually takes so much more effort and discipline to play well. Child got turned off by lessons and then asks parents to stop lessons. I can tell you from personal experience that few students survive this kind of transfer unless the students themselves are very competitive themselves.
So my advice to parents is if they desire to see their children playing all the fantastic grade 8 and diploma pieces in the long term, then get a teacher who can achieve this right from the start. If a teacher is chosen more for the children to enjoy piano as hobby, then don't expect the teacher to produce awesome exam results and very high standard of playing.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login