All About ABRSM Grades & Support

[Dreamaurora]

ksi:

Dreamaurora....why need the study on the co-relation?


Would you like to be pushed into doing something if you have no real talent nor interest? One time result may not be talent, it might just be diligence and luck.

Assuming if you have the talent but no interest, do you like to be pushed into doing something?

So I think the answer is quite clear why people avoid those talent academies.

In fact, I think by putting up such information of performance of your students without qualifying their background properly, you are potentially helping to \"slaughter\" more children by giving the impression that any 6 YOs can do it with pushing.

Thank you for your view. Your view is quite common among young parents nowadays that I have encountered. But yet judging by the amount of parents trying to audition for these talent academies, the demand is still very much there.

Let me reveal more background now about the children now that the responses are coming. I did not teach this pair of twin (one boy, one girl) from beginner level. They started out from a music school first at the age of 4, then they auditioned for School of Young Talents approximately around last year mid-year and got rejected. Upon recommendation by a friend of theirs, they switched to me in September.

At this point, their previous teacher just started them on a grade 2 ABRSM exam piece. They improved rapidly and I secretly introduced grade 5 exam pieces into their repertoire (I did not use pieces from the exam book) but I did not tell the parents yet. By the time the registration for July-September exam closes in early March, they could play 2 of the grade 5 exam pieces from beginning to end and around half of the grade 5 scales requirement. The parents are convinced enough to let the twin try for grade 5.

Now, is there any hothousing involved in this whole process? Believe it or not, no. I had a good talk with the parents when they started out with me and we agreed that the most important thing is for the kids to enjoy playing piano. Both of us agree not to scold the kids if they do not play well or do not practice as much as they should. One of my main philosophies in teaching is that my students must smile and be happy when they come to my lessons or perform and I intend to keep it. We praise the kids when they made good progress and encourage them as much as we could. The parents would try to sit down with them at least one hour per day even though neither of them play piano, but the rest of the time the kids practiced themselves. I had to say the two kids enjoyed coming to lessons and they always could not wait to play their pieces in my lessons. The only thing the parents had to force them to practice were the scales, understandably because scales are damn boring to practice anyway and grade 5 ABRSM has A LOT of scales. But in any case, I was pleasantly surprised when I got back the results. I actually predicted they would get low merit (120-125) or worst case scenario good pass (110-120).

I sincerely hope I do not give the impression that 'any 6YO can do it'. The main purpose of this 6 year old grade 5 experiment thing is basically to see if it is possible to achieve good results at this young age without compromising their enjoyment of learning piano. Is this the result of luck and pure diligence? Maybe. Will I be willing to try this again with another children? I do not know yet.

By the way, the children will not be taking grade 8 any time soon. I discussed with the parents and we would prefer to give them more performance oppurtunities first since the kids enjoy learning pieces (and not so much of scales, sight reading, aural). So we are actually working towards their first recitals now.

[sacredmusicals]

I apologize if i sound hostile to you earlier. Its just that i got very agitated whenever a teacher tried to brag about exam results to public. I read through your last post and you seem to be a genuinely passionate educator. But still i question your motive in entering these two kids into the exams. I have a feeling that you deliberately aim to break that record set by khoong sook meng in 2009. I hope you do not use these kids as your quick ticket to fame as I understand that you have been only teaching for 4 years. Your philosophy on students smiling and enjoying lesson is a beautiful one and I hope you keep to this even as you get more famous.


As a teacher to another teacher, if everything you said is true, the twins are fortunate to have you as their teacher. I hope you do not squander their gifts.

[metz]

phtthp:

he must be a musical child prodigy.

You mean the kid who passed grade 5 theory with distinction at 7 year old? Maybe? Read that the kid started from scratch, spent 6-7 months on preparation. The mother wrote it was the worst period in their musical journey and wouldn't allow the kid to do that way if she had to decide again. Her exact words -

Looking back, I think it was the worst period in my dd's musical journey - she didn't enjoy it at all with all the writing, transposing etc. The teacher was persuasive and always convinced us she could do it. She may have passed but she paid the price - she doesn't recall most of what was taught for the exam. Was it worth it? I think not.

[Dreamaurora]

chamonix:

phtthp:

he must be a musical child prodigy.

You mean the kid who passed grade 5 theory with distinction at 7 year old? Maybe? Read that the kid started from scratch, spent 6-7 months on preparation. The mother wrote it was the worst period in their musical journey and wouldn't allow the kid to do that way if she had to decide again. Her exact words -

Looking back, I think it was the worst period in my dd's musical journey - she didn't enjoy it at all with all the writing, transposing etc. The teacher was persuasive and always convinced us she could do it. She may have passed but she paid the price - she doesn't recall most of what was taught for the exam. Was it worth it? I think not.

While we are on this topic, I would like to say that as a teacher I refrain from using superficial words such as 'talented', 'prodigy', etc on students. These words are very ambiguous and what one person considers 'talented' could mean 'totally crap' for another person.

Instead I prefers to be honest with students about their strengths and weaknesses. There is no such thing such as a perfect or ideal student, especially when it comes to performing art. For example a student may be blessed with extremely good hand eye coordination that allows his to play complex piano etudes with ease, but cannot sight read to save his life. A student may learn the notes for the music very fast, but may have big issue with stage fright.

So as a piano teacher we need to make the students realise that to enjoy learning music, first they have to accept that all of them have strengths and weaknesses. And second, that they don't tie their self-esteem to people's opinions. So what if people say you are not talented? Stop learning piano immediately?

This is quite hard to express. Hopefully my view on this is clear.

[dasalo]

Dreamaurora:

While we are on this topic, I would like to say that as a teacher I refrain from using superficial words such as 'talented', 'prodigy', etc on students. These words are very ambiguous and what one person considers 'talented' could mean 'totally crap' for another person.

Very true. 6 yrs /grade 5 distinctions is possible. Know afew in SYT many years back.

[ciaobella]

Pls advise if Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) is a common exam body for piano. Which exam body is more recognized?

[jce]

Yes, it is one of the oldest and internationally recognised around

[ciaobella]

Thanks jce.

Do we skip grade or must take exam for every grade?

[jce]

That’s up to the teacher to decide. You may skip, not compulsory to take every grade. A grade 8 is needed to proceed to the diplomas. A grade 5 THEORY is needed to proceed to grade 6-8 practical.

[ciaobella]

Thanks, jce