Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A

[snappleapple]

Dreamaurora:

snappleapple:

Hi there parents. I am back after being away for a while to settle my school work.

I just took my G1 music theory on last saturday and i was given the 'S' paper. Does anybody have any idea what does S paper stand for?

It is just a title code for the paper signifying the period you take the paper.

Okay. Thanks a lot!

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

snappleapple:

Hi there parents. I am back after being away for a while to settle my school work.

I just took my G1 music theory on last saturday and i was given the 'S' paper. Does anybody have any idea what does S paper stand for?

It is just a title code for the paper signifying the period you take the paper.

When would the results be out - any idea?

[Dreamaurora]

phankao:

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"snappleapple\"]Hi there parents. I am back after being away for a while to settle my school work.

I just took my G1 music theory on last saturday and i was given the 'S' paper. Does anybody have any idea what does S paper stand for?

It is just a title code for the paper signifying the period you take the paper.

When would the results be out - any idea?[/quote]Around 6 weeks. Should be out the first week of may.

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

phankao:

=

When would the results be out - any idea?

Around 6 weeks. Should be out the first week of may.

Great - thanks.

[Honesty]

Hi Dreamaurora,


Due to my DD’s small fingers, the piano teacher said it would require a year to master ABRSM Grade 5 practical. How true is it and is there a solution? Many thanks

[Dreamaurora]

Honesty:

Hi Dreamaurora,


Due to my DD's small fingers, the piano teacher said it would require a year to master ABRSM Grade 5 practical. How true is it and is there a solution? Many thanks

Speaking from personal experience of preparing young children for grade 5(I've prepared 2 6 year olds and a 8 year old for grade 5 ABRSM), to prepare all the components well and score distinctions for grade 5 practical, a one year preparation is ideal. Not because hand is small, but because the supporting components are significantly more difficult than earlier grades i.e. scales, aural, sight reading and need more time to prepare. Teenagers and adults can prepare these components better and faster due to their higher cognitive skills, but I still recommend at least one year preparation.

I've attempted to prepare students with shorter duration before, but the result is less than optimal. Just recently I've entered a 8 year old boy for the February exam session to attempt grade 5 ABRSM (a side note, I normally do not allow this but the boy and the parent themselves say they really wanted to try and they understood that some compromises would be made); the boy started preparing from early September last year and the supporting components were not fully prepared. He scored distinctions for his pieces but took quite big penalty to other components and scored only merit overall.

Small hands will limit the choice of repertoire, but with careful consideration and some clever omissions or rearrangements of notes young kids still can play grade 5 repertoire well. Personally, I don't think small hand is a barrier to attempt grade 5, perhaps your DD's teacher just use it as convenient excuse to convince you to have at least one year to prepare. For grade 8 though, if cannot reach octave comfortably yet not recommended to try. There is no solution to small hands short of growing up, because well, you are born with them (yes, I myself have small hands and many of my students have longer fingers than mine). Technical studies can help extend the stretch between the fingers but you can't actually do anything to extend the length of the fingers.

[kathyh]

I finally realized that my child has perfect pitch rather than relative pitch.

So the movable "Do" does not really work for him. So can we keep using the way that we have been using, i.e., sing fixed "Do"?

Singing with "C D E F G A B" does not work either, coz have been using Do Re Me for nearly 2 years, found very difficult and weird to switch.

Now my problem is, when it comes to majors other than C majors where we see flats and sharps, how do we sing?

Like in E flat major, e.g., G-Eb-F-G-Ab, do we sing So-Mi-Fa-So-La or So-Me flat-Fa-So-La flat?

TIA

[Honesty]

Dreamaurora:

Honesty:

Hi Dreamaurora,


Due to my DD's small fingers, the piano teacher said it would require a year to master ABRSM Grade 5 practical. How true is it and is there a solution? Many thanks

Speaking from personal experience of preparing young children for grade 5(I've prepared 2 6 year olds and a 8 year old for grade 5 ABRSM), to prepare all the components well and score distinctions for grade 5 practical, a one year preparation is ideal. Not because hand is small, but because the supporting components are significantly more difficult than earlier grades i.e. scales, aural, sight reading and need more time to prepare. Teenagers and adults can prepare these components better and faster due to their higher cognitive skills, but I still recommend at least one year preparation.

I've attempted to prepare students with shorter duration before, but the result is less than optimal. Just recently I've entered a 8 year old boy for the February exam session to attempt grade 5 ABRSM (a side note, I normally do not allow this but the boy and the parent themselves say they really wanted to try and they understood that some compromises would be made); the boy started preparing from early September last year and the supporting components were not fully prepared. He scored distinctions for his pieces but took quite big penalty to other components and scored only merit overall.

Small hands will limit the choice of repertoire, but with careful consideration and some clever omissions or rearrangements of notes young kids still can play grade 5 repertoire well. Personally, I don't think small hand is a barrier to attempt grade 5, perhaps your DD's teacher just use it as convenient excuse to convince you to have at least one year to prepare. For grade 8 though, if cannot reach octave comfortably yet not recommended to try. There is no solution to small hands short of growing up, because well, you are born with them (yes, I myself have small hands and many of my students have longer fingers than mine). Technical studies can help extend the stretch between the fingers but you can't actually do anything to extend the length of the fingers.

Thanks Dreamaurora! This is really informative. How does a teacher determine if the student is suitable to skip grades? For example, gr 1 to gr 3 or gr 2 - 4, etc.

[Dreamaurora]

kathyh:

I finally realized that my child has perfect pitch rather than relative pitch.

So the movable \"Do\" does not really work for him. So can we keep using the way that we have been using, i.e., sing fixed \"Do\"?

Singing with \"C D E F G A B\" does not work either, coz have been using Do Re Me for nearly 2 years, found very difficult and weird to switch.

Now my problem is, when it comes to majors other than C majors where we see flats and sharps, how do we sing?

Like in E flat major, e.g., G-Eb-F-G-Ab, do we sing So-Mi-Fa-So-La or So-Me flat-Fa-So-La flat?

TIA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge

Refer to the chromatic variants of fixed do table

So for example G-Eb-F-G-Ab

can use sol-me-fa-sol-lo

[kathyh]

means have to remember at least two times more syllables ? that seems too much for kids, any better alternative? or just ignore the sharp and flat will do?

Dreamaurora:

kathyh:

I finally realized that my child has perfect pitch rather than relative pitch.
So the movable \"Do\" does not really work for him. So can we keep using the way that we have been using, i.e., sing fixed \"Do\"?

Singing with \"C D E F G A B\" does not work either, coz have been using Do Re Me for nearly 2 years, found very difficult and weird to switch.

Now my problem is, when it comes to majors other than C majors where we see flats and sharps, how do we sing?

Like in E flat major, e.g., G-Eb-F-G-Ab, do we sing So-Mi-Fa-So-La or So-Me flat-Fa-So-La flat?

TIA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge

Refer to the chromatic variants of fixed do table

So for example G-Eb-F-G-Ab

can use sol-me-fa-sol-lo