Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A

[Dreamaurora]

Honesty:

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"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.[/quote]It is not advisable to skip grades, but the process of going through the syllabus can be accelerated and only selected piano exams are attempted. That means, even say a child takes grade 2 and wish only to attempt grade 5 next, he/she should still preferably go through the syllabus of grade 3 and 4; otherwise there will be a big and possibly insurmountable difficulty spike. It is for this reason that even NAFA Young Talents insist that you pass their internal exam for every single grade.

Students who can be accelerated generally need to be more intelligent and self-disciplined; they must be able to organise their practice sessions and troubleshoot most of problems by themselves even when parents supervise them. This means they should be able to learn most of the notes by themselves; for these children I just normally give them the scores and by the next lesson they would have read and learnt the notes by themselves.

They should also be technically secure. Good technical regime involving technical exercises and study pieces should be part of their routine. This is so they will have the tools necessary to execute the higher level of details and expressions required at higher grades; there is nothing more frustrating than compromising on details because the students are technically unable to achieve them.

And I think this is the most important one: the children must be intrinsically motivated themselves. They must be self-motivated to love music and to do well for exams. If the child does not want to do it, it will be just be an uphill battle and will kill the interest. It is possible to brute force the progress like NAFA Young Talents, but I always urge parents to remember the reason why they send their kids to piano lessons at the first place.

[Dreamaurora]

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?

Not exactly two times lar, because only the vowels are different. The solfege is as such because they help the pitching. Rounded vowels such as 'O' and 'A' are used to pitch the so called 'lower notes'. Nasal vowel such as 'I' easier to pitch 'higher notes'. This got to do with the way sound resonates within our jaw; a vocal teacher can explain this easier to you. Not using correct vowels for the accidental notes may result in slightly off-pitch singing, though I don't think pianists will be expected to sing pitch-perfect for exams. So I think for your son's case, it is okay to just use basic solfege even for the black keys.

[kathyh]

Oh, thanks, now I understand better


One more question is: for the black key right, let say, Eb is also D#, so we sing \"Me\" or \"Re\"?

Dreamaurora:

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?

Not exactly two times lar, because only the vowels are different. The solfege is as such because they help the pitching. Rounded vowels such as 'O' and 'A' are used to pitch the so called 'lower notes'. Nasal vowel such as 'I' easier to pitch 'higher notes'. This got to do with the way sound resonates within our jaw; a vocal teacher can explain this easier to you. Not using correct vowels for the accidental notes may result in slightly off-pitch singing, though I don't think pianists will be expected to sing pitch-perfect for exams. So I think for your son's case, it is okay to just use basic solfege even for the black keys.

[Honesty]

Thanks, Dreamaurora for your explanation. My DD is 8 this year and I believe a year preparation is good for her too. Her teacher basically asked her to learn the exam pieces herself. She will correct her if some notes are read wrongly or the fingerings are placed incorrectly.


After the upcoming exam, DD will explore classical/jazz pieces. Just wonder if it is still possible to prepare and take the gr 5 in Jul/Sep 14…

[Dreamaurora]

kathyh:

Oh, thanks, now I understand better


One more question is: for the black key right, let say, Eb is also D#, so we sing \"Me\" or \"Re\"?

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"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?

Not exactly two times lar, because only the vowels are different. The solfege is as such because they help the pitching. Rounded vowels such as 'O' and 'A' are used to pitch the so called 'lower notes'. Nasal vowel such as 'I' easier to pitch 'higher notes'. This got to do with the way sound resonates within our jaw; a vocal teacher can explain this easier to you. Not using correct vowels for the accidental notes may result in slightly off-pitch singing, though I don't think pianists will be expected to sing pitch-perfect for exams. So I think for your son's case, it is okay to just use basic solfege even for the black keys.

[/quote]Depend on how the note is approached and its harmonic function. Let's say the Eb is approached by downward scalic motion e.g. G F Eb. It will be easier to pitch it using mo or ma as the Eb is treated as a 'lower note'. But let's say it's other way around e.g. C D Eb, it will be easier to pitch the Eb as a D# instead i.e. Ri.

[Dreamaurora]

Honesty:

Thanks, Dreamaurora for your explanation. My DD is 8 this year and I believe a year preparation is good for her too. Her teacher basically asked her to learn the exam pieces herself. She will correct her if some notes are read wrongly or the fingerings are placed incorrectly.

After the upcoming exam, DD will explore classical/jazz pieces. Just wonder if it is still possible to prepare and take the gr 5 in Jul/Sep 14...

Well, you should probably sit down and plan together with your dd's teacher the planning for that. By the way, abrsm Singapore is going to resume graded jazz exam syllabus next year, you might want to consider it.

[Honesty]

Dreamaurora:

Honesty:

Thanks, Dreamaurora for your explanation. My DD is 8 this year and I believe a year preparation is good for her too. Her teacher basically asked her to learn the exam pieces herself. She will correct her if some notes are read wrongly or the fingerings are placed incorrectly.

After the upcoming exam, DD will explore classical/jazz pieces. Just wonder if it is still possible to prepare and take the gr 5 in Jul/Sep 14...

Well, you should probably sit down and plan together with your dd's teacher the planning for that. By the way, abrsm Singapore is going to resume graded jazz exam syllabus next year, you might want to consider it.

Wow, graded jazz syllabus! What will be the difference? :scratchhead:

[daffyhan]

Hi Dreamaurora, u’ve got mail.

[daffyhan]

Hi Dreamaurora,


Thanks much for your advice.

[Dreamaurora]

Honesty:

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"Honesty\"]
Thanks, Dreamaurora for your explanation. My DD is 8 this year and I believe a year preparation is good for her too. Her teacher basically asked her to learn the exam pieces herself. She will correct her if some notes are read wrongly or the fingerings are placed incorrectly.

After the upcoming exam, DD will explore classical/jazz pieces. Just wonder if it is still possible to prepare and take the gr 5 in Jul/Sep 14...

Well, you should probably sit down and plan together with your dd's teacher the planning for that. By the way, abrsm Singapore is going to resume graded jazz exam syllabus next year, you might want to consider it.

Wow, graded jazz syllabus! What will be the difference? :scratchhead:[/quote]Syllabus is here.

http://sg.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/jazz/jazz-piano/

I'm planning to take the grade 5 exam also next year.