radiantmum:

:celebrate: that's why salute you earlier mah. So help the clueless parent me again eh ... any idea what is LRSM huh?

After grade 8, ABRSM provides 3 diplomas, DipABRSM, LRSM, FRSM in order of difficulty. For Trinity/guildhall it's ATCL, LTCL, and FTCL.

lwzh:

As a parent, I am sometimes confused whether I should push him more. I want to know the roadmap for all SSAC students. Did they continue their music study after they graduated from Yamaha, and how could they continue their music life (composition and improvisation) if they want. It seems Yamaha hasn't provide this roadmap for them. Or same as you, continue your normal life, chosing music as a hobby. Or become a Yamaha music teacher. I guess you are a girl. Most boys don't want to be a young kid's teacher.[quote]

[/quote]
For students who are interested in composition, there's another course that follows after SSAC (1 hour a week group lesson).

For my class of 7 students, 5 continued with the composition course, and all of us continued taking individual lessons for at least another couple of years(most continued with their SSAC individual lesson teachers at yamaha, and one of them went on to learn with a nationally renowned teacher).

For me, I went back to one of my former JSAC teachers who had left yamaha. I continued learning the piano for another 4.5 years after SSAC ended and took 2 piano diplomas during that period. I stopped taking piano lessons only when i entered university. Other than my major, I'm also pursing a minor in music at my university currently (It's easy for former jsac/ssac students!).

As for my other classmates:

1) one of them got a scholarship after O levels(this isn't a typo!) to study music at degree level at the conservatory in NUS. The student just graduated and is going on to study masters in music overseas.

2)Another got a scholarship to study music and another subject at a renowned university overseas.

3)Yet another one completed the LRSM diploma just 2-3 years after graduating from SSAC.

4) The other playful student in the class (my yamaha best friend lol) is majoring in music at NIE.

5 -6) im no longer in contact with them=x

So regarding your question, yes! there is a pathway for ssac students after graduation. The journey of learning music doesn't just end abruptly after ssac.

I'm not really sure about 'guys not wanting to teach little children' but yea I'm female and I really enjoy teaching kids, even the playful mischievous ones=)

lwzh:

fawnfawn:

[quote=\"lwzh\"]
yes, and his Electone teacher is Ms. wong. how about yours?

WOW! Ms Liang taught me in 1996-1997 when I was in JSAC 1 and 2.

It's amazing, so you finished your JSAC study in Yamaha? did you continue to SSAC? How about your JSAC life 14 years ago? Now your job is music related?[/quote] Yes I finished JSAC and SSAC. I enjoyed my JSAC 'life' very much even though I was one of the more playful kids in class who clowned around a lot and made the other kids laugh. I wasn't a very consciencious kid; practised for my group lessons at the last minute and tried to find ways (such as going to the toilet) to avoid having to play on my own when i wasn't well prepared for lessons Despite that, i enjoyed music and didn't ever seriously want to quit (in fact my parents would use reverse psychology to motivate me by saying things like 'do you want to practise? if you don't want to learn anymore i will call yamaha to take you out' and that would get me practising) All that being said, fortunately, I was able to 'chiong' during exam period (eg. 6 hours a day) to make up for not practising earlier (though that shouldn't be the way!) and they mostly turned out quite alright=) So yup. That was my jsac life. I was a typical playful kid then, not the 'model student' or anything (I did regret not putting in more effort when i was younger though). lol

As for my job, I'm still studying at the moment but I teach a kid piano during the weekends.

lwzh:

fawnfawn:

[quote=\"lwzh\"]
My son's teacher is Ms. Liang, how about your son?

Is it Ms. Sarah Liang?

yes, and his Electone teacher is Ms. wong. how about yours?[/quote]WOW! Ms Liang taught me in 1996-1997 when I was in JSAC 1 and 2.

when I was a kid i would cry while being punished because my father saw tears as a 'sign of repentance' and 'not crying' as defiance so crying was a way to lessen the punishment. Gradually it became a conditioned reflex to cry when being scolded :roll:

lwzh:

My son's teacher is Ms. Liang, how about your son?

Is it Ms. Sarah Liang?

acforfamily:

Hi fawnfawn,
it's great to find someone who has gone through the course. My kid's class has students who learn the piano but they also don't follow the ABRSM syllabus ( nor take the exam). Wonder whether it's because they have changed the focus. They are now in JSAC3.

icic...I'm not sure if they changed anything since 6 years ago. Maybe it's because depending on the teacher, the focus on students is not taking exams. We did not take every single grade from grade 1 to grade 8 but focused more on learning more songs (as opposed to concentrating only got 3 songs each grade for examinations). For me i only took grades, 2, 4 and 8 (ABRSM) during the course. I remember learning songs from some YAMAHA books during the first few years of my course as well. The first song was 'The Swing'. lol.

acforfamily:

Interesting, this is one of the questions asked before the sign-up for the course. The representative said that there is NO dropout because the kids will be able to cope. The only dropouts are those whose parents are going overseas etc. Guess they were just trying to get us to sign up.

No regrets so far for the course except for the fees.

Well to be fair there was a girl in my course who dropped out because she migrated to italy=x but well. I guess there might be many other reasons such as loss of interest? One of my former classmates whom Im not in contact with anymore quitted in year 2 because he was unhappy that the teacher kept editting his composition such that it didn't sound like his song anymore and lost interest. A few other classmates dropped out because they were learning violin as well and they couldn't cope with learning too many instruments at once. I heard of another one who dropped out because her parent also signed her up for the nafa programme (gosh that means 3-4 piano lessons a week in total), and hence couldn't cope with both.

But well, from my point of view, I think as long as the child is not overloaded with too many activities on top of piano lessons, they should be able to cope with a little discipline, practice, and encouragement, and well of course..interest in learning music.

hi ngchris,

I know my reply came in a little late but if it’s of any help, I completed the entire Junior Special Advance Course (JSAC) and even went on to complete the Senior Special Advance Course (SSAC). The entire programme JSAC+SSAC lasted 8 years from when I was Primary 1 till Sec 2.

I found the course really interesting as we got to learn many different things such as improvisation and composition(that’s not really my interest though). We had one hour of individual lessons each week where we would follow the ABRSM syllabus (all students would finish Grade 8 by the end of the programme) and we would have 1 and a half hours of group lessons where we would follow the Yamaha JSAC/SSAC syllabus and take Yamaha exams.

During the group lessons, we learnt things like solfege singing, playing by ear, transposition(we had to transpose some songs into every single key), improvisation (eg. coming out with a 40 bar song impromptu based on a 2 bar motif). We also learnt how to fit chords to melodies. There’s also ensemble playing where each student in the class gets a different part to play on the electone. The lessons are quite well paced. Everyone in the course has perfect pitch to start with though.

I have to admit I was one of the lazier students in my group class (which was re-merged 3 times because many students couldn’t cope and dropped out along the way) but overall I found it really beneficial and never regretted joining it.

After the course, I continued learning the piano and took up to a Licentiate Diploma. Right now, I’m currently 20 years old and I teach piano part time:)

I would recommend that your child attend the course if he/she passes the audition. All the best. Feel free to PM me should you have any further queries.