Just starting ABRSM grade 8

[chillout]

Hi,
I took 7 months on doing grade 7 but I did not take the exam although my teacher said I had acumplished what I needed to achieve before moving onto 8.
I will be taking grade 8 hopfully in 12 months time.Looking at grade 8 does seem to me to be a big leap after 7.
How long really do you think is needed to accumplish grade 8 and how much practice time do I need each day?

Regards,
Daz

[llamaman]

Depends. Maybe around 4 hours if you really want to conquer it.

[steve jones]

I agree, if you cant sort it out within four hours then Id forget it 

Ok, seriously!

I guess it would depend on the amount of work you feel needs to be done. If it just a matter of learning and nailing three pieces, then I would think about six months. But if you really need to up your game, requiring significant development then maybe a year is more realistic. Your teach is the best one for this question really, as only they know what level you're at now.

Btw, which pieces are you taking? Another member and I were only discussing this grade the other day. We concluded that certain pieces are much easier than others. For example, Beethoven Op90 in the B list seems incredibly difficult in comparison to others in the same list. That said, I only think that because I have trouble with the tenth!

I wish you all the best, and please keep us posted on your progress.

[chillout]

At best I can only get in 2 hours practice ,so im hoping this will be enough.At the very latest I do have 18 months practice period for entering the exam in 2007 early spring,     but if I fail I wont have the option of retaking the exam for these chosen pieces ,which are.
The 3 pieces I have chosen are.

Allemande,from Partita No.4 in D.
Allegro assai from Sonata in F minor.
Impromtu from Quatre morceaux pour piano,op.25.

Is it a good idea to break in all 3 pieces together so that all 3 will come together at the same time,because in doing the earlier grades I would take 2 months to learn the notes for the 1st piece before looking at the 2nd piece.So after 6 months I would have only learned the notes for the 3rd piece and the 1st piece would be memorised.

Regards,
Daz

[jehangircama]

two hours a day is well enough with the time you have. I gave grade 8 trinity with that much practice( infact i managed 2 hrs a day only towards the end) and apart from the aurals did reasonably well.. but i've heard that royal is stricter in its marking anyways best of luck.

[steve jones]

Yeah, Trinity do have tend to let you off the hook a little if the pieces are up to scratch. A friend of mine took the Trinity Rock School gr8 for guitar a few years ago, and pass with flying colours. Yet he reckon he could hardly answer the questions.

Im not sure what ABRSM are like (never taken one of their exams).

[jehangircama]

i think their grading is tougher, though the pieces of trinity are possibly tougher..

[steve jones]

I would tend to agree. The classical guitar grades are not too bad, but the Rock School is extremely tough, imo atleast.

I havent checked out any of the Trinity piano grades yet, I have enough on my plate with the ABSRM right now 

Chillout,

I heard someone say on this board that the Mozart piece in list B is particularly easy for gr8. Have had a look at this one?

[jehangircama]

no it must have changed, i had to do a really slow chopin prelude with a painful cadenza

[jim_24601]

I was doing about 2 hours a day when I was working on my grade 8, and I also skipped grade 7, so it can be done. If your teacher says you had reached grade 7 standard, then you should be fine.

I have been looking at this year's grade 8 list myself, as Steve said. I sort of learned the allemande, too, by which I mean that I can bash through it from memory without stuffing up too often, but it isn't really very good yet. I'm letting it lie fallow for a bit while I work on other stuff.

[026497]

First, what is your target? distinction, merit or just pass. If you want to get over 130, you need to play 2 hours per day. about 5 months. If you simply want to pass, plactise 1 hour per day, 3 months is enough.
I think the Trinity exam is far more easier than the ABRSM.

[chillout]

1 hour a day for 3 months to me is not enough.I could spend 1 hour on the scales and arpeggios alone.
May be if you had many years at playing the piano but for me I have only 4 years at this time so I need more time to work on grade 8.I would be very happy to achieve a merit.

Having only had 4 years playing I know my downfall is going to be the sight reading and the aural parts.

[allthumbs]

Greetings

Hi,
I took 7 months on doing grade 7 but I did not take the exam although my teacher said I had acumplished what I needed to achieve before moving onto 8.
I will be taking grade 8 hopfully in 12 months time.Looking at grade 8 does seem to me to be a big leap after 7.
How long really do you think is needed to accumplish grade 8 and how much practice time do I need each day?

Regards,
Daz

I think you'll find that each grade level you go from here will have an increasingly wider leap between levels and consequently a parallel increase in practice time to achieve the same reslut (oops.. I meant result ).

I'm assuming of course there are levels after Grade 8 in the system you are working under.

RCM, which I am familiar with has Grade 9 and 10 plus the ARCT Associate level.

Cheers

[jim_24601]

8 is the highest of the numbered grades in the ABRSM. After that it goes DipABRSM (Diploma), LRSM (Licentiate), FRSM (Fellowship). You could sort of consider DipABRSM as Grade 9, beyond that you're really getting into the rarefied strata of virtuosity