Jumping from Grade 6 to Grade 8.

[chopinlover96]

 Im just wondering what it would be like jumping from Grade 6 to 8 as im not enjoying my Grade 7 pieces alot. Past experiences of people doing that explaing jumps in standard would be helpful. Thanks!

[beebert]

Of course it is possible. I haven't my self taken any of the exams though, but I went from playing quite boring(in my opinion) grade 6 pieces and being a grade 6 standard, to playing grade 8 pieces, now as a grade 8 standard(again, my opinion ) in 3 months, so why not? If you want to you will.. Though I practised like never before in my life during these 3 months.

[werq34ac]

Personally, I don't really see a problem with it as long as you aren't overexerting yourself. I mean kids skip school grades all the time right?

[ajspiano]

There's no problem jumping grades... it all music, there's no rule saying you should learn pieces in a given order of difficulty. Paticularly since if you take Grade six pieces, you'll find that each piece has different difficulties, so you may be well prepared for some Grade 8 difficulties, and poorly prepared for others.

Just realise that the harder the material gets the more glaringly obvious your technical flaws become. - Its easy to learn bad habits if you shoot ahead of yourself without an experienced eye watching over your shoulder. And make sure you don't hurt yourself by trying to force the skills into your hand by over practicing. If something is particularly difficult and you dont seem to be improving after practice you're probably moving in a bad way and need to fix that, not just practice more.

 

[pianoplayjl]

There is no problem with skipping grade 7 and going onto 8. Just be weary of the difficulty of pieces and how hard it gets. When I started 8th grade a few weeks ago I compared some of the sheet music between 7th and 8th grades. The structure, rhythm, everything was more complicated. IMO the jump between 6th and 8th grades are the largest jump you can get (not counting skipping diplomas). If you feel you are competent enough then you should go to 8th grade. If not feeling confident then still go to 8th grade but perhaps first learn 1-2 7th grade pieces first. Practice like hell and in no time 8th grade will feel like home.

JL

[williampiano]

I'm assuming you talking about ABRSM. I actually do Certificate of Merit, but I skipped a level in that twice and I didn't think it was too hard. Just make sure you are ambitious about it and you try hard to do so. I checked the playing syllabus for both levels and it definitely seems like a reasonable jump. There is a slight difference in the playing level of the pieces, but either way I still think its a good goal.
 

[gsmile]

It's totally fine, as long as you find the pieces not extremely difficult. Pieces get shifted around the grades every few years or so; the same piece might fit in 2 to 3 grades-- there are harder and easier pieces in every grade!