Pros and Cons of Piano Exams

[sueyin]

Hi everyone:

Just thought it would be interesting to get your view on the pros and cons of piano exams and also to find out what kind of exams you have in your country.

I'm from Malaysia.  In my country, we do the ABRSM exam from Grade 1 - 8, followed by the Associate Diploma, then the Licenciate Diploma.  I think the Licentiate is considered about Bachelor's degree in Music.

Anyway, all my music life, I have had to take exams almost every year.  One year, I skipped because I was sick but the next year I took the next grade exam.  So every year, we play the same three exam pieces for seven to eight months and we do sight reading, aural tests as well. 

Thing is, I get so burned out after the exams and so tired of playing the pieces for so long - you can imagine playing a piece for 8 months! YUK!  So I passed my Grade 8 exam and my parents want me to do my diploma but I'm so sick and tired of exams I cannot even think about it.  So I haven't been practicing since my exam three months ago. 

Many people tell me it's good to do exams.  Otherwise how will you know how much you have learned, they say.  Exams give you a standard that you have to get to, they say.

But I have a lot of American friends and they tell me they don't have any piano exams in the US.  So I asked them what they're playing and they seem to have a large and interesting repertoire.  They also perform in recitals and piano competitions or festivals they call it and it all seems like so much more fun.  Some of them who have been learning piano for seven or eight years even play concertos!!  In my country, it's unheard of because all we do are boring exams!  One of my friends from the US is now studying in Julliard and he never took an exam in his life!!  While none of my friends in my country have ended up in a prestigious institution like Julliard.  All we do is exams, exams, exams, then we become piano teachers or nothing.

So what do you think about exams?  Do you think it makes or breaks a piano student?  What do you think of the American method of not having exams but more repertoire, concertos, etc and their big schools like Julliard, Curtis, MSM?

Would be very interested in all your opinions.

[angierc]

Hi there Sueyin... I'm from your neighbouring country, Indonesia, and I take some ABRSM exams too...
In my opinion, exams are supposed to assess your improvement in music, not an absolute parameter. What makes it difficult in our countries is that it's still too isolated compared to the US or Europe.. That's why exam's still needed. But not to the extend of practicing the same pieces for MONTHS!!! (I only practiced my grade 8 exam pieces for less than 2 months, and somehow I got high score)
You learn more from competitions, festivals, and concerts, in my opinion.
I even skipped a few grades of my exams for it, since I think I improve more by participating in those competition, concerts, etc..
You SHOULD NOT compare with your US friends... We do not have like 90% teachers graduated from conservatoire.. (in my town, the teachers graduated with a music degree is less than 5%)
THey have good-skilled teachers, so those teachers can assess their own students.. Of course your friends don't need exams...

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I don't think anything of it. 

I haven't done a competition, music festival, piano concerto, recital, or exam before and I would like to try one.  I think it would be kind of cool!  I've always wanted to dress up in a tux and walk on stage and act all boss!  But do you even have to dress for exams?

This is how I role:  do what feels good!  Play what you wanna play!  And if you're not good enough to play what you wanna play, then get good enough to play what you wanna play!   


YOLO

[j_menz]

I've always wanted to dress up in a tux and walk on stage and act all boss!  But do you even have to dress for exams?

My understanding is that dressing is highly encouraged. Playing naked would offend, or at least distract, the judges.  A tux for an exam would be overkill, though.

[angierc]

I've always wanted to dress up in a tux and walk on stage and act all boss!  But do you even have to dress for exams?

At least not shorts or jeans...
You should 'dress up in a tux and walk on stage' but not act all boss though... It has a nice feeling.. Although in my case, I wear dress... 

My understanding is that dressing is highly encouraged. Playing naked would offend, or at least distract, the judges.  A tux for an exam would be overkill, though.

LOL!!

[p2u_]

Pros and Cons of Piano Exams

Piano exams are a nuisance as long as the student has not finished his/her basic technical development. It's, of course, how you define "basic", but students should be exempted from taking them until their teacher/coach is ready to give them the green light.

Paul

[iansinclair]

Seems to me that piano exams are, or could be, a useful tool to compare one's technical level or factual knowledge of piano and music to some objective standard -- and thus could be helpful in countries which do not have a long established western musical tradition, as angierc noted.

What they don't measure -- and can't measure -- is the emotional aspect of music making: the ability of the pianist to feel and express what is in the music; the drive which the pianist has to make a go of a career, if that's what he or she wants; the ability of the pianist to take setbacks in their progress or tough times and keep going.

[p2u_]

Seems to me that piano exams are, or could be, a useful tool to compare one's technical level or factual knowledge of piano and music to some objective standard -- and thus could be helpful in countries which do not have a long established western musical tradition, as angierc noted.

With one disclaimer, I would add: if they are taken before the student is really ready for them (I see that happen every year at several institutions), they enforce a "teachers-are-God-and-I-am-a-loser" mindset in the student, which is actually conditioning/programming people for failure. I really think they should be abolished. There are many other ways to get a certain development graph for a student. An exam before graduating is appropriate, of course.

Paul

[sueyin]

Thanks, guys, for all your views.  I guess there are pros and cons.  I am maybe a bit biased as someone who has been forced to take piano exams every year both by my teachers and my parents.  It was like, as soon as I got my results for the previous exam and sometimes even before I got my results, my teacher was getting me to begin the next year's pieces and scales and what not.  So after all these years of piano, guess what?  I have nothing in my repertoire!  Nothing!  My friends tell me I can play the pieces that I learned for my exam but that's like the last thing I want to do! Can you all understand that?  I'm sure you can.

I also feel that taking exams every year or almost every year stifles creativity.  My teachers never allowed me to think about a piece or how I would like to play it.  It was always play it their way.  So I was like a robot.  Then when the results came and I had glowing praises from the examiner, they would be so proud and boasting and all that, but I didn't feel the same way.  It was just a piece of paper.  It didn't say anything about my interpretation or about the composer's intentions.  Stuff my American friends talk about.  It said things like I had a sparkling touch.  Big deal.  Problem too is that I feel I was so spoonfed that I feel incompetent to take on challenging pieces without the guidance of a teacher.  Or I feel that a piece has to be absolutely perfect, like we do when preparing for exams, so I'm afraid to go near a piece in case I don't play it perfectly or correctly and it takes the fun out of learning a new piece.

[pytheamateur]

Well done for getting through all those number grades.  I totally understand that it can be boring to play 3 pieces for 8 months, especially when you are doing the lower grades where the pieces are very often not great pieces of music.
 
However, you should not feel the same way now about the Associate diploma.  You are dealing with proper piano repertoire.  There are so many gems on the ATCL syllabus for example, that I am happy studying and playing them for the rest of my life.

[p2u_]

@ sueyin

I didn't know what to quote, so I chose not to quote anything. Your post expresses very well what I was hinting at; the system for the benefit of the system itself. You have to be very,  very strong to survive that.

I think you should try anyway to free yourself from all that and rediscover the joy of piano playing. I don't know, but are you strong enough to teach yourself? (with a little help from outside maybe)

Paul

[chopantasy]

especially when you are doing the lower grades where the pieces are very often not great pieces of music.

Mozart, Handel, Bach, Purcell - not great music?  It's not what you play it's how you play anyway.

[p2u_]

Mozart, Handel, Bach, Purcell - not great music?  It's not what you play it's how you play anyway.

Yes, but that is a bit out of scope here.

The point is that if you feed a human being with one and the same kind of food for 8 months, even if it was initially tasty, at a certain point he'll start vomiting and will most probably die. The bit of artist that is already present in the student also dies if he/she, for the sake of those exams only, has to drill the same pieces over and over for such a long period of time, even more so if they realize that their peers elsewhere are having a lot more fun, have a more balanced technique to play a wider range of repertoire, and are generally developing a lot faster.

Paul

[hfmadopter]

So what do you think about exams?  Do you think it makes or breaks a piano student?  What do you think of the American method of not having exams but more repertoire, concertos, etc and their big schools like Julliard, Curtis, MSM?

Would be very interested in all your opinions.

Sounds like your system over there is out of balance. But that's not to say you can't add to your own experience. I am in the US and indeed did not even know I had played level 8 music till I joined this site. So in that respect you are one up on us or at least me. Seems to me official exams are good for one who wants to go on in your country and maybe teach, maybe that's even required. Here people have made millions on music and never had a music lesson ( I'm thinking in terms of music like country music for instance). Others struggle to pull off a decent recital at their own expense. So it's not all glorious our way either.

I think what I'm getting at is don't quit, do your exams or what your system requires there but branch off and teach yourself some other interesting music as well. Something that will be fun to do. For instance I like to take simple musical theater or movie theme songs ( the easy playing versions) and add my own fill into them, embellish them if you will. That's my fun outlet from classical. You can even do it from cheat  sheets or books. And here people love the results. You can download the music probably from this site though I tend to use Musicnotes.com for those particular kinds of sheets.

Keep at it, the biggest mistake I ever made was stopping playing after 10 years of piano and 4 years of accordian lessons. Now I'm doing catch up work, silly !

[sueyin]

Thanks, Paul and hfmadopter and everyone else. 

Paul, your last comment was quite funny!  But I did feel like that - vomiting - after playing the same three pieces for eight months.  So now I'm not playing anything.  It's not that I have completely lost interest.  I acquired all kinds of new popular music like Yiruma and Einaudi but I just haven't had any desire to play. I've seen fake books but don't know how to use because I was never taught how to improvise.  Though it sounds quite interesting.  Maybe I'm afraid of playing on my own.  I'm not sure but I know I don't have the motivation now. 

I also found when I was taking lessons and being pushed all the time to do exam stuff that often I couldn't take a long break if I needed or wanted to.  Maybe that was a good thing because I didn't quit but on the other hand, is that normal?  Isn't it normal to want or need to take a long vacation from something once in a while?  I've been following this forum and some of the pros say it's good to even put a piece on vacation.  It allows it to get into your deeper recall or something but I wasn't taught that way.  It was practice for 8 months almost non-stop, except for a week of holiday here and there but always returning to the pieces till the exam, even if you were sick to death of them.  But then I think of students in Julliard and other places - don't they have to take exams often, too?  Do they practice the same pieces over and over for a long time, too? 

Thanks again all of you for allowing me to vent and listen to both sides.  I cannot tell my parents how I feel.  They'll tell me I'm at the obstinate age and it's not good to question your elders and your teachers, especially your teachers!   

Oh, and I'm not enthusiastic about going to diploma because I have no interest in becoming a teacher in my country.  OMG!  Think of the horror of having to push students through exams every year!  It was enough torture for me.

[hfmadopter]

Thanks, Paul and hfm adapter and everyone else. 

Paul, your last comment was quite funny!  But I did feel like that - vomiting - after playing the same three pieces for eight months.  So now I'm not playing anything.  It's not that I have completely lost interest.  I acquired all kinds of new popular music like Yiruma and Einaudi but I just haven't had any desire to play. I've seen fake books but don't know how to use because I was never taught how to improvise.  Though it sounds quite interesting.  Maybe I'm afraid of playing on my own.  I'm not sure but I know I don't have the motivation now. 

Sueyin, are there any auxiliary courses in your country ? I ask because even here if you are in a classical oriented class situation it's pretty by the book, sort to speak. Pop music is another thing and as an aside, my teacher allowed some of this playing in our monthly work shops. Now I had 4 years of accordion and that was one piece after the next through the books, period, and I was a child had to do it, had to play in a band on Tuesday  nights etc. I grew to hate it, eventually dropped accordion.. But maybe 8 years into piano as a young adult ( my voluntary instrument) I asked my teacher about taking a course I was interested in. Here is the reason why. Other than my recital pieces, even though not tested , that's all I knew how to play in any sort of accomplished way. Not so different from what you are saying really if you think about it. Same result, no diverse repertoire.

So, I got the go ahead for a summer course I took that was about playing the piano in spite of your lessons. It wasn't that you could not play a piano, the course covered taking a basic melody and filling in the rest yourself. It covered open framework cording, and block cording and many other things. I use many of the methods taught in that course today in the music I like to work at that of which I mentioned in my other post. And after taking this course (which I believe was 8 weeks in the summer) one could certainly work from a cheat book or sheet. When I went back to piano classes with my teacher and on those monthly work shop nights I had a new repertoire then for those extra pop pieces we could play!

You have accomplished more than you realize. Here is why I say that. If you were to be able to take a course like I mentioned above, you would find out that eveything in it musically you are already doing ! You are just doing through a one way structure. Using a cheat sheet ( for example) is just another route to your music. In the end, classical is still going to be classical I'd never suggest any other approach to classical than by the book/proper instruction.

[hy_r]

Thanks, guys, for all your views.  I guess there are pros and cons.  I am maybe a bit biased as someone who has been forced to take piano exams every year both by my teachers and my parents.  It was like, as soon as I got my results for the previous exam and sometimes even before I got my results, my teacher was getting me to begin the next year's pieces and scales and what not.  So after all these years of piano, guess what?  I have nothing in my repertoire!  Nothing!  My friends tell me I can play the pieces that I learned for my exam but that's like the last thing I want to do! Can you all understand that?  I'm sure you can.

I also feel that taking exams every year or almost every year stifles creativity.  My teachers never allowed me to think about a piece or how I would like to play it.  It was always play it their way.  So I was like a robot.  Then when the results came and I had glowing praises from the examiner, they would be so proud and boasting and all that, but I didn't feel the same way.  It was just a piece of paper.  It didn't say anything about my interpretation or about the composer's intentions.  Stuff my American friends talk about.  It said things like I had a sparkling touch.  Big deal.  Problem too is that I feel I was so spoonfed that I feel incompetent to take on challenging pieces without the guidance of a teacher.  Or I feel that a piece has to be absolutely perfect, like we do when preparing for exams, so I'm afraid to go near a piece in case I don't play it perfectly or correctly and it takes the fun out of learning a new piece.

I'm from Malaysia too. My teacher even scolded me for playing other songs because she said it is a waste of time. What's the point of learning piano if we are only allowed to play exam pieces?

[hfmadopter]

I'm from Malaysia too. My teacher even scolded me for playing other songs because she said it is a waste of time. What's the point of learning piano if we are only allowed to play exam pieces?

Your teacher is correct in one way I suppose, to her end the other pieces are a waste of time. In other words, they probably won't help your exams any, she is telling you to follow the program, follow her instructions and gain the ability to score well. By level 8 most students would be well prepared to branch off though, if they chose to, so that's a great goal I would think. I just can't imagine having to deal with such a strict system that won't allow an individual to play at least some piece of music they want for themselves. For now that is what you seem to have there.

I'm thinking this will have to change in time. As more and more people have internet access and see what goes on in the world, well it's going to get catchy. People like yourself and Sueyin will want and eventually start to change things there, if even just a little bit. Just a hunch but it seems inevitable to me. Perhaps even your teachers over there will eventually go online and see that there are other ways that can be interwoven into their way. I'm way out on a limb here but then again, one never knows !

Hey, maybe one of you will grow to offer an auxilliary course to the main stream methods there.

[pytheamateur]

I just can't imagine having to deal with such a strict system that won't allow an individual to play at least some piece of music they want for themselves. For now that is what you seem to have there.

That's not a true reflection of how the ABRSM works all the time.  For me, there was a time when I did about one grade a year.  I always got a few months break after each exam before working on the exam pieces of the next grade.  My teacher made sure I had time working on other pieces (although not polished to the same standard as exam pieces).  We also spent quite a lot of time playing Czerny (not the most interesting pieces, I agree).

[hfmadopter]

That's not a true reflection of how the ABRSM works all the time.  For me, there was a time when I went did about one grade a year.  I always got a few months break after each exam before working on the exam pieces of the next grade.  My teacher made sure I had time working on other pieces (although not polished to the same standard as exam pieces).  We also spent quite a lot of time playing Czerny (not the most interesting pieces, I agree).

Makes perfect sense to me !

[chopantasy]

I just can't imagine having to deal with such a strict system that won't allow an individual to play at least some piece of music they want for themselves. For now that is what you seem to have there.

For Trinity you can play one of your own compositions - also, as already said, there's no need for the set pieces to dominate the whole year.  

[sueyin]

I think it depends on your teachers and your parents.  One of my friends started piano at the same time as I did but she doesn't take exams every year.  On years when she has to take major school exams, she skips her piano exams and just plays fun pieces. Her parents don't want her to take piano seriously and they don't want her to become a teacher.  But most of my other friends go through the same thing I and hy-r went through.  I have not heard of auxiliary courses in music but it sounds like a good idea.  As for going back to piano lessons to do fun pieces, that's also a good idea and I'll look into it but the problem is if I go back, my parents want me to pursue diploma and I have no desire for that now.  I think in countries where you have piano exams, many times, not always, parents and teachers will be exam oriented.  I have a cousin who lives in Canada and they do the RCM exam.  She says her teacher is also very exam oriented and if she is lucky, she gets to play fun pieces for 1 - 2 months and even then, only classical.  Her teacher doesn't like modern day composers like Einaudi and Yiruma.  Every year she takes the exams and she says she is also burned out.

[dee101]

Hi sueyin,

I'm from Ireland and nearly of the music schools over here, encourage exams but do not enforce them. I took up piano in my mid teens out of my own desire to learn the instrument. First two teachers I had picked the pieces that they wanted me to learn and it was unbearable but I gritted my teeth and bore it. I lost interest in playing it for a while but than I looked into getting a new teacher and thankfully, much more relaxed an approach. I choose to finish my exams, my teacher tells me to look at the of pieces, listen to them and pick out what I want to learn. So that makes it much easier and she also has told me to keep playing "fun piano" alongside my grade pieces.

At the moment, I'm preparing  a recital medal exam that the Academy here offer, and I was pretty much left to my own devices to come up with a programme. But even learning pieces I picked can get tiring to but that's going to happen with anything you do.

Plus, t probably also helps that my teacher is only a year or older than me and can't really talk down to me.