Playing Piano

Tips About Preparing For Practical Music Exams   by Chris Gilmour

If you’re not accustomed to preparing for exams, the actual day of your piano exam can be a frightening moment. You are performing in front of someone who is an expert in their field and regardless of your age or ability, facing the examiner is daunting. Below are a few tips to help you prepare for your examination:

Practice

For Grades 1 – 4, I recommend to my students to practice for at least 30 minutes per day. Practice for Grade 4 should be at least 45 minutes to an hour. By Grad 5 you should be practicing for the minimum of 1 hour per day, then ultimately for Grade 8 and above you should be practicing the minimum of 2 – 3 hours a day minimum. These time frames allow for certain days of the week when you are unable to practice or the practice that you have done previously hasn’t been efficient enough. The time frames also help aid your brain to concentrate, relax and develop the technique into memory.

Pieces

For many exams you are able to select pieces from a list. It is important that you select the right pieces in the first place. Ensure that the pieces are not beyond your capability and discuss them with your tutor. Remember that the pieces are to played and learnt for your pleasure and not just as a hurdle to overcome for an exam so therefore enjoy playing them and view them as part of your playing development. Listen to others perform the piece, including your tutor, to give you ideas on how they should sound, the tempo’s, the interpretations etc. The more you know the piece and understand it, the more accomplished you will be at performing it.

Spend more time on the difficult parts

Locate areas of the pieces that cause you more difficulty than others and concentrate on these. All pieces have easy parts and more difficult parts. Split your practice time accordingly so that you spend more time on the difficult areas. There is a human tendency to learn the easy areas well and to hope with the more difficult parts however doing this will effect the overall performance of the piece as it needs to be performed with all parts polished and perfect. Don’t always go back to the beginning of the piece and start it again. This is a really common tendency and human nature. It will eventually mean that you know the beginning the best and the rest of the piece not as well.

Don’t dwell on mistakes

One of the most common things that people do is to stop and try again when they make mistakes. Professional performers, including myself, make mistakes all the time when performing. The trick is to continue and not be fazed by them. If you can do this, it will be much better than stopping. Leave the stopping and trying again to your practice only, not in your exam. Focus on what comes next, on the hand position which should make any mistakes hardly noticeable.

Ultimately, relax and enjoy the performance. Examiners know that you will be anxious and they will allow for it and remember, they have also been exactly where you are before.

About the Author

Chris writes about learning piano for beginner piano players upwards. His website provides information and reviews about downloaadable learning Piano Software from the internet.
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