What's a good mark for a Piano Exam

My friend whose son recently achieved a mark of 86 for his first ever Grade 1 RCM exam, asked me if that was a good mark. She told me the teacher did not comment or congratulate him on it and gave no further feedback.  I couldn't tell which of those statements were more strange?

I started off with the Asian mom answer, well what happened to the other 14% but she wasn't quite sure if I was joking. Anyway my giggling was giving me away.  I really had to lay it on think.

Me: "First Class Honours is 80% but First Class Honours with Distinction is 90% and up``
Mom: OK
Me: "Well you have to ask yourself if you think it's a good mark."
Mom: "Yah but I don't know."
Me: "Well if your son came back with a mark of 86% for math would you be mad at him or happy?"
Mom: "I don't know"

Wow,  harsh mom from China! I was actually starting to get confused if she just wanted me to say that it was a really awesome mark and she should be really proud of him.

Me: "Well I think that's a pretty awesome mark and you should be really proud of him. I'd be pretty happy with my student for getting that mark"

I did have a student who got 86 for his Grade 1 Exam too a few years ago. He's in Grade 5 piano now but he's been too busy playing basketball to be focused enough for that exam.

Fortunately, a recent RCM newsletter, the RCM Music Matters gives a very neutral and well rounded response to that question. I won`t quote it word for word so you can track it down yourself.

The marking criteria for practical piano exams is mapped out in the RCM Syllabus 2008 Edition.

Excellent:  First Class Honours with Distinction
Very Good: First Class Honours
80 - 84: A performance that is confident, musically interesting, and generally secure technically
85 - 89: An engaging performance that reflects fine preparation; displays technical ease, characterization, and a sense of spontaneity
90 above: Exceptional performance, demonstrating technical command, mastery, deep awareness of style and character, sophisticated musical shaping, effecting communication skills. And I like this one, an authentic performance spark.

I really like that last one, the spark. That`s exactly what I look for to nurture in each of my students. I have to honest that some have it naturally, some have yet to find it. But one you meet someone or hear someone in concert who has it, it is awesome. I might have been generous to say that 86% was an awesome mark, but it is still something to be proud of.

On the other hand, growing up my mom always expected me to have First Class Honours for all the grades. Only once did a I surpass that basic expectation and got First Class Honours with Distinction for Grade 9.

Ways to Sparkle or Fizzle at Piano Exams

I am currently preparing a small handful students for piano exams in the upcoming Winter 2012 Session for the Royal Conservatory of Music.  I also attended a teacher training workshop and one of the topics focused on piano exam preparation. I decided to transform my notes into a list and added a few of my own ideas into two categories I'm referring to as Sparklers and Fizzlers. This is a collection of ideas on how to sparkle or not sparkle at your next piano exam.


How to Sparkle
1) Teachers believe in your student; student believe in yourself. Temper this with realistic expectations.
2) Provide a good edition. Urtext is not always the best fit for all pieces; be sure to find an edition that has useful fingering and not too much editing.
3) Focus on the concepts, context, musical relationships and technic. When teaching, make comparisons with other works, use contrast, comment on the style of the period and character.  The student workbooks provide good insight.
4) Teachers demonstrate colourful sound, describe the tone production. These could include arm weight, round out the wrist.
5) Develop the Music Skills early in the year (Technique, Sight Reading, Interval Naming, Melody Playback, Rhythm Clapback combined, accounts for more marks than Repertoire).
6) Build a performance in gradual steps. Learn the individual sections but join them, don't practise the mistakes!

Ways to Fizzle or Lose Marks!
1) Student has weak basic skills (intervals, melody playback, rhythm counting etc)
2) The performance pieces are still in the learning stage with unncessary skips and disturbances to the flow; imprecise rhythm, lack of right-left hand balance, unsteady tempo.
3) The music piece is at the wrong level based on the student's ability and maturity
4) Student did not adequately prepare the requirements. For example the Sonata performance requires Movement 1 and 2 but the student only prepared the first; otherwise, the last pages missing from a rondo.
5) Inappropriate repertoire choice. Stick to the list, or go through the proper procedure for the substitution approval.
6) Lack of stylistic variation
7) Lack of structual awareness and dynamic range
8) Insufficient control of touch, unstantial tone, misplaced accents and bumps in the melodic line. The effect is a beat by beat playing.
9) The tempo is too slow and breathless, ignoring rests and accelerating.
10) Shy or insecure student succumb to nerves.


* The list was compiled from my notes at the RCM Teacher Professional Development Seminar presented by Dr. Hahn

What are the benefits of Piano Exams

When you have something to work for, you work a lot harder. You make a commitment to yourself. You practise because you have set an objective.

I found a Royal Conservatory of Music handout at a piano store that described the benefits of piano exams for the "triangle" of Student, Teacher and Parent.

To Students

• motivation
• commitment to practise
• performance experience
• pride of accomplishment
• high school credits
• certificates and awards
• personal growth

To the Teacher

• an excellent curriculum
• high pedagogical standards
• wide choice of repertoire and study pieces at level
• standardized assessment of student's achievements

To parents

• a balanced course of study
• a high standard of evaluation
• internationally recognized certificates
• valuable experience for the children
• development of self discipline
• objective assessment of child's accomplishment 

ARCT Repertoire Selection

Here is a list of sample repertoire for the ARCT Teacher's Exam and the ARCT Advanced Pedagogy

ARCT Piano Exam (Pre 2008 Syllabus)
Bach Prelude and Fugue in d minor (Book II)
Beethoven Sonata (Tempest Op 31 No. 2 or Pathetique)
Liszt Liebestraum 3
Debussy Golliwogg's Cakewalk from Children's Corner
Manual de Falla, Ritual Fire Dance (own choice substitution)

ARCT Piano Exam (New Syllabus 2008)
For the Teachers Part 1

One Bach Prelude and Fugue - Number 13 in F Sharp Major
One Grade 9 Piece - Mozart Fantasie in D Minor
One Grade 10 Piece - Copland Cat and Mouse
And two ARCT selections, the overall program to be contrasting


ARCT Advanced Pedagogy

Grade 7 – 10 RCM Repertoire 2008 Syllabus

* memorization of one selection

Grade 7

A - Suite No.8 in G Major, George Frederic Handel, pg 8

D - Rondo-March/ Dance/Song op 60 (choose one), Dmitri Kabalevsky

Study No. x Toccatina Op 8 No 1, S Maykapar

Grade 8

B - Sonata in G Major, op 49 no 2 (one movement), Ludwig van Beethoven, pg 28

C - Chanson triste, Vasili Sergeievich Kalinnikov, pg 54

Study No.x

Grade 9

B - Fantasie in D minor K397, WA Mozart, pg 28

D – La Saraband,Gabriel Grovlez, pg 92

Study No. x Study in A minor, op 61 no 13, Hermann Berens

Grade 10

A - Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp Major no 13 BWV 858

D - Claire de Lune no 3 Suite Bergamasque, Claude Debussy

E - The Cat and the Mouse (Scherzo-humoristique), Aaron Copland

Study No. x  Six Etudes Tableaux op 33 no 8 in G minor, Rachmaninoff

Sample Questions of ARCT Advanced level Pedagogy Viva Voce Exam

Here are a list of questions that were asked at a ARCT Advanced Pedagogy Certificate Exam for the Viva Voce portion in Spring 2011.  My friend who had recently completed the exam was kind enough to send them to me from memory, from her actual exam. Of course you'll have to remember that the flow of the questions also depends on the candidate's responses. Don't be afraid to elaborate and demonstrate what you really know.

1) What is satisfying in teaching students in the high level?


2) How do you fit everything in 1 hour lesson?

3) Is there anything that absolutely must be in a lesson?

4) Name a difficult rhythm that you would see in the higher level, how would you teach it?

5) How do you teach rubato?

6) What types of studies (etudes) do you use, other than the ones by RCM?

7) Play grade 9 romantic 19th century (chopin prelude in Db):

8) How do you teach cantabile?

9) How do you teach balance?

10) How many preludes did chopin write?

11) What book would you use to teach cantabile line?

12) Play grade 7 baroque (Telemann bouree):

13) What is a bouree?

14) What’s the form of the piece? What’s the benefit of telling students the form of the piece?

15) How do you teach evenness?

16) Play grade 8 twenty-first century (mysterious summer night):

17) Why would students like this piece?

18) What’s the composer? What other piece did she compose?

19) How would you teach bar 15? How would you ask the student to practice this bar?

20) Would you write in pedal markings for the students?

21) Play grade 10 baroque (Bach fugue):

22) How to you teach balance in a fugue?

23) How do you show the different lines?

24) How do you teach a student who plays everything correct but not musically?

25) What book do you use to help analyze fugues?

26) Play grade 9 twentieth century (golliwogg’s cakewalk):

27) What period is this piece written?

28) Who’s the composer?

29) What’s a cake-walk?

30) How do you introduce impressionistic music?

31) Is it important to learn multiple pieces from the same style/composer? (ie. play more than one impressionistic pieces from Debussy?)

What happens in a Piano Exam?

The Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada has 10 grade levels for piano examinations. There are pre-grade 1 levels called Preparatory A and B (formerly Introductory) as well.  At the higher grades, Grade 4 and beyond, there are corequisites in theory, music history, harmony, counterpoint and composition.  High school students are able to include Grade 8 to 10 piano with their high school transcripts for credits.  After Grade 10, the students may work on a ARCT Performance diploma or an ARCT Teacher's diploma (former). Presently, the ARCT Teacher's Certificate Program is split into three levels (beginners, intermediate and advance) which has Grade 9, 10 and ARCT level as co-requisites respectively.

EXAM SCORE

• A total of 100 marks may be achieved by the student.
• First Class Honours with Distinction - 90 marks and above
• First Class Honours - 80 marks and above
• Honours - 70 marks and above
• Pass - 60 marks I believe.

MARK BREAKDOWN
For the Beginner - Intermediate Level Exams, 50 marks total are assigned to repertoire (playing pieces) and the other 50 marks are broken down for technical and music training skills.  The mark breakdown changes for the higher grades and I can explain those in another article.

REPERTOIRE 50 MARKS
List A - Baroque dances. These could be Minuets, Gigues, Bouree in Major and minor keys; composers such as Bach, Gurlitt etc. In higher grades, List A is Inventions, Sinfornias, Fugues, Partitas etc.
List B - Classical. These are usually Sonatinas, Variations in Major and minor keys; composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Scarlatti etc.
List C - Romantic/ Modern ear. These are ballads, lyrical pieces with names that sound like a painting or a fall sunset. Keys tend to move around, exploring modes and atonality.
List D - In Grade 9 and up, this is modern twentienth century compositions (List C remains Romantic/ Impressionist)

The Repertoire categories are a little bit different in Grade 1; List A is Baroque/ Classical, List B is Twentienth Century pieces with descriptive titles, List C are Inventions (two or three part rounds).

THE OTHER 50 MARKS
Parents may wonder why we spend the first part of the lesson away from the piano doing singing, clapping and note reading exercises. They may be surprised to learn that only 50% of the marks go to repertoire (playing songs).  The other 50% is accounted for like this.

• 6 marks for memory
• 24 for technique (study pieces, and scales/ triads)
• 10 for ear tests (naming intervals, melody playback)
• 10 for sight reading (playing a song he's never seen before, clapping a rhythm correctly the first time!)

Therefore, in the first part of the lesson, I am training them to acheive 100% marks in this partof the exam, and the skills directly apply to memory training and even playing the pieces well because they understand how to read music better and more quickly; they will learn to play their songs and reach the performance level faster.

STUDIES
The Technical Study pieces are found in the Study book which features pieces that typically work on a specific technique such as chords, thumb crossing over, hand over hand, fast fingers, arpeggios etc.

Scales and Triads are learned in order of the circle of fifths by key signatures.

EAR TESTS

This includes naming intervales of a second (stepwise), third (major minor), perfect fourth, perfect fifth, sixth (major minor), seventh (major minor) and an octave. It's more useful to learn these from the experience of playing games and building them with magic notes. Another test is naming a solid triad as Major, minor or Dominant or diminished seventh.  Melody playback seems to be a very stressful one for some. However if we play enough Melodic Bingo or solfege singing or music dictation (by numbers or notes) this is easy to train.

In my early days of music teaching without much experience, I would just spend last two minutes of the lesson on playing these by rote, and say, "This is a perfect fifth. This is  perfect fourth." Then I would play an example and he would have to name it. BORING!  I believe that my new way of teaching it is more effective.

SIGHT READING

This can be very frightful if a student is required to read and play a new piece, never seen before. If he is already comfortable with note reading and rhythm reading, and the hand eye coordination is already in place, this is a piece of cake, an easy 10 marks. Rhythm clapping is easy too when you get to say, "Blue jello jello huckleberry, blue purple purple rest, pineapple pineapple pineapple rest." Students will also learn the Solfege hand signs (do re mi).  By teaching the solfege singing, a student can play this tune correctly in his mind, which makes it very easy to play live, even perfectly on the very first try.

FORMAT

There are three sessions of piano exams in most Canadian cities.
Winter sessions exams in January (register by Nov 1)
Spring session exams in June (register by March 1)
Summer sessions in August (register by June 1).
Registration is done online; the piano teacher should provide her Teacher Registration number or home phone number.

There are usually one or two piano examiners who are top level performers or pedagogues (a fancy word for a piano teacher with years of experience) from the US or Canada who will oversee the piano exam and ask the child to play the selected repertoire, studies, technique and carry out the music tests.  In the Royal Conservatory of Music, the child enters the piano exam room alone, to play on the Yamaha U1 or a Yamaha Grand Piano.  (In other piano associations such as the Conservatory of Canada, the exam session is more like a performance recital where the student invites her family and guests and prepares a printed program).

Other related articles to follow:
What are the benefits of Piano Exams?
Piano Exam Tips for the Night Before.