HOW TO PASS YOUR PIANO EXAM SUCCESSFULLY?

Guidelines for higher grade and diploma students

Written by Siwen Wong

Once, during one of the days right on the month of my students’ piano exam, there was a student mother trying to compare me with her ex-piano teacher, ‘Siwen why you are so nervous, but XXX was always so cool!’

   I didn’t reply her that her ex-piano teacher has a famous professional husband, she just needed to work as a part-time piano teacher, but I was a career piano teacher and there was nobody I could ask for money if I couldn’t meet my monthly due.

   Years after years, from at first nervous to eventually I actually “got insane”, as the following dilemmas would repeatedly occur …………..if there was one failure happened to my exam student, sure I would feel bad for so long, not just the over-busy, over-disobedient or over-lazy student would quit his/her piano but sure it would hurt my feelings, reputation and students’ intake for the following semester.

   Only 100% passing rate would assure me more enrolment for higher grades students, as I hardly taught lower grade students and beginners, thus whenever grade 8 students passed and left, if they passed their exam they would sure kind and considerate enough to find a replacement for themselves (so that I wouldn’t be out of students!) thus they would recommend some of their classmates or friends to me especially those who failed with other teachers to learn with me.

Whenever I sent my students for exam, I would always consider myself as an “under-confident” piano teacher; on the last 30 days before exam, I would sure watch out my diet, e.g. eventually I learned to take Nuskin life pack, so that I remained “fresh and not tired” usually from early 8am to 10pm or even later into the night.

   My experience told me if I didn’t take any supplement sure I would be sick for the following two months continuously, BUT the consequent by taking Nuskin under stressed would also stop me from ovulation for a month!

   My mother, even up to present days would continuously nag at me, ‘Why you need to push students so hard to jump their grades? Why don’t you act like other piano teachers, slow and steady to let their students progressing one grade after another? Take it easy! Why are you so responsible but how many would appreciate your afford? Some of your students actually hated you by pushing them to work?’

   



Once I even had an ex-staff who dared enough talking sarcastically to challenge me, ‘Sorry, I will let my student taking one grade after another, I won’t let them jump grade! (I won’t do it like you)’

    Soon, just right before she resigned to open herself a new music school, I found out I was cheated by her qualifications, she was never a theological graduated student, she never earned herself any music diploma, neither piano nor vocal diploma! BUT during the time she worked for me, she would criticize in front of me and others about other vocalists’ techniques and voice quality as it she was a real expert!

   Not until one day I finally heard her out-of-tune singing which was a lot worse than me, then I began to check her background, credential, reliability and if she owed any music diploma.  (Actually employing a music teacher required experience too; if I have time I will publish an article of regarding this subject but in adverse the article will  indirectly help those unqualified “cheating music teachers” to cheap more!)

      

So parents do need to watch out when you try to look out for a music teacher for your kids! Not because the teachers could sweet talk, could speak excellent American accent English, would attend church every week, your kids were pampered with soft candies, cheap toys and flattered by a sweet talking but actually an unqualified music teacher, your kids’ progress could be delayed for many more years than others!

   But my veteran educator-dad would always keep quiet agreeing and appreciating my hard working ways, when I decided to open a music school, he told me, ‘If you involved in education, you shouldn’t work just a few years then thinking of quitting, it would be long years and tedious work to see the results, and you would be ready to live not that filthy rich yet have to work very hard in order to see some results.’

    
I began to teach piano when I was barely 15 years old in my hometown due to my elder sister left me some of her piano students when she left for her further study in Australia.

   I remember with my limited teaching experience, I would use whatever feasible ways to pamper my students to work hard in order to pass their exams. I remember the most challenging job for me was how to make my physically tensed-up students to play piano in relaxing manner, (due to the reason during my earliest teaching days, I had no feasible technique teaching skills to impart those students)

   I always remember a student called Evelyn Loi, during that era happened that her dad was a new government school principal in town, and I heard that her dad was also a Sarawak state ex-tennis player.   
   When Evelyn was young, I remember she was so cute but she would always tense up her arms like a piece of steel whenever she started to play piano, it was always a challenge for me, but as an unexposed and untrained small town piano teacher (I was not the only one!), I surely unsuccessfully taught her playing piano in relaxed manner.

   Unfortunately today there are still so many piano teachers still don’t know how to teach students playing piano without tensed up body. If you are not familiar with the subject, please refer my article explaining regarding musical (emotional) intensity and physical tension.

  If Evelyn comes to look for me today even though I am retired from teaching now, I sure will give her free techniques lesson … a teaching skill that I didn’t possess during my young untrained unexposed days!

After I graduated from university, I first began to work for a Korean couple, those students were lucky, because I would impart them my techniques. 

   Just last Saturday my daughter’s classmate parents came to my house, after the mother saw some of my old photos, she was so trilled, she realized that I was her piano teacher back in 22 years ago! 

   She still remembers how I rolled paper roller to ask her strengthening her fingers! I married late into my life, imagine some of my ex-students’ kids are at least 10 years older than my kids, that’s how much I devoted into my teaching I never actually thought of wanting to get married if without a man kept “barking” at me after 9pm or 10pm like a salesman talking a tired and old single lady into marriage!

 The following were the ways how I prepared my exam students:

(1)    Choose a right repertoire for every individual student: As not every student having the same size of hands, same fingers diameter & lengths, and same standard or prowess of techniques, same musical talents and same character & interest. Suggest the right pieces for a student individually, and then ask the student for his/her consent, or course you have to explain to him/her why you chose those pieces for her, e.g. your fingers are not long and strong enough to reach those accented octaves, your techniques not up to that kind of speed for this piece…….  Note: General Asian students love to play something like Richard Clayderman’s music, they would learn it themselves without a teacher to chase after their homework! I would advice teachers to learn how to play the exam repertoire well then play it for the student (or teachers must analyze the exam repertoire and let students hear the recording) before decide an exam piece. In short, don’t twist your experienced teacher’s arm by telling her what you wanted to play, once I got such a bad experience that a student’s piano-teacher mom who would insist on selecting her own exam repertoire for her daughter, she would choose the easiest pieces because she thought her daughter was too young, and both mother and daughter would only begin to choose and learned the exam repertoire within a very short period, she naively thought highly of her daughter’s talent, she didn’t know they are actually so many talented kids out there too, betting lucks became their habits for exam or competitions! I always wonder why she had to hassle asking me teaching her daughter in part-time basis if she was so good in making her own decisions! Of course examiners failed her diploma, not just once but I heard it happened twice!

(2)    Train students to have absolute control over tempo: First of all, always learn and memorize the exam pieces in separate hand with a METRONOME, before learning both hands together, (It doesn’t matter if you want to memorize both hands, but it is important to memorize separate hand part, it doesn’t matter if you learn it in slower tempo at first, what you acquired is actually the “music pulses” developed inside you!) during this learning stage, metronome is always a student’s second piano teacher at home! Note: You would be surprised that I found out so many students who transferred to me couldn’t follow metronome exactly! Let me tell you a very interesting story, on my last semester study in a university, it happened that a composition professor’s studio was right opposite my regular practice studio, everyday he saw me using metronome to practice my repertoire. So during the final exam, I saw many keyboard study course exam students came out of his studio with curses, I wondered what was happened, so it came my turn for exam, I went in the studio, the composition professor told me, ‘Siwen, I don’t think you have any problem to play this excerpt with metronome, but many has been failing this test!’ he informed me with a quip. Generally once students being trained to be able listening and following metronome, their ears actually have just began to sharpen and to progress into another new hearing realm and ability, whereas students with great musical talents never such any problem even first time facing metronome,   BUT these musical talented students even though they were able to follow metronome, they were usually lacked of patient and discipline to follow metronome when learning an entire long repertoire, they didn’t realize their inability to keep constant tempo, their “fluctuated tempo” was the main problem. I have come across a part-time student who failed her diploma twice, but she and her piano teacher mom never took my advice seriously, i.e. to place absolute control over tempo as a fundamental bass in achieving an overall successful performance. Recently, my ex-piano student, who is a part-time piano teacher told me a story of how he came across a boy who could sight-read almost anything, so his parents bragged highly of their son’s prodigious ability, indirectly they wanted to challenge my ex-student due to their heard of his unusual musical talents too, they wanted my ex-student to listen their son’s performance, my student was trained by me, with his musical exposure, aged, seasoned and long experienced as a piano teacher, immediately he could detect the boy’s biggest problem, I was told that the prodigious boy played his repertoire  badly out of tempo! Technique for prodigious boys was never a big problem, they could play almost anything with their small hands and weak fingers amazingly BUT the biggest problem is their inability of controlling steady tempo!! But there is always exceptional case like a prodigy possesses all necessary abilities to play good piano except he has problem in techniques, very weak fingers causing blur notes.

(3)    Also learn your scales and arpeggios with a metronome: One beat for every four or eight notes, train your ears to listen the beating “pulses”, but don’t put accent to emphasize the beat! I usually would ask my students to lift slightly higher fingers on the main beat. You would be so surprised that many students wouldn’t be able to follow the metronome to play scales and arpeggios, and they would put horrible accents to emphasize the beats!

(4)    Have absolute control over your repertoire dynamics and expressions: Beethoven’s music is more temperament, a big different between p and f, for Mozart and Bach’s music, ones should not play over loudly, Chopin’s music should be very lyrical, melody line should be standing out.

(5)    Learn your exam repertoire well: Develop your subconscious reflex, try not to make any mistake. If you follow my steps you would not stumble more than three times during exam. Note: There were cases when Gr. 8 passers advised their other Gr. 8 friends that they just needed to work hard a month or a week before the exam, I remember a few transferred students told me burning midnight oil was what their friends’ advice. I think those “lucky dogs” were inclined to brag to their friends of their good dog luck, musical talent and ability but misled someone not to work hard! Who would be the one suffered badly and nervously? The answer sure will be a student’s over-responsible piano teacher! The student in this case was like making a gamble, he was not sure if he was going to pass the exam or not! There was another group of piano teachers and students who were over-confident in their last minute bet; sure enough they also loved to brag their past ordeals of how to pass their Gr. 8 exam or diploma by burning midnight oil, in this case these students and teachers also loved to learn or teach the exam repertoire only after registration! BUT this bad practice usually wouldn’t work when they want to sit for their diploma exam, I have come across such over-confident piano teacher and her student who failed her diploma exams twice! Remember no examiner enjoys listening students playing with great cautiousness and over consciousness (thus speed was slower), if a student was well-prepared for his/her exam, he/she would play the music with good subconscious reflects, good speed and achieve perfectness with no or less than three stumbling note.

(6)    Aural test section began the training since day 1 of learning piano: I found many piano teachers introducing aural test to their students only coming a month or a week near the exam eve! Note: The traditional way stereo-type piano lesson schedule should be altered by piano teachers all over the world! Integrate aural training since very first day of music lesson; make it a “must learn” additional ability for both perfect and no perfect ears students. Perfect ears students’ ears would enhance after training and the no-perfect ears’ students listening would at least develop faster detection of relative pitches; able to listen a group of rhythmic patterns and detect the intervals quick. Teach the students to detect a group of running basses could be really fun, at first let them sing, once they acquired the singing bass, then test them with two notes interval, then three notes, four notes etc. Give a beginner student every weekly just 5 minutes aural training will give you a lot less problem when they face ABRSM Gr.6 to 8 aural test in the future!

(7)    Besides aural training, exam pieces, scales & arpeggios practicing should be almost ready prepared three months before the exam registration: Everything must be well-prepared for the exam, response everything with good reflects instead with great cautiousness!

(8)    Before exam, exam students must perform for monthly students’ recital until they didn’t make big mistake over their exam repertoire: Within a month or a week before the exam due, the exam students must repeatedly playing the exam repertoire over and over again in the monthly students’ recital, at least 10 times in front of their friends to achieve perfectness. Usually I would let them take turn to perform before aural training session started, as a month before exam, I will form intensive aural training class, happened at first every weekly then increased to three times every weekly, but I would stop the training on last week before the exam. Usually I would let higher grade students testing each others on scales and arpeggios right before exam. I would only work hard on those extra lazy and weak students on the last week before the exam, as good students were ready with two foot on ground.

(9)    Advice at least three months before exam on your students’ exam proper outfits which I thought was much more important than rubbed off the pencil markings made by piano teachers on their exam pieces: Never ask students looking for their exam outfit last minute before exam, you will surely aggravated their busy parents and also make yourself more busy when they came to show you what they bought! Exam is not a recital or concert, but it is an exam, wear something a little less serious than the recital or concert, that mean you don’t need to drag a long skirt like a prom night to the exam! Usually I came across students in Malaysia that the air-condition in the exam room was very cold, thus I would advise my exam students to wear long sleeves dresses but not long shirt reaching the floor, some princess-kind of prom dress with little above or below knee-length skirt was accepted too, the boy wore long pants and long sleeves shirt with bow-tie not neck-tie (I learned from time to time the tie had became an obstacle!) Quite often, many mothers would produce bad cutting dresses for their girls, I wouldn’t say it out loud and thus I would come out something from my own closet to make them looked presentable. Get ready earlier of a suitable pair of exam shoes as well, trained your students with their new shoes on to press pedals (My studio allowed students to wear shoes, but most Malaysian teachers wouldn’t allow shoes in their studio, but during exam, students had to wear their shoes into the hotel exam suite, have you ever heard the joke that a student entered the exam suite bare foot or took off their shoes left them beside the pedals because he/she didn’t know how to press the pedals with shoes on?!) The last minute preparation was to put a little make-up and set one’s hair, but I would advise one not to spend whole morning in an uptown saloon, buying earlier on a nice hair-band to tie up your hair high up would be as equally nice and it wouldn’t waste your precious time too. There were many parents didn’t know how to dress-up for themselves, so as a piano teacher you have to assist this kind of students especially.

(10)Present an exam program and program notes to the examiner during exam: Most examiners would appreciate this extra effort, even if the examiner didn’t bother to read your notes but he could double confirm that he didn’t make mistake over the repertoire entries and its notes.

(11)Always greeted the examiner with respect and politely: No examiner could stand arrogant altitude, rude, aloof and over-confident exam candidates. It is especially important for those diploma exam candidates to give a 90 degrees bow before and after the performance to the examiner (imaginary audience), the graders exam students can give a bow too before and after the repertoire performance, but usually graders just gave the examiner a nice sweet greeting, ‘Good morning Sir/Mdm.’ And ‘Thank You and Goodbye Sir/Mdm.’

(12) Always prepared a good piano and well acoustic exam suite for exam: But if you play badly out of tempo that irritated the examiner’s ears badly, even a Vera Wang gown, a good Steinway or S. Kawai wouldn’t be able to help! But if you play well, from my experience, often outside factors, like good ambience could elevate examiners’ good mood, it did help a bit! At least the examiner wouldn’t pose a serious black face on!

Good Luck to all exam students, have enough sleep, it is never wise to burn mid-night oil for any kind of exam, watch your diets intake, lots of vitamin C, vegetables, DHA and also make sure your four semiquavers running notes are played evenly!!