Piano Guidance
Piano Guidance
Photo: Jonathan Yakubu
A keen beginner around age 8 that is well-prepared for the lesson each week and has a good sense of confidence with performing in public could aim for Trinity Initial within the first 18 months, and then Grade 1 another 12-18 months after that depending on the amount of time they can devote to daily practice.
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Read More »How Long to Get to Grade 1? This is a question I am often asked and if you’d like to skip to the short answer, head straight to the end of the article! If you are hoping to enter a local secondary school in the East Dulwich area on a Music Aptitude place or a Music Scholarship, you can read more about the process here: http://www.se22piano.co.uk/all-about-music-scholarships-in-south-london/ In this article, I will discuss the journey a pianist must take to be ready for Grade 1. I believe that it is the hardest grade to achieve as there is much to conquer before being ready to sit the exam. The exam is so much more than just learning the three pieces, scales and the supporting tests. It is about creating a well-rounded pianist with enthusiasm and interest for all things piano.
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Read More »Whilst you only have to learn three pieces for your exam, the well-rounded pianist will have a far larger range of repertoire under their belt. We encourage all students to play duets with their teacher as this is a fantastic way to help you learn to play in time and keep a steady beat. This is absolutely vital for exam day as the examiner will be listening keenly for a steady pulse in your pieces, sight-reading and scales. In addition to learning exam pieces, your sight-reading skills can be developed by learning easy, short pieces alongside your three exam pieces. Whether or not you choose to do sight-reading in the earlier grades, you will still need to develop this skill as it will be tested in the higher grades. The ability to sight-read is a core skill to learning any instrument. Learn your music theory. Understanding music theory and how it applies to your exam work will help you with learning the pieces, scales and supporting tests as these all expect a good understanding of key signatures, intervals, dynamics and other basic theory concepts. The Musical Knowledge section of the exam will give you the opportunity to speak to the examiner and demonstrate your knowledge of your pieces. Working through the theory grades alongside your piano exam is always a good idea. We recommend the theory work books by Ying Ying Ng. Know your notes! The basics of note-reading must be firmly in place before we start working on the Trinity Initial Pre-Grade 1 Piano Exam. Students that are struggling to read both clefs on the piano will make much slower progress in preparation for the Trinity Initial exam. Pianists that cannot proficiently read music will be encouraged to learn lots of repertoire and work on note-reading fluency before starting the Grade 1 exam. The demands of the Grade 1 pieces will mean that it would be very difficult to make progress with the pieces without having a good level of note-reading fluency and recall. Trinity Initial Pre-Grade 1 exam We use a fantastic pre-grade 1 exam called Trinity Initial Piano that is the exact same format as the Grade 1 exam. The use of the exam allows the student to have a gentle introduction to the graded exam system. It also gives the teacher a good indication of how much preparation and progress is made each week in preparing for the goal of an exam. Some students that struggle to prepare for the pre-Grade 1 exam may prefer a less structured approach to lessons as the Graded exam system does require a good degree of focus, discipline and commitment.
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Learn More »Now that you have some idea of the requirements of the graded piano exam, then the question of “how long to get to Grade 1” will vary hugely from one pianist to another. A keen beginner around age 8 that is well-prepared for the lesson each week and has a good sense of confidence with performing in public could aim for Trinity Initial within the first 18 months, and then Grade 1 another 12-18 months after that depending on the amount of time they can devote to daily practice. The recommended amount of daily practice for Grade 1 is 30 minutes. Have a look above to download the Handbook with the practice charts to guide your daily practice and enable your teacher and parents to monitor your practice. Younger beginner pianists aged 5 to 7 may take longer to grasp the basics of piano playing so it is often 2 years till Initial Piano is started, and then usually another 12 – 18 months until the exam is taken. Taking exams is completely optional and some students will prefer not to follow this system which is absolutely fine! If you would like to start piano lessons at the SE22 Piano School in East Dulwich then check out our Vacancies. We also teach singing, violin, guitar and harpsichord.
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