Tips For Preparing For Your Piano Exam
Whether you are a new piano player or a full-time professional, exams can be a strenuous and often daunting task. Each exam has its separate challenges. However, if you prepare for your exams correctly, it could mean the difference between passing and failing.
For this example, let us pretend that we are sitting for a Grade Six piano exam. Let the record denote that I have sat and passed a Grade Six exam. Although admittedly I did not pass it well - this was caused by a severe lack of preparation leading up to the exam. I did not put the time or effort into my preparation for this music exam. I can assure you from first hand experience that you need more than 15 minutes practice three to four times a week to effectively prepare for a Grade Six piano exam!
THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE EXAM
At this time you should be doing approximately one hour’s worth of practice a day, five days a week. In your selected pieces you should be able to at least press all of the right notes. This is the time to start developing your pieces from a series of notes to a piano masterpiece. Concentrate on things like expression, dynamics and tempo. Put some feelings and emotion into your pieces.
You should also profusely study all of your theory and scales. Too often scales and theory are neglected at this time and are only revised about a fortnight before the exam. This is a terrible mistake! Remember the more you study now, the more you will retain this information, thus having a better chance of recalling the required knowledge during your exam.
ONE MONTH BEFORE THE EXAM
It is time to up the anti a bit. You should be spending one and a half to two hours practicing a day, six days a week. This is the time to smooth out all of the minor flaws in your pieces of music. Practice things like getting that tricky triplet sounding fluent and making sure you hit the F sharp with your fourth finger rather than the fifth. These issues might seem minor, but it will help you immensely with your exam.
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