I`m trying to make myself feel better about the depressing, pathetic, disgusting 71 I got on my grade 7 (royal conservatory of Toronto) violin exam. I feel like a terrible violinist, and really music is the only thing that I want to continue after high school. But I haven`t gotten a mark that low in any of my high school courses so far!
Is there any hope for me? I will be doing grades 8 and 9 (violin) next year, and I will definately be practising harder. My only excuse for this 71 is that I was very, very nervous . . .
Have any of you had similar experiences?
Thanks for your sympathy.

What is the pass mark?

Liz

Yeah...how much is the passing mark?
I think u`ve to discipline yrself to put in more effort. Be consistent in yr practice. And praticing is not enough, u`ve to listen more and probably go for master classes. Playing infront of people in Master classes is one great way to curb yr stage fright. Or alternatively u can record yr own playing. Caz recording means no stopping and no mistakes, so that`ll be as terrifying as the real thing.

The pass mark is 60, 70=honours, 75=2nd class honours and 85=1st class.

Thanks for the advice. I`m not usually that nervous for recitals and things, just the exam made me really nervous becasue I wanted to do well. I will try the recording, it sounds like it will help. Unfortunately there are no masterclasses available here.

Does anyone have advice on playing from memory? That is another thing that made me nervous because I hadn`t had to play from memory for like 5 years before this. I was afraid that I would loose my place and mess the whole thing up the entire time I played my pieces. How do you guys go about memorizing something? I just play a small section of the piece, play it again from memory, work on the bars I had trouble remembering, play it again from memory, etc. untill I can do it without mistakes, then I move onto the next few lines. I find it hard to concentrate when I do this though, my mind tunes out after too much monotonous repetition and I don`t seem to remember it all anyway.

If it`s 70 out of 100 then you did not do at all badly.

I don`t know how these exams compare to the Associated Board, but if it`s similar, a king of perfromance that will get you a distinction in grade 1 will only get you a pass in grae 4 and will fail you in grade 7. In other words, it is not just that the music and the technical demands get harder, the standard you are expected to reach in playing the pieces gets higher too. It may just be that grade 7 is a stage at which it suddenly gets a lot harder and the expectations are higher.

Liz

Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. The last exam I took was grade 5, so I guess I should have expected them to mark harder.

Oh, and I was wrong about the marking. 60-69 is a pass, 70-79 is honours, 80-89 is first class honours, and 90-100 is first class honours with distinction.

Hey...u got an honors at 71...That`s not that bad at all.
Abt the memory thing... I dunno whether this will waork for u , but I used this method for a full hour recital, so should be ok for u:
1. Memorise as usual, but do by not only the shape, mechanical order of the fingers...but most importantly by sound.
Doing by sound helps u to get the picture as a whole, as the sole purpose of memorising is to ensure a better flow/ more expressive performance of the music. And doing by sound helps u to pick up wherever u`re left off, esp. so when u play wrong notes during a recital.
Ie : Sometimes I played wrong notes in either hands, but as long as one of my hands`s still playing the main melody, then by hook or by crook, the other hand`ll join in soon. There`ll not be a big gap of silence without knowing how to continue from ur mistake...that`s when you`ll feel really awkard. So, let yr ears help u.
2. Memorising also means the ability to start anywhere as u like. It doesn`t mean that u can only start from a particular portion or section of the piece. If so, this only means that u`re only familiar with the main sections, not the piece as a whole.
3. Always practice running through the whole programme when yr done memorising. Alot of people only work on parts that they think are not so good...There`s nothing wrong with that, but if yr preparing to play infront of any `audience`/exam...it`s always essential to run through the whole actual programme daily. And dun try to correct your mistakes...just go on. This will make sure that u dun get blank outs during the occassion that u do play wrong notes in an exam. Remember! Playing wrongly doesn`t mean that u have to stop. If u have this bad habbit of stopping, then u must run through the whole programme consistently to change this bad habbit.
4. Try playing with the radio or Tv on. This is the best method I`ve tried so far. Bcaz though I`m quite used to memorising . but unfortunately, I`ve a very short concentration span. This will help u to stay focus, esp. for longer programmes like sonatas or suites.

Quotes from William Pleeth`s book (teacher of Jacqueline Du Pre)

"some children, of course, thrive on examinations, but others react in a way that can be detrimental to progressing in a healthy way: for them the exam becomes only a psychological hurdle in their path."

"Often it is very much a question of knowing how to handle the delicate balance between how much the child gains from the jumping of the examination hurdle and how much of his love of pure music-making gets destroyed in the process. Certainly there is no objection to letting a child have the fun-and sense of accomplishment- of jumping hurdles (if it is fun to him), but the hurdle-jumping should always take place within the balanced context of playing with and for friends, so that a child sees his music making first and foremost as a source of getting and giving pleasure and fulfilment."

"Parents feel so close to a goal when they look at the sequence of grades one to eight - it seems such a short step on paper - that they become greedy for this kind of superficial achievement and develop a foreshortened view of the whole spectrum of playing an instrument and making music."

"It is not just a matter of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-star!"

I get the impression from your post that you have had an examination timetable imposed on you which you must comply with whether or not your natural development fits in with that timetable. In one sense this is unnatural, but I suppose in reality if you want to be a professional you have to meet the timescales. The only things I can suggest to continue to meet the timetable and do well in the exams is
1. Quality of practise
2. Amount of practise
3. As William Pleeth suggests, maintain a wider focus on the whole of musical development, not just passing the next exam.

As to playing from memory - I am possibly the worst person I know at this. However my little boy is learning Suzuki violin, in which the entire emphasis is on playing from memory. One of the key tactics in that system is that before you even play the piece you get the tune firmly into your head by listening to a recording of it daily. Apparently Joshua Bell used to listen to the Kreisler recording of the Mendelssohn violin concerto over and over again. If there is a professional recording available anywhere you should find it on Amazon. If not, perhaps your teacher would oblige by taping the pieces for you? Come to think of it, DW`s a bit of a star and always willing to help! If you want easy practise at playing from memory, you could always buy some of the suzuki books, which come with the pieces on CD. Or just mess about playing tunes you already know from memory.
As to the nitty gritty of individual passages, a music student friend of mine described being taught to avoid repetitious boredom by "playing about" with the passage, trying out different tempi, styles, fingerings, bowings, altering the rhythmn, doing their own "variations on a theme of this passage". I`m not sure how this works because frankly I`m rubbish and never practise, but she seemed to swear by it.

ps

the listening to recordings can be done with the music playing quietly in the background while you do something else eg driving, sleeping, eating, gardening - your brain takes it in just the same- you don`t have to torture yourself by sitting and staring at a beige tape recorder!

Yeah I forgot to list the most important strategy for memory playing:
5.) Reverse order. And perhaps this`s the most important strategy. Just like `studying` itself... You`re always told to study smart by preparing for the last subject first and so on.... So I always believe it`s important to reherse/practice the last programme first during the actual day of the concert. Why? So that u get to do yr first item last! And u`re left with the `freshest` finger memory for that nerve-wrecking first item. If u manage to pull off that first one, the rest will fall nicely in place.
So, remember. Reherse the other way round.
Come and visit us at these 2 great sister sites:
http://www.soloviolin.com
http://www.solomusic.net/forum/

Nervous try booze you wont be nervous. and getting an above passing score is good but doing it while sh$# faced is better. I have never earned a 70 but hey Ive never earned more than a 2+. Look dont worry about it to much you cant change the past but you can work your ass off to get a better score next time. Relax find a happy place and if that doesnt work try sleeping with your neighbors wife. that always helps me.

HEY 71 isnt bad for RCM

rcm is crap, they make you do scales? what did you get burned on?
trust me, i know people who have gotten 60`s and thats just horrible... if its honours its good enough for me, so dont worry about your mark. just have fun with the instrument...

i should know, ive done like 10 rcm exams for piano, violin and theory and i know how much pressure the rcm crap is. uhh what can you do for the next exam? pracitce bar by bar