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Why do people keep insisting that grade 8 is advanced?
I spend a lot of time having to explain to people about grade exams because music teachers refuse to explain properly about these exams.
Why do you think that people refuse to be honest with their pupils before they ask them to spend quite a lot of money taking grade 8 which is an elementary exam?
The problem is that people don't seem to understand what they are getting for their exam fee. What you get for an exam fee is a chance to play in a test and get a piece of paper at the end. What the test tests is so narrow that it can't be used as a standard in music playing. So all that you get is a bit of very expensive paper. You don't get a standard in music, and it doesn't prove that you can play your instrument very well. It also doesn't test ensemble playing.
My feeling is that many, many young people are paying to take this exam without really understanding what it is that they are paying for. You can't be grade 8 standard in music because grade 8 isn't a standard in anything apart from grades. So it isn't a standard in music. The range of passes of the grade 8 test goes from people who can play music really well to people who have learned all the pieces by ear by copying what is on the CD.
I have come across people who have passed grade 8 and the ONLY thing that they can play are exam pieces. They can't sight read a new piece of music that isn't on an exam syllabus.
So if you had had this exam explained properly would you still pay the fee for an exam that didn't give you a standard in your playing, didn't lead to anything and only gave you a standard in other grades would you still want to spend the money on it?
5 Answers
- lainiebskyLv 77 years agoFavourite answer
I remember a question a while back from someone who thought passing Grade 8 made them qualified to play professionally. You're right, kids don't always understand exactly what passing the grades means. It's a goal to work toward and a measure of progress, no more.
- ?Lv 67 years ago
Its a business. I too am a music teacher and Sadly, education, specially music education, has become a business and not about education.
Private teachers try to strech out lessons to get more money, and dont teach the kids or students the proper material just to make them stay longer. They get them to pass these exams and make them think they are the best of the best, but its all so the kid gets motivated to continue, nothing else. I personally disagree with these exams, as most teacher follow the approach of "teaching to the test", and not really teaching to advance.
As you said, some of these kids only play the material they had to play for the exams and cant play anything else.
- Anonymous7 years ago
PLAYING EXAMS?? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? I've never even heard about tests like this let alone know anything about it. The thought of schools giving tests in the subject of music scare me like a bat out of hell. Music is not all black and white but these schools want you to think that way. This is like a school telling you to draw a stick not a beautiful tree blooming from the ground. We have these schools treating science and english classes as all black and white already and now MUSIC? Is this not insane?! I never had these tests in grade 8 thank sweet merciful god.
Source(s): 10 years a cellist - 7 years ago
because for a teen or young person it is motivating to know that they have accomplished the highest grade. I am aware that there are diplomas and further exams but grade wise it is the highest.
you sound like a music snob btw.
- 6 years ago
I don't play for exams. I learn and expand my repertoire for competitions and concerts. Actually most people in my town who are serious pianists do not follow a set "examination" standard at all. We learn to perform and compete. In fact, I will be performing the entire Beethoven piano concerto five with the local symphony next month and my friend will be playing a solo recital including Ravel's Scarbo. We are in high school.
Honestly I don't think it's the system. It's the teachers. They choose what curriculum to follow and i don't think it's that the exam system pays more either. Our teachers are all college professors and performers, and they charge $75 to $100 per hour which is pretty darn expensive. It's just the instructor. My experience is to pick one with a professional background in performance and teaching, and student achievements in competitions and concerts to show for it.
