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Piano official diplomas/exams?


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My 13 yo dd has been taking piano for several years with the Suzuki method. We'd been happy with some aspects of the method but we were missing more emphasis on theory and sight reading. She started last fall with a new teacher who is both Suzuki and classically trained and is an excellent educator and communicator. The new teacher is working on filling gaps in those areas and my daughter is progressing very quickly.

 

My daughter will start High School next year. Initially she wanted to take Band and I was very supportive, but eventually we decided it was not feasible. So now I am thinking we need to start pursuing some concrete proof of my daughter's progress and ability in piano with a view to College admissions. I will talk with her piano teacher and seek her opinion, after all she is the one that will have to prepare my daughter, but I would appreciate it if I could hear your experiences with different official examinations etc. Right now, I know nothing and it would be good if I knew some of the prons and cons of the different options from a parent/student perspective!

 

Thank you so much in advance.

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Where are you? In the USA Guild of Piano teachers has yearly exams and gives an evaluation/diploma for various levels. If your teacher is a guild member, the student is eligible to participate. There are similar levels in England, Australia, and Canada, and I'm guessing the same applies in other countries.

 

Having said this, and this is speaking as school of music faculty, it doesn't matter. Not in the USA, not in the other countries I'm familiar with. No student will be accepted to a school of music at the university level without an audition performance, sight reading, and usually theory and literature exams as well. And that goes whether you have a stack of credentials and awards, or whether you've got nothing. There are, every year, extremely talented, capable students who never took a private lesson before college, especially in voice and band instruments (less common on piano or strings).

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Where are you? In the USA Guild of Piano teachers has yearly exams and gives an evaluation/diploma for various levels. If your teacher is a guild member, the student is eligible to participate. There are similar levels in England, Australia, and Canada, and I'm guessing the same applies in other countries.

 

Having said this, and this is speaking as school of music faculty, it doesn't matter. Not in the USA, not in the other countries I'm familiar with. No student will be accepted to a school of music at the university level without an audition performance, sight reading, and usually theory and literature exams as well. And that goes whether you have a stack of credentials and awards, or whether you've got nothing. There are, every year, extremely talented, capable students who never took a private lesson before college, especially in voice and band instruments (less common on piano or strings).

 

I am in the US. I am not looking at my daughter being accepted at a school of music. She is not leaning that way, I am just thinking that since she won't be taking band or choir in High School that she should have some official diploma in piano to add weight to her College admission applications when the time comes. My thinking is since she is going to keep her piano lessons up she might as well get some official credit for her work.

 

I will ask her teacher if she is a member of the Guild of Piano teachers. Thank you for the suggestion.

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I majored in piano performance. DD also is a well advanced pianist. That said, there aren't really any ways to necessarily document progress in quite the same way as academics. Its sort of like art, yeah, your kid took art but that doesn't mean anything because the grading is so subjective that the college actually has to take a look at the work. For the artist, that's a portfolio review, for the musician, an audition.

 

The first step was to send in a recording of five pieces from my repetoire. These days, I'm sure that a video on DVD is required. Then I auditioned at each school where I made the first cut. This audition was before the piano faculty. After making that cut, I auditioned in front of the entire music faculty. At each audition I played five pieces from memory plus scales, arpeggios, and sight-reading....at one school I also had to sight-accompany a senior bassonist. Since I had multiple auditions at each school, I played the same five pieces for the first round at each school but after that, tried to find out a little bit about the faculty at each school. Word to the wise, do your research. I ended up playing the Rachmaninoff Prelude in g-minor in front of Ian Hobson who just happened to be one of the world's leading experts in Rachmaninoff! That could have been a disaster. It turned out okay but I think that when he introduced himself to me WITH THE BIG CHESHIRE CAT SMILE ON HIS FACE and said "I just wrote an article on the proper interpretation of this particular piece", I pretty much passed out with my eyes open. I don't think I remember a thing he said....its all blanked out like a supressed traumatic memory!

 

If she is not going to major in music, you don't really need to worry about documenting her piano work on her transcript. Just attach a separate sheet of paper to her transcript detailing the number of years she's been taking lessons, a list of her classical repetoire, and anything she has done with her talent such as accompanying musical groups, putting on recitals (this would mean recitals in which she was the sole performer, etc.). If she has accompanied a group, have the director write a note extolling her virtues. She might be able to get a small scholarship for doing some accompanying for voice lessons. Quite often the piano majors are overwhelmed with the amount of accompanying that needs to be done in addition to their own recitals to prepare for....and sometimes there is pay in addition to the scholarship.

 

If she IS majoring in music, that's just a whole 'nother ball of wax! I highly advise trying to make a deal with your local Public or Private school band director in which if she accompanies for Solo and Ensemble, she can then take a piano solo to S&E. Her freshman year she will be required to just perform a piece of classical literature from memory. Classical piano lit is rated on a scale of 5-10. A five would be something like "Golliwog's Cakewalk" by Debussey or a Sonantina by Clementi. A 10 is a Beethoven Sonanta (not all, but say the Pathetic, The Moonlight, or the Appasionata), a lot of Brahms pieces, concertos, etc. If she gets a 1 at district, she can go to state. A 1 at state looks good on the ole piano resume. The requirements for a 1 get stiffer year for each level....by the senior year she will need to sight read for the state judge as well as play her prepared piece from memory and a Bach French or English Suite from Memory in addition to playing any scale or arpeggio the judge calls out. Scales and Arpeggios have to be played in four octaves at pretty much a brisk 32nd note speed in order to get a really high score. Of course, that is somewhat subjective and differs from judge to judge. District judges decide which level a pianist should be promoted to. It is possible to play the same level of music two years in a row. Its not necessarily a bad thing; its an acknowledgement of how competitive music is at this stage. Playing all four years at the same level would not look so good to a college music department.

 

Take a look at what colleges your dd is thinking of attending and then speak to the head of the piano department at each. This person can tell you exactly what dd needs to do to document her progress for that particular school. Plus, some piano profs (if not tooooooo stuck on themselves) will agree to a private lesson (many times for free) for a prospective student and make some recommendations on where to improve and how to get into the department as an incoming freshman.

 

If she is really serious about the possibility of majoring in music, then if you can possibly afford it, you might want to consider sending her to Interlochen Fine Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. They are WORLD REKNOWNED for their work preparing high schoolers for college music. First rate all the way around. There are scholarships available and your dd will have the chance to meet teen pianists from all over the world. The camp usually runs a very tight ship, morally! Strict rules...this is a no-nonsense, not for your entertainment camp. That said, they do have recreational times for the kids and field trips. They aren't so hard hearted that they believe kids can take that kind of pressure without breaks.

 

I hope this helps and I would be happy to answer more questions if I can.

 

Faith (semi-retired professional pianist, definitely retired piano teacher)

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