Grade 3 in the summer sitting for old turniphead 'ere

[dave brum]

Yes, I've finally decided to be a big brave boy and go for it....but there is one major concern that is playing on my mind....and that's sight reading.

My G3 scales are note and fingering perfect - as are my arpeggios. My 3 pieces are practised daily and are being honed to perfection...and as for my aural, that should be a piece of Battenberg. However, my sight reading is certainly NOT Grade 3 standard, in fact it isn't even Grade 2. My teacher has asked me to work through the Paul Harris sight reading course (which I started a week ago) for G2, and also do two exercises from the ABRSM purple sight read specimen tests book per day (which I have re-christened 'The 55 Anthems of Doom) which for me is incredibly hard going as I always make mistakes.

I don't see how I will manage to get a decent mark in my sight read part as not for a miracle I will never get my sight reading up to a grade 2 - let alone a grade 3 standard in time for mid-June. I do everything the books tell me to do, check the rhythms and counting, play the scale/arpeg, shape of the piece, all the prep in the world cannot stop me making careless c*ck ups with sight reading exercises that are supposed to teach you to play them correctly!

[Gill the Piano]

Everyone is bad at one area of the exam - mine is/was scales. Just do your best - as you obviously are - and you can take your exam with a clear conscience. It's only the little s*ds who do no practice then whine about failing for whom I feel no sympathy whatsoever! I played the Englische Tanz today - not easy, is it? Doesn't quite go where one expects it to! What's the final list of pieces, are you 100% decided yet?

[dave brum]

I'm doing Tastenritt, Prelude in C and Wilderreiter. To be honest, I can't wait for June (like Surfin' USA). Tell you what Gill, if I help you with your Cymraeg, will you help me with my sight reading??

[Colin Nicholson]

Hi Dave

I've got a pupil doing grade 3 in the summer, and yeh, must admit, the SR is tricky - I think up to 4 sharps & 3 flats?

He sailed through grade 2, and his reading is generally good, but as the key sigs are more - he sometimes misses that 'all important D sharp' in E major!

Alot of sight reading requires good preparation skills, and I recommend to just try hands together straight away. Also look out for scale passages & walking bass lines.
Generally though - many marks are lost because they take the test too fast! .... even if its just a fraction under the recommended tempo - for a fair reader, thats still too quick.

If you struggle, then I recommend a near - half speed approach, counting :
1 (elephant) 2 (elephant) 3 & 4 - say elephant between each beat. That way, your reading will be more secure, and allow you read ahead better. Its a bit like driving a formula 1 racing track...... if you just stick to 40mph, you will not win the race, but then again, you wont kill yourself at the end! ...... as long as your approach is methodical & steady...... you may even get enough marks to pass (14 with AB) .

Also, when you prep - try out the scale/ tonic triad before hand - check the final notes or chord to determine major or minor - so you will know the 'expected' sound in your head. If one hand is not doing much (eg a sustained minim) - always get it ready for the next bar...... and try not to look down at the keys too much!! - keep your eyes on the music at all times - steadily & slowly.

Speed comes with practise & experience.

Hope that helps....

[dave brum]

Yes it does thank you Colin. I'm sorry for not acknowledging your reply sooner. Funnily enough my teacher always says to me get your hands on there as soon as possible before worry and the feeling that you can't do it sets in. I find now, going very very slowly at the 16 2/3 rpm speed (remember that?) with basic preparation I can do it first time around 75-80% of the time. That is with the Paul Harris g2 book and also the ABRSM g2 specimen sight read tests booklet.

Do you have pianos for sale as a matter of interest???

[Nutroast]

Good grief, much of what you just said was like a foreign language to me. It saddens me that I'll never make it to the dizzy heights of grade anything but at least I enjoy playing what I can.

I'm very impressed that you're going for grade 3 Dave, you sound well prepared already.

[dave brum]

Good grief, much of what you just said was like a foreign language to me. It saddens me that I'll never make it to the dizzy heights of grade anything but at least I enjoy playing what I can.

I'm very impressed that you're going for grade 3 Dave, you sound well prepared already.

that's my trouble Nutty, my deep depression (which I've battled for 14 years now and quite frankly am sick to the back teeth with) means I don't enjoy anything any more, including the one thing that I've ALWAYS enjoyed...music! Empower my soul, not give me more bloody meds!!!!!

[OneHandOnly]

Good luck with the exam Dave, but please don't talk about sight reading
I got talked into going for grade 2 in less than 3 weeks time and only started sight reading 1 month ago, can you still pass an exam without being able to read jack s**t . Well, this could be my first and last exam as i can't play a single note infront of anyone, oh the shame

[dave brum]

Good luck with the exam Dave, but please don't talk about sight reading
I got talked into going for grade 2 in less than 3 weeks time and only started sight reading 1 month ago, can you still pass an exam without being able to read jack s**t . Well, this could be my first and last exam as i can't play a single note infront of anyone, oh the shame

Look out for my PM OHO.

A lot of people have shared with me much on the subject of sight reading and the exam. A very good source (she's more of a sauce actually but that's another matter) in Cambridge informs me that as sight reading is marked out of 21 a very poor mark would be around a 9. An examiner wouldn't give you that if you made the effort. Which is why I persevere (I'm sure there's a hymn about that...'and with grace, we'll persevere')

In a strange way it's good to know someone else actually struggles with sight reading (and indeed performing in public) because it tends to spur me on to do better...

[OneHandOnly]

More than 9 points would be great Going forward i'll practise it everyday,it has to get easier eventually .
Not to bothered about performing in public though, but i've promised myself an expensive grand if and when i get to grade 8 so could do with passing this one.

[dave brum]

More than 9 points would be great Going forward i'll practise it everyday,it has to get easier eventually .
Not to bothered about performing in public though, but i've promised myself an expensive grand if and when i get to grade 8 so could do with passing this one.

oh, and best of luck with the exam. If you'd like me to help you out then you know where I am. I've got a few tales to tell you about performing in public too, and just like you I have hang ups!

[Colin Nicholson]

can you still pass an exam without being able to read jack s**t . Well, this could be my first and last exam as i can't play a single note infront of anyone, oh the shame

Hi OneHandOnly......

To answer your question above.... YES - you can still pass the exam even if you fail your sight reading (but hopefully you wont!).... it just means though that you have to get higher marks in the other subjects to make up for it. 100 is the pass mark (ABRSM) - whichever way you do it - equivalent to 66%.
Try and get good marks in your scales (basically, do what it says on the tin!) - and if you can aim for around between 22 - 26 or higher for your pieces, that should cover any mistakes in your sight reading and/or aural tests.

Nerves also play an important part on the day, so maybe try to play the piano in front of a few people.... controlling nerves is almost a separate subject in itself!! If you can play to your family say, playing then to an examiner will be easier.

Good luck......

Colin

[dave brum]

Colin, you do what it says on your tin too, you really ARE an agony aunt! That snobby and aloof ABRSM forum wouldn't dream of having anything like that!

[dave brum]

can you still pass an exam without being able to read jack s**t . Well, this could be my first and last exam as i can't play a single note infront of anyone, oh the shame

Hi OneHandOnly......

To answer your question above.... YES - you can still pass the exam even if you fail your sight reading (but hopefully you wont!).... it just means though that you have to get higher marks in the other subjects to make up for it. 100 is the pass mark (ABRSM) - whichever way you do it - equivalent to 66%.
Try and get good marks in your scales (basically, do what it says on the tin!) - and if you can aim for around between 22 - 26 or higher for your pieces, that should cover any mistakes in your sight reading and/or aural tests.

Nerves also play an important part on the day, so maybe try to play the piano in front of a few people.... controlling nerves is almost a separate subject in itself!! If you can play to your family say, playing then to an examiner will be easier.

Good luck......

Colin

I find just playing a 'strange' piano as Colin said does help. Due to having a bit of a physical issue, and due to the fact I'n trying to shed a massive amount of weight, I go to a keep fit class every Tuesday at a church hall just over a mile away and there's a piano in the hall which I always get a good half an hour on if I arrive early.

I also like to go in piano shops (there aren't any in Birmingham so I have to travel around and about) and try pianos out. All helps if you have no supportive family to play to (I only have my wife, and when it comes to sorting out my friends from my saboteurs I know where I would pigeonhole her)


...that said my neighbour is a massive fan of my playing!!!!

[dave brum]

Well I was okay today until I picked up that bleeding purple book. It's music to kill yourself to, at the very best it makes me want to smoke crack cocaine. I just HATE doing them because I always get them wrong. And it is just stopping me from enjoying the piano. I can learn a new piece in maybe a couple of days and play perfect (almost) scales. I actually enjoy sitting practising scales and arpeggios, and learning new pieces. But its this little thing that makes me so cross ...and sadly, it's a part of the damn exam so I have to do it.........

After a really good practice session, having to do two of these really put me in a bad mood and spoil everything.

[OneHandOnly]

Having to do two????? I've just put in 2 hours of bl**dy sight reading, now i see notes when i close my eyes.I guess it's a necessary evil that both of us will have to get used to,at least my level's easier than yours

[dave brum]

Two hours of sight reading every day, I think Amnesty International need to be informed. I don't call the purple book 'The 55 Anthems of Doom' for nothing. It has earned that grim accolade.

And it must have been written by a practiser of dark sadism.

[OneHandOnly]

hahahaha, not every day, just the weekends, half an hour in the week as i don't have any more time.I've seriously neglected sight reading , in fact i'd never done any until a month ago and i've been playing 17 months.It's now an official part of my practice sessions.By the way, i have the purple grade 3 book i'll give it a whirl and let you know how i get on tomorrow.

[dave brum]

By the way, i have the purple grade 3 book i'll give it a whirl and let you know how i get on tomorrow.

I have it too as it'll be like what I'll get on exam day. If I don't see you on tomorrow, I'll know it's claimed your sanity.

The grade 3 book I took one look at and my body almost went into mild shock and I needed to sit down with a cup of tea. Way way too much out of my depth.

[dave brum]

Monday, wrote old Wisty, and I left doing my despair dirges till lunchtime. And then it was the case of whichever had the fewest mistakes. First one in Fmajor and my old favourite one playing Bb as B. Then around three bars in to the second one I knew I was playing the wrong notes but I kept on till the end.

I would LOVE to be able to blog about how I got both of my exercises spot on, played all the notes correctly and in the right blooding key. I hate being the bearer of bad news. Maybe on April 1st I shall say I got both of them right!

[dave brum]

I start Stage 2 of my Paul Harris today. That means one stage nearer the difficulty of the ABRSM 'anthems of doom' that I do not enjoy one iota. I would find learning Chinese much easier.

[Gill the Piano]

STOP BEING SO ****** NEGATIVE!! Just get on with it - who knows, you might have fun!

[dave brum]

Okay Gill. Wednesday. Paul Harris first melodic exercise in stage 2, okay. Despair dirges, one correct, one rhythms okay but some wrong notes. Of course I didn't enjoy them (never do) but still did 'em nonetheless.

My old psychotherapist told me to look for joy in bad situations.

There! Is that positive enough??

[Gill the Piano]

No. Don't call them 'despair dirges' etc., etc.. Just sigh treading... You condition yourself every time you say something negative. Sounds stupid, but say 'O good, sigh treading!!!' before you do each one; the mind is easily tricked!

[Feg]

Okay Gill. Wednesday. Paul Harris first melodic exercise in stage 2, okay. Despair dirges, one correct, one rhythms okay but some wrong notes. Of course I didn't enjoy them (never do) but still did 'em nonetheless.

My old psychotherapist told me to look for joy in bad situations.

There! Is that positive enough??

Not quite positive enough, Dave, but you are getting there.

I'm going to prefix this with .....I'm NOT a piano teacher, but I do enjoy sight-reading

Sight-reading is a combination of many skills including and not limited to....... getting the tempo correct, getting the rhythms correct and getting the notes correct and you cannot expect to get all three correct first time especially as a beginner. If you can get from the start to end of one piece of music at the correct tempo with the correct rhythms, then as far as I'm concerned you are more than half way there. The odd wrong note doesn't really matter so long as you don't stop to correct your error and just keep going.

The fact that you tried two pieces, and only fluffed some notes during the second piece should be regarded as an achievement.

Try to play SR pieces which you know are too easy for your current grade - it'll do wonders for your confidence and once your confidence levels improve, so will your SR skills.

Here Endeth The Lesson

Fiona

[dave brum]

All I can do is see what Ada (my teacher) says tomorrow. I do not need to tell her how much it gets me down, she knows four square. In fact I would be a very rich person if I had a fiver for every time I've mentioned it there. I think she's a bit sick and tired of it by now, but then again I am her most awkward pupil (she's told me that herself) and she has a great deal of experience teaching despite her tender years!

How do you think positively, Gill, Fiona, Colin, anyone??? I do not know how to do it...fourteen years of battling deep depression and extremely low self esteem has taken it away from me and now the only time I'm even being jocular is when I'm laughing at how bad I am??? HELP.

[Gill the Piano]

Don't think at all - just do a couple, then forget it till tomorrow! I think you think too much!
Fiona's right, do a bit of easy sightreading first, then build up gently. Be KIND to yourself, chicken!

[dave brum]

That's exactly what I do, a couple a day - are you supposed to learn something through ones efforts because I'm not at all - apart from how to chase my metaphorical tail.

I'd just forget about it and just concentrate on playing for enjoyment and learning new pieces but to learn new pieces you need to be able to sightread and as I said, because I can't seem to grasp it, learning new pieces are taking sometimes weeks. The Gymnopedie I've been working on for over three. Praise My Soul for over two and even The Lords My Shepherd I still want to play the Bb's as B and playing the wrong notes, that's when the dots just become blurred and start jumping around until all I see is the words on the stave 'it's got you again Dave and you'll never know why'.

Even 'easy' pieces seem to banjax me...there is always something that goes wrong and it does. But my biggest concern is that it is threatening to ruin my whole enjoyment of musicmaking, and that is not what I want at all. Maybe I am a negative thinker and maybe that has become so ingrained into my psyche I know no different. Maybe I have the early stages of the much talked about 'obsessive cumpulsive disorder' but I still gain tremendous interest in pianos and music and all I've ever wanted to be able to do was to play the piano even as a child when I was denied the oppportunity by my redneck parents.

How does one think positively when a cynic's natural instinct is to think destructively??

Or should I just leave SRing alone, resign myself to the fact that I'll never be able to acquire the skill and just happily play for enjoyment with my low exam marks??

[dave brum]

Well, the first tune in the one Early Learning book of easy songs I have was a celebration of the art of the c*ck up. I thought Paul Harris (using the analogy of 'the cat sat on the mat and had a chat written in a vertical array style) said reading both hands was easy. Seems he was talking out of his (as Stephen Fry put it) 'pimhole' or as part of a moneymaking scam when he wrote that one.

[dave brum]

No. Don't call them 'despair dirges' etc., etc.. Just sigh treading... You condition yourself every time you say something negative. Sounds stupid, but say 'O good, sigh treading!!!' before you do each one; the mind is easily tricked!

Sorry Gill, but how do I do that?? And how CAN I do that?? I'll tell that to my teacher but as she's the type that seems to take umbrage easily, I'm not sure how she'd react. She already thinks I'm an awkward old s*d as it is. How can I MAKE myself LIKE something that I do not like and I know I do not like because I have actually tried it and therefore know I can't get it right (rather than just wallow in my own sloth and take the 'can't be a***d' attitude.

I've a strange feeling in my bones I may have to change teachers again soon.

[dave brum]

I have my lesson at 3 today, will let youse all know how I get on. Weather looks good for a lovely uphill calorie-burning mile or so's walk up there.

This morning's practice has been everything but 'that thing'. I'm going to do those there because I'm a perseverance motivated masochist it seems.

[Gill the Piano]

Grit yer teef, smile, and say 'O good, sightreading!' in a sunny voice. Go on, you can do it!!

[dave brum]

I have my lesson at 3 today, will let youse all know how I get on. Weather looks good for a lovely uphill calorie-burning mile or so's walk up there.

This morning's practice has been everything but 'that thing'. I'm going to do those there because I'm a perseverance motivated masochist it seems.

Well it went better than I thought it would go. We don't need to do much more in the way of scales/exam pieces etc she said so we can concentrate on new pieces and yes, THAT subject. I said I am Scheidt, she said I'm not. I said I can't sight read she said I just have done so in front of her. But whilst I try to prepare worry sets in. And now I have to do TWO Paul Harris's every day...she wants to see me suffer.

Lightness and dancey in my English dance, it sounds like a plod. And although I did remember my breaths in Praise My Soul she sang it back to me how I played it and it sounded characterless and (as well) ploddy. I bet your hymns don't sound in the least bit ploddy Gill. Like The 'King Of Heaven Stomp' on the banks of the Mississippi when the tide goes out etc.

I'm not a hundred percent happy but as she is my teacher I will do as she says.

[dave brum]

Grit yer teef, smile, and say 'O good, sightreading!' in a sunny voice. Go on, you can do it!!

I wish it was as easy as that Gill.....

[Gill the Piano]

Try it. It won't hurt you. Humour me...

[dave brum]

Try it. It won't hurt you. Humour me...

I have. And it has. Believe me - I've told you about it enough times. Two of the wretched things a day. The temptation is very strong to put in place some sort of contrived evasion mechanism. Cheating in layman's terms...not something I would condone but when one instinctively knows when something is beyond one's Ken, or trying to learn too much too soon.

How can I place my hand upon my heart and truthfully say that I like sight reading?? If I could only BUY the enjoyment of learning to sight read, after all it didn't take me long to learn to read at school.....price please??

[dave brum]

Well I've done one Paul H but I'm not doing another one till later on, and only if I can muster up the courage. But what Ada said about looking at the tune, how it goes up and down and not spending too much time preparing seems to be working. However one swallow doesn't make a summer and in the tradition of Professor Murphy, someone is waiting just round the next corner with a wet fish to slap me in the belly with (as long as that somebody is not called Gill)

[Gill the Piano]

The temptation is very strong to put in place some sort of contrived evasion mechanism.

I always put my herbs and spices in alphabetical order... Just humour me and say it every time you sit down to do some s****r*****g. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease....

[dave brum]

Well, I've just come off the piano after doing a Paul Harris....and made a testicles in the air job of it again. Ada told me to look at the shape of the tune, where the music is going, which I do, however I cannot play the right damn notes first time. I do try and try and try and try and try (and try and try and persevere and try and try again and try again and try again and turn green and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try again). I'm just not one of natures little s****r***ers it's obviously so.

I wish I'd have just stuck at the one PH now instead of obeying my teacher like a good little boy....

[OneHandOnly]

Hi Dave Well, what can i say? Your posts have given my a right laugh .Seriously, i think you're taking it too seriously and nobody enjoys making mistakes,i fregularly feel like taking a hammer to my piano but i resist. As for sight reading, you'll get it when you get it,then you won't hate it as much,until then you'll hate it like i do

[dave brum]

Hi Dave Well, what can i say? Your posts have given my a right laugh .Seriously, i think you're taking it too seriously and nobody enjoys making mistakes,i fregularly feel like taking a hammer to my piano but i resist. As for sight reading, you'll get it when you get it,then you won't hate it as much,until then you'll hate it like i do

I often ask myself 'what would Spike Milligan had done' if he found himself trying to unsuccessfully sight read at 42. Or maybe Hardeep Singh Kohli or Peter Cook.....

I think a whole boxful of sight reading courses will be accompanying my cadaver in the coffin.

[OneHandOnly]

Great, you can take them with you in the afterwhile and spend an eternity doing 2 a day
OR you could post less and do half an hour a day,try it for a month, who knows, with some faster improvement will come the joy of sight reading

[dave brum]

Great, you can take them with you in the afterwhile and spend an eternity doing 2 a day
OR you could post less and do half an hour a day,try it for a month, who knows, with some faster improvement will come the joy of sight reading

Believe me OHO, I would rather watch twelve hours of non-stop Jim Davidson than even think about doing two of them a day. One I can just about cope with after a nice cup of tea and a request for heavenly guidance. The thing that bothers me is that I can read write and speak in two languages. I can even recognise some Chinese characters and a little Punjabi script. So you'd think sight reading piano music would be a piece of Battenberg. Not.

I'm certainly not doing it on my own. I only feel confident enough to tackle them when Ada's with me.

Anyway I like posting on here but I wish I could say something like 'I'm ENJOYING learning to read music'. Would be great, wouldn't it?????

[dave brum]

I have a Youtube piano channel, if you want to see 8 of what I believe are called 'video nasties' PM me for the link.

[dave brum]

The temptation is very strong to put in place some sort of contrived evasion mechanism.

I always put my herbs and spices in alphabetical order... Just humour me and say it every time you sit down to do some s****r*****g. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease....

How is YOUR sight reading Gill?

[dave brum]

.....will come the joy of sight reading

Nothing joyful comes from the realm of Hades....

[dave brum]

Okay then OHO. I will set you a challenge. I bet you that I am a worse sight reader that what YOU are! We should organise a prize or something and I gather we're not that far from each other.

Just done my Paul Harris, one wazzock up, forgetting to play the Bb as Bb and this at what I would guess using my nome as around 45 cbpm. If I can play my G3 scales at 80, arpeggios at 69 and my hands together arpeggios at 64 (only 5 cbpm short of ABRSM reccomended exam speed). I'm now writing down the amount of Frank Spencers I make under each PH and showing them to my teacher next time. I'm also writing in a notebook what goes wrong with purple book exercises (the norm here is that I pick a random number between 1 and 55 and attempt that exercise) just to prove that although I follow what Paul Harris, teacher etc. say TO THE LETTER I have absolutely no progress to show, or anything that I can say to myself 'you couldn't do that back in January' sort of thing.

I mean can anyone learn to sight read or is it just for an exclusive few (like touching ones toes with one's nose, or memorising the phone book or something) because as I see it only 'special' people (Mensa types etc.) can learn this invaluable music playing skill and not ordinary hoi polloi such as myself. Seriously, my inability to learn to sr may possibly result in postponing the exam until autumn, or even indefinately...which isn't what I want.

And yes Gill, I DID say to myself before I started 'OH GOODY GOODY, SIGH TREADING, IM GOING TO REALLY ENJOY THIS'. And I didn't of course. Likewise with my (I shall not call them what I usually call them) purple/lilac/British lavender hue book tests. 27 and 52 today. Two tests, two howlers. I really enjoyed not enjoying what I am supposed to be enjoying but cannot enjoy what I know I cannot enjoy but want to enjoy but is stopping me from enjoying but have to enjoy not enjoying.

[dave brum]

Okay. Desparate times call for desparate measures. If ANYBODY can make a confident sight reader out of an old spazz like me, I will give them £50 in cash. And I will be willing to travel anywhere in the United Kingdom to achieve this.

[Colin Nicholson]

Dave..? are you doing any theory of music aswell? ,,,, such as the Grade 3 ABRSM (yellow book) - to match the sight reading level. Just wondered.

Not sure if you've got this book (yet another!) .... the Joan Last sight reading books. They work on each key at a time progressively.

If you can spot triad forms, parts of scales, chord patterns etc 'within' a melody & accomp. - then the theory side helps to establish a good overall picture of the music.

May help hopefully....

[dave brum]

Dave..? are you doing any theory of music aswell? ,,,, such as the Grade 3 ABRSM (yellow book) - to match the sight reading level. Just wondered.

Not sure if you've got this book (yet another!) .... the Joan Last sight reading books. They work on each key at a time progressively.

If you can spot triad forms, parts of scales, chord patterns etc 'within' a melody & accomp. - then the theory side helps to establish a good overall picture of the music.

May help hopefully....

No I'm not doing the theory too, and I have never heard of Joan Last (I've heard of James Last but I'm sure they aren't connected). I'll google her.

A Last resort before my piano goes on Ebay, possibly??