My wife is preparing for your Grade 3 violin exam. She asked ChatGPT about preparing for the big event. Here are the results. 

Hi ChatGPT. What are your recommendations about preparing for a practical violin exam?

ChatGPT. Here are some general recommendations for preparing for a practical violin exam:

1. Practice regularly: Set aside dedicated time each day to practice the pieces you will be performing in the exam.
2. Work on technique: Make sure you are comfortable with the technical aspects of playing the violin, such as proper posture, bowing, and finger placement.
3. Learn the pieces thoroughly: Make sure you have a good understanding of the music, including the melody, harmony, and rhythm.
4. Practice with a metronome: Use a metronome to help you keep time and improve your sense of rhythm.
5. Record yourself: Recording yourself while you practice can help you identify and correct any mistakes or areas that need improvement.
6. Get feedback: Seek feedback from a teacher or a more experienced player to help identify areas of improvement and to gain confidence
7. Get enough rest, eat well and stay healthy: Playing a musical instrument requires a lot of focus and energy, so make sure you're well-rested and healthy on the day of the exam.
8. Practice performing: As the exam is a performance, practice performing your pieces to get comfortable with the stage and audience.
9. Remember that exam is not the only measure of your skill, and don't put too much pressure on yourself. Just enjoy the process of playing.

Wow, the advice is solid. However, a few things are missing. 

10. Listen to professional recordings of your music. This is a proven method employed in the Suzuki music methods. Students need to be able to recognize an incorrect note(s) in their playing. 

​The advice is all old school except for step five. 

David
BTW, my wife is a professor of education who writes on Ai. 

1. Listening every day to the recordings, supplied with your books, prepares your ears for the task ahead. (Students often play a wrong note for an entire week, because they don't fully know how the music sounds.) As the Bugs Bunny Theme song “This is it” says, “We know every part by heart.”
2. Record yourself playing. Video is best. Play, watch, make notes on what did and didn't work. This helps you avoid mindless repetition, also known as grinding. 
3. Play your scales, chords, and arpeggios with a metronome. In modern music performance and production, the ability to play with a metronome is imperative. Try these suggestions if you are having difficulty: Use a comfortable tempo. Count aloud, starting with one note per click. Later, when you are comfortable, try two notes per click. Make a note of the tempo played by date. Incrementally increase the tempo.
4. Memorise your pieces and technique at your earliest convenience. In the theater, rehearsals get serious when the actors are “off the book.” 
5. Spend one-third of your time on theory, ear training, and sight reading. These are the pillars of musical understanding, interpretation, and memorization.

If I can help you, call me.
 
David 
Revised August 2022

Heather Lotherington
13 December
 
I took up the violin in early summer 2018. I reckoned I would get a running start on a bucket list project. But let’s fast forward a couple of years, past the commitment of buying a violin and a sustained period of caterwauling that inspired the neighbor’s dog to howl, past the perpetual state of terror at lessons, a wretchedly inflamed shoulder, constant and unending frustration, and perpetual tweaking of violin, shoulder rest, chin rest, bow to find a position where this instrument felt even quasi-comfortable. 
 
Let’s begin instead a few months into Covid lockdown when I reconnected with my violin teacher and we resumed lessons on Zoom. After brushing up my basic skills, I thought I might sign up for the Royal Conservatory of Music program to provide structure to my learning. We embarked on the preparatory level violin curriculum, and emboldened, I booked an exam date.
 
My available practice time was limited by full time work (on Zoom), which, on some days, wiped me out past even starting the depressing regimen of hit and miss scales. But motivated by a fear of making a total ass of myself in front of an examiner accustomed to 5-year old’s capable of mastering this content, I practiced. I pushed onwards, I stretched, I recorded myself and self-critiqued, I watched superstar violinists on YouTube, and listened attentively, studying how they held their violins and their bows. I practiced with my husband playing the piano or the ukulele, I played to recorded tracks, I sent video-recordings to friends and family. Mostly they were encouraging; a few were incredulous that I would undertake such a project at my age. But why not?
 
A month before the examination my nerves started getting the better of me, so I intensified my practice time on weekends, bearing down on my scales and arpeggios, determined to get my fingers in the right place for each note. A millimetre up or down the string produced disharmony, yet there are no guiding frets on a violin. I practiced as deliberately as I could: open string bowing, scales, arpeggios, get that fourth finger in place ahead of time! My teacher advised me to focus my attention on one piece at a time, but sometimes I drifted off to picking out tunes by ear or playing old favourites from the early days: Mary had a little lamb, Twinkle, twinkle little star... I decided to do a mock exam with my teacher during lesson time. It was humiliating.
 
The week before the exam, my pieces were running on a constant loop in my head. I practiced my fingering while I slept, when I slept, which was seldom and badly. I practiced maniacally. I worked out every kink in continual mock Zoom exams, doubling down on the bits I messed up.
 
Two days before the exam, a curious sense of calm descended. Out of nowhere, I felt that I had learned the elements of preparatory violin, and performance of these basics was up to the vicissitudes of exam performance where, of course, anything can happen. I had memorized my repertoire pieces and, though not necessary, my étude. My scales were on autopilot. I needed to credit myself with accomplishment of this basic learning and damn the torpedoes. I was ready for the exam.
 
The morning of the exam, I ran around in circles preparing: my violin needed to be acclimatized to the humidity of the basement. The piano and the violin had to be tuned exactly in pitch. Was there enough resin on my bow? My husband and I practiced our simultaneous piano and violin start: an audible sniff, and tally ho. I entered the zoom waiting room nervously. We were being recorded though no one was there.
 
And suddenly there she was: my examiner presented a friendly face. I silently thanked the heavens above that I had been spared a hangman. Decades of examining graduate theses and dissertations had taught me that best performance in a tense examination situation was facilitated by an encouraging tone and not by a repeat of the Spanish Inquisition.  
 
All the same, my fingers trembled, my sweat glands went into overdrive, and I forgot how to breathe. I did remember to smile and to play with the conviction my teacher had taught me to show. There were to be no faces pulled, indicating disappointment or frustration, and if I made a mistake, I was to make it with pride and immediately move on. I began with my scales, and true to practice, practice, practice, they rolled off just fine. My teacher had told me to sing to my piece called (appropriately), Song: make up words, create a story and tell it in music. She told me to play what I heard in my head not what I produced with my fingers. So, I did. My étude began a little flat but it had spirit. My favourite beautiful slow song scrolled in my head, and I played as if that were me. My fast piece, the last in my program, was intended to be humorous, and it flowed with relief. It was the very final note in the exam that I blew, probably because I knew I was nearly done. I heard the ear test note perfectly but by that time, my flustered fingers just missed the spot. It was almost funny. And the exam was over as suddenly as it had begun. It had taken 7 minutes.
 
In the academic sphere in which I work, I am not a fan of examinations, which create a ceiling as easily as a floor and encourage parroting of known standards rather than innovative thinking. But I was surprised by the excitement I felt taking a preparatory level violin examination. Learning the violin is qualitatively different from the cognitive learning I work with. Playing the violin is deeply embodied, requiring the player to learn precise physical skills to communicate with an instrument. There is no music without mind, body and instrumental medium working in concert.
 
My mark—not yet received—now seems immaterial. I sensed that my performance was a pass for this level of accomplishment, and I could now pursue the next level of play. The basics I so fervently argue against in public education (which has developed over the past 200 years past the horse and buggy era) indexed something else in violin: an ability to perform skills enabling me to proceed to more complex embodied music making. I could now move into level 1 learning.
 
And that is where I am now: learning the D harmonic minor scale and playing 2 octaves of the G major scale. Woohoo!

I was the proud accompanist for Heather, my wife. 

​David

It is two months before the big date. What do you do? How do you practice?
​
Some thoughts:

1. Listen to great music, piano music, music in the style of your program. Over time you will begin to recognise the difference between good, great, and indifferent playing.
2. Practice technique using a metronome. If this is difficult; start by playing the scale in whole notes with the metronome playing in quarter notes. Count aloud. When this stabilises play in half notes, then quarter, and finally 8th notes. Counting aloud the entire time. This step may take some patient work over a week or two.
3. Listen to professional recordings of your program before practicing. You need the intimate familiarity of the music to the same degree we all know happy birthday. You want to easily know when an error occurs in practice.
4. Work daily on the sight-reading book exercise, pencil in hand, answering all questions. The text is the lesson.
5. If you ear testing is weak, use the online service. Codes are in inside the back cover of the sight reading book.
6. Self assess your progress by recording yourself playing your program. Note in the score on playback where the trouble bits are found. Start practicing there. Playing the pieces top to bottom before they are completed is a waste of time.
7. Do some more listening to great music.
8. Back to the theory book. The pillars of music learning are aural skills, sight-reading skills, and theory knowledge. Excelling in these 3 areas will build your confidence and put a bounce in your step.
9. Back to technique.
10. Finally, intersperse other pieces you enjoy playing into your practice time for 2 reasons. One, to remind yourself you really can play the piano. Two, playing time, clocking the hours. The 10,000-hour rule has been heavily criticized by folks more knowledgeable than me, but it still gives us a good benchmark. The steps above respond to those criticisms: Hours are fine, but how you spend your hours is more important.

​David

​How much effort will it take?
 
Depends on: 

1. What result are you looking for?
2. How big is your desire?
3. What piano skills are you bringing to the project?
4. Have you done this before?
5. Are your practice skills Up-to-date for 2020?

 
What result are you looking for?
 
Extraordinary results take extraordinary effort.
 
Levels 1-3 plan on 30-45 minutes a day, more near exam time.
Levels 4-6 45 minutes plus
Levels 7-8 60 minutes
Levels 9 -10 90 minutes plus It's like preparing for the Boston Marathon.
 
This is on the piano bench. Add more time for theory and guided listening.
 
How big is your or your child's desire?
 
Realistically it should be high. A healthy mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is needed.
 
What piano skills are you bringing to the project?
 
Please let me assess your skills before you make decisions. Sometimes transfer students, new to my studio, ask me to help them prepare for exams way above their current skill level. I may recommend some preparation to preserve your enthusiasm and my sanity.
 
Have you done this before?
 
Then you know what is in store. If this is a new adventure, let's talk.
 
Here is my personal experience.
 
I completed levels 10 and then the ARCT from age 43 through 47. It was by far the most exciting thing I've ever done at the piano. 
 
Remember, I had 25 years of professional experience behind me in commercial and jazz performance. I didn't play classical music or take exams as a child; I went straight to the band stand as a teenager. Classical piano was new to me as a formal study, though I had a love of the music, went to concerts etc.
 
It was also the most time-consuming activity of my adult life. About 5000 hours over a four-year stretch. The results earned me national, provincial, and local scholarships. That was a surprise. Completing Berklee College of Music as a young man was easier in comparison. I had no idea an ARCT took so much.
 
Would I do it again?
 
In a heartbeat. Do I recommend the experience? Yes, it truly is a peak experience. I felt like superman for years afterwards. 
 
Are your practice skills Up-to-date for 2020?
 
We do not grind anymore. Ask me, I help you get organised for success.
 
Recommended books:
​
 
David 

Building a program is selecting the pieces for your exam. Here is an ideal situation:

1. You select your best pieces from each list a few months before signing up for an exam date. Then polish. 
2. The pieces chosen need to have different tempi and dynamics Not all FAST and LOUD or worse SLOoooooooow and soft. You get the idea. Variety makes for a balanced program which will be well received by the examiner. 

Best of luck, 

David

Ear training gives you the ability to conceptualise what you hear, nothing more. There are countless phone apps, YouTube videos, and social media hustlers, and books promising results in short order. Unless you are in possession of perfect pitch and deep prior experiences listening to music, this will take some time. I am 48 years in. I am still working on it.


Ear Training for Classical Musicians

1. The ability to hear a cadence in a recorded or live performance.
2. The ability to distinguish dynamic shading.
3. The ability to hear intervals, chord qualities, scale qualities when listening to music.
4. The ability to internally hear and then execute with poise and beautiful tonal balance and articulations.
5. The ability to remember repertoire.
6. The ability to sing in pitch
7. The ability to practice solfege
8. The ability to internally hear tempo and manipulate it for dramatic effect.
9. The ability to place your part in the ensemble
10. The ability to correctly hear the tempo before you start.

If I can help you, call me.

​David Story