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Post by Dulciana on Sept 9, 2006 17:50:38 GMT
Does anyone have experience of the old Trinity duet exams? If so, how did you or your pupils fare? I love getting pupils to do duets (and they like it too) as the piano can be a lonely instrument. What I'm thinking of at the minute is the Advanced Recital Certificate (TG) for self and friend, which is apparently pitched between Grade 8 and ATCL - just for fun, as we've already played a couple of things on the syllabus - but it occurs to me that some of the kids might like to have a go at the other options. If all goes well with duets it's great, but if it falls apart it really falls apart in style! Any experiences?
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Post by Dulciana on Sept 9, 2006 18:19:37 GMT
OK. If no experiences, any thoughts....?
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Post by princessmoose on Sept 9, 2006 18:22:31 GMT
It sounds a good idea! If I was to ever teach piano I'd definitely get my pupils doing duets so they could play with others and not just me. I helped a sax pupil of mine with some piano last year and played duets with her and she really enjoyed it. Whether duet exams for younger ones are a good idea..I don't know. In one way yes, because they'd be in there together, so they'd have the comfort of each other and might not be as nervous, but if one of them completely falls apart then I'd feel sorry for other one too!
I think you should go for the Advanced Recital thing though!
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Post by Steve Hopwood on Sept 9, 2006 18:34:30 GMT
Back in the days of yester yore, I had a couple of kids who loved playing duets together. They did the old AB Junior, Intermediate and Advanced duet exams with huge success. These two came for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon and shared their piano lesson, were great friends and would meet at other times to 'practise' - i.e. a few minutes practise and several hours romping around whichever house was hosting all this ;D The problem I found with other kids not able\willing to meet so often, or whose lessons did not overlap, was that they were usually unwilling to learn their individual parts. Modern technology can take care of that; I can record the other part for each child to practise along with, onto a CD. I still do not do it often, but it is lovely when it works.  |
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Post by Dulciana on Sept 9, 2006 18:49:26 GMT
I have twice now had a go at the six hands option - not for an exam; just for fun and small-time concerts - and each time I have sworn never again...the middle child always ended up with black and blue ribs because he was always the one to blame when something went wrong. And lessons were more like crowd-control than lessons. But I've also never had so many laughs in lessons either!
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Post by Steve Hopwood on Sept 9, 2006 19:08:33 GMT
I have twice now had a go at the six hands option - not for an exam; just for fun and small-time concerts - and each time I have sworn never again...the middle child always ended up with black and blue ribs because he was always the one to blame when something went wrong. And lessons were more like crowd-control than lessons. But I've also never had so many laughs in lessons either! So, next time make sure the middle child has the build of a rugby scrum prop forward ;D |
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Post by anacrusis on Sept 9, 2006 19:15:31 GMT
I'd love there to be more music available for duets of all sorts of combinations of instruments - the problem being that it can be difficult to motivate oneself to learn one's part if the other isn't around too, and boring for one player if they've learnt their part and the co-duettist hasn't. Our kids' first piano teacher found some simple accompaniments for the elder to learn, and he chummed me playing on my recorder - we really enjoyed ourselves, and for a grade 2-3 pianist to get experience of playing with another is so rare...
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Post by Dulciana on Sept 9, 2006 20:51:51 GMT
The Christmas stuff by Schur is good for early grades, especially Ding Dong Merrilly on High.
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Post by kerioboe on Sept 11, 2006 19:48:49 GMT
I did Grade 5 Trinity piano duet exam with a friend some 25 years ago. We played a Brahms Waltz (I played the bottom) and a Clementi Rondo (I played the top). There were also two pieces of sight-reading so that both candidates got a chance to play top and bottom.
The pieces were fine but the sight-reading was something of a disaster. Our teacher had no sight-reading specimens (maybe none were available) and we hadn't practised it that much. My friend was never much good at keeping a steady rhythm if she didn't know the piece and we didn't finish at the same time. We got reasonable marks for the pieces, failed the sight-reading and passed overall.
We used to share our lessons and practise at each other's houses and on a piano at school. Shortly after the exam our teacher retired, my friend gave up having lessons, I found another teacher and gave up playing duets.
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Post by Dulciana on Sept 11, 2006 22:42:18 GMT
That's a shame! There isn't any sight-reading on the new syllabus - it's just performance, programme notes and presentation. The sight-reading would be a real laugh - for all the wrong reasons...
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Post by Dulciana on Sept 19, 2006 9:35:33 GMT
About programme notes - when planning a programme for a recital exam, has anyone ever given the programme a specific theme - like all British composers, or music which has all been used for royal occasions, or similar? We're going ahead with the TG Advanced Duet Recital, and thinking about giving it a title along the lines of "Best of British". Is that corny...?
e.g. Queen of Sheba, Land of Hope and Glory, V. Williams and Walton...?
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Post by bing on Sept 19, 2006 10:13:27 GMT
When I was about 10 I did a piano duet class in the local festival with my younger sister. The piece had a tricky bit in the middle which was catching each entrants out. I was quite advanced for my age and we had manipulated the piece so that I covered both parts for the tricky bit. The adjudicator couldn't quite work out what had happened - it was very entertaining - he'd obviously been waiting for that moment - knew it hadn't gone wrong, but that something strange had happened! (We won!) |
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Post by meepmeep on Sept 19, 2006 13:46:30 GMT
Heheh, nice one |
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