Eighth year Piano exam

Hi Rosina, if you start with the premise of finding conservatories with people capable of understanding the situation, I think you are mistaken. At exams, unfortunately, especially for private students, one does not have an overview of the year's study in front of them where a Teacher can discern a bad day or otherwise something below that student's standard. At the exam, what is evaluated is how one plays, and that's it. If you manage to demonstrate your value, you will be rewarded. In the end, a Teacher realizes if there is talent and if it is worth rewarding, regardless of a missed note that happens to everyone.

One suggestion of mine is to divide the eighth between the June and September sessions. Maybe drop the sonata and the pieces and attempt the 24-hour extraction. You never know, an easy étude and an easy fugue might come out.

Dividing it up also helps mentally. It doesn't cause too much fatigue and allows for better concentration on half of the program. Good luck

rosina wrote:

I would like to find myself facing people capable of understanding the situation and perhaps meeting me halfway, considering the great damage that the reform has caused to us private students.

To summarize as much as possible, you would want discounts on the grade ...as compensation for damages?

A me non sembra troppo corretto e così si gioca a ribasso sul livello dei diplomandi ... semmai hanno proposto una pezza riparatoria ridicola! Avrebbero dovuto far proseguire con i tempi "consueti"

In my opinion, studying in view of an eighth year with the only motivation being the achievement of the qualification won't take you very far.... start studying again out of passion because it is the only way to bring agility back to your hands and mind. Have someone guide you and, with great patience, rebuild the program properly. At that point, you can take the exam wherever you want and your merits will be recognized. ..patience and passion. Perhaps when you are ready you can split it into two as you were told... I also think that helps a lot. But start studying again out of passion.... I also have children and work (I even work night shifts)... but starting to study again was the best thing I could do. Time is a continuous sacrifice, but through passion, one succeeds...

Hi guys, and first of all, thank you all for the answers!

TheSimon wrote:

Hi Rosina, if you start with the premise of finding conservatories with people capable of understanding the situation, I think you are barking up the wrong tree. At exams, unfortunately, especially for private students, one does not have an overview of the study progress throughout the year in front of them where a Maestro can discern a bad day or otherwise something below that student's standards. At the exam, what is evaluated is how you play, and that's it. If you manage to demonstrate your value, you will be rewarded. In the end, a Maestro realizes if there is talent and if it is worth rewarding, regardless of a missed note that happens to everyone.

TheSimon, you are certainly right; anyone who has taken exams at S. Cecilia, for example, has noticed the atmosphere there, almost one of hostility towards private students.

My question arises from a simple observation: many pianists in Rome that I know graduated from small and distant conservatories, some in Camerino, some in Macerata... Besides the indisputable advantage of breathing cleaner air and enjoying beautiful views, I imagine they must have obtained at least less "hostile" treatment...

pianoexpert wrote:

My suggestion is to divide the eighth year between the June and September sessions. Perhaps get the sonata and pieces out of the way and attempt the extraction of the 24 Preludes/Fugues. You never know, an easy étude and an easy fugue might come up.

Thanks for the suggestion pianoexpert, it seems like a good solution to me... In practice, would I have to book the summer session and, in case Bach and Clementi go badly, would I only be postponed for those two tests?

Organista94 wrote:

To put it as briefly as possible, you want discounts on the grade... as compensation for damages?

A me non sembra troppo corretto e così si gioca a ribasso sul livello dei diplomandi ... semmai hanno proposto una pezza riparatoria ridicola! Avrebbero dovuto far proseguire con i tempi "consueti"

Regarding the level of graduates, it has already been lowered quite a bit... just compare the eighth-year exam program of the old system with the new system. The program is more than halved, while the value of the two final titles remains identical.

Since I started with the old system, I would like to finish this way, out of principle, because I don't like leaving things halfway done and unfortunately I was forced to do so against my will... As for the grade, at the point we are at, I care little; after all, the title I obtain will be difficult to use professionally, a passing grade is enough for me.

nancy wrote:

In my opinion, studying in view of an eighth year having only the achievement of the title as motivation won't take you very far.... start studying again out of passion because it is the only way to bring agility back to your hands and mind. Have someone guide you and, with great patience, rebuild the program properly. At that point, you can take the exam wherever you want and your merits will be recognized... patience and passion. Maybe when you are ready you can divide it into two as you were told... I also think that helps a lot. But start studying again out of passion.... I also have children and work (I even work night shifts)... but starting to study again was the best thing I could have done. Time is a continuous sacrifice, but through passion, you succeed...

Thank you for your words nancy, the passion is always there, it never left! I can do it!

rosina wrote:

TheSimon you are certainly right, anyone who has taken exams at S. Cecilia, for example, has noticed the atmosphere there, almost one of hostility towards private students.

No, personally I don't believe in these things and I say this as a private student. The only difference I have had the opportunity to observe between private students and internal students is a matter of study progression.

If you are an internal student, you are good and play well because you have talent and you have worked hard throughout the year, and then at the exam if you mess up, the teacher has points of comparison because they know the student's academic progression. If you are a private student, you only have that one card to play, so you just have to play well, period. The grade will depend solely on how you play that day. That's all. But honestly, I have never suffered from hostility from teachers just because I am a private student; quite the opposite!

Have I been lucky?

Or maybe ...you played well?? Hi hi.

Rosina...You contributed in some way to saving my life..but is that true?

There is nothing more difficult than getting back to studying seriously and I am the first to pay the consequences, but this glimmer of hope represents truly so much to me right now.

I passed the 5th year with good results in Siena and now I'm going to read the new regulations to return to my teacher and prepare myself.

Will I be able to do it in 4 years? I don't care about the diploma, but the 8th [year] yes....secret!! Being able to play Images and a thousand other things that right now I would never be able to put together and then... harmony, sight-reading..

Passion!! Passion!! Thank you so much.

Here is the link!!! Found it.. Now this is news..

http://www.flcgil.it/universita/afam/conservatori-e-candidati-privatisti-i-pasticci-del-miur.flc

I apologize for the intrusion, does this also apply to those who have achieved intermediate accomplishments from within and are now no longer enrolled?

thank you

suonolatromba wrote:

i apologize for the intrusion, does this also apply to those who obtained middle school diplomas under the old system and are no longer enrolled?

thanks

In my opinion, yes; the criterion is that if you have a diploma (middle or lower) from the old system... you are given the possibility to finish your studies - within that system.

it would be a beautiful thing, thank you very much for now

I see a lot of future Graduates!!!!!!!!! Courage and happy studying!!!!!!!!

Thank you again Paolo. Not so much for the diploma, but for being able to understand and learn even more things. Many times you feel a bit stuck on certain pieces due to a lack of knowledge regarding certain aspects that music, with a certain level of expressiveness and technique, demands from the performer.

Performing more challenging and expressive pieces is my goal.

In my opinion, this aspect is independent of an academic degree.

There are many people who bring very unchallenging and even poorly executed programs to their diploma exam; however, they pass the exam, perhaps with very low grades, but they pass it.

There are pieces that are much more difficult than those presented for a diploma. The diploma is only a destination point. You can graduate without ever having done a transcendental study by Liszt or, more simply, a Chopin étude, which are serious repertoire that a serious pianist should measure themselves against. In fact, you can actually graduate without ever having played Chopin!!!!

It's not as if taking exams at the conservatory will automatically make you grow musically and technically. I believe I have grown much more musically and technically after my diploma. I challenged myself with more demanding repertoire, experimented with different types of technique, and reached a level significantly higher than what I had during my diploma years. This is to say that one can study well without centering the discussion around an exam. So, if your goal is to perform more challenging and expressive pieces, you should do so regardless, and not in function of a reopening of applications for private student exams at the conservatory.

How much truth in what you say... the same thing happened to me regarding painting and drawing.

But I know myself... without a goal I don't commit; I am a cursed doormat..

It would be nice to find again a great master who cares about what you do and knows how to guide you in the right way. The conservatory is also a way to be able to tell everyone that: "Now I am studying for exams and therefore you cannot bother me every moment as if the piano were just a hobby like DIY"
I, as a person, am not selfish enough to carve out my own space, and at every request, I run to take care of one thing or another.

Anyway, I agree with you.

In my opinion, the matter is more complex. I will try to argue my opinion sincerely and openly (I hope also clearly). First of all, I believe that each of us can be teacher and student at the same time. I will spare you an in-depth discussion of this concept.

A Conservatory Diploma and "exams" should not be understood as a destination, but as a starting point. However, they are tests, goals, etc., that force us to glimpse a milestone and overcome a step. It may be true that taking exams does not always lead to growth, just as it may be true that they can instead be a panacea. The before, during, and after the Diploma is governed by our willingness to listen to and adopt the experiences and knowledge of other musicians. In my modest musical life and as an "occasional teacher," I have encountered various types of students or other musicians who have asked me for a technical-musical opinion (this being when I found myself in the position of teacher and not student).

Some surrender themselves for a period to teaching and take as their only path what the teacher suggests, or rather, what the teacher suggests not to do. Some, with "their own timing," make more or less "their own" certain notions and internalize them. Others may struggle a bit to communicate and therefore to deeply learn the teacher's suggestions. Others, of undoubted intelligence and ability, listen, filter, select the "information," and either consciously or unconsciously conclude that, ultimately, what they think is more correct. In short, between a clear division of those who can have Teachers and those who do not and have never had Teachers, there is also a type of Musician who, with humility, looks around.

As a student, in my youth, I encountered several Teachers who said things that were "not in my wheelhouse," but later, I had to realize that... "my strings" were still too few and... too short to be able to vibrate in resonance with those concepts.

Therefore, beyond the fact that the discussion should be deepened, developed, and debated, I quote Fabio's phrase: "It would be nice to find a good teacher again...". I also invite you to reread Horowitz's thought, posted by Frank. I like it very much.

P.S. For painting and drawing (perhaps less so for the latter), the matter is different. I can find myself in front of a landscape and "interpret it," in short, with two or three splashes of color. And this can be judged as whimsical, personal, and excellent in "free interpretation." In the performance of a Chopin ballad or a Paganini capriccio, however, one must respect certain rules, even if flexible, and certain skills that allow for a good representation of the work.

Yes Paolo, I understand what you mean. Music has a perhaps "denser" grid than painting or drawing, but these also have their own "performance conventions." It must be said that everything we go to experiment with must be weighed and compared against a whole... an executive whole, of practice, interpretation, historical context... and so on. I believe that something proposed by an artist, in order to become a "new rule" or to be a new way of saying that thing, must have deep roots and not arise from nothing. The interpretation of a piece is not an easy thing at all, and personally, sometimes my euphoria and emotion prevail over what is often (dictated by the teacher) the best of rules.

The teacher is always seen as a "killjoy" by exuberant and experimental students, but in the end, he is the one who manages to make you say: "I am playing better than I thought I could play... and this is thanks to him through me"... isn't that beautiful?

I am reopening this old discussion because, after a piano study path abandoned about twenty years ago after completing the eighth year, I have started studying again and was wondering if it is possible to complete the diploma. Do you know if the exams taken are still considered valid? Can I take the diploma exam according to the old system? Thank you. Giampaolo