Hello all, Am i been too forward or do we have the right teacher?
My boys aged now 7 and 8 have been taking piano lesson from a teacher for over 2 years now.
We - teacher and I decided not to put them forward for the the prep test after 9 months of study as we wanted them to expand on their repertoire - pardon my spelling and probably let them enjoy playing instead of been exam oriented.
However last year Dec, the tutor said they would be entered for the abrsm grade 1 in june 08, then said they were not ready but will be in Dec 08, last week she now says because we are taking the summer holidays off, they would now have to sit it next year spring. is this teacher holding them back. I have offered to pay for extra lessons before and after the holiday but she is still reluctant.
is it not possible to prepare for this exam in november 08 despite our holiday or should i be looking for another teacher after this.
Is she worried that she may not have prepared them enough? - unsure of herself

Your boys are quite young so there is no need to rush them through exams. Sounds like the teacher is making sure they are ready for the exam before entering them If they are entered too soon they may get a disappointing result. On the other hand, I feel they are spending too much time on grade 1 pieces. Do they practice regularly and for 15 minutes or so daily? It may be they have started the grade 1 pieces too soon. I tend to let my students play lots of different grade 1 standard pieces before they actually start learning the pieces in the exam book. It's difficult to tell without actually hearing them, but it sounds to me like they aren't ready for grade 1 just yet if it's taking them so long to work on the pieces. Children all develop at different rates and some need more time to prepare for an exam than others. I normally don't allow more than 6 months for grade 1 preparation.

I don't think it's necessarily a case of the teacher not having prepared them enough. The teacher is probably making sure they have reached the standard before entering them. Ask the teacher what s/he thinks they need to do to be ready for the exam in November. I don't think any teacher would hold a student back on purpose, but if you're not happy then maybe a change of teacher is the best thing.

Hi there, I would agree with everything noodle has said.
Your children are very young and there is not really any benefit in rushing through Grade 1. You need a good foundation at the start and it's better not to rush this. Many of my youngest pupils are 3 years to taking Grade 1 - but once they get there they fly through the grades because they've had a good foundation.

The only thing that would worry me, like noodle says, is the amount of time spent on the exam pieces. I have a little girl taking Grade 1 this session, she has been well over a year since prep test just working on lots of other things. We only started the Grade 1 after the February half term. She learnt it really quickly - in a few weeks - because she is well up to Grade 1 standard, and she ought to do really well. If you spend months and months and months on exam pieces, expecially in the early stages, they can get very tired sounding and the pupil can get really bored.

I doubt this teacher is holding your boys back - she wouldn't have any reason to do this. It's a mistake to push a teacher into entering a child they feel is not ready. I've been pushed to do this in the past and the results are usually disappointing.

If you are worried the teacher is unsure of herself, can she give you her exam results for the last session or year? I would always be quite happy to advertise my results and a good teacher will have nothing to hide. If other pupils of hers have taken grades and done well, you know you don't need to worry. If she has never entered anyone before, well we've all got to start somewhere but you might decide that your children would do better with someone more experienced.

Thanks for your comments, i would be speaking with her today. my boys have not started any exam pieces yet. they are using the Alfred books level 2 now having gone thorugh all the A-D books in level 1 and Bastien level 1 books. i would get back to you again. yes they practice daily for about 10 mins each. she has just begin to teach them sight reading and good poistional play. one of my son's little finger sticks out not in the curved position.