I am soon going to take grade 8 abrsm practical exam and I have practiced over a year preparing for this.I can play with no problem at home but as soon as anybody takes any interest in listning to me I make big mistakes that I never usually make and now because I have had piano lessons around the preperation for the aural part for the last couple of months I have problem playing the pieces to my teacher.
When I make these mistakes I cant even get back into playing anywhere in the score,my mind just goes blinkered and I cant focus.

My teacher has adviced me to still go for the exam and today I gave him my cheque with loads of doubt of being able to perform to the examiner let alone ever passing it.

Well I've got about 2 months to get my act together and any advice would be well appreciated.

Regards
Daz

Hi Daren. I've never attempted to sit an exam so I can only imagine how stressful it must be when you can't perform the way you know you're capable of. I have been unable to play in front of my teacher and found some great advice on the thread started by ShiroKuro on 'ego, the joy of performing'. Take a look, it really helped me.

what you can do is what my teacher keeps telling me: follow the music! it means that even though you have memorized the piece you're going to play, you read the music score anyway when playing it. although it seems like an unrelated activity (because you just have to play it from memory), it actually teaches you to start from anywhere in the music when getting lost, since you'd keep following notes on the score and know where you get lost and what next notes are to start again.

I always play following the score but I dont really see all the detail if you know what I mean.
To be able to read every detail I would have to treat it if I had never played it before by slowing down and playing hands seperatly again.
I also find that if I slow down I cant play some phrases but can play when up to speed,its like I can run but I cant walk which dont make sense to me.

Exactly !!! You have 2 months to learn how to walk !

Here's my advice : work on your pieces very slowly to solidify your playing and make sure YOU rather than only your fingers know what you're playing. Finger memory is very dangerous, I used to painfully sight read my pieces hands separated very slowly and practiced short sequences over and over again until it was in my fingers and I didn't need the score anymore. This caused me to have a horrible sight reading ability, and very unstable performing skills because with the stress of playing in front of people, there was like a cloud in my head and I just watched my fingers play until the piece was over. I didn't know what was happening and I could get lost easily and not be able to start again from where I was.

The solution to this is to practice more intelligently. Be able to play slowly every of your pieces, and to start from anywhere in them. Also, try playing in front of your teacher, familly, friends whenever you can to get used to performing in front of people.

Something else to add to my practice menu.. walking! I really need to quit my day job How can we serious piano enthusiasts manage to keep up??

You have two months? That could be a lot of time, if you use it wisely. I found that there's a stage in my performance prep where everything seems to be falling apart. For a while I was playing everything really well and then suddenly, I couldn't play any of it. It's at this point when the real polishing happens, so you're experiencing this at a very good time, since you still have two months left.

So what do you want to focus on in your practices? I'm assuming that you can play the music, you know the score, you have the technique. So it sounds to me like you need at least two strategies that you don't currently have:

1) A strategy for how to get through mistakes and keep the music flowing without falling apart. Assume you will make mistakes, expect that you will make mistakes, and then use your practice time learning how to minimalize the impact of those mistakes on both your playing and on your mental state. Learn how to play through those mistakes, and also learn how to forgive yourself for making the mistakes in the first place.

2) A strategy for your mindset, which includes your own thoughts about your playing and also how you concentrate and focus. You need a strategy for how to focus on the task at hand (playing the music) without getting distracted by other, less relevent elements. Like the fact that it's an exam, that shouldn't be relevent to you while you are actually playing. You don't have to judge/grade yourself, so don't let that stuff get in your head.

If these ideas sound like something you'd like to learn more about, I highly recomment that you buy the Inner Game of Music" by Barry Green. Give yourself a week to read it (this is homework ) and that should give you a lot of methods to put to work in your prep. Good luck

Hi Daren,

You've got plenty of time to prepare for the exam. In addition to all the advice above, I'd just stress the importance of playing your exam pieces publicly for friends, family, acquaintances, the mailman, meter reader, and anybody else you can drag off the street.

I'm quite serious; the more you are used to playing for others, the less anxiety provoking sitting down in front of the judges will seem. Yes, you'll mess up. You may even have a memory failure. But better to do that for your mom, say, who will STILL think you are the most talented pianist since Horowitz, and get used to recovering from the memory failure, than to experience it the first time for the judges.

So start playing your exam pieces in public as soon as possible... don't make the mistake of thinking to yourself, "I'll wait until I have them polished." Instead, assign yourself the task of playing them for somebody else at least three times a week between now and the exam.

Hi Daren,

I agree with Monica. You need the experience of playing for others, anybody.

Once I was at a party of at least 30 people. I was coaxed into playing the piano. We were all in a good mood and I was feeling comfortable. The room became quiet and I started playing a piece that I have already memorized. Concentrating on playing I shut out everybody else, until just before the end when I became aware of what was around me. Everybody was talking loud, in fact so loud that suddenly I could no longer hear what I was playing. I was not sure I was going to be able to finish the last few measures, but I barely managed to finish it nervously.

What I am trying to say is that as long as you are focussed only on playing then you could shut out everything else around you. This is why practicing in front of others will give you the experience you need to shut out everything around except the music.

Good luck.