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Yes.

I've been watching your posts.

Your teacher seems to just want to push you through exams.

You seem conflicted.

I never went through exams, so take that with a grain of salt.

I can see that exams might give you a goal to aim for and help round you out as a pianist.

I can see that exams could make a student thrive, or could kill a student's love of music.

I can also see that exams could end up being a curriculum crutch for a not-so-inspired teacher.

I am given to understand that you may be in an area where it may be hard to find an alternate teacher.

But, what I read from your posts is that you are not so crazy about exams, but your teacher is pushing you through them at a pretty brisk pace.

Honestly, I don't think that teacher-student relationship is working.

Yes, sorry. I will just assume the OP is a non-English speaker. I normally don't speak out about such things, especially when it is off-topic, but the fact that several posts were exchanged about such an absurdity just couldn't go ignored.

Yes.

I've been watching your posts.

Your teacher seems to just want to push you through exams.

You seem conflicted.

I never went through exams, so take that with a grain of salt.

I can see that exams might give you a goal to aim for and help round you out as a pianist.

I can see that exams could make a student thrive, or could kill a student's love of music.

I can also see that exams could end up being a curriculum crutch for a not-so-inspired teacher.

I am given to understand that you may be in an area where it may be hard to find an alternate teacher.But, what I read from your posts is that you are not so crazy about exams, but your teacher is pushing you through them at a pretty brisk pace.

Honestly, I don't think that teacher-student relationship is working.

When my teacher told me what was involved in the exam I said but what do I want to put myself through that for, for merely doing piano as a hobby for my own enjoyment. It's not as if I am heading into making a living out of music so why push myself to the absolute limit mentally by doing this and learning about different instruments and orchestras and how an orchestra works in collaboration with a piano......I am wondering if it will take the pleasure away from playing. My teacher said to me "But you like doing the Grade exams" and I do, its merely the thought of learning all this extra unnecesary stuff that usually people who want to take music up as profession would do.

I am exhausted mentally trying to work out if this is the best way forward and perhaps stop doing the exams at a level where I do not have to do theory.

"adult" - in your opening post you expressed hesitation about doing the exams. That is why people have responded as they did:

Keystring, my hesitation was not about doing the exams, but doing a grade which requires theory. I love the challenge of taking a piano exam and find that it enhances my playing ability. However, as I progress up the grade scale, I am hesitant to do Grade 5 because I have been told I will have to learn stuff that as a home pianist, I do not need to know about. If it was just a matter of playing the piano in the exam and not have to sit a written theory and learn stuff that only professionals need to know about then I would be fine to take Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 and learn how to play to that standard and have a qualification to prove it.

I would talk to your teacher again about the requirements for Grade V theory. It is not 'stuff that only professional musicians need to know' but stuff any practising musician above Grade V (any instrument) might be expected to know.

It's fairly basic musicianship, not esoteric stuff and not beyond a normal person's ability to learn.

my other difficulty that we are trying to overcome is that when I need to play a piece from the score, I cannot jump into the middle of the score and play from that point. I always have to start over from the beginning and that is wrong. If I am stuck on a particular bar, then I cannot start from that bar

who cares what theory I know and don't know. Who is going to listen and judge me? Nobody.

Keystring, my hesitation was not about doing the exams, but doing a grade which requires theory. I love the challenge of taking a piano exam and find that it enhances my playing ability. However, as I progress up the grade scale, I am hesitant to do Grade 5 because I have been told I will have to learn stuff that as a home pianist, I do not need to know about. If it was just a matter of playing the piano in the exam and not have to sit a written theory and learn stuff that only professionals need to know about then I would be fine to take Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 and learn how to play to that standard and have a qualification to prove it.

My teacher said to me "But you like doing the Grade exams" and I do, its merely the thought of learning all this extra unnecesary stuff that usually people who want to take music up as profession would do.

I gues by doing Theory exam at Grade 5 or 6 will give me a better understanding of music. I go to classical music concerts by the London Symphony Orchestra or the Australian Chamber Orchestra, or indeed any well known orchestra. It will give me more pleasure in listening to the orchestra if I learn some theory so I know why bits of the orchestra do what they do and when etc etc. It is fine to listen to a good concerto but its nice to actually understand what you are listening to. I may not be a professional pianist but at least the Theory will be put to some use, if only for listening to sonatas and concerto with piano and orchestra or just orchestra

WiseBuff, enjoy Lubec and Summerkeys.

Congratulations on passing your theory exam.

On an international forum with a wide variety of posters, I try not to get too fussed about different people's ways of using English. Don't know if I always succeed.

adultpianist, on tenor clefs, and just playing for enjoyment: for me, more knowledge about just about everything increases my enjoyment. That may not be you, though. I also have a high tolerance for theory on paper, although the weakness of this tolerance is that I really have to work to connect my theory to aural and playing skills. I don't think all teachers approach teaching theory in a highly practical way, though, so I don't know if you will be fortunate enough to have a teacher who can connect your theory with your music in a way that makes musical sense to you.

I recently learned tenor, alto, and soprano clefs for my theory exam (RCM Advanced Rudiments, which I think goes with level 7 Practical... I'm way ahead in Theory far beyond where I am in Practical). I didn't mind doing it, because as I said above, I just like knowing things. I did it mostly by brute force: "if this line is middle C then (count lines and spaces) this other line is this other note". Gets the answers for the exam, but is painful. Then recently I had a need to play some music written in these clefs. This was just for my enjoyment mind, not because I'm a professional musician. I don't normally consciously read intervallically, but in order to avoid the pain of translating note by note, I pullled out what I know of intervallic reading and practiced it. I got a lot more familiar with playing from these clefs in a hurry, and learned some skills to add to my sightreading tools. I'm glad I was familiar with these clefs from studying for the exam, and glad I found a way to deepen my musical understanding of them.

I needed the clefs because I happen to be studying medieval counterpoint. You might find you want them some day for some other reason: maybe you fall in love with a cello, or bassoon, or viola solo and want to play it on the piano. Maybe you want to transcribe a string quartet for the piano. (I heard a string quartet recently that I fell in love with, and want to do exactly that: transcribe it for the piano so I can play it.) Maybe you also will find yourself interested in medieval music.

Your choice, though, whether you like learning things just to know about them, perhaps by following an exam syllabus; or whether you'd prefer to only learn something in a "just-in-time" manner, for example only learn the other clefs when you first meet actual music written in them that you desperately want to play.

I also play for my enjoyment, but for me that means I want to learn everything I possibly can about piano and music, rather than shutting off areas as not relevant.