Exam Result

Simonb · 2025-07-28T10:37:01+00:00

Hi I didn't really know where to post this, so if this is the wrong place, sorry. I passed my ABRSM grade 8 Piano Performance today scoring 124, so I passe...

keff

Simonb Well done.

iternabe

Congratulations!

pianoloverus

Since you played Danny Boy you might like to try one of these two versions which I think are probably among the greatest. I've played the one by Bill Evans but not the one by Keith Jarrett.

Simonb

Thanks pianoloverus

I'm familiar with the Bill Evans recording, less so the Keith Jarrett version.
Both are undoubtedly more difficult than the version I played.

In fact the version I played by Nikki Iles was directly inspired by the Bill Evans version.
This is Nikki Iles performing her arrangment (better than I did).

The sheet music for this is in the book Jazz in Autumn.
She wrote a set of 4 books (Springtime, Summer, Autumn & Winter) some years ago, which originally all came with a CD of her playing the pieces, as well as the sheet music. Each piece has a footnote advising the student which artist inspired her arrangement.

All the arrangements are fully notated, and include solos (not that difficult). In my estimation all the pieces are grade 5 to grade 8. They are a mixture of Jazz standards and some originals. She is well established in the UK as a Pianist, Composer, Conductor (at least of Jazz anyway) and does a lot of work for the ABRSM.

Cheers

twocats

Simonb congrats!!!

rsl12

Simonb Congratulations! I'm glad to see another person trying the well-rounded approach to piano.

ShiroKuro

Simonb The sheet music for this is in the book Jazz in Autumn.
She wrote a set of 4 books (Springtime, Summer, Autumn & Winter) some years ago, which originally all came with a CD of her playing the pieces, as well as the sheet music. Each piece has a footnote advising the student which artist inspired her arrangement.

This sounds like a really great resource, thanks for describing it! And I enjoyed that recording of Danny Boy.

Sophia

Simonb

Many thanks Sophia

Nightowl

Simonb Fantastic achievement - well done! 🤩 Did you need to practice each piece for many hours to achieve such a good result? Did you take the exam in person or send in a video instead? I'm very curious about the whole process and what it takes for a mature adult to get such a great result.

Simonb

Hi Nightowl

Thanks, yes, I started practising the 4 pieces late 2023, after I had passed my grade 7 in October that year. So it's been over 18 months since I started the process. Admittedly in the latter part of 2024 and the first 3 months of this year I was involved in a stressful house move that meant in that period my practising wasn't as consistent as it should have been.

For both grade 7 and grade 8 I did the performance grades, which means you video the 4 pieces, in one take and you upload the video to the ABRSM and your performance is assessed remotely. I passed grade 6 as an in person exam over 30 years ago. I never did any grades lower than that. But the basic answer to your question is yes, I practised for hours and hours on those pieces.

There are a number of reasons why I switched to the performance grades. Firstly, the aural tests that are part of the in person exams are a weakness of mine, and my sight reading, whilst decent, isn't probably as good as it should be for the grade. Secondly I have a problem with my LH - dupuytren's contracture, which does affect me to a degree. But I can work around it most of the time.

Cheers

twocats

Simonb oh wow, I had no idea that you could do your exam remotely!

Nightowl

Simonb That's a lot of work but gives the rest of us mature adults hope that we might also be able to achieve our personal goals, if we put the work in. I had a look at the ABRSM website a while back and considered doing an exam remotely, but was put off by the fact that all the pieces need to be recorded in one single take (so stressful), plus there seems to be a lot of fiddling about where you have to announce titles of pieces etc, and hold the music up to the camera. I could imagine a scenario where I might takes hours to get the required recording done, then I'd play it back and discover that I had failed to do the other bits so it would all be for nothing, because you're not allowed to edit the video (not even just to add the info)! Huge respect to you for playing 4 advanced pieces to a high standard, all in one take.

HeartKeys

congrats!!

Simonb

Hi Nightowl

You can record the introduction as a separate piece of video. My Teacher and I did this for my grade 8. It's only the playing of the 4 pieces that has to be continuous. The logistics really aren't that difficult, once you get your head around it.

It is stressful, and inevitably you get nervous, but it's nowhere near as bad as the in person exam where an examiner is in the room with you.

Cheers

ShiroKuro

@Nightowl and @Simonb in curious about the video thing. Night owl explained a fair bit, but I don’t quite get the “record in one take” part — how would they know that you didn’t just do several tries (i.e., record all four pieces, decide it’s not good enough and start all over from the bringing and record all four pieces again)?

Simonb

Hi ShiroKuro

It's better explained by saying "one continuous take". You can have as many attempts as you need, but it must be a single video with the 4 pieces played one after the other.

Cheers

Simonb

Hi ShiroKuro

To put your question into perspective.
For this exam the take that was submitted by my Teacher was my 4th attempt. I did it quicker than my grade 7, where I think I had 6 or 8 attempts.

Sometimes just getting through all 4 pieces is a struggle. We did 2 takes on Monday July 7th. And neither of us were happy with them. So a week later we had 2 more goes. On attempt 3 I made so many mistakes I started tutting during the first piece, so that was quickly abandoned.

The 4th attempt my Teacher submitted was by no means perfect. There was certainly the odd slip up in all the pieces, but classical examiners are looking for so much more than just playing the right notes. I've heard of people who have spent ages recording dozens and dozens of takes, because if they play a wrong note, or screw up the timing they think the recording won't be good enough.

Hope that makes sense!

Cheers

L-M

Well done Simon! Grade 8 with merit is no small feat. ATCL sounds exciting, looking forward to hearing more about your journey.

thepianoplayer416

Would take me a while to get to the same level.

Congrats. Time for celebrations...

ShiroKuro

Simonb Thanks for explaining that! That makes sense! I was wondering about the logistics of how they would enforce someone only doing it literally once. But having to do all the pieces in one take is stressful enough, no doubt!

Do you know if the video option started during Covid, or has it been an option for longer than that?

BTW how many minutes was your program?