TC3 when I first started piano (I was an adult, living in Japan), for while I took lessons from a teacher at a local Kawai music school. Kawai has its own system of grades (in Japan at least, I donāt think they do this in the U.S.). So for a while (a very short while) I thought I would do those grades, because I thought it would give me some beneficial structure. I passed the first one that I took (I cannot remember what I played), and then I failed the second one (I think because of nerves). I was ready to move on from those pieces, but I had to keep practicing them in order to re-do the rest. And the tests were only offered at specific times. IIRC, I took that same grade exam once more, and failed again. I think it was nerves but at this point, my memory is quite fuzzy. This would have been in 2000.
What I do remember from the testing experience are two things: 1) I was one of only two adults. Being in the waiting room was very unpleasant. Also I was terrified that I would see one of my students (at the time, I was teaching English to elementary school kids). 2) The other adult apparently was a piano teacher without any formal credentials and she was obviously an excellent pianist but she had a very serious stage fright problem. During my third test, I remember that after her test, she went outside and broke down into the most dramatic, incredibly loud sobs. Someone was there with her and took her away but not before the rest of us could all hear her heartbreaking, gut wrenching sobbing. It was traumatic.
After that I decided not to do any more grade exams. I didnāt want to be stuck working through the same pieces just because I couldnāt perform in the very high pressure, one-shot testing situation. And I was rapidly losing interest in the exam pieces (which were from the traditional piano literature across a range of classical genres), and gaining interest in (what I now call) post-classical piano. Also, I didnāt want to be in that situation again, surrounded by kids who could play circles around me, and hearing that woman leaving in tears again. So I didnāt continue the exams and of course, I also completely stopped working through that kind of piano literature.
Now (as you probably remember), Iām taking piano classes at my uni through the uni music school, and we have to play for a jury as our āfinal exam.ā Because Iām in the secondary piano program (i.e., program for non-piano majors) I get to choose my exam piece. Also, secondary piano program students are not required to memorize. But itās still a pretty high pressure situation. The jury includes the head of the program and itās still a āone-shotā type of perfomance situation. Oh and we get to choose what weāll play (in spring I played Miracles by Alexis Ffrench, the piece I submitted for my PT May recital).
Because the head was on maternity leave at the end of my first semester in the program, my Dec 2025 ājuryā was a video submission, so this past spring was my first time to actually play the final in a true jury situation.
I found the whole experience to be incredibly beneficial as a learning tool, and Iām looking forward to doing it again this semester.
So what was helpful? Hmmmā¦
Knowing that you have to prepare, having a deadline youāre working toward, strategizing about how to get the piece ready in time, strategizing about how to deal with nervesā¦. And then of course getting feedback from my teacher through that prep, which felt different from my regular lesson feedback.
Also, I got an A+. I might be a grown woman whoās closer to age 60 than age 50, but that made me very happy. š