getting Grades quick sharp

57Deluxe

Someone has asked if I can help them get up to and pass Grade 4 from nowhere, by March 2020. Now I can teach them elements of the typical syllabus, but the chances of them getting there in that time frame when they are a 15 year old PS4 lover...??

vonLayzonfon

Rocksmith. Sorted. 

Lestratcaster

You can do the performance based grades, RGT@LCM do this and so do Rockschool. No scales to learn or test, just songs to play. They don't offer the full benefits of the proper grades (like from Grade 6 UCAS points are awarded). If its a case of just getting the certificate then maybe Performance may be the way to go.

ten77guitar

You could probably just about get them to scrape a pass if they learn quickly and put the time in but it will probably drive you mad in the process. You also have to ask yourself are you teaching to teach people to play music or to pass exams? I don’t teach exams anymore for that reason - if they want to enter themselves that’s up to them.

Also, when you teach kids to enter exams the parents will hold you accountable for the results, even if the little dears are lazy sh*ts and don’t practice, and they will also often put pressure on you to enter them when they’re not ready. Been there, done that, never again!

Lestratcaster

How long have they been playing for and have they done any grades prior to Grade 4? Grade 4 is pretty high up in technical ability and skill so if they haven't played before or done any grades before it'll be a push.

I had someone come to me from school lessons, the teacher at the school stupidly entered them in for a RSL Grade 5 electric exam purely based on how well he could play 2 performance pieces. His technical ability was pretty bad, and we had 2 months til the exam date! He never used a metronome when doing scales and his timing was pretty awful.

We did 2 x 1 hour lessons per week and he managed to pass the exam. The only prior grade experience he had was a Grade 1 classical guitar.

If I could have hunted down the teacher who put him in....

AntonHunter

I got someone to grade 8 RGT in a school year of lessons (so about 9-10 months), with them  having never done grades before. But he was already a talented player, and well motivated as he needed it to get into uni. All depends on how 'nowhere' the nowhere is, if they don't play anything already I'd say unlikely...

57Deluxe

@ten77guitar ;; - this is what I am worrying about. The lad came to me for 18 months already and for most of that time showed no interest whatsoever or even practiced,  until for the last 3 lessons I where I had found him a cheap electric and amp and his parents bought it and he then became more engaged. Prior to that he borrowed my electric and went home to an acoustic. I specifically asked his parents at the beginning if he was to work towards any exams and they said not. They stopped coming a few months back and now because he wants to do music GCSE he needs a Grade 4 at least and they are back at me panicking...

57Deluxe

@Lestratcaster ;;;;; - I have an 8 year old student who has been having school (group) lessons (as did my potential Grde 4 guy mentioned above.). Anyway, he has been shown no chords whatsoever, how to tune the guitar and get this - the 'guitar teacher' didn't even have a guitar himself in the lessons to show them what to actually do!

++

I don't think my Grade 4 'hoper' will even make Grade 1 by March. Not because of a lack of my skills but because he sits yawning and saying he needs a coffee all the time...  The panic for a music qualification all of a sudden is cos he is attending a private school focusing on the arts and performing and he probbo needs music to get onto another course he wants.

ten77guitar

57Deluxe said:

@ten77guitar ;; - this is what I am worrying about. The lad came to me for 18 months already and for most of that time showed no interest whatsoever or even practiced,  until for the last 3 lessons I where I had found him a cheap electric and amp and his parents bought it and he then became more engaged. Prior to that he borrowed my electric and went home to an acoustic. I specifically asked his parents at the beginning if he was to work towards any exams and they said not. They stopped coming a few months back and now because he wants to do music GCSE he needs a Grade 4 at least and they are back at me panicking...

Your last paragraph is exactly why I stopped this kind of teaching. That’s not the kind of responsibility I want and I also don’t like being treated as some kind of ‘service provider’, to be used as and when it suits them.

Now I just teach who I want to (generally speaking, people who seem like they want to be there). Of course, when you need the money it’s different but I learned the hard way that keeping your sanity is more important than having more money.

simonhpieman

57Deluxe said:

@ten77guitar ;; - this is what I am worrying about. The lad came to me for 18 months already and for most of that time showed no interest whatsoever or even practiced,  until for the last 3 lessons I where I had found him a cheap electric and amp and his parents bought it and he then became more engaged. Prior to that he borrowed my electric and went home to an acoustic. I specifically asked his parents at the beginning if he was to work towards any exams and they said not. They stopped coming a few months back and now because he wants to do music GCSE he needs a Grade 4 at least and they are back at me panicking...

Whoa whoa whoa, I think there are a number of slightly crossed wires here.

If he is to do well in GCSE Music, he will get 30/30 for his solo performance if he plays a grade 4 piece PERFECTLY.

He can also get 30/30 if he plays a grade 5 piece reasonably well with maybe 4 or 5 minor slips.

If he manages a grade 3 piece perfectly, his maximum possible mark is 25/30 because the easier piece loses him 5 marks compared to the "standard" grade 4.

You essentially get a 5 point bonus for attempting a "harder" grade 5 (or above) piece.

He doesn't need to learn any scales or pass any grade exams, he just needs to learn one solo piece (can be to a backing track) and one ensemble piece (can be a duet or with a band if you can find a band to play with him) to either Grade 4 or ideally Grade 5 standard.

It's a horrible way to teach but having been at a secondary school where students would arrive at their first year of GCSE without having so much as looked at a musical instrument, and with a history of doing nothing but dick around and get sent out of any curriculum music lessons they did have, sometimes you've just got to do your best to get them through with something, hell, ANYTHING, in the alloted 18 or so months.

Some easy tunes (as far as I can tell) are things like Treasure on the G4 Rockschool syllabus as it's very repetitive, though it requires a lot of subtle little techniques to make it sound tight. Or some stuff off the rockschool acoustic syllabus seems alright - the Taylor Swift one in particular.

The good news is that the hand in deadline is usually 15th May. A teacher will usually put an arbitrary deadline of "before Easter" in the hope that their sanity will be saved the panic of arranging, recording and marking performances in the final fortnight before having to send the coursework off, but ultimately it affects their pay and career prospects if a student does badly (another gteat success of our education system when a child knows a teacher will basically do their work for them because it means more to the teacher than the apatehtic kid) so will accept submissions much later than March if the worst comes to. Though they may still insist on some kind of performance in March as well, just in case the kid goes AWOL before 15th May or breaks their fingers or something.

Anyway, long story short, find out which exam board the school is using for GCSE music then read the syllabus. There's usually a guide with some example tunes you might want to attempt, too, and their exam-board-approved grade level (these tend to be all over the place in my experience but if the exam board says it's grade 5 even though it has just 3 chords you probably don't want to argue).

simonhpieman

And what year is this kid in if he "wants to do GCSE music"? He doesn't need to be grade 4/5 standard until the end of year 11 unless his school has some kind of internal acceptance policy.

The secondary I worked at was just glad to have enough kids to be able to run a GCSE course against the pressure from all areas of management against both teachers and students to discourage them from any kind of creative subject and concentrate on "academic" subjects and trying to get into Oxbridge (more backwards thinking by inner London schools).

57Deluxe

I have a sneaking feeling he will be needing ABRSM which is a whole different ball game to RSL and the ilk... Looking at Grade 4 RSL I would say he could do that already if he had paid more attention and knuckled down. All of that was covered in his time with me...

https://www.rslawards.com/rockschool/graded-exams/electric-guitar/grade-4/

The lad is coming up to 15 by the way.

simonhpieman

Grade 4 is grade 4 as far as GCSE performance is concerned. Board of grade exam makes not a single jot of difference (it's mental but honestly, just read the syllabus and you and the parents can sort of stop worrying).

The main GCSE boards are Edexcel, Eduqas (also known as the Welsh board), AQA and OCR.

SNAKEBITE

Tell the parents straight.

Tell them he doesn't have a hope because he isn't motivated and would rather be on his PS4.

That'll focus the mind, they will either give up, go somewhere else or kick his arse.

Honesty is the best policy, and they might even thank you for it. It could be a wake up call that little johnny is a lazy, entitled and selfish little twat.

Lestratcaster

57Deluxe said:

@Lestratcaster ;;;;; - I have an 8 year old student who has been having school (group) lessons (as did my potential Grde 4 guy mentioned above.). Anyway, he has been shown no chords whatsoever, how to tune the guitar and get this - the 'guitar teacher' didn't even have a guitar himself in the lessons to show them what to actually do!

++

I don't think my Grade 4 'hoper' will even make Grade 1 by March. Not because of a lack of my skills but because he sits yawning and saying he needs a coffee all the time...  The panic for a music qualification all of a sudden is cos he is attending a private school focusing on the arts and performing and he probbo needs music to get onto another course he wants.

Yeah unless he's playing 3-4 hours per day and attending weekly lessons then there's not much hope. Having a shite teacher before doesn't help either.

I get a few parents wanting their children to do the music grades purely to get the certificate to look good on their university application. Had a Grade 5 acoustic learner who quit 3 months ago as they couldn't speed through to 6 (when UCAS points are awarded) and I constantly had to keep telling them they aren't ready for the exam. I even suggested 2 lessons per week but they didn't want to do it.

Lestratcaster

57Deluxe said:

I have a sneaking feeling he will be needing ABRSM which is a whole different ball game to RSL and the ilk... Looking at Grade 4 RSL I would say he could do that already if he had paid more attention and knuckled down. All of that was covered in his time with me...

https://www.rslawards.com/rockschool/graded-exams/electric-guitar/grade-4/

The lad is coming up to 15 by the way.

RSL is more contemporary based and ABRSM is classical if I'm right. The tunes are alright for RSL, though I don't use them very often.

DefaultM

SNAKEBITE said:

Tell the parents straight.

Tell them he doesn't have a hope because he isn't motivated and would rather be on his PS4.

That'll focus the mind, they will either give up, go somewhere else or kick his arse.

Honesty is the best policy, and they might even thank you for it. It could be a wake up call that little johnny is a lazy, entitled and selfish little twat.

You'd better hope he doesn't read this or he'll kick your head in. Assuming he's not in the middle of a game on Fortnite obviously.