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Examiners

On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Steve Larwood wrote:

> all the argument about being examined by Brass Players etc, but to my
> mind, a musician is a musician and can either play or can't.  And
> examiners shouldnt examine if they arent musicians, which they (AB)
> appear to be.  We only (in a family total of c.25 Associated Board
> exams between the three of us) had one suspect result - which wasnt
> much fun for the person who got it, (my son who got far better results
> in a subsequent grade anyway) but as an average, 24 out of 25 fair
> ones is pretty good.

It still helps to have someone who understands the instrument examining
you. I can't remember exactly what my grade 8 examiner played - either
violin or organ, I think, but I ran into trouble on the scales. Now, I
knew my scales back to front, but they were all pitched very high. My lip
wasn't in very good shape, and by then the nerves had kicked in, and my
mouth had dried up completely. I was also only 13, and my technique wasn't
terribly good. First scale - a simple one; F major for a 12th up to top
C. About G it started splitting and simply died. Getting very funny looks
from the examiner; try again - the same thing happens. Every scale went
the same way; end result a single figure mark (out of 21) for scales when
it should have been full. If I'd lost one more mark I would have dropped
down a grade from distinction to merit, so, in the end, although it didn't
matter, it could have been very costly.

Dave Taylor


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