Music performance experience

[furansugo]

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I'm initiating this thread to feed my curiosity...

Although I'm years away from sitting my VCE, I'm interested in the correlation with previous musical experience and study scores in music performance (solo). Is anyone willing to list their musical accomplishments (both theory and practical examinations/competitions/orchestral experience) and their study scores? I'm contemplating undertaking music performance for VCE, as I have a fair amount of musical experience under my belt, but I'm fully aware of the highly competitive nature of the subject.

So, does anyone have the willpower to write out their experience and study scores?

[Excalibur_]

Well, you're expecting us to write after New Years. Hah!

Anyway, I'll make an attempt at it.

I started with playing keyboard in Grade 1, and joining a choir in Grade 2. Picked up baritone saxophone and piano in Year 7 and switched to tenor in Year 9. Also started formal voice lessons in Year 11 and bagpipes on the side. Started Gr. 6 on both sax and piano and I'm gradeless for voice.

I performed on voice for both Solo and Group performances last year...got 39 and 37 respectively.

Your performance is a large chunk of the study score (50%) - and it really does depend on the kind of assessors you get on the day. I thought I did really well on the group performance, but only got a B (A+ for everything else). But on the flipside, I was still learning songs the night before for solo and got an A+ for the performance.

Now, I'm going to generalise a bit but a lot of people who do solo are those brought up through the AMEB system (mainly the piano and string players). Where these people lose their marks is analysis.

Thus, I suggest you start listening to a lot of music, of a lot of different genres and [u]make sure you listen analytically[/i]. Consider the roles of instruments and how they contribute to the musicality, style and meaning to a piece. Also consider technical issues (eg, production, setting) and other contextual issues [for those pieces you feel like doing a bit of research into]. I also suggest you look a bit into the voice, as a lot of songs they will give to you in the unheard work do (and have) contain(ed) vocals and mentioning vocal techniques and styles such as legit, aspiral, glottal etc will get you marks too.

I believe the current study design will be in force for you (2006-10).

(Aside: I don't know why, but they seem to love jazz. If you want to focus on a genre now, that would be the one to do so. There's a lot to talk about in that style if you know a bit about it...it is a very complex yet simple one).

[humphdogg]

mmokay.

started piano when i was 6, did it for 7 years... got an A for AMEB grade 5 piano when i was in yr7.

stopped playing piano. bad move, i know. but i hated practising, so in that area i wasn't enjoying it.

did grade 1 theory when i was 10 (98%), grade 2 the next year (100%), grade 3 the next (100% again). continued on with theory after i dropped piano cos i actually found it highly interesting. got mid-90s for grade 4, low-90s for grade 5, high 70s for grade 6... figured it was time to stop.

think i was about 15 then. got an electric guitar for my 16th birthday, at the beginning of yr10. i'd been the singer of a band for a year or two before that, and had started writing songs on guitar by stealing my little sister's classical and teaching myself on that. so when i got my first guitar, i wasn't bad, but i'd had no lessons.

and that was my instrument of choice last year for music performance: solo - contemporary guitar. by the exam i'd had almost three years of lessons, which, let's face it, is barely anything. despite that i wasn't too bad - i knew all my pieces and everything, just could never be bothered practising much.

ended up getting A for SACs, B for performance exam, A+ for written. study score = 35


the fact that i'd only been learning guitar for 3 years and barely practised meant i didn't completely ace the performance. however, being a decent writer/analyser (50 in english) and having perfect pitch meant i aced the written paper.

so yeah, that's it. music didn't actually end up counting for me, it was my 7th subject: i only took it because it was fun and i enjoyed it.

[Trigger_003]

I haven't done it yet, but there's a guy from Blackburn who was winning international and uni level competitions for piano... only got 44 last year. Many people I know who are amazing musicians, performing several times at the arts centre and so forth, got around 39. There are stories the other way too. It appears to be the same with many other performance subjects.

It seems that it's just one of those subjects that you do for fun. If you do happen to do well, that's great, but if you don't, it doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad musician. That's how I'm taking it anyway, so I'm half expecting it not to be in my top four, just because I can never be sure (though I'd be happy if I do score high enough for it to be up there).

At least with a physics exam or something, you can take your results for last few years practice exams and - coupled with the statistics - have an idea of what sort of mark you're looking at, and what to do to improve it. Performance exams... you can get one mark with one examiner, but another with someone else. It's more of a subjective subject, rather than you're right or wrong, which makes it hard to get an idea of where you're at compared to the rest of the state.

If you really love music and are decent at it, it's probably worth doing. According to a lot of people I know, it'll help a lot at uni if you're considering doing music there, as much of the knowledge is expected. Also if this is the concern, if you're a good student, one subject where there's the good potential for a score anywhere across the 30's, possibly low 40's... it shouldn't harm your chances for high enter provided you do well in your other subjects. Besides, if it comes easily to you, it gives you a chance to focus on your other subjects whilst still doing okay in that one.

[fichan]

just found this thread n thought i might talk about some stuff too.
the truth is, the school where you attend also plays some role in ur potential of acheiving a high study score for music performance subjects.. i went to the vcass (st kilda rd) (and NO, i'm not 'elite'), n it was more competition than encouragement. n keep this in mind~ you DON'T need to play the hardest pieces in order to do really well in ur solo performance exam. i played lol relatively easy pieces like... Ab major etude by chopin.. etc.. just remmeber to follow the criteria.... apparently they won't mark ur exam if ur piece wasn't in the vcaa repertoire list.

but the pressure really does help you do well. if u go to a sch where hardly ANYONE does music (which is quite customary) then believe it or not, ur may likely to suffer. having other musos around u who can help u with ur music is a good way to do well. make sure u get a lot of background on ur music, n ask a lot of people for advice etc... cos the examiners are likely to look at ur intention in the music. if you're just playing notes, (or singing notes) n not looking at the quality of the music, they might think you have no musical background. (some examiners are quite posh these days) :P

n as for the written exam, erm.. know your musical theory well. surprisingly, it was really easy... lol, well i hv perfect pitch lol -_-. and just study for ur prepared work .. etc... OH and for analysis of unheard music, it's sorta just like music styles, but much easier. if u do music styles, you'll know. if u don't, then just crap on about the instruments, the style etc.. but make sure it's practical.

i ended up getting 44 for solo and 42 for group. hahaha group was a complete surprise, since i never turned up to class. but we got into top class. congrats to our piano trio.
anyways, hope that kinda helped.. lols. a lot of rambling there.. -_-

[Trigger_003]

Nah, they deduct marks if you play a piece outside of the accepted works. I don't think they assess that particular work either.

Nice work - it would've been sweet to have gone to vcass.

Speaking of asking for help (haha, you did ask for it )... could you give a bit more advice on the unheard analysis if possible?

[Excalibur_]

Two words. Wide listening.

Read up on different styles and listen to lots of music. From what I know of you, you seem to have a pretty good grounding already for it.

Bug me on MSN =)

[fichan]

mog lols i just realised i kinda reiterated everything that excalibur said without noticing.. -_- sorry lols

yea, ask him. =P

[Trigger_003]

Haha yeah okay.

[furansugo]

Hmm... congratulations for top class, fichan.

I've just turned 14, and have played AMusA level pieces on the violin, but am only studying 8th grade, so it's obvious that I AM an AMEB student. However, I play in youth orchestras, so would that be of an advantage to my analysis?

I'm still unsure about whether it'd be a good choice for me. You see, I'd be forced to do units 1 and 2 as year 10 electives, thus meaning that it would limit the amount of academic year 12 subjects I could undertake in year 11.

50 in English, humphdogg? Wow. That's an unbelievable feat.

I hated music theory, and although I scored high 90s for almost all of my exams, I dreade every class. Maybe it was only due to the fact that I had to cram the entire 5th grade course into 5 weeks. NOT a good idea.

I'm about to commence 8th grade piano. Should I continue on with piano to enhance my understanding, or should I just concentrate on violin?