How long between Grades for a the average student (piano)?

hubiedubie

This is a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" type question. But I was wondering how long should a student give themselves to study from completing one grade to taking the exam for the next level?

The Mad Hatter

You're right that there's no specific answer. It depends very much on both the student and the teacher. Like a few other teachers I know, I tend to ideally push my students to do two exams a year as far as Grade 5, and then one a year after that, but if that doesn't work then I don't do it. Some of my students will do one exam a year, some don't do exams at all. There's another teacher I know who takes a year and a half over each exam, but does a ton of extra repertoire.

tootyflutty

I had a teacher a few years ago that only allowed students to do exams every second year. And then the other year of playing enjoyable pieces. I hated it, just wanted to finish the grades really.
But when I took up flute I flew through my grades, and really wantd to have them finished before I went to college, so did my grade 7 at christmas of 6th year and grade 8 in June, just after the leaving cert. Was a push, but I still managed a distinction in both.
It's really up to what you want out of the playing, how committed you are to the practice and take the amount of stress into consideration



That said, it's been two years since then, and I still havnt managed to do the diploma..

kate.m

When I started piano it was my second instrument so I skipped the two basic grades and went straight to grade 2 in my first year. Then I did grade 3 and 4 in one year and one grade a year after that. I wad in grade 7 in 6th year. But I didn't work for grades in piano at all during the end of 5h year and all of 6th year because of the LC

Most teachers do one a term unless you've previous experience.

hubiedubie

Thanks for the replies.