When I simulated the Grade 1 exam before my teacher, I began to understand just how much I had bit off to catch up in the ABRSM program. I also confirmed my conclusion that the six month's prior lessons in Rubank Advanced V1 had been far above my level.

My teacher rated my simulated Grade 1 performance at 124 (w/"Merit") and my wife rated my performance as "not perfect", and asked when was I going to play something, even something simple, perfectly? I begged for understanding that I had only begun to work toward Grade 1 three weeks prior, but her assessment had great truth. The exam was designed to assess ability at the end of one year of studying flute, and I could not "ace" it.

Humbled by grade 1, I began working to the grade 2 requirements: three slightly more difficult solos, three major and two minor scales with arpeggios, slightly more difficult sight reading, and slightly more difficult aural skills. Since I already knew the major scales, I spent good time learning the arpeggios and minor scales. The grade 2 syllabus allows the student to choose the minor type, and requires both tongued and slurred. I chose to learn tongued melodic and slurred harmonic minor scales. The accompanied solos were enjoyable and challenging as well.

My selected Grade 2 program:

Feeling that I needed to begin working on the grade 3 materials, I decided to do the simulated grade 2 exam before everything was ready. My teacher rated my simulated Grade 2 performance at 126, again a "with merit" score, but my wife and I discounted the score as "over rated" since there were so many little problems all through the exam. Again my wife asked about doing something, anything, perfect and I begged for understanding that I didn't have time, because the real goal was Grade 3...

Finally, I was ready to focus on the real exam. This was quite a leap in the scales and arpeggios area. I had ordered the "ABRSM Grade 3 Flute Exam CD" so I was able to listen to each of the possible List A, and List B pieces. My first purchase of books had been optimized to minimize cost, so I had picked books which contained pieces for two grades. When I heard the CD, I decided to purchase an additional book for the Grade 3, List B work. The piece, "No Dice", from the book by Paul Hart:"All Jazzed Up", is very snappy and contains three places where the accompanist stops for two measures each, while the flute plays a neat motif in three variations.

My selected Grade 3 program:

I really struggled for the first month with the minor scales, trying to continue my tongued melodic and slurred harmonic approach, but finally decided that this "extra credit" idea was actually preventing either minor pattern from becoming a memory pattern. I was continually computing the next note rather than playing from "finger" memory. Eventually, humbled that I was still struggling to learn what the Brits felt I should have already learned, I dropped the extra credit idea and focused on only the harmonic pattern. That worked somewhat, and I could see some progress toward the exam.

Two other challenges were plaguing me: the second octave F-D-F-D dotted eighth-sixteenth (swung) in those fun "cadenza" spots in the List B piece, at the tempo of the accompaniment track on the Exam CD, and the two 3rd octave Es in the List C piece.

My problems with the E turned out to be related to a choice I had made nearly a year previous to try someone new for my annual clean-oil-adjust (COA). I had been upset at what one place charged me for shipping and insurance, even though the work on both my flutes the prior year was superb, and both flutes were packed extremely respectful, with a new Ziploc bag around my case, then new foam popcorn, and a new cardboard box, all exactly the right size for my flute and express shipped back to me. I decided to try a different repair person that promised lower cost return shipping, and from website info and phone discussions of her training in repair, she seemed to know how to do a good COA.

The new flute repair person turned in to a COA nightmare and after spending nearly three hundred dollars to get my flute back, I did not realize that her comment that she raised my key heights to the "proper" setting should have been a clue that my high E was going to be very challenging to hit reliably. I tried placing a twin thickness of foil address labels under the kicker for the E key and sure enough, that E was quite reliable. I decided to send the flute off for immediate repair and began practicing with my back-up flute. It was much more reliable on the E but my teacher gave me an alternate fingering just in case.

The FDFD, lots of fingers changing quickly, problem was lessening with practice, but as the middle of November came, the minor scales and arpeggios were still not solid. I had not heard when the "November/December" exam was to be, so I fired off an email and then a telephone call. OUCH, "didn't they send you a notice?" The exam was in TWELVE DAYS!

I had begun this process to assess my abilities, and I did not need the stress of the real exam to tell me I was not up to grade 3. Perhaps I should have skipped the simulated grade 1 and 2 exams and worked the entire time on the real exam. I resigned myself to whatever happens, and focused extra effort on learning the minor scales and all the arpeggios. I discovered, at this late point, that I had been memorizing the arpeggios a little different than as written, so that became an additional stress. In practice I began simulating the exam sequence to see what my first attempt on each item might sound like. (When learning, I was playing each thing repeatedly until once through was "good enough" then doing the same with the next thing.) I recorded myself playing the solos, and listened with a critical ear the following day. There was some roughness, but I sounded ready to take an exam.

I was still struggling with the scales as my wife and I packed up to go to Tampa the day before the exam. I had arranged to meet the accompanist that night, (she was also the piano teacher that was arranging the examiner's visit). When we met with her, it was the first time that I was playing the list pieces with a "following" accompanist. I was always following a recorded accompaniment, taking rhythm cues from the piano. My performance during the practices was not very clean, but again I resigned myself to what ever happens.

The next morning I warmed up in the hotel with extra work on the scales. I actually got through them once quite well and gained hope that perhaps the exam would go ok. We traveled to the piano teacher's home again for the exam, and sat outside awaiting my turn. The examiner rung a small hand bell and I was finally "on".

I forgot to put my thumb on the B-flat lever for the first measure of the first piece, so the start was flawed, but I kept going and finished the Puccini musically. (He gave me 24 of 30 points.)

On the second work, the pianist made a mistake and didn't play the final chord before my first unaccompanied cadenza point. I broke rhythm waiting for the chord, and she finally played the chord, but I was shaken and the cadenza came out quite muffled by the finger changes. I was really off "balance" and the next two cadenzas were very rough as well. I regained composure a bit and finished the piece well. (He gave me 25 of 30 points.)

The next work was the study with the two high Es. I practiced those measures with the "correct" fingering while the examiner recorded his evaluation of the prior work. The examiner gave the ok to begin and I started playing with all the emotion I could muster. The work is quite lyrical and pleasant. When I got to the first E, the note did not sound, so I quickly changed to the alternate fingering my teacher had given me and the note sounded before the end of the half note. I used the alternate fingering immediately in the slur where the E appeared the second time. I considered this a bit of a success as I had not really wanted to use a "cheating" fingering, but when it came down to delivering the goods in a performance, I needed to deliver reliability anyway I could, and that E sounded without a problem. I had practiced, always using the "real" fingering, and had been quite reliable (once I switched to the backup flute), but here in the stress of the exam the E had required the alternate fingering. (He gave me 25 of 30 points.)

The scales were mixed. The majors came out very good, the minors quite rough. He could tell that I "knew" them intellectually, and aurally, but the fingers didn't always land correct first try. When I would make a mistake, I asked to restart, and he let me begin the scale or arpeggio again. I ended up doing each requested scale or arpeggio with correct notes but sometimes the tempo was still rough. (He gave me 15 of 21 points; one point above passing.)

In the sight-reading, it seemed like I may have missed the key signature in the first line but finished the second line perfect. The rhythm was so variable through out the piece that I didn't feel "in the groove" until the second line also. (He gave me 18 of 21 points.)

The aural test was the most questionable area going into the exam. My flute teacher does not play piano, so he had not been able to prep me very well for the aural test, and what he could test me on from the specimen aural tests, I had great difficulty. In the exam, I surprised myself and even managed to recognize a very tricky tempo (sounds like "in three" but really "in two" - da | DI da rest da | Di da rest da | DI da ... ). (He gave me 17 out of 18 points.)

My feeling of relief as I finished the exam somehow translated into "I did fine" to my wife's "how did you do?" question. When we listened to my secreted recording of the exam during our five hour trip returning home, we were both stunned by the continual mistakes I made. We both assessed my performance as a failure.

We were stunned when the result arrived, and to be evaluated "with merit"? This I don't understand, but it really makes no difference. My goal for next year is to be able to play grade 4 with NO MISTAKES. (Grade 4 has the Bach Siciliano in list A - that is such a great work.)

Here are some clips of my Grade 3 program (from my practice recordings):