7 year old child prodigy passes Grade 8 Piano and Violin - Edward Tomanek - youngest to reach g8?

Grade 8 is the gold standard that most young musicians aspire to reach. Grade 8 piano pieces are the level which would include single movements from selective Beethoven Piano Sonatas (Pathetique, Moonlight).

My daughter just passed grade 2 piano with merit age 5 (nearly 6) and that was quite a feat, and we are inspired by my cousin's son, grade 8 piano in Hong Kong, age 9. So who is the youngest to reach grade 8 piano?

In nov 2010, the Daily Mail (UK) newspaper reported that Edward Tomanek, passed Grade 8 piano and violin at age 7.  Which is an astounding young age to pass the vigorous exams given by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. His parents aren't musicians and he was never pushed into music, however, Edward started playing the piano and lessons on the violin at age 3. He enjoys music and practicing, he can go at it for up to 3 hours at a time.  Previously, Edward had attained distinction for Grade 5 piano, and also for Violin Grade 8 (his main instrument) shortly before he turned 7.  Edward reached grade 8 piano also at age 7, though not distinction marking, as this would have been mentioned in the articles, a feat nonetheless! His prodigious talents earned Edward a place in the prestigious Royal College of Music junior school (a saturday school for the most talented young musicians in the UK).

Edward loves music, as he "paints pictures" with sound colour, and is fond of Chopin's emotional music. So let's see Edward play the piano. The Lark by Glinka-Balakirev performed by 8yr old Edward Tomanek (video), St Georges, Hanover Square, London 2010


8 yr old Edward Tomanek performing the Prokofiev Harp Prelude in C major Op 12 No 7 at St George's, London, 2010 (below)


Edward playing the violin (far right) performing the Vivaldi Concerto for 2 Violins in a minor, New Virtuosi Master Course, Queenswood School, UK April 2011


Well done Edward and best of luck for your musical career!

Further Reading

• 'Mini-Mozart' who has passed highest exam in violin and piano becomes Britain's youngest composer...at SEVEN
• Edward Tomanek (Future Talent) 
• Video: Shining talent hits the top - at 7 years old [Cambridge News] Edward performs a Chopin Etude F minor (posthumous) 11/2010
• Music exams- what do you think? (Music Teachers Blog) Illustrates the differences in requirements between Grade 1 and Grade 8 piano.

ABRSM Grade 2 Piano Sight Reading Tips - dotted crotched (quarter) notes!

Grade 2 Piano Sight Reading Tips


Look for recurring difficult rhytmic patterns. The following recurs often and is probably the most tricky.
It is: (A) Dotted Quarter Note - (B) Eighth Note - (C) Quarter Note (USA) OR (A) Dotted Crotchet - (B) Quaver - (C) Crotchet (UK)
ABC

Now you can use rhythmic syllables such as the Kodaly Rhythm method (A) TUM -(B) ti - (C) TA if you find counting this rhythmic sequence difficult.

Rhythmic Exercises
Because the dotted crotchet is worth 3 quavers, and beat two starts on the 3rd quaver,  you count it 1 - 2.

• Count (A) 1-2, (B) AND, (C) 3
• Clap the beat.
• 2nd get used to playing a single note in each hand with that rhythmic. 
• C-D-C try two notes in that rhythm with each hand 
• C-D-E or E-F-G three notes in the rhythm in each hand

8 Essential Piano Sight Reading Tips: for exams, or learning a new piece

 As exams loom around the corner, I thought I'd offer some sight reading tips, which can be applied to learning new pieces too. Reading music requires regular, if not daily practice. With all sight reading no matter the instrument, you need to pay attention to these 8 elements, weakness in any one area will affects your delivery of the piece.

1. Notes - play the correct notes, within the designated key signature, and in the correct register. Playing correct notes, sounds easy but can be problematic in key signatures with  lots of flats or sharps, and additional accidentals.
   
    Also, are you also actually playing in the correct register too, or are you an octave too high or to low? Students with non full sized electronic keyboards may find it hard to locate middle C, when it comes to playing on an exam full sized piano keyboard.
   
   
   How to improve? Music theory workbooks can help students gain a visual memory of the notes, make sure they play through the exercises on the keyboard though. 
   
   Books: Grades 1-5 (Beginner to intermediate)
   Improve your sight reading (Paul Harris) (Faber Publishing)
   Joining the Dots (Alan Bullard) (ABRSM Publishing) 
   
   Flashcards such as those by Hal Leonard and Chester can be have notes in the bass clef and treble cleff with a visual guide to where the note is on the keyboard. With these cards,  you can mix up or place in a sequence (C-G,etc.) and have the student try and play these on the keyboard.
   
   
2. 

   Rhythm - can you clap or tap the rhythm correctly? Are you giving silences to the appropriate rests. You can say "shhh" for each beat of the rest.  A minim (half note) rest would be two beats of "shh shh". 
   
   Younger students of the age of 4 or 5 may have problems counting the beats especially with dotted rhythms and quavers (1/8 notes) as they understanding counting and adding of fractions. So a solution for this is to use rhythmic words for complex rhythms, Quavers (1/8 notes)  you can use "ta ka", and Te for crotchets (1/4 notes). Some teachers make up words, for example a teacher I knew used Apple for quavers (1/8 notes) and Pie for crotchets (1/4 notes) You can use rhythmic syllables for counting notes Kodaly has a set of Rhythm syllables; and there's also a Takadimi method.
   
   
3. Dynamics - monotone is boring! Did you play the piece in all one level. How do you bring this home to one student. Read a poem or nursery rhyme, or song with one monotone voice, next use dynamics in your reading - whispers, normal voice, and shouting, I'm sure they'll agree it's more interesting.
   
   
4. Flow and Pulse Music is storytelling in time and therefore has a natural flow and pulse to it. Therefore, maintaining a steady uninterrupted pulse is another vital element to music making and sight reading.
   
   To understand the importance of keeping musical flow, play on the piano (if you are a teacher) or if you are a parent who doesn't play the piano play a youtube video or a music mp3 track to your student/child and pause the music every 5 seconds or so, get them to feedback on why the music wasn't enjoyable. This will quickly bring home the importance of keeping the music going.
   
   Another exercise is to play twinkle twinkle little star but suddenly stop playing every in random places. Imagine you are accompanying a singer or another instrument, you can't afford to stop the music.
   
   
5. Tempo - "I feel the need for speed"  are you up to speed? Or should you put on the brakes? playing as close to the tempo marking as possible while maintaining accuracy. Dolmetsch provides a good guide to tempo markings from anything Adagio to Presto, complete with bpm - beats per minute metronome suggestions. 
6. Coordination - Proprioception is required, meaning your hands and fingers know where they are on the keyboard without having to look at them constantly, so in effect, for some passages, you can play with your eyes closed! This helps prevent interrupting the music by constantly looking from score to your hand and finger position. Your fingers have in fact memorised the spacing between the notes of the piano. 
7. Spirit - with "Emotional Content" emotional content, energy, and musicality and some clues are indicated in some sight reading tests. 
8. Patterns - look for patterns, which is easier said than done. In other words, look for notes that may move up in parallel motion in the same direction, scale fragments, appeggio patterns, broken chords you may have practiced before, motifs. 

Further Reading

• Advanced Piano Sight Reading Tips: for exams, playing, or learning a new piece
• Piano Sightreading Blog (last updated January 2011)

Please share your experiences and knowledge by commenting on this blog post, I'd love to hear from you. 

7 Tips to play Stephen Foster's Camptown Races [ABRSM grade 1 piano]

Those of you who have seen The King's Speech, will in no doubt recognise the Stephen Foster's American folk song Camptown Races, which the King sings in order to overcome his speech impediment.

Photo: Camptown Races [Credit: jimmywayne (Flickr)]

My 5 year old daughter is learning the piece, which is on the Associated Board Royal Schools of Music [ABRSM] Grade 1 piano repertoire list.






So I include tips of best practice to help you with this piece:


1) This is a folk song afteral, so Get a feel for the character with this Johnny Cash video:


2) Understand the piece - read it's background and lyrics on Wikipedia.
3) Pentatonic scale - the key is Gb - let's immediately reduce the complexity by knowing that all notes in this piece will fall on black notes.
4) Rhythm - this is the most complex aspect of the song. Break the piece into quavers (4 in a bar)  instead of counting in crotchets.
5) Coordination: Make sure you know each hand separately in the correct rhythm
before joining the two hands together.
6) Staccato - make it Bouncy: have a bouncy sound for the staccato elements - make sure you have light relaxed wrists and curved fingers on the black notes (no flat fingers)
7) Marcato section - in the bass clef. This needs to be a different and strong character, I get my daughter to play it imagining singing "I'm the Big Bad Wolf" to this particular phrase.

Here's Alan Chan (no relation) on Youtube performing the piece. My observations and improvements of his performance below.
I think Alan plays the piece fairly well with a good tempo, to improve - perhaps more lighter touch, more dynamic contrast, and the rhythm needs to be tighter at the end.

Here's an excellent and faultless  performance of the piece by PianoPalace on Youtube: .


Good luck, it's a tricky piece!