Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales
What part do the Grade exams play in fostering positive motivation? Do they provide a necessary framework for musical advancement, or distract from more important goals? Are they signposts to success, or might they put some learners off playing a musical instrument altogether?
Most teachers will recognise that for some learners, entering for a grade exam seems to spur them towards progress, while for others they can prove less positive.
For more than three decades, I have helped prepare some (but not all) of my students for grade exams, so have had plenty of opportunity to reflect on the pros and cons. I have observed many good reasons for “taking the grades” as well as a few rather misguided ones, and have discovered why many (despite using graded music books and materials) prefer not to take exams.
In this post, I will explore this complex question from various angles and perspectives. I hope that my balanced conclusions will help readers pursue a well informed pathway of progress that suits their individual needs and goals, whether choosing to take the grades or not.
Exams can motivate…
Grade exams provide clear, specific goals that learners can work towards, and a pathway for advancement that helps them measure their improvement over time.
Adding a deadline can foster a sense of discipline, urgency, and focus to practice. When parents suggest to me that taking a grade will motivate their child, it is often this self-discipline they want to see develop.
Assuming the exam goes well, the motivation gained can be long lasting. A successful result boosts confidence, and provides a significant sense of accomplishment, a tangible milestone that can be celebrated, reinforcing positive feelings towards learning music.
A formal qualification can lend validity to a learner’s skill level in their own eyes, and increase the support and interest in their musical development which they receive from others. Family and friends may not be musically knowledgeable, but we all understand that gaining a certificate is cause for encouragement.
Feedback from examiners usefully offers the potential for highlighting both strengths and areas for development. Even when the result is not as good as expected, we can hopefully applaud the effort that went into taking one grade, and press on towards the next. Helpful feedback can motivate learners to strive for excellence, surpassing their ‘personal best’ outcomes.
For those who take live in-person exams at a school or centre, there is the added motivation of having a specific appointment to keep, around which there will hopefully be a real sense of occasion.
Added to this, a live exam offers the opportunity to overcome the anxiety associated with playing in front of others, and develop the confidence and real-world performing skills required when playing to a present audience.
With all these benefits in mind, we could easily conclude that grade exams are a one-size-fits-all positive experience, and wonder why on earth anyone might even suggest otherwise.
…but danger lurks
Not infrequently, I meet adult “returners” whose childhood aversion to grade exams resulted in them quitting lessons. Despite their advantages, it turns out that there are also many ways in which “taking the grades” can actually demotivate or discourage learners. We need to understand these if we are to develop a more accurate and honest viewpoint.
Firstly, focusing only on exam preparation can restrict a learner’s exploration of music, hinder personal expression, and make playing their instrument feel like a chore instead of a passion.
If a syllabus doesn’t match a learner’s personal interests, this inevitably leads to frustration rather than enjoyment. And they might also feel pressured to meet expectations that don’t reflect their musical enthusiasms, aspirations, or creative values.
With their high stakes, exams can cause significant performance anxiety too, and this can easily and completely overshadow the joy of playing music.
The possibility (or disappointing reality) of not passing a grade can deter learners from continuing altogether, causing them to feel inadequate or discouraged about their abilities.
Children and adults equally struggle to process critical feedback. Negative comments can decisively undermine our motivation to carry on with any activity. Psychologists suggest that even constructively written criticism, if not sufficiently balanced with positive reinforcement, can undermine confidence and enthusiasm.
We must also recognise that, while some might appear to be motivated by the competitive aspects of taking grade exams, they can all-too-quickly result in unhealthy comparisons being made. Focusing on grades can encourage students to prioritise their results, ranking, and certificates over genuine musical engagement.
Ultimately, the constant pursuit of grades can for some lead to boredom, stress, and burnout, causing them to lose interest in music altogether.
As we consider these more negative possibilities, it becomes clearer that while exams can have a very positive place in our learning journey, they should be approached with care, attentive to each individual’s needs, rather than enforced as our default expectation for all learners.
Motivation: the evidence
When a parent suggests that their child needs to take a grade exam in order to get more motivated, I can’t help wondering what has gone wrong. Can the child really only find motivation to practice, play, and explore music if they are set an ultimatum of some kind? This certainly shouldn’t be the case!
Quite often, if I ask parents whether they would themselves enjoy taking grade exams, they admit that they probably wouldn’t. So how can we work collaboratively as teacher, parents, and child, to establish and agree the most appropriate, positive pathway?
In my article The Pianist’s Motivations I explain the crucial difference between extrinsic (reward-based) and intrinsic (from within) motivation. This is an important concept, because it is a goal for most parents and teachers to help players develop a lasting love of music: intrinsic motivation.
Exams are regarded as extrinsic motivators, prompted by reward rather than from within. Other extrinsic motivators include teacher and parent rewards, performance events, tick charts, or a good report. Nobody doubts that these all have an important place, or that they can prove to be the positive yang that kindles the flame of yin intrinsic motivation. But caution is needed.
There is strong evidence that relying only on extrinsic motivators can trigger a phenomenon educational psychologists call the ‘overjustificaion effect’, which actually undermines the development of intrinsic, inner motivation. In other words, the extrinsic motivation provided by grade exams must be used sparingly, rather than becoming our primary focus.
Furthermore, research into ‘self-determination theory’ suggests that motivation grows best when students are given a rationale that is communicated in an autonomy-supportive way. In plain English, this means that we need to give learners a positive reason to learn something, with intrinsic benefits for them. They will then be far more motivated than if they regard their learning simply as preparation for an exam.
A classic example in piano education might be the reasons we give for learning scales. These are enormously important for facilitating and framing the development of musical understanding, technique, and creativity; they should be introduced as such, pointing to their obvious benefits, rather than visited as a tick-box exam requirement, learnt at the last minute (if at all).
So for a true, evidence-based answer to the question “Do grade exams motivate?”, we must recognise that progressing straight from one grade to the next, and shaping our whole learning experience and scaffolding around the syllabus, is in fact highly unlikely to generate a lifelong love of music.
This is the exact opposite of many people’s expectations. Parents often believe that if their child is entered for the next grade, it will provide motivation for them to practise and make better progress. And in the short term, this may well be true. But sadly, taking regular exams could prove to be the very thing that undermines a child’s enthusiasm for playing the piano before very long.
A balanced conclusion
At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that there are both good and bad reasons for taking, or for not taking, the grade exams. Having considered the topic in some depth, and armed with better information, we can all consider whether, when, and why we want to pursue graded exams, and how best to balance them with our other musical goals.
As a younger teacher, I entered most students for at least some of the grade exams. These days, it is a smaller proportion, more advisedly, and much less frequently. But I still believe that the grades have a unique importance, and that when used wisely they offer positive benefits and have real value.
It is important to remember that, unlike collecting karate belts, piano players who skip some of the grades can still enter for exams at a higher level when the time is right.
More often than not, this is my advice to learners and parents. Enjoy playing, develop a strong foundation of core skills, understanding, and creative musicianship, and then fast-track to a higher grade if and when the time is right.
By taking a broad and balanced approach to learning an instrument, we can develop the lasting motivation and love of music that students and parents surely hope for when they sign up for piano lessons.
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