Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner 7 year old gets performance diploma :S

A seven year old boy has apparently passed his ATCL exam in performance, after learning piano for less than a year and a half... For those unfamiliar with the Trinity exam board in the UK, that's the first level of diplomas and comes after grade 8. It's just performance, no aural, sight reading, scales or exercises, and you have to prepare a ~40ish minute 'generalist' recital.

I assume this video is of his practice recital, rather than the exam itself:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jmeDLW9TR6g

I briefly encountered Leo at a summer school this year, and there's no doubting he's very bright, and his enthusiasm for playing the piano (*any* piano, at seemingly any available opportunity). And anyone who passes the ATCL is to be congratulated (more so if they're a child? Maybe yes, maybe no...) so well done him!

I watched the YouTube presentation just to see if it seemed like there were allowances being made for his age in passing him, although not being an examiner and never having taken one of these exams it's hard to judge. It seemed very practiced and polished to be honest, even if I personally might not make the same interpretative choices, and he clearly doesn't suffer from nerves! I would be interested to know if he wrote his programme notes himself, as I believe that is part of the exam (rather than being judged solely on performance alone).

Anyway, I hope that he is still playing and enjoying the piano, in whatever capacity suits him, in 5, 10, 20 years' time and beyond.

Any thoughts from PW? On the performance, the value of exams, particularly at such a young age, and the ability to play pieces of that difficulty after a year and a half?

It's fantastic. I think it shows a lot of support and encouragement in his family/support group.

If I had a kid like that, one of the things I'd worry about is his sense of how to achieve things later in life, because his current skill and sense of mission isn't so much his own hard work, but his parents and those around him. From the child's point of view achieving high levels of skill or success may appear 'easy', when in reality it was a gift from those around him.

Later on in his teenage, I'd make sure that he understands that, and then focus on making sure he has a good sense of what it really means to work for something and what it might take to achieve some things.

Still it's a fantastic achievement, I wish I could play like that when I was his age.

My problem with exams like these, which are similar to my problems with schools "teaching to the test", is that there seems to be little focus on the creative aspects of music outside of interpreting pieces. Where is the composition? Improvisation?

These exams are for classical musicians, not jazz players. Not for composers either.

The creative aspect is in the interpretation - assuming of course, that the pianist has the technique to say what he wants.

I went through piano exams as a kid - one grade a year. It took me ten years to get my performance diploma, but I was completely untalented.

As for the benefits of the exam system, that's not immediately apparent to the students themselves, until they meet students who have the misfortune to have teachers who think that as long as the student can play the first part of Für Elise from memory (because he's never been taught to read music properly, nor the basics) after five years, they've done their job.......(because the exam system, whether ABRSM or Trinity, requires the student to acquire all the skills necessary to be a complete classical pianist).

So you're basically saying the student exams are a way to test the teachers? Interesting though.

The video says that he's been studying, or having piano lessons for 16 months before he got his ABRSM grade 8... That's a 'miracle', in any capacity...

Thing is that I feel that if all he does it to play the piano (which I can't tell, but usually with kid wonders this is the case) then he's missing so much from life... :-/ So I'm not entirely sure if getting an ATC diploma at the age of 7 is an important gain...

Then again I'm looking for ways to kill myself after seeing this and feeling how much better I would be had I be studying properly from such a young age (which I never did, which is, maybe, why I became a composer)...

It says in the video description that:

6 months ago, In March 2015, as 7 years 4 month old, Leo became the world youngest to pass ABRSM Grade 8 piano exam with a very high distinction 144 out of 150, after learning piano for only 16 months!

I wonder why after getting a distinction in ABRSM Grade 8, he (or the parents/teacher) decided to change to Trinity for the diploma. Anyway by passing grade 8, he already had that level of scales/arpeggios, sight reading and aural skills, even if the diploma exam does not include those.

Yes - brought up as I was on the ABRSM syllabus and exams (in two different countries), I assumed that every piano (or string/woodwind/brass/voice) student did them - because all the music students at school did them. (And all the music students I encountered outside of school).

In the UK, your ABRSM (or equivalent) Grade is a measure of your current standard, and if you applied for music schools or competitions or youth orchestras (or even adult amateur orchestras), that's the first question you're asked.

It wasn't until I joined PW that I discovered that such exams are rarely done in USA, and that some students aren't even taught how to read music (see a couple of threads in the Piano Teachers Forum), much less stuff like ear training and scales & arpeggios and, of course, sight-reading. What those grade exams do is to ensure that students get taught all the basics that make for a complete (classical) musician.

If that kid has ABRSM Grade 8 on piano, he'll have Grade 5 Theory (at least) too - which means that he'll know the basics of harmony and composition.

Perhaps because the DipABRSM includes a viva voce? Developmentally speaking, I imagine that having a free-ranging discussion, including opinions and their justification, is probably beyond any 7-year old, however gifted they are at their instrument. Who knows.

Or maybe that's on the cards for next month?! I didn't notice how little a gap there was between Gr8 and ATCL exams - just to have *studied* that amount of repertoire, let alone memorised, polished and programmed is all the more impressive!

Missing so much in life at age 7? Unless you are talking about the trip to Disneyland or the play date with Mrs. Smith's son or Jane's birthday party.

I think he is the one that can have more time to do something else in the future, since he appears to be able to learn performance level pieces in such a short time.

Unless he decides to record all 32 of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, the complete works of Chopin, the complete works of Schubert, all the Bach's Prelude and Fugue in Book I and II, before he reaches age 10. But even then.....

These are maybe the wisest words I have ever read wrt child prodigies. Thank you Groove On!

I don't doubt the authenticity of this kind of thing. But sometimes I am just very puzzled. For a kid his age, I am sure his hand has not grow to the size of an adult. How can these kids play Octave and maybe even wider than octave? I watch the video, he sure is talented.

Adapting the Jeff Foxworthy redneck jokes . . .

If you need pedal extenders to pass your Trinity piano exam, you might be a prodigy!

If you have PianoWorld posters worried about how well-rounded you are, you might be a prodigy!

If you are playing Horowitz's encores after a year of lessons, you might be a prodigy!

But . . .

If you keep a spit cup next to your copy of Bach's WTC on the music desk of your pie-anner, you're just a redneck.

😀

I think the reason this kid can learn his pieces so fast is because he has no Facebook account, no twitter, no instagram, no snapchat. Maybe he has youtube to watch other pianists.

Sweet kid. Very talented. He certainly deserves the diploma. Hope to seem more of him.

I don't think he used the 6 months to learn the pieces. He already know them by the time he took Grade 8. Those 6 months were used to practice those long program notes speeches in posh English accent. (is that accent considered posh?)

Why would one think "his current skill and sense of mission isn't so much his own hard work, but his parents and those around him"? Don't you think he has practiced a lot to reach this level so quickly at such a young age?

I remember that there was also an Aussie kid who got his performance diploma at 7, but he had started at 2 or 3...

Apparently he had been trained even at Grade 8 to recite programme notes.

This is his recital of his Grade 8 pieces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g59k_VIngG4

2015 G8 A2: Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C Minor
2015 G8 B1: Allegro Con Spirito by Jan Ladislav Dussek
2015 G8 C3: Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp Minor
Encore: The Flight of the Bumble-Bee by N. Rimsky-Korsakov

Video description:
This was Leo's stunning live performance of ABRSM Grade 8 pieces on Valentine's Day 2015, most pieces he only learnt in a month time! One month later, in March 2015, he passed his ABRSM Grade 8 piano exam with distinction!

By the way, the previous record holder was Curtis Elton who got his ATCL at age 9 in Sept 2013. Recently he received his LTCL (Trinity) at age 11 (April 2015).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...person-in-world-to-get-music-degree.html

There you go Leo-Bailey, off you go to get your LTCL before age 11.
Kids nowadays, if they are not on twitter, then they are passing post-grade 8 music exams.