Exams & Nerves

It's Rockschool exam period again, and as I help my students prepare themselves for the trauma of throwing themselves on the mercy of cold-eyed, merciless, hard bitten cynics such as, well.... me- I think it can be useful to take a few moments to get some perspective.

Having been one myself, and having lived amongst their kind, learnt their ways and so forth, I can say that examiners are by and large lovely chaps who have all been on the other side of the desk, sweating with nerves while struggling to remember their scales, and it's important to remember that. These people are not ogres, they are not all powerful arbiters of your musical future, and crucially, they really do not want to fail you. Speaking for myself, I failed a few students and I absolutely hated having to do it, but frankly they had no business being entered for the exam in the first place, as they clearly didn't know what they were trying to play. In one instance, one candidate effectively failed himself by refusing flat out to even attempt the technical exercise portion of the exam. These instances aside – and of the hundreds of students I examined, there were no more than a half dozen- everyone who puts the work in and plays to a decent standard passes.

But what constitutes a “decent standard”? Well, admittedly it is a subjective term, and everyone's definition is slightly different. But use your common sense- record yourself playing the pieces, and listen back, compare what you did to what's on the original recording and be honest with yourself about the bad and the good points. With many of my students, more often than not we find that the ideas are there and sound, but a lack of confidence prevents them from really projecting the notes or completing a musical idea. It's almost as if they're thinking “This is my idea- therefore it must be worthless” and wind up sabotaging a perfectly good musical idea by cramming in a lick they've learned elsewhere which plainly doesn't fit. Patience. Listen. Have the confidence to follow your idea through to its conclusion.

Of course, this is easy to say in the comfort of one's own studio, but out in the exam room all too often nerves can get on top of a student, and nervousness can be a vicious cycle – as you start to become nervous about being nervous, perspective goes and all of a sudden the exam seems almost like a black hole looming ahead.

It's nothing of the sort. In the case of a Rockschool grade, you're playing three songs that you'll know like the back of your hand, a few scales, picking out some chords and a bit of a tune and answering a few straightforward questions about what you've played. 20-30 minutes and you're out of there, done.

For this reason, I think it's also important for all teachers to work at improving themselves and undertaking exams once in a while- my last was the Registry Of Guitar Tutors Associate level diploma, and this summer I will be taking the Licentiate degree level exam. The butterflies are already fluttering, so to all (and myself), let me offer the famous (and often misquoted) words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt -

“Nothing is to be feared but fear itself”