The Edited Digital Piano Recording
Amara, 14, is entered for LCM Piano Grade 6 as a recorded digital exam. She records at home on a phone. The opening shot shows her face, the upright piano and the room; she announces her name, grade and three pieces. The camera then frames only the keyboard and pedals. Her programme is a Bach Invention, the first movement of a Mozart sonata and an own-choice film theme. The file runs 12 minutes 40 seconds including announcements. At 8:12 her younger sister walks behind the piano to fetch a book; Amara does not stop playing. Between the second and third pieces the video shows a six-second title card reading “One moment”, then resumes. The sustain pedal squeaks audibly throughout. Her teacher uploads the file and asks whether it will be accepted, and whether the squeak will cost marks.
1. Should the centre accept this recording as a valid digital exam submission? Explain your judgement rather than quoting a rule.
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The central issue is whether the recording gives the examiner a continuous, unmediated performance. The title card is not a camera angle or a natural pause; it is an inserted edit that breaks the temporal link between the second and third pieces. Even if nothing musical was removed, the examiner cannot know what happened during those six seconds, so the submission no longer stands as a single unedited take. That is normally fatal to validity, and the sensible outcome is a request to re-record rather than an automatic rejection of the candidate.
The other features are different. The announcement, the initial face shot and the later keyboard framing are consistent with showing identity and hands. The sister walking behind the piano is an interruption, not assistance, and Amara continues playing. The squeaking pedal is a mechanical noise; it may obscure quiet pedal changes, but it does not invalidate the recording. The centre should separate the edit, which goes to validity, from the noise and interruption, which go to assessment quality.
2. If a re-record is required, what should Amara and her teacher prioritise, and what should they not do?
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They should prioritise continuity and evidence. That means one continuous take from announcement to final bow, no title cards, no cuts and no post-recorded audio replacement. They should check that the camera shows enough of the keyboard and pedal to verify the performance, and that the room is quiet enough for the examiner to hear the piano rather than the pedal. The sister should be kept out of the room, not hidden behind a door that might open mid-take.
They should not try to improve the recording by editing out the interruption, adding reverb, or splicing a better third piece onto the earlier take. They should also avoid over-rehearsing the announcement at the expense of the programme, and they should not ask the examiner to ignore a defect that the candidate could have prevented. A short technical check before recording is more useful than a polished post-production fix, because the assessment is of a live performance, not a studio product.
3. How should the examiner treat the squeaking pedal and the brief interruption if the recording is accepted?
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The examiner should assess the musical outcome, not the domestic circumstances. A squeak is not a marking criterion. If it obscures the harmonic change at a cadence, the examiner may note that pedal changes were unclear; if the playing is still audible, the squeak should not reduce the mark. The sister’s appearance is likewise not a performance flaw unless it distracts Amara or causes a break in the music.
The examiner should not penalise the candidate for a family member walking through, nor reward her for continuing under distraction. The relevant question is whether the examiner can hear and see enough to make a reliable judgement about accuracy, technique, musicality and programme demand. If the noise or interruption genuinely prevents that judgement on a particular piece, the examiner should say so and treat it as an evidence problem, not as a negative mark.