La Bella Senorita: How can I pass my music Exam ?
How can I pass my music Exam ?
I need Help here, I am taking grade 8 Abrsm practical exam next year and need tips on practising…and tips on how to answer questions like chords and cadence and modulation for aural,
and scales and arp.
anyone has takin this exam and passed with disctinction ? please
How to pass my music exam, am really worried.
thanks.
Answers and Views:
Answer by cope123
get off the computer and study
What instrument are you taking? I did piano and violin. But I’m going to focus on piano in my answer (for the scales and arpeggios). The other components are pretty much standard for all instruments.
I took piano when I was 10, passed with a pretty high distinction. Did violin just this year and passed with distinction too. I can’t really give you exact tips because I don’t know what problems you’re actually facing, but some general ones are:
1) When you practise, practise smart. Means that when you get to a certain passage that you can’t play well, focus on that and stop trying to play through the whole piece over and over again – you’re just going to waste time, get sick of it and still won’t get much result. Learn to pinpoint where the problem lies. Is it with your fingering, your rhythm, hand coordination, articulation, what? Once you understand what the problem is, focus on solving it before you go back to playing through the whole piece again.
2) Try to find out what the composer is trying to express through your pieces. Picture the scenes in your mind if you have to. This means working with your teacher on interpretation. It’s a whole lot easier to play well when you understand what the composer is saying.
3) For aural: You need to learn how to distinguish the qualities of different chords – how a minor chord sounds like, how a diminished/augmented chord is different from others, etc. That’s probably the only way you can identify the correct chords if you don’t have perfect pitch.
4) Cadences are usually identified by their qualities as well. A perfect cadence will sound very final and ended, a plagal cadence will sound like an ‘amen’ cadence, imperfect cadence leaves you hanging and wanting to hear the tonic chord, interrupted cadence will make you surprised – it usually has a major sonority changing suddenly into minor or vice versa. Learning to identify the bass notes of the chords in the cadence will also help. How the bass moves will tell you a lot about what cadence you should be expecting.
5) Modulation: this is the tricky one and probably the hardest to explain in words. When it goes to the relative key, it’s usually pretty obvious because you’ll hear the change in sonority from major to minor or vice versa. For other modulations, try to identify which note the modulated passage ends on as compared to the original key – is it the supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant (I’m assuming you know what those terms mean)? You will usually not find modulations to the leading-tone key. Next, identify the nature of the new key – does it have a major or minor sound? That will tell you whether it has gone to a minor or a major. You won’t need to worry about whether there’s a modulation or not because chances are, you will hear the change in tonality. You will need lots of practice though, for the whole aural component.
6) Scales and arpeggios: Practise. Slow practice works best. Memorise the fingerings of all the different keys. Some keys will have similar fingerings to others. There’s usually a pattern to how you play them. Group all those with similar fingerings together and practise them together. When your hands remember where to go for them, move on to another group with similar fingerings. An important note is not to ‘chomp’ on your thumbs when landing on them. It gives a bumpy sound to your playing, and examiners don’t want that. For arpeggios, once you’ve memorised the fingerings and the notes, try to think of them in groups of 4 notes instead of 3. This means grouping eg. ‘C-E-G-C; E-G-C-E; G-C-E-G; C-G-E-C; G-E-C-G; etc.’ together instead of ‘C-E-G; C-E-G; C-E-G’ . The 4-note grouping will ensure that you don’t chomp on every new octave, and you’ll sound a lot smoother. Practise the 4-note groupings with slight accents on each group at first, then as you get more comfortable, slowly take away the accents – but still feel ‘4’ instead of ‘3’.
If it’s for violin, then you’ve got intonation issues to work on, as well as shifting positions. Practise them slowly at first, then slowly build up speed. You’ll have to work on bow distribution and changing ‘tracks’ on the strings as well.
Don’t worry too much about it, you’ve still got another 8 months at least to go. Believe that you can do it. Believe in yourself. The main thing is to feel confident when you walk into the exam room, and no matter what mistakes you may make, just ignore them and go straight on. Examiners usually don’t care about small slips as long as they’re not too frequent. Focus and be engrossed in your music so that you can really bring out your musical side. And just ignore the examiner – he/she won’t eat you up. A confident but average performance usually fairs better than a good but unsure performance. Examiners are looking for confident, decent performances most of the time. This applies to aural too – prompt, confident and accurate responses. A few seconds’ pause while considering your answers will not bother them. And they’re looking to give your marks rather than take away marks. All the best, just work hard now and be relaxed when you go for the exam.
Answer by la musica bellaI agree 100% with musicyh’s answer on how to practice. I would just like to add a few things:
1) Set practice goals for your self. Pick a single focus for each day and keep a record in a notebook. Say that your focus is rhythm, make that your focus in everything from scales to exercises to your solo. Make a note if you notice something that needs to be worked on and make that your focus for the next practice session. Having a specific goal enables us to practice more efficiently.
2) Metronome! No practice session should be without it. Start slow and build the speed gradually. Break the technical sections into small chunks. Play each chunk with the metronome at one specific speed. Once you can play it three times in a row perfectly, move the metronome up one notch and repeat. Set goals for your speed improvement of 3-4 notches a day. Be prepared to not be able to play it as fast the next time. If you practice on Monday and get it up to 88, you may have to start at 84 on Tuesday to be able to play it perfectly. This is normal.
3) Subdivide! Nothing says perfect rhythms like subdivision. Yes, it is boring and not very much fun but it is the only way to break down tough rhythms. I love the saying “Subdivide and conquer”, I wish I knew who to give proper credit to for coming up with it.
4) Have you tried a program called SmartMusic? I find it to be extremely helpful because you can record yourself and listen to it when you are done. You can practice with the accompaniment which is extremely beneficial. You can adjust the speed to the tempo you are working on the piece at. You can loop problem area to isolate them. It has a large selection of scale, arpeggio, and rhythmic exercises that it will grade for you. This is a great way to break up the monotony of practicing.
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