Theory exam tomorrow! Options

[SingingPython]

Congratulations on a great result! And good luck with the grade 6 and the AMus.

We used Master your Theory all the way through; my piano teacher just marked the work for us as quickly as possible so we could get on with the lesson. That approach worked fine for me through grade 5, but came unstuck a bit at grade 6. IIRC I got a low pass on that one; lack of teaching for the set works was a particular problem I think. Oh and I've just remembered 2-part writing turns up in grade 6 theory "from nowhere" as it were (came into musicianship a grade earlier IIRC, unlike most harmony stuff being delayed in the musicianship papers). So I'd say, be aware you may need more teacher support for grade 6, depending on how solid your skills are. Having said that, it occurs to me that it is now over 20 years since I did it (gulp!).

I ended up doing a couple of musicianship grades at school, separately to my piano teacher. My harmony improved out of sight when the teacher pointed out to me that I needed to "listen" to each individual line and make it musical - I'd often had my piano teacher playing exercises through several times trying to find out what mistake I'd made - I'd not broken any of the "rules", but it just didn't sound good.

Post back when you've done your AMus - I'm hoping to pick up my playing again some time and try a diploma; paused piano after grade 8 and never got back to it, tried a violin diploma and never got time to try it again. I'd love the encouragement of seeing how you do. Luckily for me, AMEB grades serve as prerequisites for ABRSM etc.

My children are just starting theory now; I've been fairly unimpressed by the workbooks available here. Except that they are both now being taught theory at school (as choristers), I would have imported a set of the Master your Theory books for each of them. It's much more comprehensive in providing enough practice material than anything I've seen recently. And actually I get the impression that the AMEB grades were better structured for developing skills one grade at a time - but may be wrong as I'm going on my memory of them alone.