Hi all

Looking for a bit of inspiration for theory books to use between grades. We all seem to talk about repertoire between practical exams and so I wondered if anyone does the same for theory.

I have a couple of students who have just completed their workbooks for Grade 1 and are not planning on taking the exam. Do you go straight onto Grade 2 or do you use something else in between? Afterall we constantly talk about how you can't learn 24 pieces of music and be a Grade 8 player so does the same apply to theory in your book (no pun intended!)?

For pre-grade 1 I use the Lina Ng books - either the very young versions for the very young or the Level 1-3 for the not so young!

Hope you're all enjoying the holidays (those that do take them that is!)

Cheers Catherine

Although I'm not a music teacher, I would think that each grade (at least from 1-5) pretty much segues into the next.

When, back in my early teens, I had piano lessons, my teacher encouraged me to work through the theory grades (although I didn't take the exams) so that I was generally a grade or two higher in theory than in practical. That way I wasn't thrown by new notation and musical terms when they cropped up.

Teachers of music may have other ideas, but it did stand me in good stead.

When I returned to lessons last year, resurrecting my Grade 5 theory was easy, it had been ingrained early on at a time when I could accommodate learning swiftly.

I teach theory alongside practical, in small chunks, and I tend to use the Ying Ying Ng books (not the same as Lina Ng!) and a set of past papers for the grade and then move to the next level. This is usually enough for students to pass well. The keen students who like theory tend to want to move on to the next grade and I can't honestly see much point in holding them back. Once you understand all the material for a grade and can score high marks ie 90+ on past papers, what is the point of going over it all again? Different if you have a child who is struggling, in which case, perhaps another book at the same level is a good idea, to go over things in a slightly different way, or some tailor-made worksheets to tackle a specific problem.
Another thought - you could look at some materials from different exam boards at the same level - there are some differences in the types of question, I think. Also perhaps some work on jazz chords and theory might be interesting.

I do theory in little chunks too - a little bit in each lesson. Once the pupil has finished one workbook I give them an exam paper to do for that grade and then move straight on to the next grade workbook. The exception would be that if the exam paper showed they were not sure about a particular topic, I'd give them a bit of supplementary material to do before moving on. My pupils tend to work through all the grade workbooks but only do the Grade 5 exam - unless they specifically want to do one of the lower grades.

My pupils do theory alongside the practical. We spend on average about 5 minutes on theory per lesson, although it will vary from one topic to another. Then I give them old exam papers to do before we move on to the next grade. I wouldn't use other material to consolidate - the past exam papers will highlight any deficiencies. I have, however, tried using Trinity Grade 1 theory book with a particular pupil as it is much more approachable in layout than AB stuff and I'm going to investigate other books for G1 level as I have some particularly young pupils who need to get going on theory in a "graded" sort of way.

Most pupils only want to do Grade 5 exam, but if they are quite young and haven't really experienced public exams I try to encourage them to do grade 2 or 3 beforehand so they aren't thrown by the surroundings.

We live in an 11+ area with grammar schools so I have had a couple of parents who were keen for their children to do grade 1 or 2 before they hit the 11+ because it made them think about being accurate in exams.

I don't do enough theory and am realising the error of my ways and trying to fix it (not easy as I've left it a bit late and it's all my own fault).

However, the reason I'm posting this is because SueHM's idea is very good - only last night I looked at old Trinity theory papers (I use ABRSM) and saw that they had several diffierent disciplines which the Associated Board don't do and they were quite interesting and certainly would make a nice change and round out the theory of a pupil who was already at Grade 2, for instance, if you wanted something else before moving on to Grade 3.

Ditto. Mea culpa and all that. I made the discovery that actually getting down to written theory is, for many of my pupils, quite different from the oral explanations and discussions I have done as we went along. I should have known better.

It reminds me a bit of the way people sometimes say what you found difficult you teach best. I found theory easy and it I didn't realise the pitfalls it holds for many children.

There are some books by Josephine Koh, I think they're called "Practice in Music Theory", 1 book per grade. I use these when pupils have worked through the AB music theory in practice books for that grade, but haven't appeared to understand everything, hence aren't ready for the next grade. They just give loads more examples to work through, and can be used for any age group.

I've just found out that mymusictheory.com offers a lifetime subscription of £10 which gives access to Graded theory lessons, test papers etc.

Hi all

Just a quick note to thank everyone for their answers to my query. I'm glad to see that most do as I was planning to do which is to move straight on to the next grade.

I've found all the hints and tips really helpful - particularly the mymusictheory.com website - this could be perfect for one child in particular!

Kind regards

Catherine

I use the Theory workbooks almost from the beginning and if the student is interested in taking the exam, I give them past papers. If not, we just move on to the next workbook. Everyone seems happy with this. One of my students just passed Gd2 with 91 Distinction and she was ill on the day!
Barbara