what would be the most effective way of preparing for the Viva Voce in DipABRSM?

reading your programme notes and going through your programme to anticipate what they might ask. Also try to steer the questions.

Make sure you are strong on your composers - where they were studying/working not only when the piece was written but also before that!! (Yes I talk from recent experience....I blanked on that stuff as I'd been last minute revising more complicated bits, which didn't get asked about at all ) Make sure you know lots of other pieces the composers have written and what they are most famous for. Be able to contrast them and place the period etc

Know your pieces inside out, form, etc and the accompaniment and how the two interact. Who they were written for, where they were first performed and by who.

Listen to lots of recordings and be prepared to say how they were different, what you liked/disliked etc

That's a bit to be going on with

Cut & pasted (& slightly edited) from another thread:

Make notes as you research: Learn them early and revise them in the week before the exam. Every sentence in your program notes may generate at least 5 questions: have the answers prepared. Know about the history of your instrument and where in that history each of your pieces fits. Know the biographical details of your composers, where the piece fits in their life, the story of the piece. Know what else was going on in the world of music and the world in general at the time. Know the structure of each piece and the terminology of structural analysis. Know something about period performance practice. One question you are very likely to be asked is how you decided on your program: have a prepared answer.

The viva lasts 15 minutes: At least 2 hours of specific preparation per minute (after and not including preparation of program notes) is not a bad guide.

This seems excessive to me, but I guess it all depends from what level of knowledge you are starting from before you begin preparing. Have you been idly reading numerous books about your instrument over the years, gently absorbing all the 'instrument history' stuff? If so, then that will free you up a great deal to just worry about repertoire-related questions.

When preparing for my LRSM, Mr Bouffant gave me me the best advice. This stuff about 'idly reading numerous books' is not to be taken lightly. The amount of stuff you absorb by osmosis can never be taken for granted there is that sense of 'I'm sure I've read that somewhere...' and then you come across it again.


I did not do 2hrs of prep for my Viva. However I had been immersed in it for a rather long time. I just made sure I knew what I wrote, knew what I had to ditch and still wanted to say, and tried to relax.

Mr Bouffant has plenty of Diploma experience and knows what he is talking about.

Just to be clear, my post was in response to Robodoc's "two hours per minute" of the Viva.. which I took to mean 30 hours of prep for the viva... Perhaps I misunderstood...

thanks ive spent a lot of time making things like revision cards and used many previous questions other people have had...

for the programme notes do you have to make them look more presentable with things like a border to make it look more like a programme, or is a formal word document more appropriate?

1 more day!!

No, you did not misunderstand me: 2 hours per minute is 30 hours. If you notice I did say that the 30 hours should be after you have completed the program notes - you have to do a lot of reading just to get to the start of my 30 hours. I entirely agree that you should read around the subject as widely as possible, immerse yourself in it and absorb by osmosis as much as you can, all before you put pen to paper for the program notes. If you love music that should be no hardship! You could, at that point, go into your viva and have a pretty good chance of having an intelligent discussion with sufficient detailed knowledge to bulk it out enough to pass. However, if you want the details to be exact and at your fingertips then unless you have a better memory than average a few hours spent making specific notes and revising will be essential. I do not regard half an hour a day making your own notes, for a couple of months, probably in reality spread over 4-6 months, and then a couple of hours revision in the few days before the exam as terribly excessive.

The thing was I didn't actually put this down as prep. It was so much part of every-day life I suppose it didn't feel like anything special.

Sure I decided what I needed to brush up on outside of that. The thing is once you've taken A levels and then dedicated three years study, and then work in an area, and read about it as a matter of course, it doesn't feel like work anymore.

I did rather get that feeling at the time when friends asked me how I found the time... I suppose by that time the method of thinking was so ingrained it was automatic... as was looking after kids, housework and other things I just had to do. All the things I'd got to a high enough level were at auto-pilot level, they were/are just part of the way I think.

My comments were really aimed at someone coming at a Diploma exam without having an A level and a degree in the subject first (!). A short time each day in the final straight "brushing up" over the last month or so can easily add up to at least 30 hours. However, the OP was not ". . . what did you do to prepare?" but ". . . what is the most effective way to prepare?". I am quite sure it is possible to pass without being quite so deliberate about it but if you want to be really effective in your preparation I wouldn't leave this to chance: Plan for it and timetable it.

Edit: I have just realized (I think) that the OP is taking the exam Tomorrow!.

That puts a whole different time scale on the "what is the most effective way to prepare?" question, and is much simpler.

1. Get to sleep early & sleep well.
2. Don't miss breakfast (or lunch, or sufficient fluids)
3. If you have time (and notes) read through your viva notes in the morning.
4. Have a mouthful of something rich (e.g. chocolate) about half an hour before the exam - if voice or wind maybe longer.
5. Remember to take all your paperwork and music
6. Get to the venue in plenty of time.
7. Go to the loo in plenty of time
8. Warm up in the room they show you to.
9. Don't panic about the QS, in fact, don't panic about anything
10. Enjoy yourself.

Good luck!

I haven't heard this one before... I'm curious, why would that help?

Most of Robodoc's list I agree with. However I'd double underline no. 2 (and put it in bold and capitals too...) and delete no.4

I agree - but maybe substitute a banana for the chocolate.

I once did a Dip after drinking two pints of beer to calm my nerves. I am not sure it worked: I was dying for the loo halfway through my penultimate piece. I remember the comment on my last piece: "Conveyed a good sense of urgency". No wonder!

I had to make my apologies and retire to the little boys' room before we got onto the QS and the Viva...

You're such a class act...

True, I did pass after all. It did teach me an important lesson, however: always stick to shorts before a Diploma exam.

There are merits in chocolate and bananas.

Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate is full of nice stimulants to keep the concentration up and feels good in the mouth. So as long as it will not add to any anxiety then it could be the right thing for you.

Bananas on the on the other hand contain triptophan which tends to calm you down.

So which do you need upper or downer. Mr Bouffant's desire for a couple of pints, demonstrated that he preferred something that would calm him down.

Someone who desired a cup of tea/coffee wants something to pep-them up.

All of these legal highs and lows, and yet we reach for them all the time.

Better to use distraction techniques or deep breathing to deal with things, but don't live in denial that whether it's chocolate or bananas, it is still using the chemicals in these foods to alter moods.

If you had a banana split with dark chocolate sauce and a full-fat coke (yeuk!) would they cancel each other out?

None of this precludes the need for adequate reading for the dip, of course.

A sudden unbidden image of MrB taking a Diploma in a pair of Bermudas sprang to mind just then

Sorry about that! Shame I don't have an organ loft, otherwise it would be an appropriate outfit for a Diploma performance!

Given what I said in Viva Organ about space in Organ lofts and Sopranos sharing spaces with Organists the mind boggles... Organist in Bermuda Shorts and Soprano in bathing suit (aka Nathalie Dessay in Ariadne auf Naxos Zerbinetta)

Well I hope though off topic this is lightening the mood for the OP and hence helping his last minute prep.

This thread is making me smile now, however - 3 reasons;

First, my teacher told me to do this before exams (and she's a good teacher so I trust her).
Second, chocolate makes you feel good (physiologically, pharmacologically and psychologically).
Third, the digestion of something, almost anything, means that your blood sugar levels won't drop.

Bananas (or any other fruit) would be fine, or a piece of cake, or a flapjack (for "oat" cuisine!).

I like the idea of a banana split with chocolate & Kirsch sauce, but maybe that's a bit too much. Besides, alcohol is supposed to be a positively BAD idea!!

All the best for tomorrow, tenor-sax!

Good luck Tenor-Sax!

Hope it goes as well as it can.

Thankyou
I took the exam this afternoon so hopefully ive done enough ! i thought the viva questions were going to be a lot harder than they were so it was good the recital went fairly well (noones is ever perfect) and the qs was fairly good sooooo hopefully some good news in september .......

Sounds like a positive result. Fingers crossed!

Well done! Just the agonisingly long wait for the results now then. Hope you'll be celebrating this weekend - sitting a diploma is cause enough.

Well done!! Now relax...
Although I found the week after mine very strange indeed with nothing to work on!

Surely the week after a Dip is the perfect opportunity to start researching the next one?

noooo haha the expense was big enough for this one!
how much does each of the retake sections cost?