Hi,

Just wondering whether anyone has ever heard a piano piece played by an examiner in an aural test and recognised it (being a piece which you have heard or played personally yourself)?

Regards

Yes, it does happen - the pieces for aural tests are generally lifted from existing repertoire. A pupil of mine recently recognised the sight-singing test he was given.

Yes - a few years ago one of my examiners played a piece of Mozart that I had to either sing or clap (can't remember).

Well THAT was easy!!

Yes, it's happened to me. After the examiner had played the extract in my Grade VIII piano, I blurted out "That's Gershwin" before she had a chance to ask any questions.

I also started the sight-singing before she was ready

Yes, it's happened to me twice! the examiner asked me why I'd identified the piece as classical. I informed him it was a Haydn Minuet.

And it happened to me in my final aural test at university in the melodic dictation - a clarinet solo from a Vaughan Williams symphony. It's bound to happen from time to time, with a finite amount of repertoire from which to choose. That was a real help there, but in the LTMWU part of the AB tests, in some ways it might not be much of a help, as it might make it slightly harder to listen with an innocent ear for the purpose of describing the important features of what you are hearing.

I got an excerpt from a Mozart sonata - and I listen to all the (piano) sonatas from time
to time. Was so surprised that I actually went blank for a few seconds!

LTMWU?
Listen to my Welsh undertones?
Listen to my wonderful ukulele?
Listen to me, wil u?

Listening to Music with understanding?

I'm curious as to why you think it might not be helpful for ABRSM aural tests?

Ah. Ta.

Perhaps because some would focus more on the "I know this piece, therefore I'm going to try and recall everything about it" than the actual questions/things that would be easier to just listen and pick out than try and recall?

For instance, in one of the examples given above, I don't think responding to "why do you think this piece is Classical" with "because it's a Haydn Minuet" is really answering the question at all, whereas had the piece been unknown it would have been answered with specific features that suggest it to be classical, which is what they were looking for.

This reminds me of my husband's GCSE music experience:

'What period of music do you think this might be from'
'I think it is from the baroque period'

'Suggest a possible composer'
'JS Bach'

'Give reasons for your answer'
'Because it is the third movement of his 4th Brandenburg concerto'.

He's a literal sort of chap...

Yes, if they played a piece of music you knew, but played it differently, hopefully the differences would jump out at you and you'd notice them to talk about...on the other hand, you might just hear the version you are used to!

Exactly so. When I prepared pupils for these tests I always encouraged pupils to cite their evidence before plunging in with any deduction, and I think that the innocent ear is more likely to hear individual features if you're not immediately focused on having recognised a familiar piece of music.


My nerdiest moment came in a university interview - we were asked to do some deduction from scores. I was shown one excerpt, and identified it as a piece by Webern. Asked how I knew I had to admit I recognised the edition number at the bottom of the page. Some you strike lucky...

Wasn't there a GCSE ? music exam paper a couple of years ago where the copyrights were listed at the end - which were the answers to some of the questions.

In my G5 bassoon exam the piece at the end of the aural tests was a piano piece that my brother was learning for his G5 at the time - so of course I'd heard it to death! I couldn't recall the composer's name but the examiner seemed suitably surprised when I informed him that it was 'Late Romantic'

The son of a friend was taking one of his many music exams and in the aural tests came up against something by Shostakovich. After he had answered all the quesions the examiner smiled at him and said "But you knew that piece, didn't you?" He had to admit that he did.

(Off topic) On another occasion the same boy accompanied his sister doing her oboe exam - Grade 8, I think. After the exam the examiner called them both back into the room and said that the exam was over and the marks established but she had enjoyed the piece so much she would like them to play it again just for her - which they did.

How lovely!