Oh, does it never end?! I have just been asked by one of my better pupils (just got a merit at G4) if I would mind helping her with her grade 7 aurals as her sax teacher wants to enter her in the next session and apparently hasn't got time to do them in her normal lessons.

This is the same sax teacher that wanted us to rush through theory to be able to tackle the higher sax grades. That in itself wasn't necessarily a problem, but it does take the focus off piano, and she found much of it very new to her - at the time we were only at G3 theory, as that was where her piano was.

ANYway, I'm getting off the topic. My problem is that I don't feel I could teach G7 aurals - I've not yet passed G8 and I don't think I'm qualified. I can talk about style and period, but as aurals have always been a weakness of mine, I don't want to compromise my student in her sax exam.

Should I help all I can but explain my limitations, tell the sax teacher to do her job, or look for another teacher who could help more? Any advice on the teaching of aural at G7 also welcomed! The student in question got 16 in her G4 piano aurals, for reference.

16 marks at grade four Aural is a good starting point but it's a big jump in knowledge and understanding to get to grade 7. Personally, I think I'd be honest with your pupil and tell her that you want to concentrate on teaching her the piano and that you don't feel you are able to devote the amount of time needed to get her a good aural result in grade 7 without seriously compromising her piano playing.

Her Sax teacher is responsible for her grade 7 aural for this exam not you. There are teachers around who will give specialist aural coaching and that seems like the best bet. Of course, if nobody else is going to help her then I'm sure whatever you felt you could do would be highly valued but, personally, I think this is the pupil's responsibility in conjunction with her Sax teacher and not yours.

The ABRSM aural cd's are quite good a well. I had a student do grade 7 flute this time.......still awaiting results. I found the best way to do it, was explain what things like cadences were, as this is the main thing in grade 7 aural, which was helped greatly by sitting together at the piano and making her play them and visualising them. She then went away and practiced listening to the examples on the cd and found it quite easy.