Hi I just thought I would start a topic asking how everyone's theory exams went today.

I took grade 5 theory & thought it went quite well. I wasn't sure what 'perdendosi' & 'mezza voce' meant but they were only worth two marks each so I wasn't too bothered about them. I knew that mezza meant moderate & thought voce meant voice but I knew it couldn't be that as that wouldn't make sense. There was a question on percussion, something like: which standard percussion instrument can play sounds of a definite pitch or something like that & the only one I could think of was Timpani - it was a guess but at least I tried! Everything else went ok & I was pretty certain on my answers so hopefully I will get a decent mark. I don't care whether I get a merit or distinction, as long as I pass then I'm happy. Composition wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but you can never tell how well you've done on that until you get the results back as it all depends on the person who's marking it I suppose.

How did everyone else's exams go?

Lisa xxx

Mine went well! Should get distinction!

Car Expert

Just got back from mine, I did grade 8 .. it was a lot of fun, but very time consuming like doing a marathon! I am going to miss doing theory exams...

I am a bit worried that I have mucked on a few questions though, and the compositions I am not totally confident on, but I tried my best that's the main thing!

Hope everyone got on ok

Joy

Did you want to say something Gemini?!

Lisa xx

I did my Grade 5 theory today and along with Lisa 87 and agree that Perdendosi was something I had never heard of.. Having looked it up I made a nonsense of it. The meaning is "dying away" - oh well, can't win them all.
I too was flummoxed with the question about percussion.
I wish I had the confindence of the Car expert in predicting my marks!
The other thing was, that having bought my bananas I forgot to eat one; maybe that's the answer to being more confident. But hey, I actually enjoyed it too AND I wasn't the oldest one there!
Can I say a big thank you to all those who recommended the book Take 5 and Pass first time - it really was very helpful indeed, but we now have to wait six weeks to see if it worked

PS I am also making a real nonsense of trying to get a reply to Lisa to work - where am I going wrong?
Is Nat still around; she was so refreshing to read when I last dipped into the forum about eighteen months ago having taken Grade 5 and rearly dying of fright

i think mine went ok!
how long do we have to wait to get our results?
i did my test in enniskillen model primary, iof any1 else did, plz write t me!!!!
i made a mess of my musical terms! pendendosi? aaaa

it means dying away, which i found out AFTER the exam!

anyway

hope u all did well

xx

It seems I can't type or spell either tonight! It must be the bottle of champagne the family insisted we drink to celebrate the exam being over and life returning to normal. I do hope others share their exam experiences too.

Do you mean me?!

Glad it went OK!

I am SO angry with myself regarding "perdendosi". I put "dying away" as a first instinct, but was ever so unsure so I crossed it out and wrote something completely different instead! Bahhh! It's only 2 marks, but it feels so frustrating because I had the right answer the first time!

I put xylophone for the percussion thing but I'm probably wrong... and no idea about the mezzo voce thing. I think the individual words mean "half/moderate/medium" and "voice", but that doesn't make sense. Maybe it meant moderately loud? Hmm...

Also, what did you do for the first note in the tenor and bass parts for the SATB? They were both overlapping middle Cs, but the tenor one was a crotchet and the bass one a minim! I compromised by writing them side by side, but maybe I should have tied some of them etc.

I think the rest went OK, though I'm still angry about perdendosi! I'll never forget that word now!

I too was a bit annoyed about perdendosi & mezza voce but they're only worth 2 marks each so I wouldn't worry about it! I just looked them both up & as other people have mentioned perdendosi means 'dying away' & mezza voce means 'in an undertone'! I knew the two words (moderate & voice) together would mean something different but I never would have thought it meant that so there's no point in me worrying about it because if you don't know the answer then you just have to accept it.

Anakrron: On the SATB part of the exam I wrote the first notes of the tenor & bass parts side by side too if I can remember correctly - I seem to have forgotten most of the exam already! I think that was how you're meant to do it anyway as I have seen it written like that before in a practise paper but the other way around i.e. changing the music from short score to open score.

ChloeK13: I think we get our results in about 6 weeks.

Hope everyone else did OK in their exams too. Let us know how you got on!

Lisa xx

I did my grade 6 yesterday, it was my first theory exam...just wondering what mark do you need to pass?


Cheers

66 I think

Aah, the usual exams post-mortem!

I think that the timpani question was right, but the terms.. I have no idea! Glad I didn't get those ones!

Good to see some confidence. I did my G5 theory years ago, but still remember the wait for results!

My student seemed to think it went ok too. What was the percussion question? There are lots of tuned percussion instruments - xylophone, glock, timps, bells...I'm sure there will be more than one correct answer.

I put glockenspeil for the percussion question, which is okay, right? For mezza voce I put moderate tone, which is a literal translation and might not be right. I was suprised how obscure the terms they asked you about were, apart from adagio, but oh well (I was freaking out in the exam though!). Also, the question about an ornament - is a slur one???
Oh yeah, you know for the transposition - clarinet in A down a minor- did it mean that the clarinet was tuned to A, or that the piece was in A? I started getting really paranoid that I had done something very wrong, as once transposed almost every note had an accidental - did anyone elses look like that?

Clarinet in A would mean the the clarinet was pitched in A..not the piece was in A

At grade 5 it doesn't really matter whether you understand what 'clarinet in A' means because they tell you the interval and direction of transpositon.
Better if you DO understand it but it's not necessary to answer the question.

I know that, but she asked so I answered

The words for Grade 5 sound very difficult, when I did it, I got things like Allegro and something else I can't remember! I hope you all did well

Oh, thank god(and you), I was thinking that I had somehow forgotten how to work out key signatures.




It's just that I started panicking, and thinking that everything I had done was wrong, and I was going to get 0/10 and fail(which is what happened last time). If I had been doing a practise paper, I probably wouldn't have started doubting myself, and would have known what the examiner meant.

Glad you got it correct