I have a student who is currently working towards grade one but Iam having alot of problems with the Aural tests especially test 1C (noticing differences). She is finding it very difficult to identify the beats and what change about them. As this is my first exam entry I have no experience with teaching these tests at all and wondered if anyone had any suggestions? Iam getting abit worried now as the exam is due this period and we are still having major problems with this. Can anyone help??

Thank you xx

At this grade it is quite sufficient for them to say 'It went faster at the beginning' or 'The first note was longer' - that sort of thing. You don't have to be very detailed. The candidate can also clap both versions to show the difference if they prefer.

When pupils start to learn this test, I strip it down and clap two rhythms, making them very obvious. They clap the difference. As the weeks go by we start to use correct language (Longer/shorter, beginning/middle/end) and then I start to play examples on the piano. All the time I reinforce appropriate words.

For grade 1 I get my students to say 'the first/third note was longer/shorter. I also get them to clap the difference in the second playing and tell the examiner 'the second time it was played.....'.

Good luck, and welcome to the forum!

Someone posted recently that they were told at a seminar that it was ok to raise a hand when the difference is heard. This makes it clear at what point it was heard and also seems to make it easier to describe the change (been trying it out). After that can only be that the note was longer or shorter (or higher of lower in grade 2)...

I think that test IC is very hard for a novice musician to express what's happened. I would go along with most of the suggestions posted here already. I reckon in the next grades up, 2C and 3C are easier in the sense that if you say "rhythmic" change or "melodic" change, I should think you're bound to get some credit (provided it's right) but in IC it's rhythmic by definition and therefore the onus is on the candidate to get to the heart of what's changed.

Not an easy one this - perhaps sometime ABRSM will review the aural tests and change this one.

It is a difficult test. I find that first of all I set the scene for my pupil: I compare this test to a visual "spot the difference" quiz (the sort you get in children's quia books where tow pictures look exactly the same, but there are very small difference) and I explain that this is a listening "spot the difference" test for rhythm (and I qualify this by explaining that we're talking longer or shorter notes - either at the beginning, middle or end).

Then, for their very first ever introduction to Test 1c, I ALWAYS play No 3 of ABRSM "Specimen Aural Tests" (1994 - two bars of Mendelssohn) because the difference is SO easy to spot, I've never had a pupil yet fail to to describe it! Once they get the idea, they soon latch on, but some specimen aural tests are ahrde than others - but No 3 is a sinch!

Two other words that I find come in useful for 1c are "dotted" and "even", the 7-8 year olds I teach find this quite easy to identify.

The students who have found this hard to grasp have also been the students who also struggle to 'get' dotted rhythms and even semiquavers to begin with - in my (limited)experience!

Things that have helped my lot include clapping simple rhythms - four crotchets at first, then minim-crotchet-crotchet, etc mix it up until they can echo and describe what was different. I allow the first note was longer the first time and similar. Then add dotted rhythms. Then add a melody - going back to simpler rhythms at first if necessary.

Can the student clap a regular pulse? Sounds basic, but some can't! It must be so much harder to notice a change when you can't figure out what 'regular' is! Comparing long and short notes with a regular pulse can be a real revelation

On a similar theme, I have an adult student about to take grade 2 piano.
The only part of the aural tests she is finding difficult is clapping the pulse and saying whether it is 2 or 3 time. She is sometimes a little slow picking up the pulse, the main problem is picking up on the first beat of the bar. Even if I make is VERY obvious she is still unsure. She plays in time without problems and sight reads reasonably and generally in time.
My latest suggestion has been to listen to things where she already knows the answer (she has the exam pieces CD and will be using that as a starting point).

Any other ideas please in case this one doesn't help too much?

You can march to 2, but you have to sway and rock your hips to 3. Get her moving around.

Thanks, tried that... so she thought a brisk 2 was 3....

Have you tried playing a three piece with accents in two - demonstrate how wrong it sounds? Start with famous pieces in three - blue danube, oom pah pah etc.?

Thank you so much for your help everyone!! I was thinking of maybe going that way about it (explaining the difference as longer or shorter notes etc) but its great to get some reassurance that Iam doing the right thing. Thanks again xx

Update on this one.... part of the problem seems to have been the use of language.
She had trouble picking out the 'strong' beat but found it easier when I explained more clearly that it meant the first beat in the bar. I had mentioned that this was the strong beat previously but the word 'strong' was getting in the way somehow.

I think your only option is to keep playing her samples in 2 time or 3 time, and make it very obvious where the first beat is. Make it much louder - they tend to do this at grade 1 level in any case. Then ask her to count the number of beats between the loud beats. If it goes LOUD soft soft LOUD soft soft, then altogether there are 3 beats before the next loud beat - which puts it into 3 time. If it's LOUD soft, LOUD soft it's 2 time, and if it's LOUD soft soft soft, then it's also 4 time (which can also be called 2 time).

You could also get her to walk around the room in time to the beats. If she can always put the same foot down on the loud beat, it's 2 time, if the loud beat keeps swapping foot then it's 3 time. You could then teach her to waltz - I've done this with some of the kids and they think it's a hoot - and explain that the waltz came about so you could dance it to music in 3 time!

Good luck

Violinia